[mythtv-users]Finally got everything set up! (have a few minorquestions though)

Joseph A. Caputo jcaputo1 at comcast.net
Wed Jul 9 11:33:57 EDT 2003


Please post in plain text!  Comments below.


-----Original Message-----
>From: mythtv-users-bounces at snowman.net
[mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at snowman.net]On Behalf Of >Mike Miller
>Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2003 1:11 AM
>To: mythtv-users at snowman.net
>Subject: [mythtv-users]Finally got everything set up! (have a few
minorquestions though)

>A few questions
>1. do most of you keep your settings for recording and live tv the same? If
not, why not?

I keep mine the same... my machine is not quite speedy enough to handle an
MPEG-4 bitrate that I find acceptable, so I have both LiveTV and Default set
on RTjpeg/192.  If I could do MPEG-4 to my satisfaction, I would probably
leave LiveTV on RTjpeg (less CPU load, and I don't care about file size for
the ringbuffer) and change Default to MPEG-4 (for the smaller file size).
YMMV.


>2. im not very familiar with codecs, which would I be better off using
mpeg4 or the rtjpeg
>one, I tried rtjpeg and I got a 1.8 gb file for 30 min of video on default
bitrate.  So im
>trying mpeg4 now.

MPEG-4 will give you somewhere in the vicinity of half the file size of
RTjpeg, but take more CPU.  Best to compare results on your system and find
the best balance of: file size/picture quality/CPU load.

>3. Speaking of bitrate I have mine at 3000, seems to be pretty stable now,
what do you most
>of you have yours at?  Is there a setting where after x I wont be able to
see the difference.

N/A for me since I'm using RTjpeg (qual. 192)

>4. should I not mess w/the min/max/diference between sliders (the ones
below bitrate)

Correct.

>5. what should my audio sampling rate be? I have it at 4100 now I think and
my mp3 quality is
>7 which seems to be reasonably good.what would improve/decrease the quality
more the sampling
>rate or mp3 quality slider?

Depends on your tuner card & CPU power.  If you're using btaudio, some tuner
cards are locked into a specific sample rate (usually 32000 Hz); thought
since you say you're using 44100 right now and not reporting problems, then
whatever sounds best to you.  As far as MP3 quality, I can't really answer
since I can't get mine below 7 without stuttering (slow SDRAM!)

>6. what is transcoding?
>7. when I exit the mythfrontend I notice it says opening OSS device on
/dev/sound/dsp ..this
>is weird, it should be using alsa, its using the settings from the
alsamixer

I think these have been answered pretty well in this thread already.

>8. I tried changing the brightness, but when I changed channel it went back
to default, is
>there a way I can say, brightness 40% for all channels (or should I just do
this on the
>tv/monitor)

color/contrast/brightness settings are per-channel.  Search the list
archives for various methods of setting all channels to particular values
(involves direct manipulation of the database).


-JAC



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