[MacDV] MPEG Stream Clip Question

[Conlon Brett]

Hi DV boffins,

It's been a mind bending weekend trying to get my Mac and/or PC to connect to my folk's Beyonwiz STB (set top box) so I could copy all the video files off it.

When I finally managed to connect my WinXP laptop to it (MBP running Bootcamp), I found that each recording was contained in a folder of many, many 32MB size video files. I then found out I could use MPEG-Streamclip to open and merge the file fragments, make some basic edits and save it off as an MP4 file (H.264).

The initial file I was trying was taking extraordinarily long (1 hour to do 3%) but it was reporting 220 data breaks (whatever that means but it dun't sound good!!!) - I kept aborting in frustration/boredom. I then tried with another recording and that one took maybe 40 minutes to encode the 46 minute recording - success!

However, my question is regarding the MPEG-4 settings. The original footage was 16:9 and reports in MPEG Streamclip as being 720X576. All of the Frame Size setting options report that a scaler will be used for scaling (it, it need to resize the image), except for the "720 x 576 (unscaled)" and "720 x 576 (DV-PAL)" options but I don't see an anamorphic button or a 16:9 option. When I finished exporting the footage it plays on the computer as squashed 4:3 but luckily it plays on the TV as 16:9.

Anyone know what setting can be ticked to keep the 16:9 anamorphic ratio so it plays on the computer as 16:9? I was hoping QuickTime Pro 7 (the only QT Pro I've paid for) would have a tickbox in the properties window but it doesn't. Any other suggestions?

My next challenge is to see how my own STB (Topfield Masterpiece) handles network connections and how the video files are configured (one or many) and I'm sure I'll have to revisit MPEG-Streamclip again!

Ta muchly!

Cojcolds