ProjectX

ProjectX was designed with DTV captures in mind. Although it actually has a number of features, the only one we'll be concerned with is demuxing to elementary streams. Because transport streams are standard for transmission and not hard drive or optical disc (DVD) storage, they're not always supported by media players, editors, or even encoders. For playback it may be helpful to mux into another format. Matroska's MKV container is a popular choice, but since it can't read TS files you'll need to demux. Likewise, for using the free Cuttermaran MPEG editor for removing commercials you'll need elementary streams for that as well. If you're not sure whether you need to change containers or demux you should wait until you have a good reason. Generally speaking, for long term archiving and playback a container is recommended. For editing, and especially encodng elementary streams are generally preferable.

Installing and running ProjectX

ProjectX doesn't have an installer, but does require that the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). Once you have Java installed, simply unzip the archive for ProjectX to the folder of your choice and double click on ProjectX.jar. This is a Java program, which includes a GUI with many features that may seem somewhat daunting at first. However, as we don't need to use anything but the simplest features there's really not much to learn.

1. Opening A TS File

The first thing you'll need to do is load your source TS file, which should have been repaired by MPEG2Repair if necessary. Use the Add option from the file menu to bring up a File Open dialog. Browse to your TS file and open it.

2. Demuxing

With your TS file loaded, use the Prepare button to open the ProcessWindow.

3. ProcessWindow

In the ProcessWindow make sure demux is selected at the top and use the Play/Pause button above it to begin demuxing. Elementary streams with extensions of M2V (MPEG-2 video) and AC3 (Dolby Digital audio) will be created. These streams can be muxed into another container such as MKV, or used as source files for editing with a program like Cuttermaran or encoding with a codec like X.264.

Return to AC3Filter Installation and Configuration

Return to Creating MKV files with mkvtoolnix

Return to Removing Commercials with Cuttermaran

Where to go from here

Creating MKV files with mkvtoolnix

Step by instructions for creating MKV files from sources including AVI, MP4, MPEG-2 Transport and Program Streams, and even elementary video and audio files.

Removing Commercials From MPEG-2 Captures Free With Cuttermaran (Coming Soon)

Using Cuttermaran and QuEnc for frame accurate MPEG-2 editing to remove commercials and any other unwanted portions from TV captures. The resulting files will be suitable for encoding with Super or muxing to MKV.

Encode TS Captures To AVC With Super (Coming Soon)

Encode captured DTV video to AVC video, either keeping the original Dolby Digital audio or encoding to AAC

How to play TS files

Instructions for playing back TS files

Guides