I am using MCEBuddy to convert all my Windows Media Center WTV files back to WTV but without the commercials. Haven’t looked at one yet, but leaving the quality meter in the middle at zero seems to be creating a considerably smaller file then the commercials can account for. Is there a particular setting that has been found to mirror the original recording quality but just remove commercials?
Note I’m streaming this to Xbox 360 units so not sure if one WTV setting is better than another as well.
Depends on what profile you’re using. Most WTV recordings are in MPEG2.
If you’re using the WTV profile then it converts it to MPEG4 (which would explain why your recordings are getting smaller). If you’re using WTV Legacy it’ll convert it back to MPEG2. If you’re using WTV Unprocessed it will copy the original video as it without processing it.
You can read the profile description when you select it to know what the profile does.
I haven’t seen WTV Unprocessed in the app just in readings. MPEG2 is no longer used with WTV and MCE. Some patch started using H.264 to encode the videos as I’m seeing in the original encodings now. So are you saying that WTV Unprocessed will cut out commercials, paste the remaining pieces back together, and do no encoding as part of it? I have seen on a couple occasions that after removing commercials some spots will have video stutter for 15 - 20 seconds where the audio is fine and then the frame rates catch up so am curious if that would be eliminated if you don’t have to reencode the video.
Edit. I see the WTV Unprocessed was further down the profile list. Probably what I would use for my WTV files.
Edit Edit: I’ve also noticed the latest version of the paid version seems to have a problem that the quality setting changes. I have it set to 0% and last time I went into the conversion task was at minus 85%. then another time was at plus 5%.