AVS Forum Archive 2 - PC DTV Technologies launches the World's 1st HDTV MPEG4 PC Digital Recording Software

RickD_99

01-03-04, 12:20 AM

This might be an interesting toy to pair with the (presumably) upcoming Samsung WM9 DVD player. I can envision transcoding my 200+ collection of D-VHS HD tapes to DVD-R+ in WM9 format.

Now all we need is a wealthy and willing (and employed, unlike myself) AVS kind soul to beta test this baby for us and report back here immediately!:p

Martin_Goedhart

01-03-04, 10:24 AM

A review would be nice indeed.

It seems that this is the company's first big product so its a big guess how good the quality will be of the software as we dont have any experience with this company

sting0r

01-03-04, 01:10 PM

I wish there was a free beta to play with. This looks really cool....

jsaliga

01-03-04, 06:46 PM

Hmmm...I fail to see what the big attraction is here. This product looks like a front-end. It doesn't appear to offer anything that you can't do with the Divx codecs and Virtual Dub or WME9 (both of which are free). The only thing I see is an attractive and easy to use interface. I don't know if most people will consider that worth $150.

Am I missing anything here?

--Jerome

Mr.Poindexter

01-03-04, 07:17 PM

How long does it take to encode a 2 hour movie in WM9?

While it can be done already, frame accurate editing inside the existing software is a nice feature. I wouldn't mind picking something like this up, but I don't have a lot of stuff to encode. If I were to find somebody who had taped a lot of info, I would work something out with them to do it for them. I have a pretty beefy home network (3.5TB storage, gigE, a half dozen P4 2.4 or higher) that could churn out a lot of files in a relatively short amount of time, I would think.

For film encoding, it probably isn't as attractive as it would be for TV encoding and removal of commercials.

jsaliga

01-03-04, 07:29 PM

If you are using the AVIsynth decomb plugin for IVTC and mpeg2dec3.dll with Windows Media Enocoder 9, then doing a 2 hour movie will take about 12 to 14 hours using one-pass quality VBR on a 2.4GHz P4 non-HT based system. Two-pass bitrate VBR will take about double that.

The attraction for a lot of us is for film sources. Using decomb to IVTC effectively gets rid of motion artifacts and produces smooth motion when encoding at 1080p/24. You can always use your video card to scale from there to whatever resolution your display supports.

--Jerome

RickD_99

01-03-04, 08:53 PM

Originally posted by jsaliga
Hmmm...I fail to see what the big attraction is here. This product looks like a front-end. It doesn't appear to offer anything that you can't do with the Divx codecs and Virtual Dub or WME9 (both of which are free). The only thing I see is an attractive and easy to use interface. I don't know if most people will consider that worth $150.

Am I missing anything here?

--Jerome

Jerome:

Maybe I'm the one missing something here...I got the impression from reading the product description that it could transcode transport streams
"on the fly" and could generate MPEG 4 files in roughly the same amount of time that it takes to play the transport stream...e.g. a 2 hour recorded HD movie would take roughly 2 hours to encode to WM9 on a reasonably fast (2.4 GHz or faster machine). 2 hours would sure beat 12-14 hours using your method, no? ;)

Am I misreading what they are claiming in the product specs?

edbetty

01-03-04, 09:35 PM

OK...I sign up to be the guinea pig on this product. I ordered it last night soon after it was posted and was #3 on the order list. Should get it by Wednesday hopefully.

Ed Betty

jsaliga

01-03-04, 10:32 PM

Originally posted by RickD_99
Am I misreading what they are claiming in the product specs?
Rick,

I don't think you are. I went back to the info page and it says:

"The ability to edit, encode, and burn to DVD video even as it's being recorded off air is a first for any video encoding software. On fast CPU's, the encoded recording is finished shortly after the show is over."

If this turns out to be true, and I don't possibly see how it can, while maintaining respectable quality settings in Divx and especially WM9, then I will eat my words. Perhaps by "on fast CPUs" they really are referring to a Cray X1. ;)

Color me extremely skeptical. If this thing worked as advertised then I seriously doubt they would ask people to fork over $150 for a beta. There would be some sort of trialware timed eval period. Ed has volunteered his hard earned cash so I guess we will find out soon enough.

