[mythtv-users] choosing an archive format for recordings

Cory Papenfuss papenfuss at juneau.me.vt.edu
Wed Aug 11 07:50:19 EDT 2004


>>     I agree.  Avidemux seems to work, but it's not completely friendly as 
>> a command-line tool.
>
>
> Why do you struggle with Avidemux?
> There is much easier way:
> 1. run commflag
> 2. in "watch recordings", press E then Z
> 3. review and change, if needed,  commflag's marks
> 4. run nuvexport, encode into DVD or whatever you like
> 5. Put encoded file into directory of MythVideo or burn it on DVD
>
>
 	A couple of reasons, really.  The most important is that my mythtv box 
is very inaccessible.  It's basically a settop-box, no monitor except for the 
TV, no LAN, no wireless, just a keyboard that I have to sit on the floor and 
use looking at the TV.  Because of that, it's not exactly "fun" to twiddle with 
stuff actually *ON* the mythtv box.  I rarely have to muck with anything, but 
just saying "cp /mnt/store /mnt/usb" and hauling the big external disk into 
school is relatively easy.

 	The second reason is quality control.  I've gotten burned by 
video/audio sync more times than not, so I really want to know if I'm cutting 
on I/P/B frame.  Mythtv's transcode is very much set up to recrunch one format 
into another format to save space.  It will do this quite well and in the 
background transparently.  It is not very conducive to tweaking settings, 
however.  For some things, I would like *not* to transcode, but simply do 
GOP-chopping.  AFAIK, mythtranscode still reencodes everytime it doesn 
anything.

 	The third reason is processing power.  At school I've got my main 
machine (dual athlon 2400) and a dual Xeon 2.4 GHz accessible.  Each CPU can 
process video the way I want at approximately 4hr/hr.  Running 4 of them at 
once, I can do 1hr/hr.  If I were to do that one the mythtv box (dual PIII 
1GHz), it would take 8-10hr/hr and probably never finish before another show 
needed transcoding.

 	Another reason is that I do not like perl.  It seems to never install 
correctly, always break with new versions, and the code reads like line noise.

All that said, I've been thinking of trying the nuvexport or nuv2disc.  Like I 
said, the real problem is that the mythtv box is fairly unfun to play with 
since there's no access.  It's generally easier to just watch what it 
recorded... :)

-Cory


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