Main Controls

The TSPlayer has been designed for easy playback of MPG- and TS-Files, including timeshift capabilities. Additionally it is able to join files or convert them to different formats, and provides simple cutting and splitting facilities. This chapter describes the main controls on the Player Tab.

Player Tab | Toolbar Buttons | Joining Files

The Player Tab

The player tab contains the main controls for playback and conversion:

Volume: Adjust the volume by dragging the slider with the mouse. Alternatively you may use the mouse wheel (also in full screen mode).

Available Streams: After having opened a file, this field displays a tree view, showing all programs and streams that are contained in the file. Double-clicking an entry starts playback of a program or switches over to it. Different audio streams within a program can be selected in the same way.

The checkboxes select the streams that shall be exported when you cut or convert a file. Which streams are selectable depends on the output format (see below). A MPG file cannot contain videotext or DVB subtitles, for example. In case of MP2/AC3/AAC output only one audio stream is selectable.

If a file contains only one program, playback starts immediately. If a file contains multiple programs, the TSPlayer waits for you to select one of them in the Available Streams field by double-clicking it.

If the broadcasted PAT and PMT tables are missing in a TS file, the TSPlayer has no information about the assignment of streams to programs. Therefore it creates a program section „Unknown“ for them. If such a file contains two or more programs, the TSPlayer tries to determine which video and audio streams belong together by comparing their time stamps, and creates different „Unknown“ sections for them. This will work in most cases, thus enabling playback and conversion.

Output Format: Specifies the output file format for cutting and conversion.

• Video / Audio PS (*.mpg): The program stream is the most common format for recording and playing MPEG2 videos. Many DVD players are able to play these files without conversion. You can create a MPG file out of a TS or another MPG file.

• Video / Audio TS (*.ts): Transport stream is the broadcasted DVB format. It may contain more than one program streams, thus allowing to record two or more channels at the same time, and additionally any kind of DVB data, like videotext and DVB subtitles. You can create a TS file out of another TS file, e.g. in order to extract certain streams or to cut the file. MPG to TS conversion is not supported.

• Audio (*.mp2 / *.ac3 / *.aac / *.mp3): Contains a single audio elementary stream. Can be created out of a TS, MPG or another MP2/AC3/AAC/MP3 file.

The Files Drowdown List displays the currently opened file(s) and enables jumping to a specific file if more than one is opened.

The Position Slider shows the current playback position. Move to another position by clicking on it or by dragging the slider with the mouse. The green bar shows the area that shall be exported resp. converted.

The Toolbar at the bottom provides playback and conversion control.

Video and videotext are displayed in a separate window. It can be switched to full screen mode (and back) by doubleclicking it or pressing [Ctrl]+[F]. Right-clicking the Video Window or pressing [Esc] brings the TSPlayer Window to the front, letting you access all controls in full screen mode. Left-click the Full Screen Video Window or press [Esc] to let the TSPlayer Window disappear again. Screensavers are disabled in full screen mode, so that they can't interrupt playback.

The TSPlayer does not support playback of DVB subtitles (videotext subtitles only). They are processed when performing a TS -> TS conversion, however.

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The Toolbar Buttons

Since the buttons are intended for playback and conversion control, they partly work a bit different compared to other players.

If the TSPlayer Main Window is focused, the following keyboard shortcuts are only available if the Player Tab is selected. Additionally the [Ctrl] key must be pressed. If the Video Window or PiP Window has the input focus you may use the keys with or without [Ctrl].

or [O] opens a dialog window for selecting the file(s) that shall be played / converted. Alternatively you can open files by dragging and dropping them on the TSPlayer window. This function is disabled when a conversion takes place.

or [Arrow Up] starts playback or switches it off, when clicked again. This way of switching playback off can be used to to speed up a simultaneous conversion considerably.

or [Space] or [Arrow Down] pauses playback and conversion. Click this button again, or the play button, to continue.

or [S] stops playback and conversion, resets the file position to the beginning. The positions of the conversion start/end markers are preserved, however.

or [PgUp]: Jumps 1 minute (30 seconds) back.

or [Arrow Left]: Jumps 10 seconds (1 second) back.

or [Arrow Right]: Jumps 10 seconds (1 second) forward.

or [PgDn]: Jumps 1 minute (30 seconds) forward.