--Jerome

brzez

01-08-04, 07:34 PM

Ed,

Did you receive the software? Any word on how well it works or doesn't?

Thanks..

-- John

CardiacArrest

01-09-04, 01:18 PM

I am hesitant to believe anything on that site, since I have a HiDTV card from them that is now basically unsupported.

edbetty

01-09-04, 07:52 PM

I still have not received the software... I'm getting antsy. I thought for sure it would have come this week.

Ed Betty

edbetty

01-11-04, 05:06 PM

I received an e-mail from Jens Wallmann of PC-DTV Technologies this morning. He mentioned that because of the CES show that everyone there was at, they wouldn't be sending the Beta out till tomorrow (Monday). They are looking at a Feburary release. He also said there was a lot of "buzz" at the show about the product. Just purchased the Plextor PX708A at a PC show today ($182)..now I'm waiting to put it to some good use!

Ed Betty

CardiacArrest

01-16-04, 09:03 AM

Still no word?

akelley

01-16-04, 11:49 AM

Are they physically mailing this software out? Can't they just provide a secure FTP site for download, or is it like 300 MB in size?

edbetty

01-16-04, 12:09 PM

Received a confirmation of mailing from the USPS yesterday. Will probably be in my mailbox when I get home.

Ed Betty

chriscic

01-17-04, 12:57 PM

Wow, that's not too great customer service. You're paying a bundle for a beta, and they can't be bothered to get it to you for about two weeks?

Hope it's worth the wait!

chap

01-17-04, 01:45 PM

Since they already have a bit of a tarnished name I'm a bit surprised he isn't working on that a little bit faster.

harican

01-21-04, 08:21 PM

So, how good is this card if any good at all?

www.pc-dtv.com

CardiacArrest

01-22-04, 08:09 AM

The HiDTV Pro card is decent but there is no support for it anymore. PC-DTV is not affiliated with the the company that make sit anymore. The card itself is picky about some things and the software is somewhat buggy. Bottom line: not recommended.

[I have one]

harican

01-22-04, 04:35 PM

my mistake, I was led to believe that the Countdown HD, http://www.countdownhd.com ,was an actual card or hardware, when it really is just software.

What card would work best with this software?

MyHD MDP-120 http://www.mitinc.co.kr/mitinc/e_site/index.jsp
FusionHDTVII http://www.dvico.com
HiDTV-PRO http://www.pc-dtv.com
HiPix DTV-200 http://www.telemann.com
WinTV-HD http://www.hauppage.com
accessDTV digital media receiver system http://www.accessdtv.com

anyone heard anything about the FusionHDTVIII ?

CardiacArrest

01-23-04, 08:21 AM

Any of the hardware cards should work fine with the software. Assuming, of course, that the software works (? nobody knows ?). The fusion and any other card that relies on the computer processor would require a HeluvaPemium 3Ghz+ to work reliably (my guess).

Of course, if you don't really need realtime there are a lot cheaper solutions, and since all the listed cards do realtime MPEG2 it would probably be better just to use non-realtime re-encoding, which also gives you a choice of codecs. At least until somebody has actually gotten and used this software.

Alan Gouger

01-23-04, 08:58 AM

Ive had my software for a few days.
Im going to have to wait for a friend to get his and get started. Im a novice at this
and there are no instructions. There is a word doc provided with a basic you need to have this and do this so they assume the people buying this already have a solid foothold what to do.
I would think some sort of basic step by step would come with this but nothing.

edbetty

01-23-04, 01:18 PM

I recieved my beta on Wednesday.. I quickly installed it (no problems) and ran a quick test using part of the CBS Springsteen concert from last year that I recorded using my Hipix. The GUI is very intuitive and even though no manual came with the Beta, it was pretty easy to figure out what to do. All I can say from the quick test that I did was that it works. Unfortunately my PC has no where near the HIGHLY RECOMENDED processing power that is suggested although I do meet the minimum requirements. A full version of DivX comes with the product, however due to an outstanding bug soon to be rectified, it is recommended that WMV9 be the only encoder to use at this point. I would say that CardiacArrest's opinion of 3.0+Mhz is right on to have the performance neccesary to do Live encoding. I have ordered the 3.0Mhz P4 and hopefully will have it installed soon. After I have upgraded I will try the Live encoding and also publish some timing info but it would be unfair for me to do that now. I will be in Florida until Wednesday so I will not be posting until later next week.

