What's with HD Torrents?..

[LARGESS]

I have a nagging question that has pained me a good while.Hopefully someone here has a good answer for it.I have been trying to burn HD .ts files usually 1080i with stuff like multiavchd and over 90% of the torrents won't transcode when trying to burn them lossless,hence they won't work.Usually,it won't have audio or the picture comes out screwed up.Alot of times the thing won't play on vlc media player and thats an indicator there'll be trouble.Do people have trouble uploading these correctly? I have tried a few other softwares but they seem to be unable to have a codec to make me hear it even though you can hear it on vlc.I don't want to resort to lossy software like 'convert x to dvd 3' which does a great job at making even unwatchable files quite good looking but that compresses it greatly which sucks if you want to watch on a bigscreen tv.
Well,hope someone can help.Noone in the past I've asked seems to know anything.They seem to just watch them on their computer awhile then delete them.
Thanks , Largess

[jabulon]

Always use good soft/hardware and media, burn at slow speeds with nothing else going on at the same time. Another thing would be to use other software than this freeware stuff, like:

Sony Vegas Suite ($600)
Adobe Premiere Pro Suite ($179)
ArcSoft TotalMedia Extreme 2 ($130)

cheaper options are:
Xilisoft Blu-ray Creator 2 ($49.95)
Cyberlink ($99.95)

and I'm sure there are lots more. Prices are indications.

[paddington]

I will second the slow-speed burning.

Deep pits are your friend.

[retired]

Best freeware....
http://www.imgburn.com/

Yes, you can burn a .ts file to a single layer dvd if its small enough, but it will NOT play in most DVD players, but will in most blu-ray players. Honestly, burning at this point is a waste of time & money. Buy a 'streamer' (WD, Popcorn, Boxee, Network) so the files can be directly streamed from (comp/tower/hard drive/net) directly to TV. Problem solved, no matter what the format.

[LARGESS]

I tried the streaming thing with netflix and the blu-ray player with the added extra expensive device you have to buy netflix does'nt tell you about but it froze up my computer and I returned the device but kept the blu-ray.
I have been using imgburn which is great for avchd/blu-ray files that are uploaded but a 1080i .ts file never burns straight to disc through imgburn without building it into a dvd first.Since most 1080i files you download won't transcode with avchd software because of limitations in the software and the compatability with the upload I can't build a file that can then be burned to disc with imgburn.A 1080i .ts file needs to be built into an avchd/blu-ray or made into vob type files or it won't be viewable on tv.I tried it a few times burning the raw 1080i .ts file straight to dvd but after it finalizes you get nothing when you push play.All you get is a cheap menu..I'm still stuck..The streaming thing was interesting yet more uploads than not won't play on vlc to where you can watch them.Makes you wonder how you could stream them then.Really screwed up.Out of like 25 1080i .ts downloads only like 2 shows could be transcoded and eventually burned in a lossless way.Really sucks.

[LARGESS]

thanks for all your replies everybody.I guess I'm gonna keep trying more software.man,this sucks!

[Chicos Bail Bonds]

Another option to streaming that works with some TVs is to transfer the file to a usb drive and plug that directly into the TV

that's how I am able to download/watch >mkv and .m2ts files (I have no blu-ray player at all)

[LARGESS]

yes,my blu-ray plays avchd files just fine.unfortunately,very few uploaders use that method.if someone uploads one of those I have never failed burning it to dvd.Its when I take a raw 1080i .ts file and try to build it into avchd/blu-ray so its viewable on my tv that it fails to transcode.Does streaming do a better job than VLC Media Player? Cause more torrents than not don't play properly,I mean totally unwatchable..It seems VLC sucks or the uploaders have faulty uploads.I wish someone who has had the same problem could give input.
Thanks anyway Jabulon :), Largess

[jabulon]

... It seems VLC sucks ...

That's true, VLC sucks big time. VLC has been giving me a lot of problems as well, that is from version 0.9.8 onwards (it started to act weird, showing wrong aspect ratio's, not opening files it normally did etc). If you really, really want to use VLC, try to downgrade it to a version that works on your system set up, like I did myself, I use version 0.9.8 on my PC. If you are on a PC as well you should try BSPlayer (http://www.bsplayer.com/), KMPlayer (http://kmplayer.en.softonic.com/) or Media Player Classic - Home Cinema (http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/)? These are all nice players I use at the moment and all much better than VLC IMO.

All these media players are nice when you want to watch these files on your PC, but when you want to watch these on your tv or flatscreen again I would opt for a mediastreamer. It will also save you the hassle of authoring these files (TS, MKV) and then burning them to a disc. So eventually using a streamer will save you time and money, no more coasters, no media discs to store etc. (burning half a dozen of coasters and you almost paid for a streamer)

[direwolf-pgh]

I will second the slow-speed burning.

Deep pits are your friend.slow(er) burn helps with data buffer/transfer -- an equal amount of light/heat/data/error correction applied to discs at any speed.
(sorry but that old myth bugs me.. its not like you're half speed mastering on a record cutting lathe)

another fun factoid:
The blank disc has a pre-groove track onto which the data are written. The pre-groove track, which also contains timing information, ensures that the recorder follows the same spiral path as a conventional CD. A CD recorder writes data to a CD-R disc by pulsing its laser to heat areas of the organic dye layer. The writing process does not produce indentations (pits); instead, the heat permanently changes the optical properties of the dye, changing the reflectivity of those areas. Using a low laser power, so as not to further alter the dye, the disc is read back in the same way as a CD-ROM. However, the reflected light is modulated not by pits, but by the alternating regions of heated and unaltered dye. The change of the intensity of the reflected laser radiation is transformed into an electrical signal, from which the digital information is recovered ("decoded").

[ttops]

TS Muxer will do what you want, with no transcoding, for free. author your .ts files to AVCHD or standard blu-ray

http://www.videohelp.com/tools/tsMuxeR

[jezhead]

WDTV live = problem solved :)

[paddington]

I will second the slow-speed burning.

Deep pits are your friend.slow(er) burn helps with data buffer/transfer -- an equal amount of light/heat/data/error correction applied to discs at any speed.
(sorry but that old myth bugs me.. its not like you're half speed mastering on a record cutting lathe)

another fun factoid:
The blank disc has a pre-groove track onto which the data are written. The pre-groove track, which also contains timing information, ensures that the recorder follows the same spiral path as a conventional CD. A CD recorder writes data to a CD-R disc by pulsing its laser to heat areas of the organic dye layer. The writing process does not produce indentations (pits); instead, the heat permanently changes the optical properties of the dye, changing the reflectivity of those areas. Using a low laser power, so as not to further alter the dye, the disc is read back in the same way as a CD-ROM. However, the reflected light is modulated not by pits, but by the alternating regions of heated and unaltered dye. The change of the intensity of the reflected laser radiation is transformed into an electrical signal, from which the digital information is recovered ("decoded").


this is good info, which I missed.

however, you can demostratably see a difference in a slow burned CD and a max-speed-burned CD using identical data & blanks on the same drive.
In my experience, when you view the bottom of the disc, the burned data is much more visible at slow speeds than at max speed (usually), leading me to think the 'burning' of the dye appears to be more complete when doing it slowly.