[mythtv-users] Transcoding and other questions

[Gavin Haslett]

OK... To answer;

(1) That depends on how much hard drive space you want to utilize. I
don't keep much for long, but I transcode because I just have a 60Gb
hard drive for video (still playing with this stuff, will probably
upgrade myself soon). At MPEG4, 2200bps, 44Khz sound I get just under a
gig per hour. That's 50% savings or better over the stuff straight from
my PVR250. Hell no it doesn't take that long... I have an Athlon 800
that transcodes 1 hour program in about 2-3 hours MAX. Depends how much
you have queued though. If you go back to the menu during the night then
that frees up some more cycles for transcoding. That helps (though
frontend only bites about 25-30% CPU during live TV).

(2) Commercial flagging is separate from transcoding. It runs as another
job after the recording's complete before transcoding runs. So long as
you turn it on to be automatic, it's automatic. Yes, I do this today.

(3) XvMC is hardware decoding on the video card. You don't need it as
you have a PVR-350 and can use the direct hardware decoding. I've played
with XvMC on my box, but my results have been less than perfectly
pleasing... So for now I software decode. Figure I save only about
10-15% CPU cycles by using XvMC anyway on my 800Mhz CPU.

(4) I've had no problems with the guide myself, if I hit OK on the
current channel then it pauses for a second then continues (it does the
channel change regardless). I would like to see it intelligently decide
that since it's already on the channel it doesn't need to do that... But
that's a minor issue. I don't use the internal tuner though, I've got
DirecTV so I use an external box controlled through the ttyS0
connection, YMMV. I've got no experience with the internal tuner.

Hope this helps! Oh, and all this is from another recent noob to MythTV.
Sure it has a few warts, but really they're not much more than pimples.
I consider this product to be as mature in many respects as Windows MCE
(and I've used that too).

Gavin


-----Original Message-----
From: mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org
[mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org] On Behalf Of Joe Henley
Sent: Saturday, April 30, 2005 10:09 AM
To: mythtv-users at mythtv.org
Subject: [mythtv-users] Transcoding and other questions

I've read all the Docs, FAQs, and mail lists I can find.  Due, I
suspect, to MythTV's "in development" status, the issues and topics
discussed seem to be mostly bugs and work-arounds.  My questions are
more "general" and "use" oriented.

My MythTV box has a Hauppauge 350 PVR for capture, etc. and a Matrox 400
video card (which is NOT used for TVout).

I will be using MythTV mostly as a "super VCR;" ie., it'll be used to
time shift.  It's very unlikely I'll save any programs for more than a
week or so.

(1)  Should I be using transcoding?  If so, what will be the savings
from the approximate 2 Gig / per hour I get now?  Are there any
advantages other than reduced file size?  Does it really take about ten
hours to transcode a one hour TV show (my MythTV box has a 2.26 GHz
Pentium)?

(2)  How can I have the commercials flagged and removed automatically? 
Can this be done without the full transcoding process?  I want to select
programs from the Program Guide, then go back later to find them
recorded and the commercials gone.  Is this possible?

(3)  What is XvMC MPEG Decoding?  Do I need it?  It appears as a Matrox
user, not NVidia, that I don't need it.  But I'm not sure.

(4)  How can I go directly to the Program Guide (the time vs program
matrix) without going thru the menu which includes Program Guide, Enable
Browse Mode, Previous Channel, .....?  If I change channels on it, ie.,
move to a different show and press OK, it goes to that show.  If I
decide to stay where I was and press OK  while on the currently playing
program, it goes to black.  I can only make it work by pressing esc a
couple of times.  How can I make this work better?

Thanks for any and all answers!

Joe Henley