Ed Betty

brzez

01-23-04, 01:38 PM

To the people that have this, how does it deal with errors in the transport stream? I'm considering purchase of this software to take my HDTV movie library (around 200 files from HBO HD and Showtime HD) and use it to convert to WM9 and burn to DVD-R or possibly build a large RAID storage array and store the movies.

If this software deals with errors in the transport stream well and it is relatively quick to do a conversion then I will purchase it.

Thanks..

-- John

wildchild22

01-28-04, 07:09 PM

I bought the software and will not do anything gives me an error can someone explain step by step what to do? I hate to pay 150 for something that doesn't work.

CardiacArrest

02-05-04, 07:29 AM

Anybody have any luck with this yet?

Alan Gouger

02-05-04, 10:59 AM

Wildchild

I know you made efforts contacting this company. Did anyone get back to you regarding your issues. Its been weeks. Please up date us.
Because I am new to this and it does not come with any instructions this is a useless package for me. Ill be contacting them and asking for a refund.

Edit/update: Im told there is a new update that can be downloaded from the site and the instructions have been improved as well.

Thanks!

wildchild22

02-05-04, 06:50 PM

The author of the software has contacted me and I have uploaded a file for him to see if he can get it to work. Hopefully he can.
I will keep everyone posted. If not I will want a refund as well.

Andrew Lam

02-19-04, 08:24 PM

Any reviews on this product???

hotwire

02-21-04, 06:37 PM

Any reviews on this product???
I would also like to find out how things are going. Does it work, or is it a piece of crap? I registered for the CountdownHD forum yesterday, went back today and all I get is this message:

Error

This page is not available. The service for this site has been suspended.

If Ed or Alan could shed some light on their experiences with the product it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Kenny

Petey

02-22-04, 02:02 PM

With all the lack of feedback I'm taking a guess that this product is as good as their last. No confidence in this company what so ever!

shah8

02-22-04, 03:21 PM

Protodrive, anyone?

Darius

brzez

02-22-04, 05:25 PM

I bought the software a few weeks ago. It does work.

The initial version was not able to read files recorded from a Dish 5000 but they fixed that in the new version (version .97). The product does not crash or hang but it is not perfect either. The sound is out of sync on converted files and conversion is slower than if one used DVD2AVI, Avisynth, and VirtualDUB (as outlined int he HDTV WM9 encodiging guide from jsaliga).

The company is committed to fixing these issues but they are not as fast in doing so as I'd like them to be. For the money I paid, $150 I expected something that actually generated an encoded file that could be viewed without issues but it is still a little bit away from there (once they get the sound sync fixed the product will work as advertised). If they can speed up the encoding and allow a few more controls over speed/quality they will have a good product on their hands.

-- John

hotwire

02-22-04, 09:09 PM

John,
Thanks for the reply! Before the forum went down I noticed that they had the .99 beta available with the $150 offer for members. Are you encoding to WM9 or MPEG4? Knowing what you know now, would you buy the software again, or would you stay away from it? Anyone else with some experience with this software want to chime in?

Thanks
Kenny

brzez

02-22-04, 09:24 PM

The beta that I have is currently at .97 I have not seen a .99 release. I emailed support about the sound sync issue but have not heard from them.

I'm encoding to WM9. I bought the software fully knowing that I would be a beta tester. I was hoping that it worked well enough to do transcodings but was not disappointed that it didn't when I tried it out. I do want this software to be successful and that's mainly why I purchased it. Hopefully the author gets it there soon -- it does not have too far to go.

My take on it is that if you have Dish recordings, you will most likely have sound sync issues with the latest beta so if you want something fully functional for transcoding to WM9 (I have not tried DiVX), do not purchase this and wait for success stories. If you want to be a beta tester and help to get the software where it needs to be, then go ahead and purchase it.

