C-band FTA with TiVo?

[Chris_R]

Maybe this is asking for the world here haha, but I have just recently been getting back into C-band FTA programming, and am looking for a good DVR solution. I have an Amiko Mini HD SE, which has the time shifting and yes, it can record...but the files are huge (over 10 gigs!) and if I wanted to edit and save or share them, I can't as they are all broken into little files - again huge.

What I would like, if it's workable, is something with guide data for the channels off C-band that I actually watch, and be able to set up reliable recordings for multiple programs. I know that I would need to move and tune the dish & receiver myself.

Sage TV used to have software for just this very purpose, and I still have the computer and capture card that someone built for me which I used as a DVR with C-band subscription channels, but that was over 10 years ago and I'm not sure how much life this machine has in it.

Maybe an older Tivo would work?

My thought was I could combine an off-air antenna for local digital channels, and compliment them with FTA programming & get this all streamlined into one box. Not sure if it's possible as the input on the Tivo Series 3 is, I believe, just coaxial & won't take component or HDMI.

Any thoughts or ideas would be helpful - thanks!

 

[primestar31]

Tivo won't work for this. If it did, we'd all be talking about it. The only fta receiver with a guide for a majority of channels, is an Amiko A3 receiver. It also has a slot for an internal laptop harddrive, or one can be plugged into the external usb slot. I have a 1TB internal drive in mine. Good receiver, but not for the faint of heart. It has a large learning curve with it. It's not only sat FTA, but it can do near anything an Android based computer can do. Such as local tv, (with external tuner) and IP tv, nearly anything that can be loaded from the app store.

 

[Corrado]

Years ago before I had Dish, I used a series 1 Tivo that was connected to a 4DTV and a off air antenna DTVPal digital converter for local channels. The Tivo had composite inputs and wasn't subbed with a guide. I just programmed everything manually between the receivers and the recorder in SD.

When I record something today with one of my FTA receivers and external hard drives I notice one hour of SD programming is about 1.6gb and HD is around 8gb If I remember.

 

[FaT Air]

Just a thought = run your TS files through Format Factory, joining the files, and resize to 720, and convert to mp4(?) Do-able in one operation.
:upload to a file sharing site????

 

[Chris_R]

Just a thought = run your TS files through Format Factory, joining the files, and resize to 720, and convert to mp4(?) Do-able in one operation.
:upload to a file sharing site????

I've actually tried this operation using a program I have called Video Redo. Joined the TS files, tho I didn't resize (I don't think I have that option) but it wasn't seamless, and it created somewhat of a corrupted file that's difficult to play back (according to a friend I shared it with). Usually that program works great for other TS files but the file size is huge, and the program found a ton of "errors" with it while saving it.

 

[Titanium]

I use a free app TS Joiner for seamless multi-file combining. Once combined, it can be encoded to a lower sampling rate or format.

 

[Lone Gunman]

I've gone round and round with those large TS files myself and there's a thread on here from a year or so ago on that. Having said that I have yet to find anything that is dependable to join and convert them.

When you join them keep in mind too that if your storage drive is formatted in FAT32 then it won't handle a file that's larger than 4GB without balking. FYI, I use the FAT32 format because that's the only format that all 3 of my receivers will use without problems.

What I've found is that "most" of my LARGE TS files come from network feeds I record on 105w and 103w. A one hour program there is usually in the 5.9 to 6.5GB range. Other local network feeds like on 99w come in around 1.5 to 1.8GB and I consider those to be "manageable". I did record some stuff from that old NBC local on 137w and those were real low definition at around 800/900mb per hour program?

OH, and I've tried working with these large files in 64bit Windowz XP/Vista/7 and Linux and the result has been pretty much the same on them all. That and the time involved converting them made me just finally give up!

Of course, your mileage may vary! And if you figure it out then by all means please let me know how you did that.

 

[barleyguy]

I've gone round and round with those large TS files myself and there's a thread on here from a year or so ago on that. Having said that I have yet to find anything that is dependable to join and convert them.

Have you tried Handbrake? It should convert large TS files just fine.

 

[osu1991]

I use VideoRedo to edit my HD and SD ts files from my silicon dust tuners. You may need to run stream fix in VideoRedo on the files to fix any irregularities.

I've also used avidemux on ts files too. Finally paid for VideRedo as I had some occasional problems with avidemux.

I use Vidcoder to convert to mp4 and/or shrink and convert to mp4. It is a slimmed down version of handbrake.

I also used free program mp4joiner to join some smaller mp4 files into a single file.