I hope someone knows how to get around this:  In the UK (and probably many other countries too) increasingly tv broadcasts include multiple language selection, in the UK's case the choice includes a usdio description stream for the visually impaired. OK -  windows 7 mediacenter works fine with this, However when one tries to transcode it using Graphedit or the Windows 7 Moviemaker beta, or any other of the transcoding apps around for wtv for that matter,  the audiodescription stream is transcoded rather than the Plain English one which makes it virtually unwatchable . Given the BBC are working on the majority of programs having this, deep problems lie ahead. Is there anyone in the Mediacenter team who can say  how to fix this, ideally I would like to build a graph with Graphedit, so which filters need to be inserted to allow the choice of language to be made, failing that any solution would be welcome

Yeah, this is really bugging me as well.

I'm using WTVtoMPEG2 for conversion and it was really puzzling me that some files would convert OK and others would result in a 0-byte MPG. All the files played just fine in Media Center (with the correct audio).

It turned out that the unconvertible files all had the "visually impaired" audio stream (although this isn't apparent if you only play them in MC). Playing them back via Media Player revealed the wrong audio track...

I can only echo your plea for a solution...

steve

I dont have any problems converting ( I convert directly to Xvid)  using a tweaked dvrms toolbox, so far 100% reliable, its just that  all the apps choose the wrong audio stream when there is a audio description one available

I haven't investigated dvrms toolbox (well, I tried it a while back but failed to get it working properly).

What tweaks do you use to get this working? (I have several TV shows I'd like to edit.)

Any assistance gratefully received...

steve

To use DVRMS toolbox you have to set up a new profile in config, which uses the advanced action convert with graph.  Before doing that you have to create a Graph using graphedit.   I include a link to a picture of the one I use, obviously you need to have the right codecs installed , in my case lame, ati (avivo), cyberlink and Xvid..   Basically you start with rendering your file and then start editing the graph to what you want .  You then run it to check that it is working.   you then remove the file you were converting  and save.   check that if you add a file again it connects up right.    you then set up 'the convert with graph'  using the graph you have created.
http://rapidshare.com/files/197130153/wtv_to_xvid.JPG.html

I did do one for mpeg  but dont have it any longer, I do remember it was quite picky about which codecs you use so ended up trying lots. What I havent been able to sort out is how it chooses the right (or in our case the wrong) audio stream

Thanks for that... much appreciated.

I'll have a play with this over the weekend.

The latest builds of Windows Seven (certainly 7057 and maybe 7048 as well) seem to have sorted this problem. There's an inbuilt wtv to dvr-ms converter (available on the context menu when right-clicking the wtv file in Explorer) which appears to pick the correct audio stream.

As a simple demonstration of this, try playing a wtv file in Media Player. You'll probably find that it'll pick the audio description stream and you'll end up with silence or a "description" voice-over.

Now run the wtv file through the converter (which takes only seconds). The resultant dvr-ms file now plays in Media Player with the correct audio. And, of course, it can be processed by VideoRedo or similar to cut out the ads.

I've tried this on a dozen recorded TV programs and so far it's worked flawlessly on them all.

steve

Thanks for the update , thats sounds as if it will resove the problems. I'll try and get hold of a recent build. 

Electric62

Yes, it's looking good. I'm hesitant to say it's totally fixed until I've used it for a while longer but I certainly haven't found a problem with anything so far.

(Actually there was one file that needed a VideoRedo "quick stream fix" but I think that was a glitch on the original recorded wtv file. Despite being fairly close to the Crystal Palace transmitter I get the occasional drop in signal on some channels.)

steve

Having tested it out on 40+ recordings, it seems to be working faultlessly.  However it wont convert HD recordings.  Playing around with it a little here is a batch file which moves recordings to a different directory, converts all wtv files in the directory to dvrms, moves the converted files back to the recorded tv directory, then on prompt deletes the original wtv files.  Thus restoring everything back to mediacenter as if  before the wretched wtv format was ever  invented. Obviously you will have to create the appropriate directories and change the drive letters etc to suit, just remember to keep the convert directory on the same partition as the recorded tv  one otherwise you will wait forever for the files to move.   It could be automated by putting it onto a scheduler, and be combined with one of the existing tools for converting to your favouritr format. . Copy and paste into notepad, and save with a .bat extension. Hope this is useful to someone

move "h:\Recorded TV\*.wtv" h:\convert\
c:\windows\ehome\WTVconverter.exe "h:\convert\*.wtv"
move "h:\convert\*.dvr-ms"  "h:\Recorded TV\"
pause
Del h:\convert\*.wtv

electric62:

Having tested it out on 40+ recordings, it seems to be working faultlessly.  However it wont convert HD recordings.  Playing around with it a little here is a batch file which moves recordings to a different directory, converts all wtv files in the directory to dvrms, moves the converted files back to the recorded tv directory, then on prompt deletes the original wtv files.  Thus restoring everything back to mediacenter as if  before the wretched wtv format was ever  invented. Obviously you will have to create the appropriate directories and change the drive letters etc to suit, just remember to keep the convert directory on the same partition as the recorded tv  one otherwise you will wait forever for the files to move.   It could be automated by putting it onto a scheduler, and be combined with one of the existing tools for converting to your favouritr format. . Copy and paste into notepad, and save with a .bat extension. Hope this is useful to someone

move "h:\Recorded TV\*.wtv" h:\convert\
c:\windows\ehome\WTVconverter.exe "h:\convert\*.wtv"
move "h:\convert\*.dvr-ms"  "h:\Recorded TV\"
pause
Del h:\convert\*.wtv

very useful, thanks!

One thing I noticed was I had to set Lifextender to copy over all metadata in the options to the new file after cutting out the commercials or the resulting file would not play on build 7068 (gave a video error). Just in case someone is using this tool and having issues.

thanks again.

http://babgvant.com/forums/p/2443/12590.aspx#12590

Here's my profile for DVRMSToolbox.

There will be a WTV->DVR-MS converter in Win7 RTM (it is in the build now). It will select the language in use by MC. You can then go to any other format from there.

Alos, I'm pretty sure that in Win7 the SBEV2 source will defualt to the current selected language when used in graphedt, but there was a bug in beta that prevented this from working. When you use SBEV2 this way it runs in "simple mode" for compatability and outside of MC language selection was not quite right. Again, should work better in RTM/RC builds.

Thanks Ian, thats really helpful to know. The converter is working fine. In the final version is it likely to convert HD files (H264)? it doesnt seem to at the moment.  Also I noticed the converted dvr-ms files are different when rendering in graphedit, has an extra tag on it. Some conversion tools dont seem to like it & fail.

Never mind!