-- John

DoubleDAZ

02-22-04, 10:15 PM

The site willl supposedly be back up sometime tomorrow (Monday). It hosts our HDTV Society of Arizona forums and we are eagerly awaiting it's return.

DoubleDAZ

02-23-04, 07:18 AM

It's not up yet, just hang in there and keep trying. Hopefully, it will be up sometime this morning.

larcho

02-23-04, 02:10 PM

I have had this software for a week now. I have .97.2. I have only used it with wm9. There are problems with this software. How ever it seems useable. The audio sync problem can be fixed by finding the ac3 offset with dvd2avi or any other program that can tell you the audio delay in your transport steam. Then just click the edit button and adjust the audio sync manually. It does a fair job of interpolate deinterlacing. I wish there was more controls over the encoding. If you are looking for a simple way to convert mpeg2 transport streams to wm9 this may become what you are looking for when it get out of beta.

DoubleDAZ

02-23-04, 06:43 PM

For anyone that is interested, the site is back up now.

larcho

03-03-04, 02:48 PM

For anyone that is interested. I talked to Jens today and he said v.98 sould be out soon (maybe tonight)

hotwire

03-03-04, 08:25 PM

Sweet! I ordered last Friday so I wonder what version they will send me. Just to get an idea of when the disk will arrive, how long was it from when you placed your order to when the disk was delivered? I am really looking forward to trying this program out.

Kenny

larcho

03-04-04, 11:46 AM

I ordered my software in mid February and still have not received my CD. However the day after a placed my order I was able to ftp the program and start using it. They have had a server crash and are having all kinds of problems getting it back up with all the beta user accounts working. v.98 is ready for use they just can't seem to get it to us.

hotwire

03-04-04, 07:51 PM

I ordered my software in mid February and still have not received my CD.

Ok, that's kind of disturbing, guess I can quit watching for the mail man every day. How did you ftp the program? I paid by paypal and have not heard a thing from PC-DTV. I was kind of expecting a confirmation email from them. Did you receive any contact from them after your order was placed? Anyone else care to share their experiences?

Thanks
Kenny

larcho

03-05-04, 08:41 AM

I did receive a confirmation E-mail and then a few hours later I was e-mailed a user name password and ip address for the ftp server. That server (or at least ip address) is no longer available. I am still waiting for a new ip address. Jens tells me my user name and password will be the same. I talked to him again yesterday and he said info should be out before the weekend. he has been having problems with his ISP so he could not upload the new code to the ftp server. I am getting very frustrated

hotwire

03-06-04, 11:46 AM

I am getting very frustrated
That makes two of us. Thanks for replying to my previous question. Based on what you said I sent an email to Jens asking about my software purchase. So far, there has been no reply, and I am getting kind of antsy. I called the phone number listed on my Paypal receipt, and it has been disconnected. Has anyone else talked with Jens lately?

Thanks
Kenny

UPDATE: I called the phone number listed on the Countdown HD web site and spoke with Jens. He assured me that I would have a confirmation email with download instructions by tonight for the new beta. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

hotwire

03-07-04, 06:29 PM

Well I don't really have anything new to report. Jens said that the new beta would have been posted, and that I would receive an email with the confirmation last night. It didn't happen and I am kinda getting pissed off with the run around.:mad: I am going to call him again tomorrow and find out what the heck is going on. Sorry for the negative tone, but I am really disappointed that it's been almost two weeks since I paid and I have not seen a thing.

Kenny

larcho

03-08-04, 04:54 AM

Let us know what you find out.

larcho

03-08-04, 12:01 PM

Well today Jens said that there was a bug in the new code and we should see an email tonight. Please call him your self and see what he tells you. if I do not get something soon I will See if paypal can help me get my money back.

chap

03-08-04, 06:00 PM

Does the new version still have a synch issue. I can't see spending 150 bux on a program that makes me have to use another app to make it useable.

hotwire

03-08-04, 09:18 PM

Let us know what you find out.
Well I talked to Jens on the phone this afternoon, he said that if he had the new beta back by 6:00PM, that it would go out tonight. I've got a feeling that it won't happen until tomorrow or Wednesday. Sounds like some of the programming work is being done overseas, so there is some delay due to the time zone difference.

