Can somebody please point me in the right direction? To save disc space on my Humax, I've been pulling off the ts files onto my PC. They play fine on the PC using VLC Player, but I want to stream them back to my TV using my media streamer: unfortunately it only recognises avi, mpg or wma file extensions, so the ts files won't play. The trial version of VideoReDo Suite that I downloaded does a super job at converting these ts files to mpg, but it's very expensive and I only want to use this conversion part of the suite. I've been looking for three days on the web to find something simpler & cheaper, and I must have tried a dozen or so converters/remuxers, none of which recognise the ts files. Any ideas, please?

You can recode videos with VLC, to the format you choose.

Sorry, I should have mentioned, VLC was one of the first programs I tried. I followed some directions on how to convert ts to mpg using VLC that I found on the web, but no mpg file get created using the Media >convert/save function then adding the mpg extension to the output file. Has anyone been successful using VLC, please?

Vlc player will play directly to your TV if you have suitable input on your TV. My laptop has a dvi port and that works fine using a dvi to hdmi adaptor to my Sony KDL-40W4000. I can also connect using analogue xvga.

hi graham I've tried connecting my laptop to the tv using a s-video lead.. i can see the desktop but when i play a file in vlc the window is just black. any ideas?

Thanks, it's probably easier for me to play the ts files directly from an external HD into the USB port of the Foxsat... but I would like to use my existing media streaming set up if I can. The basic question is:
is there anything out there that will do the ts to mpg conversion cheaper than the $75 VideoReDo program?

Have you tried this
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/HDTVtoMPEG2

I imagine that vlc player only outputs from the DVI and or VGA external monitor ports

Sorry at the moment this won't work as the Foxsat can only play native .ts files with 2 additional support files that have to be present. VLC player will convert to mpeg (Use the export wizard). It's a lot easier to turn your .ts files into a dvd and play them using a dvd player.

I use VideoRedo to convert .ts files from my Media PC to .mpg format and trim out all the adverts. It also works very well with SD recordings taken off the Foxsat HDR.

I tried all sorts of freeware offerings before settling on VideoRedo, but found this the simplest and most reliable way of doing it. Other solutions had lip-sync issues or were cludgy to use. If you do find one that is better than VideoRedo and freeware, please let us all know.

Have not found a good HD solution yet - suggestions anyone?

I just tried this and it seemed to convert a .ts recording of BBC2 to .mpg without any problems- it also seems to have tools to edit out ads.

Yes. This is one of the dozen or so that I found and that doesn't work with the Foxsat ts files.

No problem, as when you copy across the ts files from the Foxsat PVR it automatically copies over the two support files that you mention. As long as you leave them in the same file as the ts then all works fine for playing back on the Foxsat via the USB port. How do I turn ts files into a DVD? - if I can do that, then I can probably dump to hard disc rather than burn a DVD and sort something out from there.

I confirm that my trial version of VideoReDo has worked flawlessly whereas nothing else I've tried has come remotely close to to even working except svcd2dvd - the latter is a ts to DVD burning program but you can also make mpg files. The problem is that it's very slow, whereas VideoReDo will convert a complete ts movie in 5 or 6 minutes.
I also found an interesting program called TsRemux (version 0.21.2). This appears to recognise and do something with the Foxsat ts files, but it creates an output file which doesn't even have a file extension. I don't know what I'm supposed to do with it from there. I tried renaming the mystery file with extensions such as ts and mpg, but to no avail.
I haven't tried anything with HD files as they are too difficult to copy across (I understand I either have to remove the Foxsat HDD or record in non-Freesat mode - too much of a hassle).

When you say it didn't work- can you explain exactly what happens? Did you make sure you adjusted the upper file size limit and the output to mpeg2?

It came up with an error message "could not find a channel" as soon as I try to select a ts file.

Further to my reply, I reset the file size to 5000Mb and that stopped the 'find a channel' error, but the file isn't readable in the preview pane (just a lot of coloured blocks) and after conversion to mpeg2 I get a blank screen when trying to play in VLC.

A few good suggestions here:

http://www.hummy.org.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=4877

Could you upload a small ts recording from the HDR to zshare?

Son_t, many thanks for this link, it's solved the problem!

The link mentions many programs that I had tried previously (TsRemux, MPEG Streamer, Super, Total Video Converter) all of which don't work on the Foxsat ts files, but then there was one mentioned that I hadn't tried: MediaCoder. This works an absolute treat - and it's free. It can turn a normal length movie ts file into an mpeg in a few minutes, just like VideoReDo. It doesn't re-encode but simply swaps the ts container for an mpeg one, so is very quick.
For those interested in using MediaCoder, just stick to the default and auto settings for all parameters except
* choose 'raw video' as the video format and 'mpeg2' as the container
* ensure that both audio & video options for both 'enable' and 'copy' are ticked
* in the 'picture' tab, choose 16:9 ratio.
A one hour SD broadcast takes under 5 minutes to convert.

I've put a small ts clip here:
http://www.zshare.net/download/53668478a9247c7c/
though I don't know why it should be any different from anyone else's ts clips from their Foxsat boxes.

Have you tried ProjectX?
http://project-x.sourceforge.net/
I use it with .ts files from my Dreambox and although its a bit complex to use it seems to have plenty of functionality. Download and use the compiled version to avoid Java problems.

Yes, I tried Project X - I've tried so many now that I can't remember how this software failed exactly. Most of those I tried were not able to recognise the particular ts file format from the Freesat box. Anyway, it seems that MediaCoder works well & also has plenty of functionality for conversion possibilities though it doesn't allow any editing except for cropping.

Nick123,

Thanks for the tip re MediaCoder. I've downloaded v 0.6.1.4045 and installed. When I start the program, all it does is open a browser window and take me to the MediaCoder website.

How do you get into the application?

You need to convert the .ts to a standard mpeg .mpg file. Many suggestions here. Once you have mpeg2 any dvd authoring package can convert these to a dvd format. A DVD contains 2 folders Audio.TS and VIdeo.TS. Audio.TS is normally empty and the Video.TS contains 3 types of files .vob (containing the mpeg2 video and audio streams) .IFO (these contain DVD navigation info) and .BAK (which are back up files). Most DVD authoring packages allow you to build this structure in a hard drive folder or directly to a DVD. A folder with Audio.TS and Video.TS can be played directly by most DVD playing PC Software. (In Power DVD it's open dvd file on hard disc) and can also be burnt to a DVD (In nero you use DVD Video and simply copy all the files in the Video.TS folder to Neros Video.TS folder