[mythtv-users] Re: Developers: Future of MythTV?

[James L. Paul]

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On Monday 08 December 2003 15:24, Eric Thelin wrote:
> There is also the issue of time and processing required to transcode the
> files to a format other than the one that it was recorded in originally.
> I like the two types of discs but I would think of them as primarily
> based on the input source used to record them.  So if the file is a
> *DVD* encoded MPEG2 then by all means use standard DVD format but if the
> files are anything else provied an option to transcode it to a DVD
> compatible format or record as files that you would play back through
> myth only.  Because most of the time waiting the MANY hours that would
> be required to transcode from MPEG4 to MPEG2 isn't going to be what I am
> looking for. 

Agreed. This is why I mentioned that MPEG4 users probably have little interest 
in archiving to standard DVDs. Since all of us with hardware MPEG2 encoders 
have the option to capture in one of the several DVD compliant resolutions, I 
think it's an ideal format to archive to. I just didn't see any reason to 
have two different formats for MPEG2, since the metadata can exist on a 
standard DVD as easily as some nonstandard myth-only format. :)

>The other options are SVCD and friends and I think they
> make good options once again IF the file is already in a compatible
> format but I have to wait about 8 hours for nuvexport on my Athlon 2400+
> for a one hour show to go from MPEG4 to SVCD.  At that rate it will take
> a long to archive very much stuff.

Yes. Transcoding will always have that issue. I would suggest two archive 
formats, one that's codec-independent and myth-proprietary that will archive 
any nuv file, and another MPEG2 specific format that is based on standard DVD 
plus myth metadata and is playable in any standalone DVD player. Both formats 
would have the same functionality when played on a myth box, and one of them 
would also play in any DVD player. Of course, the ability to transcode to the 
MPEG2 format DVD disc would be an option, but the non-DVD format yould be 
available for those who don't care about player compatibility or who don't 
want to transcode from non-MPEG2 codecs.

I never meant to suggest that non-MPEG2 users should be left out in the cold. 
:)

> Add my vote too as someone who would love to see this done.

> Eric
>
> On Mon, 8 Dec 2003, J. Donavan Stanley wrote:
> >  James L. Paul wrote:
> > >IMO, I see little reason to do two types of disks. When I archive I
> > > always try to use an industry standard format to future-proof my discs
> > > as much as possible. I don't want to go through any hoops in 10 years
> > > to read my discs.
> > >
> > >:)
> >
> > It's a simple matter of storage space.  If you build a DVD player
> > compilant disk you'll be able to archive out about 2 hours of video per
> > DVD.  If you instead write MPEG4 files to the disk you can fit more
> > hours on per disk.
> >
> > >I suppose it's not realistic yet to archive MPEG4 in a standard readable
> > >format on plastic, but it certainly is for MPEG2. So for MPEG2 disks I'd
> > >recommend a standard DVD format. There's no reason you can't include
> > > MythTV metadata or whatever on a standard DVD. So you could play such
> > > disks on any standard DVD player, and if you popped them into a MythTV
> > > box it would read the metadata and have whatever extra functionality
> > > you want to include.
> >
> > I'm not inventing a new format here.  The only thing special about a
> > MythDVD would be that the existance of the meta data in a specific file
> > (think autorun.inf) that MythTV can then use to present the user with a
> > DVD-like menu.  While it's true that this information COULD be stored on
> > a regular DVD, the whole point of the MythDVD is that you can pack more
> > video on a single disk if you give up comaptibility with DVD players
> > (i.e. MPEG4 instead of MPEG2).
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > mythtv-users mailing list
> > mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> > http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
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