Holy Grail of Tivo Extraction: Well Nearly!

["Don McAllister" <donmc@xxxxxxx>]

Sorry to post this to the main list but there has been a development of
earth shattering proportions in the field of Tivo video extraction! 

There are several tried and tested solutions to this but everyone
requires an element of re-encoding to produce a file suitable for
playing on a PC or burning to DVD. It's not unknown to spend 10 hours
processing time to produce 1 hours worth of mpg video. Along with the
time issue, there is also the issue of using multiple tools and
convoluted processes to achieve the final product. However....

I have just created a single mpeg2 file from a Tivo extraction in 15
mins flat (excluding the extraction time of course!). Yes 15 minutes,
not 15 hours - no re-encoding required. Not only that but I was able to
edit the file to remove some adverts at the start and at the end.

The file is 2.6GB and contains a movie and stereo soundtrack. The movie
lasts for 1 hour 50 minutes and the audio stays in perfect sync
throughout. It is encoded at the same bit rate and resolution as
created
by the Tivo.

I have played the mpeg 2 file in Windows Media Player, WInDVD platinum
and PowerDVD and it plays faultlessly.

Unfortunately, none of this is my handywork but all has been achieved
by
a new package from jdiner the author of tytools.

It allows you to take a .ty file from a Tivo and split it using a new
utility. The utility creates a .key and .m2a file. The .key file
contains all the key frames. This process for a 2.6GB file took about 7
minutes on my machine (athlon 2100, 1GB)

But it gets better....

He has also released a beta of GOPeditor. This loads the keyframe file
and allows you to edit the video to cut out any ad breaks etc. Took me
about a minute to edit the movie.


Once you create the cut list, you save the list to a file and rerun the
previous utility with some extra parameters and it edits the .ty file
and remixes it to a .mpg file. Again took about 7 minutes on my machine
and hey presto - a working mpeg file.

To put the icing on the cake, he is working on a utility to allow you
to
make VOB files directly so you can burn to DVD-r as a final process!
This hasn't been released yet ;-( However, if you keep the .ty file and
the .cut file you will be able to create vobs once released.

It is possible to create a DVD-r without re-encoding from this beta
release mpeg2 file (once demuxed into its elementary streams) by using
infoedit. I've tried it and it works but the old bugbear of audio sync
rears it's head due to having to resample the audio to 48Khz. Some
people have had success with this so I've asked for more info on the
forum.  Again, if you just want to play the mpeg file from the PC
audio
sync is perfect.


OK so what are the downsides...

Surprisingly few considering it is a beta. 

If you want to have a play (and bearing in mind it is a beta) you can
download the utilities from:

http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/showthread.php?s=d7bd071ca62e214a02b67
d3774171870&threadid=19342&perpage=40&pagenumber=7

look about halfway down the page.


Enjoy (and jdiner deserves a medal for this!)

Don

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