Some remarks on problems editing M2ts records made by ELAP.

[JeanPaulo]

As my Sony TV cannot read much, and AVS Video converter produces .mp4 files with
a very bad quality (color stripes instead of gradient), I have to edit
the .ts itself.

So, I just bought Smart Cutter (portable), as it seems the most capable in that area.

However, My TNT 'Decoder/recorder' produces M2ts files, in a directory by itself,
cut into 2 Go 'data0001.ts', etc... There is also an Info.ini file
describing the various streams, the Time length and the global size
(there are no file format nor updates available from ELAP).

The decoder (TNT ELAP) has two different playback mode :
- Movie (where it can play .ts, .mp4...)
- Recorder, where it can only play files originaly created by itself weirdly, the recording
itself is made in a completely different menu : 'Timer'!).

Alas, even when the 'cut' .ts file contains 4 audio and 3 subtitles streams,
the 'Movie mode' will ignore totaly the subtitles, and play only an
associated '.srt' text file.
It will not play either the files contained in the 'recording' directory.
It may also (not certain of this) have playback problèmes with frequent temporary freezing.

In the 'Recorder' mode, if I cut out part of a file (a 5 minutes safety trailer for exemple)
and adjust the Info.ini content, then it will play the file including
the audio and subtitles, BUT it will STOP before the end and skip to next file.

My idea is that in fact, it is considering the 'time length' of the file AS IF the
missing 5 minutes were still there, and stops when this time is gone.
However, if I set the 'original' duration, it will just not play the clip at all.
And it is worse with multiple cut (Adds)


I developped a way to extract the subtitles (using several tools), so I can
create a .srt file for the clip, but it is quite a lenghty process.

I guess, according to the web, that many HD TV 'recorders' have a similar problem.

Is the M2ts stream including 'time marks' that are not edited by Smart Cutter ?
Is it possible that those 'time marks' are used by the player ?

Does anyone have ideas on this problem ?

None of the problems exist on a PC, although VLC will totaly ignore any of the .ts files,
SMPlayer will not display the subtitles (but set them on anyway), and Win Media Player (Win 7)
will refuse it all too. AVS Video converter will accept the .ts files, but converted from M2ts first.

[admin]

Dear JeanPaulo:
Thanks for your message.

'There is also an Info.ini file describing the various streams, the Time length and the global size'
Are you sure about this?
Does this info.ini contains one 'Time length' item for each single M2TS file, or just a total duration of all the M2TS files in its directory?
Is the 'global size' describes accurately the byte size of the M2TS files?

'the 'Movie mode' will ignore totaly the subtitles'
Will this happen on the very original M2TS file created by the TNT 'Decoder/recorder'?

'Is the M2ts stream including 'time marks' that are not edited by Smart Cutter ?'
Smart Cutter treats all the time stamps(as you called 'time marks') in the M2TS stream.

Looking forward to your further message.
Thank you very much.

Best Regards,
FameRing Support Team

[JeanPaulo]

Hello.

'There is also an Info.ini file describing the various streams, the Time length and the global size'
Are you sure about this?
Does this info.ini contains one 'Time length' item for each single M2TS file, or just a total duration of all the M2TS files in its directory?
Is the 'global size' describes accurately the byte size of the M2TS files?

The time is the 'global' duration. To use the file on a PC, one can just 'patch' the parts using a 'DOS' copy command.

The global size is not really the 'stream' size, but is apparently rounded to the 'disk' size, as seen in the second item
of the Win 7 'property' In the latest record I did, 'size' is 1,91 Go (2 062 073 856 octets), and 'on the disk' is 1,91 Go (2 062 090 240 octets). The .ini file uses the second size, in a 64 bits field (8 bytes). Win 'duration for this file
is 00:25:18. This is a short test 'ARTE' recording with only one 'data0001.ts' item.

here is an exemple of a Hex dump of the complete info.ini file (for the above file):
Offset 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

00000000 26 25 24 AC 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 &%$¬............
00000016 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C6 02 D0 02 D0 02 FF 1F ........Æ.Ð.Ð.ÿ.
00000032 00 00 04 00 DA 02 01 00 66 72 61 00 DB 02 01 00 ....Ú...fra.Û...
00000048 71 61 61 00 DC 02 01 00 64 65 75 00 DD 02 01 00 qaa.Ü...deu.Ý...
00000064 71 61 64 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 qad.............
00000080 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00000096 00 00 00 00 03 00 03 00 E4 02 00 00 66 72 61 00 ........ä...fra.
00000112 03 00 01 00 E5 02 00 00 67 65 72 00 01 00 01 00 ....å...ger.....
00000128 E6 02 00 00 66 72 61 00 02 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 æ...fra.........
00000144 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00000160 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00000176 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00000192 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00000208 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00000224 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00000240 4D 17 17 00 4D 17 17 00 00 C0 E8 7A 00 00 00 00 M...M....Àèz....
time 1 time 2 size

'the 'Movie mode' will ignore totaly the subtitles'
Will this happen on the very original M2TS file created by the TNT 'Decoder/recorder'?

