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Thread ID: 114664	2010-12-12 09:13:00	Getting TV recordings off the Telstra box (or My Sky) - PBR-500	BBCmicro (15761)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1161033	2010-12-12 09:13:00	At home we have Telstra's cable and their 'T-box' TV recorder. Here's how I get the recordings off the T-box and onto a media player (and also onto a PC): - 'Probox' media player PBR-500 - about $180 inc GST from Ascent (special request - it's not on their listing) - cost would total about $300 if you include HDD and cables - box takes component video in and provides HDMI out. (T-box has component out. I understand My Sky does too) - the recordings are plain mpg, 720 x 576 interlaced - quality is very good. Often you are hard pressed to know whether a replay isn't coming direct. - player takes a SATA-II 3.5" HDD. I use a WD 640 GB - to get a recording off the T-box, just play it and hit 'record' on the PBR-500 after the front-end padding has gone past - once on the PBR-500 you can change the filename with the on-screen keyboard and select a thumbnail. - recordings can be sorted by sequence number, filename, alreadyviewed - you can also copy the files to another partition. And rename them there. This is a kind of archive. It's another type of 'sorting'. The copying is done with the remote and is quite quick - the archive has an FTP server. I use a Filezilla client on my Win7pro64 desktop to bring the files to my computer, at 2.5 MBps across Cat5 - I bought the box thinking I needed to get the files onto my PC. But now I find that's not really necessary. The PBR-500 is a good media player with file renaming and sorting and the files might as well stay there for later replay. The key thing is to get the files off the Telstra box to avoid them cluttering Telstra's day-to-day screen - the media player has very good transport - FFD and RWD up to x32, and you can use 'commercial skip' to jump forward at about x64 (at 30 sec of skip per button press). It takes about 40 sec to go right through a 1 hour recording. This is so good, you don't need to set chapter marks or remove ad breaks - when you press 'pause', the screen is 'pure' ie, no transport indications. This allows you to take a photo of the TV screen with an ordinary camera, and it can be quite good! If you keep pressing pause it steps through one high-quality frame at a time - the remote has a 'zoom' button which allows up to x8. And you can move the enlarged portion up/down/left/right on the screen. Works on 'pause' too. - it has 2 x USB host ports and one device port. Apparently a wifi USB dongle is available. I use one of the host ports for a portable WD elements 500 GB 2.5" drive. I have jpg, mp3, mpg files on this. (You can't transfer the internal files directly to the USB drive) - the USB device port can be connected to a PC and apparently you can transfer files in both directions. I haven't tried this yet. For me it involves unplugging many cables (I don't have a laptop). I have been using FTP instead. - the archive partition (the main partition, the one accessible by FTP) is FAT32. You are allowed 16 character filenames. (there is no spacebar on the on-screen keyboard). The OS adds another 4 characters as a sequence number when it breaks the files into 2GB chunks (ie, -R00, -R01,). I chose a partition size of about 500 GB for the FAT32 archive, and it didn't baulk - when you access with an FTP client, the files are sitting there with -R00, -R01 etc attached to their filnames and you simply bring them across. That's all you need to do to give you a backup of the media. I presume you can simply transfer them back if needed. I haven't tried that yet. - the files play on my computer but with a few 'warts'. One wart is aspect ratio. This can be corrected when playing with VLC, but not with WMP or Irfanview. Another wart is a jagged half-line at the top of the picture. Another is the interlacing. - these warts can be corrected very easily and quickly with the freeware Xmedia Recode, which works on Win7pro64. This software also allows renormalising of the sound track (generally +10dB). It makes a very good job of deinterlacing (I choose 'cubic'). I really like this software! - after fixing with Xmedia Recode the files can be put onto a USB HDD and played from there. However, they will still have adverts in them and be in parts (-R01, etc). I use Adobe Premiere Pro2 to chop the adverts and join the parts (and also make a slight colour balance adjustment). I also put a title screen at the start giving a few details. (For some reason Adobe Premiere Pro 2 won't import the files until 'fixed' with Xmedia Recode.) - there are a lot of encodings in series in the sequence I have described here, beginning with recording on the T-box. However, to get the very best quality you can record 'live'. Just press 'record' while watching a show (avoiding any front-end padding). You can keep a copy of this file on your PC as a backup. There's no need to re-encode. This means you only do one encoding. (There is a 1 minute test of a live recording on YouTube. It's not recorded on the T-box, but it has been reencoded by Xmedia and again by Adobe Premiere - and possibly by Google. But it's still quite good.) - the player also has a tuner, and judging by the countries listed in the manual, it does both ATSC and DVB. Australia is one of the countries listed (but at the end!). I can't see any use for the tuner. If it worked on the NZ specs, and if you could get hold of a terrestrial EPG feed, you could presumably make scheduled recordings - but why not use Telstra? The player would also appear to do 'torrents'. It also has an FTP client (as opposed to a server) which again I can't see a use for (it would involve navigating with the remote) - there are one or two 'niggles'. The remote's layout is not the best; a fan makes a small amount of noise (not much). This fan could be one of the reasons the device is so responsive - it allows the CPU to work harder. (Just like noisy dishwashers do a better job!) In conclusion, I am quite impressed by this device. It is one of the better things I have bought 'blind'. To think I was about to buy a capture device from DSE or HN - a plain USB stick costing $170! The PBR-500 not only captures in component form, it has HDMI out, a remote, and is a full-fledged media player. The attachment is a diagram of my layout	BBCmicro (15761)
1161034	2010-12-12 09:29:00	Holly cow... you need a motorised remote control rack!	Paul.Cov (425)
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