andy vt's tools & blog

The profile for convert to mpeg using ffdshow compresses the original dvr-ms file extremely well.

But you lose all the valuable TVGuide data this way.

it seems the only profile that does this which creates another dvr-ms file doesn't keep the good compression, it's about only 1 meg smaller than the original.

Isn't there a profile to compress using ffdshow, then stuff that back into a dvr-ms and move it to the recorded tv folder?

If this is possible, do you have a set of actions I can string together to do this?
 

dvr-ms is an asf wrapper around mpeg streams, so converting to mpeg just changes the container.  the asf wrapper serves two purposes; provide metadata support and enable DRM.

the only other format that I'm aware of that provides as rich an experience is wmv.  unfortunately wmv doesn't display in recorded tv.  it can be viewed through the videos section.

But just being a wrapper, couldn't you just take the new highly compressed mpeg stream, and wrap the new asf around it? The new mpeg stream is the same format as the old dvr-ms video/audio stream. The dvr-ms mpeg stream is nothing more than the output of the tuner card.

you could lower the bitrate of the mpeg and create a new dvr-ms file that wraps the new stream, but the quality would go down as well.

most people (including myself) would like to maintain the quality, but reduce the size.  the best way to accomplish that is with an mpeg 4 stream (wmv or a divx variant).  the downside is that you lose "recorded tv" but there are other applications (on vista anyway) that can be used to replace that with a richer experience.