The 'movie' and the 'recorded' files cannot be in the same directory, or the decoder will ignore them,
so the file must be copied in another directory (recorded clips are in a 'name.pvr' directory)
I have to try this first, and will complete my answer later.

Regards, JPL

[JeanPaulo]

Hi.

I checked the original file above. When it is used as a 'recorded', it runs smoothly, with 4 languages
and 3 subtitles streams (french for disable, german, French)

When the file is copied to another directory, and then used as a 'Movie' file, it does not run smoothly
at all, but rather with frequent start and stop. It also does not recognized the integrated subtitles.

So the real problem is the way this decoder uses the files:
- No modification possible in the 'recorded' mode
- bad replay as a 'movie.ts' file, even if no editing had been made.

I tried to obtain a 'good quality' file for a 1h cut clip, of 3.2 Go (smat-cutter) with AVS converter.

I obtained a ridiculous 32 Go file, and nothing is able to play it. (If using the default quality, colors
are not continuous, but have a 'fringe effect')

This is quite desperate, although visibly not a 'Smart cutter' problem if it is not a 'timing' discontinuity.

[admin]

Dear JeanPaulo:
Thanks for your message.

'a 1h cut clip, of 3.2 Go (smat-cutter) ... I obtained a ridiculous 32 Go file'
After version 1.4.9, we made some major changes to the UI operations. We now support defining multiple segments on the time line of current movie, then starting cut operation by the 'red circle' button. And these segment settings can be saved into a project. For further reading:

http://www.fame-ring.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4294
http://www.fame-ring.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4295

Please feel free to send us your further advice and suggestion.
Thank you very much.

Best Regards,
FameRing Support Team

[JeanPaulo]

Hi.

I did not progress on cutting M2ts clips. The cutter works fine, but I cannot find a program which will convert to
an usable .mp4 or .avi.

When working at all, AVS converter recodes with a bad image quality, even with High bitrate (The color gradients are
replaced by fringes of color, like a rainbow, very visible on any player)

I tried ffmpeg, but I cannot get to understand how to make it work when 'stream copying'

Anyway, I got a new view in the cutting problem of an 'ARTE' program. When viewed with the decoder (or smplayer),
there is a large disturbance at one point. (Looks like TNT HD programs are prone to transmission errrors, that the
decoder itself resolves gracefully with some squares images)

So I tried the 'Fix stream option' while cutting the file, and got a correct .ts (the Pb is still visible, but the decoder player
skips it, while the 'movie' player stuters several times).

However, when I feed the file to 'Avs Video Converter' 8.3, it just crashes with an 'address violation', and a 'external exception EEFACE' repeated a million times (so it seems), and I must kill the process to get it off.

It I try the same file, but cut WITHOUT the 'fix stream' option, then AVS just hangs up without any message.

I did not create another call for it, but if the reason interest you, I could cut a small area in the file, both
with a 'windows' hard cutter and Smart cutter.

Else, I did some progress using Smart Cutter, and can use multi segmented input without troubles. However, when
doing repeated tests, the 'save project' is much less usefull that a 'goto time' feature, as it is associated with a specific input file and section. I did have to research my cut point 8 to 10 times with the cursor (I am becoming good at it !)

Regards, Jean-Paulo.

[JeanPaulo]

Strangely, I received an e-mail about answer to this post today, but no changes.

Anyway, I may conclude that except some random failures to load a .ts file, the cutter works
perfectly well. It can most of the time repair the failling files.

Afterward, I gave up on Avs4you, as it is definitely unable to produce a good .mp4 without
colour stripes.

Handbrake, on the contrary produce excellent .mp4, and smaller in size.

[JeanPaulo]

Just to let you know that I loaded 1.8.3 today, and found out the possibility to 'GO TO' that I requested before.

Just a bit hard to find how to get there, but many Thanks for it.