[mythtv] Live transcode while recording

[Chase Douglas]

On Dec 2, 2008, at 4:01 AM, René Bühlmann wrote:
> I don't think it is the right thread to discuss any streaming
> possibilities for the iphone, at least it is not the purpose i wrote  
> to
> this list.
> I would like to give the mythbackend the ability to stream livetv (and
> later recordings) over my internet connection. To do this, i need to
> transcode the stream. I don't want to care too much about the client  
> for
> now. Especially not about the iphone as i have Windows, Linux and Win.
> Mobile clients and i know it will work on them (Oh, i love this
> sentence.. it somehow fits in every discussion about the iphone ;) ).
> As soon as the transcoding works, we could implement an http server  
> and
> use the user-agent to decide on the format to stream. But for now i'm
> working on the transcoding and if someone has some information about  
> the
> libmythavformat and libmythavcodec that would be great :)

The reason I initially brought up the iPhone app was that it will  
require the same transcoding on the fly ability. I see two ways of  
doing this. The first is to build it in to mythtv. The second is to  
make a separate program that piggybacks onto mythbackend. When a  
client connects to the second program, it requests whatever codec  
parameters it wants. Then the program acts as a proxy for mythbackend  
while transcoding the video into a suitable format for the client.

I would be inclined to work it into mythbackend, but inclusion will be  
up to the mythtv maintainers. The piggyback program could be a  
standalone thing as a temporary work around while the in-mythbackend  
version is incorporated, or as the permanent solution if need be.

To mythtv maintainers who would have a say in this: Is there any issue  
that could prevent this from being included in mythbackend when it is  
complete and working, or is it something that would not warrant  
inclusion and should be a separate program?