[mythtv] dynamic transcoding / multiple simultaneous quality levels

[Paul B. Henson]

On Tue, 22 Feb 2005, Joseph A. Caputo wrote:


> duplicates, and when playback is requested would select the
> maximum-quality copy that the current frontend is capable of decoding
> (or capable of streaming, say for remote frontends with lots of
> horsepower but limited network bandwidth, like 802.11b).

I had not considered the generalized case of maintaining more than two
qualities, but that is an interesting thought.

> drawbacks to this approach are (1) some frontends will not be able to
> watch a program until transcoding is finished, but that's not really a
> problem since presumably they couldn't watch the program at all without
> this capability, and (2) multiple copies of programs eat up disk space.

Presumably someone setting up an HDTV capable backend would have oodles of
disk space. Particularly considering a transcoded lower quality copy
suitable for display on a standard definition TV should only take up a
fraction as much space as a high quality copy. A low-quality copy along
with a copy at the original quality but transcoded to MPEG4 would
presumably take up less space than just the original transport stream.

> The final piece of the puzzle would be the UI modifications for things
> like: delete (does delete remove *all* copies of a program?) and

I would think by default delete should remove all copies, but have an
advanced mode allowing selective removal of only some qualities.

> So, now someone just needs to volunteer to code it... I only have a
> single combined frontend/backend, so it's not my itch to scratch :-)

I haven't even started building my prototype system yet, so it will be a
while before I'm in a position to work on it myself :(. Mainly I was hoping
to get some feedback as to the general feasibility from the more
experienced developers. If one of them actually started scratching at it
that would just be icing on the cake ;).


-- 
Paul B. Henson  |  (909) 979-6361  |  http://www.csupomona.edu/~henson/
Operating Systems and Network Analyst  |  henson at csupomona.edu
California State Polytechnic University  |  Pomona CA 91768