Does the new version still have a synch issue. I can't see spending 150 bux on a program that makes me have to use another app to make it useable.
Are you referring to the sync issues with recordings made from 169time modified boxes? I didn't ask Jens about this, so I can't say what the answer is. Any other beta testers out there with a 169time setup who can test this for us once the new beta is released? John, Alan or Ed? If it does work then I will probably have my dish 6000 receiver modified by 169 time.

Well that's all of the news I have for now. Hopefully sometime this week I will be able to download my first beta and give this program a try.

Kenny

larcho

03-11-04, 03:23 PM

It is here: just got the email about v 0.98.1

Alan Gouger

03-11-04, 06:26 PM

Ive yet to try this. If anyone has success please let us know. I wont bother loading all this until its working with some sort of stability.

larcho

03-12-04, 06:10 AM

here is are the changes in Count Down HD (according to them) I will try it and let you know. The audio sync is still a problem.

EXISTING ISSUES (TO DO list)

? AC-3 pass-through fix
? Options screen fix
? 2-pass encoding
? Preview fix
? Minor layout- and spelling changes

CHANGES 0.98.1

TBA

CHANGES 0.98.0

? Final options panel rearranged.
? Auto recording moved to options setup. Auto recording is designed to record new files saved to a particular directory on the HD. Any new file is immediately encoded and then burned to DVD or CDR. This was in the previous version, but not active..
? Task bar icon and auto record service added.
? Channel selection moved to main interface.
? Auto sub-channel selection added to options panel.
? Video quality settings added to options.
? Edit delay added to options.
? Auto recording HD and SD resolutions.

Bugs:
Render window seems to not be repainting correctly.
Auto recording directory watching isn?t working correctly.
Tray icon does not show up when program close box is pressed.

CHANGES 0.97.4

? Fixed a bug in the dialog layout

CHANGES 0.97.3

? Added auto-detection of Audio/Video sync
? Fixed problems with channel selection
? Added code for Australian (25fps) framerate support (NOT WORKING YET) Australian- and PRO version only

CHANGES 0.97.2

? Channel scan now scans for PID?s if no PSIP is found.
? Fixed dependency on DirectX 9 (DirectX 8 must be installed)
? Added rudimentary support for 2 pass (not enabled yet).

edbetty

03-15-04, 02:57 PM

Well I finally got my P4/3.2Mhz machine set up and tried using the latest .981 Beta of CountdownHD. The results were not very impressive. What I tried doing was to encode a 1 minute file that was ceated using the 169Time setup and encoding that file to WM9V at 720P at normal quality to the harddrive. At those settings it would take 7-8 hours to do a 1 hour show. Not the "speed" I was looking for. Jens at DTV did not think that the numbers were out of line for WM9V. I have not tried the DiVX converter yet. I also want to try the "on the fly" feature which would allow me to encode to a DVD while I am recording from my Hipix. The press release said it would finish soon after the show ended....we'll see....
Ed Betty

hotwire

03-15-04, 09:22 PM

Thanks for the update Ed. I am waiting on some computer parts and hope to try it out this weekend. Is your 169time set up for DirecTV or Echostar?

Thanks again,
Kenny

mishagray

03-16-04, 07:56 AM

Originally posted by edbetty
Well I finally got my P4/3.2Mhz machine set up and tried using the latest .981 Beta of CountdownHD. The results were not very impressive. What I tried doing was to encode a 1 minute file that was ceated using the 169Time setup and encoding that file to WM9V at 720P at normal quality to the harddrive. At those settings it would take 7-8 hours to do a 1 hour show. Not the "speed" I was looking for. Jens at DTV did not think that the numbers were out of line for WM9V. I have not tried the DiVX converter yet. I also want to try the "on the fly" feature which would allow me to encode to a DVD while I am recording from my Hipix. The press release said it would finish soon after the show ended....we'll see....
Ed Betty

As I understand WM9 can be the worst time performing codec (depending upon the settings). It can also be the best video performace for the bandwidth after its encoded, so you have to weigh those issues against each other.

