[mythtv-users] Myth tv capturing REALLY large files

[Michael Williams]

Hi, I have been doing some recording on various channels to see what
sizes the files will be, today I noticed it filled up my 60 gig video
drive (dedicated), so when I looked at delete recordings to see the
sizes, I saw that some 1 hour shows were near 8 gigs and had 1 30 min
show that was near 5.  I have noticed that sometimes a 1 hour show and a
30 min show will have the same size.  I have Myth set to 720x480 using
Mpeg 4 encoding. I am running an athlon 1600+ with a AverTV Studio card
(bttv) for capture. I have played around with some of the quality
settings which may account for SOME of the size, but i havent changed
the sliders much at all.  What im looking for is some suggestions from
someone with a similar setup for settings that strike a good balance
between file size and picture quality.  I havent yet been able to hook
my MythTV box up to a TV (dont have a tv out card yet), so I dont know
what its going to look like in action.  Using it on a monitor at the
moment.  I cant afford to put a drive bigger than the 60 in there, but I
also want it to look decent on the television screen and not all
pixelated. Any suggestions?