Humax Foxsat-HDR: ts files to mpg/DVD?

[Harbottle]

Getting to grips with my new Humax box and I'm amazed how difficult they make getting the recordings onto a DVD! The ts file is happily accepted by Tmpgenc Authoring Works 4 my DVD authoring prog.... but it wants to re-encode the file! Surely this is going to degrade the quality of the recordings which is bonkers. I've looked at other means like demuxing the ts file to audio and video streams but this often seems to lead to lip sync problems. Having looked round the www there does not seem to be an easy solution which is surprising bearing in mind how common the system is. Any suggestions from BritMovians welcomed, how do you get your recordings onto DVD?

[MikeB]

Since I have no idea how to work around that, my normal suggestion is to try out AVForums.com - UK Online and see if it has popped up there. There is a Humax master thread (OK, now at least six). And something did come up - Turn ts file from Humax to DVD? | AVForums.com - UK Online
A quick google ( 'transferring humax to dvd') brought up a Humax Wiki http://h2d.wikispaces.com/, an Humax blog which covers this My Humax Blog » Converting your PVR recordings to DVD. And I've just found this site hummy.tv | a discussion forum and help reference for owners of Humax AV equipment. Looks very useful for work!

To be honest, when customers ask me about transfers from a HDD, I normally point them to the Panasonic Blu-Ray recorder. I have a old Sony HDD recorder, and its much easier to just do the transfer all in the one box. On the other hand, a lady just brought back a Panasonic because she can't hook it up to her old CRT telly (no scart/RCA's) - the Humax was the alternative that I showed her, and since you can transfer via DLNA, not all is lost. I notice that Humax have shipped a wifi dongle at last...

[Harbottle]

Many thanks Mike some useful reading there

[Wee Sonny MacGregor]

By coincidence I was asking my local dealer today about a freesat recorder. He's a Panasonic dealer and told me that the Panasonic freesat recorder DMR-XS350 (item I enquired about) had been discontinued and he suggested a Humax PVR9300T 500GB Freeview Digital TV Recorder. Further enquiries revealed that while the Humax has a large hard disk, he said that one would need to hook it up to some other outlet via scart if I was interested in saving programmes to disk . His suggestion was to link it to my current Panasonic EX75, transfer programmes and stick them on disk from there. I was making preliminary enquiries but his view was that no company now made freesat recorders with the facility to transfer directly to disk. I've absolutely no idea if this is the case. I give you this for what it's worth!

[MikeB]

The XS350 isn't on the Panasonic website any more , but they are listing the XS380, which seemingly is much the same. At close to £500 (if you trawl around the net), its not a cheap option. If you want Blu-Ray to transfer to, then they have the BS780 Home Entertainment - Blu-ray Recorders - DMR-BS780 - Overview - Panasonic UK & Ireland and the BS880 Home Entertainment - Blu-ray Recorders - DMR-BS880 - Overview - Panasonic UK & Ireland. At around £600 & £800, these are certainly not cheap options - but they are seemingly still available (although the Dead Zone of vanishing stock is coming close).

Freesat is a shrinking part of the market because of digital switchover, although Samsung have started making HDD's (and putting tuners in some of their TV's), but Panasonic Freesat standalone equipment is something my store doesn't normally stock, because the market is relatively limited.

I personally would query the suggestion of using a Humax 9300T, and I'm not sure why you'd need a scart (unless you playing to another source, in which case the EX79 via Line 1 or something similar would do it HUMAX NEWBIE! | hummy.tv | a discussion forum and help reference for owners of Humax AV equipment). Although it does have a 500GB version (and is pretty good), its now rather old, and is a Freeview machine only.

The Humax T2 is Freeview HD, and is rather newer. A quick look on AVForum shows that you can transfer to usb (like the foxsat and the 9300) Humax HDR FOX-T2 HD PVR Master thread - Part One | AVForums.com - UK Online - Page 11 - but one poster makes the point that SD files are OK to transfer, but HD files might be tied to the machine, due to DRM.

The excellent Foxsat machine is of course still around (although it shares the 9300's 320GB drive, a little small for HD), and this site Transfering files from the Humax FOXSAT-HDR does list the complicated ways in which you can transfer files from the machine, as of course does AVForum Humax FOXSAT HDR Copying to USB | AVForums.com - UK Online

If you do want to use a Humax box to record extrernally, this chap My Humax Blog suggests a T2 Freeview HD receiver (apparently relatively cheap) with an external drive. Apparently it works fairly well, low cost and and doesn't have a problem with HD files. A similar system might work on the Freesat reciever, and seemingly will work on the Foxsat box Media & File Servers for the Foxsat HDR | hummy.tv | a discussion forum and help reference for owners of Humax AV equipment .

Of course you can just buy the boxset...

[Wee Sonny MacGregor]

Thanks MikeB. Plenty to digest there.

[Harbottle]

To prevent me straining what remaining brain cells I still have the method I decided on is:

Humax>USB>PC>Tmpgenc Authoring Works>render>DVD

I imagine I'm losing some quality (not that I can see it) but it is the easiest method, and with my new PC rendering is achieved quite quickly. A shame that the system is recording to mpeg but the ts container is causing the problems! I found that even after demuxing Tmpgenc still rendered the video anyway so the method above is the easiest.

[WarFilmBuff]

Hi, I have been using a Humax Foxsat for about 2 years. Here's what I do
1) copy recorded programmes from Humax box to a USB stick and plug USB stick into my laptop
2) Use ViderRedo to import the TS files
VideoReDo MPEG Video Editing Software to
3) in the programme you can frame by frame remove adverts and anything you don't want, combine files, split files etc etc.
4) Burn to DVD on the PC with menus etc.

It takes about an hour on my 5 year old lap top to burn a normal length movie onto a very professional disc and you have endless options over file size, screen ratios, menus, frame rate etc etc. For example I can convert the TS files very easily into NTSC discs for American friends.

What I like about using VideoRedo is the flexibility. For example I like US comedy shows like Big Bang Theory, I record them off E4 and usually fit 7 or 8 episodes on a single DVD. But I do use a lower quality because it's just for "filler" TV viewing. But If I record a classic film off Channel 4, I basically keep on increasing the quality until I just fit the film on the disc. By the time I've added my custom menus with a poster image and cast lists etc it looks great.

The investment in VideoRedo has paid for itself a hundred times over; I had owned various Philips and Panasonic HDD machines plugged into the telly but had huge problems with disc failures etc. By doing all on the Laptop I get very very few failures.

[Harbottle]

I tried VideoRedo reading a lot of favourable comments but I must confess I found it very clunky compared to TempGenc Authoring Works, probably partly due to me being more used to my old fav. Removing the adverts in particular was far more fiddly.

[Richard_in_wales]

I run files through
TS Converter - MPEG-2 TS Converter, Video TS file Converter

Then burn to disk with DVDflick or even Windows DVD maker.

[WarFilmBuff]

I think it's like any software, at first it's tricky to get the hang over but after a while it becomes easy. I can make the adverts cuts and do the editing and customizing of 7 comedy shows (which is what I usually put on one disc) and start the burn process in about 5 to 10 minutes.

[gus1961]

i use a programme called Convertx to dvd,it says in it can convert any video file to dvd though ive not tried a ts file yet,easy to use
ConvertXtoDVD - AVI to DVD Video Converter to burn on DVD

[Bernardo]

This Humax Freesat box is very good. My video editing software (Corel) allows me to edit out the ads then converts from ts to DVD without a third party software, though it does take time whereas my Haupage tuner software in the media PC converts ts to mpg the Corel zips through the process in less than 10 minutes for a 2 hour film.