There are supposed to be a range of WM9 settings that can double your speed without sacrificing much quality. I think I found them in the other sites on converting TS files into WM9.
I would expect better time performance with Divx and MPEG2 codecs than I would with WM9.

Also: These can tweak the Divx and MPEG2 codecs, but you can't really tweak the codec code for WM9, since you basically must use the binary code as shipped from Microsoft.

chap

04-05-04, 11:34 AM

7-8 hours for a 1 hour show??? Thats pretty bad imho with a 3 GHZ machine. I was hoping for maybe 8 hours for a 2 hour program. Guess I'll stay away from this software after all.

mishagray

04-05-04, 12:33 PM

Originally posted by chap
7-8 hours for a 1 hour show??? Thats pretty bad imho with a 3 GHZ machine. I was hoping for maybe 8 hours for a 2 hour program. Guess I'll stay away from this software after all.

I doubt that you will get faster with other software.

The problem is that its 7-8 hours has more to do with the Codec and the fact that this is HiDef source content. You can do Realtime encoding with a 3 GHz for NTSC, but not for HD. The only realtime HD encoders are VERY expensive and a realtime encoder that does MPEG4 or WM9 is non-existant. (not for HD content!).

The GOAL is to be able to archive a 2 hour movie in HD on a DVD-R. (only 4.5G currently) Currently that is not possible without applying a compression like WM9 or MPEG4/Divx or converting it to a format that is less than full HD. I think that the BEST CASE for such a compression is still 4-5 hours with the current technology. I think that 7-8 is using the highest settings with WM9, but I have heard that you can tweak the encoding settings to get the time less than thay without sacrificing too much quality.

Expect realtime Divx or WM9 encodeing of HD about the time we have 6-12 Ghz 64bit Pentium compatible processors. Or at least highly specialized offboard cards (that don't exist yet).

It should be noted that you need about 2.6 Ghz machine to even PLAYBACK (decode) a HD WM9 file. Encoding the same file takes a lot more horsepower. These are far more complex codecs than MPEG2.

That's the state of the art today for encoding HD on a Host based processor. Sorry. Of course once your movie is encoded, it can be played in real-time just fine.

hotwire

09-14-04, 01:19 PM

I figured I would bring up a thread that has not been touched in months. Have any of the original beta testers received any newer software? Jens said he would deliver the Release Candidate 1 in July. Is anyone in contact with Jens Wellmann?

Thanks
Kenny

edbetty

09-14-04, 11:13 PM

That was the last that I heard also. A subsequent e-mail has gone unanswered. :(

Ed Betty

hotwire

10-31-04, 11:05 AM

Hey Ed, and anyone else who might be a beta tester. If you have not already done so, please register for the CountdownHD forums. There is a thread in the Countdown HD general forums area titled "I think we've been had." Basically we want Jens Wellman to release a new beta so we can see what is going on. If anyone knows of someone who might have been a beta tester please pass the word along and let them know. Hopefully if enough people post and raise their concerns we can get something done.

Thanks,
Kenny

wildchild22

10-31-04, 05:50 PM

I moved and attemped multiple times to give Jens my new email address and also request a link to download the latest beta and he will not respond. I bought this beta as soon as it came out and nothing new very upset .

edbetty

10-31-04, 09:03 PM

Kenny..
How ironic.. without even looking at AVS I was thinking the same thing today and signed up on the forum and saw your posts. One of the posts mentioned the delay was caused by new code to support the ATI HDTV Wonder. This seems totally rediculous to me. All of his Beta testers have other tuner cards and are waiting (9 months!!) for a new release. I say we all bombard Jens with emails and phone calls this week and see if we can shake him up a bit.. I would sure like to encode all 17 tapes of the Yanks-Boston ALCS series to WMV-HD. I have been fooling around with Matt Stevens encoding procedures for about a week now and can't get it to work yet. Always seems to be an error on the created output of Graphedit inputing into WME.

Ed