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Quicktime Pro or Quicktime MPEG 2 component

S

Steven Jackson

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 8, 2006
387
7
Lincoln, U.K.
Hi,

I need the Quicktime MPEG 2 component to convert some videos (from Toppy .rec to h264, for use on Apple TV) but don't know which component to buy.

Does Quicktime Pro INCLUDE the MPEG 2 component or are these two entirely different things?

The reason I ask is, it's only a fiver difference in price. If the MPEG2 component is included in Pro, I may as well just go for Quicktime Pro.

Cheers,

Steve.
 
No. Pro does not include the MPEG codec, annoyingly.

I also have a Toppy. I tend to use MPEG streamclip to work with the TS files (which needs the MPEG codec). It's doesn't work 100% of the time however, sometimes I get the sound but just a white frame.

If you're looking to do conversion for free you can use FFMpegX to do the conversion. You'll need to convert the REC to a TS first, I've got a short perl script that will do this (basically just strips the headers), if you're interested.

FFMpegX can't do editing however so if MPEG streamclip is having problems reading the REC file I strip the headers to convert to TS. Then do TS->TS with FFMpegX then load in MPEG Streamclip.
 
Thanks for the reply, but that's gone a bit over my head!

I have the .rec files from the Toppy and I want to get them into a format suitable for Apple TV. I also need to edit them to get rid of ads/Toppy padding.

Are you saying that I can do this entirely for free, or do I still need to buy the MPEG 2 component for quicktime?

I was under the impression that I could do the whole process with just one app (Mpeg StreamClip) -- is this correct?

Sorry to make you explain this again -- this is my first time to try anything like this...

Also, I am a bit confused by all the options in Mpeg Streamclip. Could you tell me what options you select to get a good quality file?

Cheers,

Steve.
 
Hello again,

I went ahead and bought the MPEG 2 component for quicktime.

Any help you might be able to give with StreamClip settings would be much appreciated.

Steve.
 
Yes you can do all of it with MPEG Streamclip, except I've had a few issues with some recordings not working properly, it's pretty rare.

Yes you need the MPEG Codec for Streamclip to work with REC files so that's money well spent!

A bit of background. A digital video broadcast is broadcast as a Program Stream (PS), this includes all the channels broadcast from one multiplex (eg. BBC1, BBC2, News24 etc..). When the Toppy records it it records a Transport Stream (TS), this is basically a subset of the full program stream containing a single channel.

When the Toppy records to disk it adds some headers to the TS that include information about the program (it's name, time of broadcast etc...). This produces a REC file that you can copy from the Toppy.

Fortunatly MPEGStreamclip can understand REC files and edit them.

I'm not 100% sure what settings you'd need to make them :apple: TV compatible, I'll have a look tonight.
 
The export option you want is 'File / Export as MPEG4' then choose the H264 compressor.

There are a load of options available and it really depends on what quality you want as an end result and how large the files will be.

As Apple TV isn't actually released yet there's not a huge amount of information about which file formats will work. You can use the 'iPod' presets (just click 'iPod' in the top right corner), these will definitely work but the quality is not the best.

According to the specs site it supports:

H.264 and protected H.264 (from iTunes Store): 640 by 480, 30 fps, LC version of Baseline Profile; 320 by 240, 30 fps, Baseline profile up to Level 1.3; 1280 by 720, 24 fps, Progressive Main Profile. MPEG-4: 640 by 480, 30 fps, Simple Profile

The broadcast image is normally 704x576 for a widescreen broadcast. You can choose to leave it at that or change to a supported resolution. 640x480 (or 640x360 for widescreen) is an iPod preference. Otherwise you could choose to do 1280x720 (720p) in which case your effectively upscaling the video before it's sent to the Apple TV. Assuming you have a widescreen TV this might result in a better picture.

Your best bet is probably to hang on to the REC files until you've got your Apple TV and see which options work best with your TV really and give you a size/quality tradeoff you're happy with.

With regards cutting the adverts out, set an 'In' point at the start of the ads then set an 'Out' point at the end, then choose 'cut' to remove the adverts.

Hope that was some help. Until the Apple TV is here it's a bit difficult to give an exact recommendation.
 
Thanks again.

I'm tempted to convert to the 720p option. However, would this be a waste? Would I be increasing the file size without increasing the quality (which I realise is impossible)?

How about a 4:3 television show? Should I just go for the iPod option for these?

Cheers,

Steve.
 
720p : Probably unnecessary but it depends if Apple TV supports a native 576 resolution or not, it's not clear at the moment. The broadcast is in 576i, so the nearest fit to that will give you the best quality. 720i might be worth considering.

You get i (interlaced) by checking the 'interlace' options in the compression tool. It doesn't look as good when your watching it on you computer monitor then however.

Regarding 4:3 much the same decision really. The ipod options will be okay but again they'll be 480 rather than 576. Just try a few options with a small file and compare what you get and what they look like on the Apple TV. I'd hold of investing a lot of time in conversion until you've had a chance to try them on your TV.
 
Hi, I've just converted a rec file from my toppy using Streamcli. Why on the motion does it playback with line resolution?
 
antonioconte said:
Hi, I've just converted a rec file from my toppy using Streamcli. Why on the motion does it playback with line resolution?
Click to expand...

Not 100% sure what you mean but if you're referring to the lines you get on the image when action is taking place, then that's because the file you're viewing is interlaced.

If you're playing back with VLC then one of the menu options is 'deinterlace'. Alternatively you can choose to produce deinterlaced output with MPEG Streamclip.
 
tyr2 said:
No. Pro does not include the MPEG codec, annoyingly.

I also have a Toppy. I tend to use MPEG streamclip to work with the TS files (which needs the MPEG codec). It's doesn't work 100% of the time however, sometimes I get the sound but just a white frame.

If you're looking to do conversion for free you can use FFMpegX to do the conversion. You'll need to convert the REC to a TS first, I've got a short perl script that will do this (basically just strips the headers), if you're interested.

FFMpegX can't do editing however so if MPEG streamclip is having problems reading the REC file I strip the headers to convert to TS. Then do TS->TS with FFMpegX then load in MPEG Streamclip.
Click to expand...
:confused:
I'm trying to access a friend's video-ts video files (it is a legit DVD that he edited and encoded), and now he's without the video files. Normally I could use Mpeg-Streamclip to open the vob files, fix the time code breaks, linking the different demuxed files and export them as a Quicktime .mov file. But now for some reason (and I think it is a lack of MPEG-2 support) I can't open them.

From your thread it sounds like you may have the answer's I'm looking for. I do have FFMpegX or I have access to a legit copy of the MPEG-2 codec, but for some reason even after I install it it still won't allow me Mpeg-2 export capibilities in FCP or Quicktime. Any suggestions are good suggestion.
 
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