Windows 7 .WTV file format support

[jason_ruz]

Hi,

What are your plans in supporting the .WTV file format that will be used in Windows 7's Windows Media Center?
I found this interesting thread on TGB: http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/permal ... spx#335109. There is some documentation about the .WTV format on MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc963726.aspx

Thanks,
Jason

[erik]

The problem with .wtv is that there is no documentation on the internal format so I can not write a demuxer.
Other solution is to create a DShow interface so windows can do the demuxing (or even the decoding)
This will have a huge impact on the internals of Comskip so it requires a lot of time.
A temporary solution is to use dvrmstb to convert to mpg file and then process.

[killi]

how about looking into the .wtv files that hdpvrbridge creates. I can successfuly dump into corresponding .ac3/.h264 files that i then have to remux into a ts file to scan, then convert for reinsertion into the recorded tv. perhaps since this file format is h264 in a wtv container it is workable? i used graphstudio with FileDump.ax to seperate, and tsmuxer to make the .ts to start the commercial detection, then todvrms with the -w flag to convert to .wtv. But it is so much to do manually that it not worth it to go through just to skip commercials.

i can send an example file if you wish. Would be an awesome addition. the native conversion utility in win7 wont convert these .wtv's to dvr-ms.

[erik]

Why do you want to convert twice?
Only from .wtv to a format comskip can read.
Best is to use a player that can read the output for comskip (the list of detected commercials) to (auto) skip based on the original recorded file.

[killi]

you are totally right about the reconvert, makes sense.

But i still do not know how i can auto get the h264 wtv file to a working .ts file. Ill have to see if i can write a \profile in dtb that cuts a wtv file with graph, then calls tsmuxer, than calls comskip, then deletes the muxed file. leaving the wtv originally recorded.

i guess i just dont know how to automate graphstudio, and also comskip doesnt accept the video only stream/pin from a split wtv file generated by graphstudio. have to use tsmuxer to join them, then comskip does its thing fine.

[vander1]

Hey Eric, comskip is working amazing for me. I really enjoy it. But I've been thinking about moving to Windows 7 sometime soon. Any chance comskip will have WTV support any time soon? I read above that there was no documentation for it, but I wonder if that has changed, as Show Analyzer now has WTV support, in beta. I really don't want to switch over, as comskip is working amazing in Vista. Please let me know when you have a chance. Thanks!

[erik]

I'm looking into this, in the mean time you can use this

"C:\Windows\ehome\WTVConverter.exe" infile.wtv outfile.dvr-ms
comskip outfile.dvr-ms


Converts a recorded TV file from .wtv to .dvr-ms format.

Usage:
WTVConvrter path_to_sourcefile [path_to_targetfile] [/ShowUI] [/?]

path_to_sourcefile: Specifies the path to the .wtv file to convert.
path_to_targetfile: Specifies the path to the .dvr-ms file to create.
/ShowUI: Displays a progress bar dialog box during the conversion process.
/?: Displays usage information.

Notes:
– You must specify a path to an existing folder for path_to_targetfile.
– You can use the wildcard '*' when converting multiple source files.
The .dvr-ms files will be created with the same name as the .wtv files.

– If you do not specify path_to_targetfile, the .dvr-ms file is created in the same location as the .wtv file.

Examples:

WTVConverter d:\RecordedTV\Arthur.wtv d:\ConvertedTV\Arthur.dvr-ms /ShowUI

WTVConverter d:\RecordedTV\*.wtv d:\ConvertedTV\

WTVConverter d:\RecordedTV\*.wtv

[McGiverGim]

Hi erik.

Sorry for my impatience, but have you got something with the new format
WTV?

Regards!

[erik]

Will do a quick check to see if more information is available on this format.

[McGiverGim]

Here we are one year later!!

I've seen that ffmpeg have some experimental version with WTV support. Can you use this to support WTV in comskip?

Now I'm using ShowAnalyzer, but I prefer comskip if it worked with WTV

Regards!

[McGiverGim]

Here you have a link with more info:

http://binaryinspirations.blogspot.com/ ... pport.html

Regards!

[erik]

Will have a look
The version I tried 4 weeks ago still crashed on the h.264 test files I have.

[McGiverGim]

Ah! Ok, I didn't know you were doing tests!!!

Thank you very much!!

[erik]

I found and solved the bug in ffmpeg that caused it to crash on my .wtv test files.
No I need a lot of time to include it in comskip......

[McGiverGim]

Ok, we will wait your great work!!

If you need a beta tester, I'm ready

Thanks!!