Recording / Conversion questions

[spacecowboy2050 0]

Lots of things I want to ask as a newbie to this:

I am using Emby with a HDHomerun Connect Duo

At the moment all of my recordings are TS files which seem to play fine withing emby but are a bit temperamental elsewhere.  I always want my recordings to be of the best quality and don't mind taking the time to get that.

 

• When Emby records to TS, does it lose some of the quality in this process?  Is the Transport Stream EXACTLY how it was broadcast?
• If I then want to convert to mp4 for better compatability elsewher, I only want to remux and not encode as this will degrade further.  So far the only solution I have found is to use AVIDemux on the file which seems to work.
• I've seen posts where it states that Emby can record directly to MP4 or MKV but I don't see that setting anywhere.  In fact some of the screenshots I've seen show some extra settings in the 'LiveTV' settings tab, but I don't see any of those
• If I try to use Emby to convert the file using the TV Original Quality setting it always fails.  The only way I can get Emby to convert (with loss of quality though) is to use the actual mobile setting and reencode.

I was a Plex user and am enjoying Emby so far and this is a learning curve for me!  I used to use an Elgato HD capture card to record but was hoping to solve these issues and get something a bit easier to use

 

 

[Carlo 4330]

@@spacecowboy2050

 

Emby records in great quality as it records the actual stream without downgrading as some DVRs do.  what I just said does answer the first part of one of your questions.Without getting overly complicated lets just say that Emby is making a "copy" of what was broadcast AS IS.  If it was braodcast in 1080i it's saved in the TS file as 1080i,  If it was broadcast in SD or in 720p then that is how it will get stored.  Same with audio.  If it was braodcast in AAC and Dolby or English and Spanish you will get those audio streams recorded.

 

If you are going to convert you might as well do a full transcode IMHO.  TS files are very big compared to say a DVD or blueray of compatible footage because of the compression that DVD/Blueray has to offer.  Emby can convert those files so that they take up far less disc space at hardly any difference in quality.  I'd suggest you play with this feature and decide what is best for your environment.  Why I like to do it this way is that when I see an MP4, MKV on my system I know it's been compressed properly.  When I see a TS file I know it's a recording with the transport stream and likely has no compression especially if it wee broadcast OTA.

 

Emby NO LONGER records directly to MP4 or MKV.  It's to much a hassle and not every device can properly play back the MP4 since it's deceiving as the audio or video portion isn't always the correct format it's expecting and the compression is lousy doing it in real-time.  There is only so much you can do in real-time when you have no "look ahead" of the stream so results will vary.  Emby took the smart approach and standardized on the TS format with a post conversion process that will get both formats correct 100% of the time for maximum compression, quality and compatibility.

 

You shouldn't have an issue using Emby to convert the file using the TV Original Quality.  Can you post a few screen shots of your setup for this?  I can try and duplicate your settings to see if we see any issues.  If I can't figure it out for you I can take a look at logs or just do a remote support session with you to get to the bottom of this issue for you.

 

Carlo

 

PS when you respond use the @ sign and my name like I did you at the start of this so I can a notification and can follow up with you.

[emveepee 112]

 

 

TS files are very big compared to say a DVD or blueray of compatible footage because of the compression that DVD/Blueray has to offer

 

That's wrong. TS files are just containers perhaps not as efficient as MKV but not that bad.   For size you probably are thinking rips since MPEG2/H264 broadcast stream captures will  typically be smaller then corresponding DVD/BD formats because of the lower bitrates sent by the broadcaster.  Certainly an HD 15-20 MBs ATSC 1.0 MPEG2 video stream seems big today but it is not because of the TS format.

 

Martin

[spacecowboy2050 0]

Thank you both for the replies.Glad I've cleared up that Emby is taking an exact copy of the stream.  To be honest, any kind of transcode or remux doesn't seem to look near the original quality.  If I use something like AVIDEmux or TS Doctor, the resulting file doesn't llok as sharp or smooth as the original TS file.  @@cayars I will see if I can send you a screenshot, thanks!

[Carlo 4330]

That's wrong. TS files are just containers perhaps not as efficient as MKV but not that bad.   For size you probably are thinking rips since MPEG2/H264 broadcast stream captures will  typically be smaller then corresponding DVD/BD formats because of the lower bitrates sent by the broadcaster.  Certainly an HD 15-20 MBs ATSC 1.0 MPEG2 video stream seems big today but it is not because of the TS format.

 

Martin

Yea, that is true Martin.  I wasn't trying to get real detailed about it.  Yes TS are just transport streams and can contain any codecs that the end device would know how to use.  Traditionally in the US for OTA broadcasts they use older codecs that are extremely large compared when recorded because of the lack of compression.  I specifically said OTA above because many cable companies do use compression on all of some channels.  For example Comcast/Xfinity will use a split ticket of compression.  By this I mean they will broadcast you local channels in the same format that OTA would be today using MPEG2 for things like ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, PBS, etc but then use H.264 codec for the typical cable channels like Hallmark, USA, MTV, CNN, FOX NEWS, etc.

 

So when recording from cable it's a mixed bag on Comcast depending on what channel and resolution it came from.  You could also get 1080i recordings as well as 720p depending on channel.

 

Emby basically just records the TS "as is" and it will use as much space as needed.  An NFL football game could easily use 25 to 30 GB of storage space but then if you converted it after recording with the built in Emby feature could knock the size down to 4 to 8 GB pretty easily with little loss in quality due to converting the video to H.264.  On the other hand if someone had Comcast and recorded a Hallmark channel then the TS file would already contain H.264 since that is the way Comcast broadcast it and a simple remux to MP4 would work just fine and be very quick.

 

But my point was that for OTA broadcasts the store space is almost always a lot bigger than it needs to be and converting them over for storage is a good idea.  Now if you just watch and delete the shows/movies than it likely isn't worth it.  Everyone's needs are different!

 

Carlo