I should have said "today" since today is always no day away.

The really strange thing is that VLC and MPC skip and pixelate, yet Windows Media player is perfectly fine. Virtualdubmod is also ok. Unfortunately our normal recommendation for most people would be VLC. curses.

Know of an mpeg2 joiner other than Videoredo? That's what I used for splicing together.

Those are interesting audio suggestions. I'll check them out. And for Bacharach: check your email

Here are some test 6 channel AC3s. I'm doing all this editing just with headphones so I need the help of people with 6 speaker setups.

test 1a, the first glitch area: "there's a rainbow highway to be fo..."
http://www.sendspace.com/file/nf3dw3
test 1b, the 2nd glitch area: "fiiind meeeeee. Sooome..."
http://www.sendspace.com/file/rzcula

L=left
R=right
C=center
LFE = low frequency
SL = surround left
SR = surround right

Here's how I made 6 channel Vinman audio

LFE: 1a, there's nothing in the LFE. 1b, only the bass guitar is there so the waveform was easy to reconstruct. Should be flawless but tell me if there's anything wrong.

Center: Averaging of L+R.

SL, SR: In the HD, the mikes pick up the audience and a distant Kat. I added reverb to vinman's to approximate the HD surround.

All channels normalized to the same relative volumes among them as in the HD. Edges of the patches blended with HD to smooth the transitions

Here are some questions I have.

Any error in channel placement? I worked off the tests we did awhile back so they should be ok.

Vocal too strong in SL and SR during the patches? Does the vocal migrate backwards during 1a and 1b?

I think I left too much high frequencies in the center channel. Do the violins (or anything else) sound like they migrate to the center during 1b and then migrate outward after 1b?

Something happens to the vocal at 1b from "some" to "where". Too much center vocal?

Anything else you notice?

Don't sugarcoat any comments. I'd like to get everything taken care of if possible

I think they sound terrific diff, the only criticism is that there is an audible volume jump in the phrase "when all the clOUDS DARKEN UP" and that was on the original clip so I can't fault you because that is on the A.I. sound people.

The reverb mix on the surrounds sounds spot on to me, I listened to each one in isolation and it sounds good.

The only way you would notice extra high frequency in the center channel is with a spectrum analyzer, because I don't hear it.  Center is down in the mix on all these AI clips I think to emphasize the stereo nature of the microphone channels.

If you want nitpicking...

There is a slight warble on the "find me" part of 1b, but it isn't any worse than the "clOUDS DARKEN" on the first clip. More of a pitch variation, perhaps from the patch in mid-note, than a volume change, as such. 

Really a masterful job I would say, if only you could find a way to prevent that pixelation of the video in some players at the end of the patch I think it would be damn near a seamless fix.

The ever so slight jump in the picture you mentioned before I think is, I suspect, unavoidable when using a DivX video encode as source because it does change the aspect ratio slightly when it is encoded. I've read that some "purists" dislike DivX for that very  reason...slight image distortion.

Thanks for keeping after this diff.

Just because I'd like to express how thankful I am for all of you, I'd like to welcome you to visit here:

http://www.katharinefans.com/Forums/tabid/92/forumid/16/postid/132133/view/topic/Default.aspx

I ended up buying a DVD-R. My laptop actually doesn't have a firewire, I looked up the wrong model when seeking the specs.

The DVD-R has a dv input -- four pin.  Should I be buying a 6-to-4 pin cable, hooking it up and seeing what happens?

I don't think the DV input can be used. True it's firewire but the format of the signal is probably different. Kind of the difference between putting water through a garden hose or some other non-water material through the same hose. The DV input expects water but is getting something else. (Blue mud?) Also, DVDR wouldn't be able to record HD resolution.

With the DVDR, you can still connect the DVR using other connectors. This setup is the "backup" analog method used by Shady and me. Quality of connectors, in decreasing order, is component > S-video > composite. Most DVDRs won't have component in. S-video is video-only so you would need audio cables for the audio.

Firewire is still the ideal method, and the only way for HD. Your DVR firewire could be active. Unfortunately, the "firewire settings" display is useless for some of these boxes. It may say that it's off even when it's on, or it may say on when it isn't.

Bottom line is, before swapping that DVR, you can at least get the material off via analog connectors. Resolution would drop, but 720x400 is better than 0x0!

CRB I'll get back to you on OTR. Thank you immensely for your observations (and the compliments too!).

this is frustrating.  sigh.

even the dvd-r i use keeps adding these bars at the top and thebottom and is squishing the picture... no matter the aspect ratio i use.  so even if i get the content off the dvr before i trade it in, it looks like the aspect ratio will all be off.  and, the dvds that i recorded a live television signal.. none of the files are showing up in my pc's  dvd drive.  maybe because i haven't finalized the disc, but really, i would think it should show something.

