BillyBob

Brief update on this: I still haven't solved this issue properly to my complete liking... but for what it's worth I have found that UK Freeview HD EyeTV recordings will play back relatively flawlessly on my Amazon Fire TV devices (1 original FireTV, 1 of the current '4k' capable models - I haven't tried on the 'Stick' version yet) using the VLC app, which is somewhat of a solution for my particular uses, for the time being. For a little while one of my devices struggled with the files again (after working) but after a delete/reinstall it was back to working ok. As the FireTV devices are basically android media players and VLC is free I recommend you give it a go if you have any kind of android box attached to your TV, I'd be interested to see if VLC will play these files on other devices too.

Thanks to both of you for these posts. I had a try with this again (I have what I think is the same issue with exporting H.264 files for other devices, see thread about 'jerky video': Video jerky when exporting HD to ATV which I believe is basically the same issue). I've tried doing the demuxing/remuxing route before with other software... and once again I've had mixed results. I can indeed get a file that plays somewhat normally in VLC on the mac, once I've done your (alfons) 'option 2', and I used iFFmpeg too (nice shout SiChan!). In fact I was almost ready to pay money for iFFmpeg if that had totally worked... but sadly, no. I recognise all the steps and problems you had SiChan. It's kind of infuriating when there sometimes seems to be no logic to what is (not) working. For what it's worth, I am basically trying to get files that will play properly on my H.264/mp4 capable televisions, without using extra playback hardware (they play files I re-encode through HandBrake flawlessly). I actually got one short clip to kind of play, with an audio drop out at the beginning as if it was syncing itself... but that was the best I managed. So for now I remain of the opinion this is really something Geniatech need to fix in EyeTV itself. Exporting without having to recompress H.264 files would be really lovely, and the data all seems to be there, it's evidently just dealing with it properly that is the issue. Also HandBrake seems able to fix enough of whatever the issue is when it's re-encoding, so this must be a solvable thing, by someone, surely.

Yeah... to recap, (you probably know all this, but for clarity and other people reading)... as I understand it EyeTV records the native stream it gets from whatever hardware it is using - so if it's a standard def DVB-T only tuner, then here in the UK it'll be recording MPEG-2, as that's the codec that is usually used in free-to-air standard def broadcasts with DVB-T. So yes, as you say, if one takes the actual video file out of the 'package' files EyeTV uses, that is usable video to either watch on other hardware or players - but only when it's an MPEG-2 file. With UK 'Freeview HD' recordings (actually even standard def DVB-T2 recordings as there are at least a couple of channels that use that too) the newer, superior H.264 codec is used (even though they are still called whateverfile.mpg in the package). It's these files that seem to suffer the jerky movement effect if they're not residing within the EyeTV package, being played back with EyeTV itself. That leads me to think there is either some vital piece of information in one of the other files in the package, or else something in EyeTV's playback that differs or accounts for the completely normal playback in EyeTV but the jerky motion if you do anything else with the video. I don't think it's just the Mac OS's handling of the file either, as the files suffer the same problem on other devices I've tried. Again, as Ton says, if you convert the file in HandBrake it comes out fine, so the required data is obviously in the video file, just something is slightly askew when other devices or software tries to play it directly. Trying to play it without conversion is exactly the aim, for all the reasons of speed, convenience and quality I alluded to earlier. This is what I always did with standard definition MPEG recordings, and it would be great to do the same with H.264 recordings.

(first post, hi everybodyl!) I also have this problem with EyeTV 3 (3.6.9). I use a HD HomeRun Connect in the UK for HD TV ('freeview' DVB-T2). I knew it was a bug before even buying the HD HomeRun but I had hoped it would be fixed by now. The video 'stutters' like the frames go in the wrong order every half a second or so. I happens with any H.264 recording I try to export at full resolution, edited or not. I also tried it on a DVB-T2 channel that is actually in standard def, but the same thing happens. As a work-around I second Ton's suggestion of using HandBrake to convert HD recordings at full resolution if necessary. This is not ideal though because it takes time and energy for the computer, whereas if the lossless export worked properly like it does for DVB-T (MPEG-2) files, exports would be almost instant. Also you either lose quality in converting or you end up with a larger file size, unless you happen to hit upon the exact right settings in HandBrake. I like to think it would be a relatively simple thing to fix - because the files all play fine in EyeTV itself, so it's just an issue with native full resolution exports for some reason. It would be great to get this bug fixed sometime soon, though I'm sure Geniatech have a lot of stuff to do.