The intervals indicated in brackets apply if you click the button with the right mouse button resp. if you hold the Shift Key down when using keyboard shortcuts. Keeping the mouse button pressed lets TSPlayer start cue play after a short time by auto-repeating the command. Same applies to the keyboard shortcuts, according to the keyboard repeat rate settings in the Windows control panel.

or [F3]: Fixes the conversion start point at the current slider position. The default start position is the current playback position.

or [F4]: Fixes the conversion end point at the current slider position. The default end position is the end of the file.

These two buttons are displayed in a „pressed down“ state, if the conversion start / end point is fixed and does not change with the playback position resp. the end of the file (which may also change in case of timeshift). The buttons enable rough cutting, which should not be expected to work very precisely. The actual cut may occur up to 1 second before or after the selected position.

or [R] starts or stops conversion. The green line above the slider marks the part of the file that will be converted. Starting a conversion lets the Position Slider jump to the conversion start point, if it is fixed. Playback and a simultaneous conversion can be started / stopped separately at any time. Stopping both has the same effect as clicking : The file position is reset to the beginning.

or [V] switches the OSD (On Screen Display) videotext on and off. This function is only available if a TS file contains videotext data. More about this topic in the Videotext Tab chapter.

or [P] switches PiP (Picture in Picture) playback of a second video stream in a TS file on/off. This function is available after playback of the primary video stream has been started. Select the desired secondary service or video/audio stream in the Available Streams Treeview and click the PiP toolbutton. Alternatively right-click the toolbutton or the PiP window (if it is already present) and select the service resp. stream from the PiP popup menu.

On first usage the PiP Window does not display video, but lets the PiP settings pop up, prompting you to select a video decoder, video renderer and audio decoder. Do so, close the Settings Window and repeat the selection of the desired program resp. stream.

If the PiP Window is already open, the PiP popup menu offers additional functions:

PiP Close (or clicking the PiP toolbutton): Closes the PiP Window. Alternatively click the PiP toolbutton.

PiP Audio (or clicking the primary or secondary video window with the middle mouse button): Toggles between PiP audio and primary audio.

PiP Full Screen (or double-clicking the PiP Window): Switches the PiP Window to full screen mode and back. When switching to full screen mode the PiP Window automatically grabs audio.

PiP Settings: Opens the PiP Settings Window.

You may resize the PiP Video Window in the usual Windows way, or move it around by dragging it with the left mouse button.

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Joining Files

The TSPlayer allows to open two or more files for seamless playback or conversion to a single file. The files are handled and presented as if they were a single file. The displayed file size and duration is the added up size/duration of all files.

The TSPlayer only joins sufficiently matching files. The determining factor is the first file. All subsequent files must

• have the same file extension.

• contain all streams that have been detected in the first file with the same format, which means, the stream type, resolution and frame rate (video) resp. the samplerate (audio) must be identical.

Files that are not suitable for joining are rejected resp. not added to the file list.

There are different possibilities to open more than one file:

Select the files in the Windows Explorer. Drag & drop them altogether on the TSPlayer main window or, if the TSPlayer is not running, on the TSPlayer icon.

Drag & drop a folder or drive on the TSPlayer main window or icon. The TSPlayer opens all media files contained in the folder/drive, provided the format is supported and the files can be joined with the first file. The TSPlayer does not browse sub-folders, except if it detects a video DVD or BluRay structure. In this case it tries to join the contained VOB resp. M2TS files.

Select the files in the file dialog that appears after clicking the button. Click Open or drag & drop the files on the main window.

These methods only provide limited control on the file order, however. Usually the file (one of several selected) dragged from an Explorer Window is the first one. The rest corresponds to the file order in the Explorer, wrapping around to the first selected file. A specific order can be achieved in the following way:

Dragging & Dropping files with the right mouse button on the TSPlayer Main Window adds them to the list (even if playback is already going on). In contrast, dragging & dropping files with the left mouse button closes and replaces all open files.

Possibilities arising from joined files are:

Playback of movies consisting of several (unencrypted) VOB/M2TS files and converting them to a single MPG/TS file.

Playback of splitted DVBViewer recordings and converting them to a single file.

Joining different recordings from the same channel. Please note: At the splice point the result will be discontinuous and not standard compliant. It may cause playback issues, depending on whether the player / decoder can cope with it or not. The Timestamp Continuity Correction option on the Conversion Tab prevents some of the issues.

Continuous playback of several MP3 files and converting them to a single file. Please note: The MP3 format does not allow perfect seamless joining. Mostly a short audible gap will remain. Tags are removed on conversion. The TSPlayer accepts files with differing bit rates and calculates an average bit rate in this case, but the playback position will not be displayed accurately, and seeking may yield unexpected results.

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