#$%^&????*()%%$#@+_)??@#@!##$#@@  I don't quite understand what language you're speaking  but guys, it's all good!!! Thnx as always for your gigantic efforts!!  The fantastic quality that you produce from divx is absolutely awesome.

Don't mind us! 

Frustration is just part of the job, Ken.

I wouldn't worry about what it looks like on your TV. The signal is recorded onto the dvdr at a certain resolution. For a normal DVD, it's 720x480. Depending on the particular program (4:3 or widescreen) or your TV (4:3 or widescreen) or the DVDR's output settings, it will display fullscreen on the tv, or letterboxed, or cropped or maybe distorted as you described (Wrong DVDR output setting?). All that shouldn't matter *crosses fingers, knocks on wood*.

On the DVDR, do you have an option to record in DVD-VR mode? If so, I would use that to make things easier. If you record as DVD-VR, you just copy the file onto the PC by drag-and-drop and change the file extension to .mpg. This is what I do.

However, if you can only record on the DVDR as DVD-VIDEO, then I think you'll have to rip the DVD with your favorite DVD ripper (DVD decrypter?). Maybe BigShady does this? I don't think you have to finalize to read it in the ripper but I guess you can give that a try. Once it's ripped, you get a VOB, which is like an mpg.

Whichever way you use, you get an interlaced 720x480 mpg. At a minimum, it needs to be "smart" deinterlaced and resized to get an AVI for PC viewing. "Smart" motion-adaptive deinterlacing makes for a much better picture than "dumb" deinterlacing like a media player does "on-the-fly".

For widescreen, the mpg picture will be letterboxed, and probably look stretched horizontally. You then squeeze horizontally and crop the letterbox black top and bottom. For standard def, you just squeeze horizontally. AVI.net should do all this in an easy to use program.

Then you get an AVI and all frustration melts away.

So we have definitively determined that there is absolutely no way to utilize the firewire output capability  of this cable box that you have kenneth?  The box will not send it to either computer, DVHS or digital camcorder and it is in effect a dead port.  diff's water and blue mud analogy only applies if something is actually coming out of the port, it me be more akin to water and NOTHING!   The port into a DVD-r would only be capable of capturing SD anyway.   I bought a cool cable recently that was terminated in 4-pin connecters  but included a pair of 4-pin to 6-pin converters that could be attached on the ends so it was quite versitile...it was a great investment and I use it now for attaching my digital capping device to both my HD tuner (4-pin)  and my computer (6-pin)  when I move the DVHS back and forth.

If that is the case there are analog HD transfer methods as well, but the few I've actually looked into require a  PCI card into a desktop system.  I would not throw in the towel on getting the HD content out in HD until you actually get rid of the box or the hard drive fails.  In other words  don't delete it, (and by it I mean the uncapped HD Katharine McPhee performance stuff that you have and we may never have another shot at)  you never know when a cheap, consumer analog HD capture device might pop up on the scene. As digital devices move toward digital only outputs the current clampdown on analog HD capture may eventually  loosen.

I remember that Big Shady had some issues early on with getting the aspect ratio of the recorded DVD-r material (AOL Sessions, in his case)   the way he wanted.  The key here is to avoid getting frustrated and take a systematic approach to eliminating variables.  I can all but guarantee that you'll be able to make undistorted  HQ analog caps of the SDTV stuff that will become our new "gold standard" for the archives.  Just keep the faith.

A few things to check...

Make sure that your HD cable box is outputing it via the S-video output without black bars, you just look at the output on a monitor with the S-video output of the box as a source. Don't assume anything.

Can you record and playback, on the unit, using the DVD-R's internal tuner as a source?  You'll need an antenna hooked up to determine this  but we can rule out that it may be a DOA recorder.  Does it play standard  prerecorded DVD material?  Does it output it distorted or  with bars on 4:3 aspect ratio material?

If those things  check out then I'd start looking into the menu choices on the DVD-r.  Sometimes stuff capped over the tuner will look fine and material recorded via the A/V inputs will have different menu selections (such as aspect ratios, which would give rise to the black bar "issue" you describe)

If this problem persists and you can't find a solution, you can tell me the manufacter & model of the DVD-r unit you are using and I'll see if the online manuals might help us track down a solution.

Invest in some DVD-RW discs that can be finalized and reused without wasting a disc every time you want to finalize an incomplete disc.

Some "food for thought" and  things to check into there. 

oh I definitely agree. Don't give up on the firewire yet Ken. It's the only way to get the HD.

For the DV input, it doesn't record from my dvr either. Mud.

It should be possible to get a firewire add-on card for the laptop. My previous advice still stands: Stick to cards that keep to the standards I listed before in this thread. They're described in the posts about the Koutech card.

Keep in min