[mythtv-users] MPEG-4 format differences: DVD transcode & TV transcode

[Jeff Monks]

> The transcode that runs when you're watching a TV recording and press "X"
> doesn't work so well. There's no command line for it that I can see, only
> slider settings that in my newness I can't relate to command-line
> parameters. The resulting file, although it plays fine under TV/Watch
> Recordings, is squished horizontally if I copy the file to the /myth/video
> folder and play it with mplayer.
> That's not as big a deal as the fact that I can't play the resulting file on
> my Windows PC! I don't know whether the tv transcode is DivX or XviD or
> what... 
> 
> So... My question is:
> How do I get the tv recordings transcode (the one activated by pressing "X"
> while watching a recording) to have the same settings as the "Rip DVD"
> transcode settings? 

These are two completely different beasts.  The transcode that the TV 
functions of MythTV use is based on Myth code, and produces (AFAIK) 
Myth-only output.  These are MythTV's NUV-encapsulated format, and nothing 
on Windows (again, AFAIK) recognizes them.  This can be accessed via 
command-line, by the way, as "mythtranscode".

The transcode that you run as "transcode" on the command line or from 
within MythDVD is a seperate, standalone project intended as a more 
general-purpose transcoding tool.  That's why it produces XVid files that 
play on Windows.

To export MythTV recordings to a more standard format, you want 
"nuvexport".  http://forevermore.net/mythtv/  This is a command-line 
utility that will export Myth's NUV files into other formats, including 
MPEG-4 and SVCD MPEG-2.