[mythtv-users] Archiving Shows to DVD

[Ross Campbell]

On 7/28/05, flim <flim at talktalk.net> wrote:
> If anyone knows of a good package for creating DVDs on Linux, I'd love to
> hear of it.

dvdstyler
qdvdauthor

>I currently use K3B, but I burn the raw .avi files, as my
> standalone DVD player will play them.  Of course, that means I can have
> about half a dozen feature-length films on a single-layer disc, which is
> great!

So, for me the best option is to have all my recordings STAY IN MYTHTV
and retain all recording metadata. I set mythtranscode to reduce
bitrate and I can cram more shows into less space. I could even reduce
resolution to get more space savings.

Right now, I'm considering building RAID around 4 or 5 500gb hard
drives to hold me over for the next year or so.

More disk space plus transcoding recording with commercials cut seems
like the easiest way to do what you really want to do (record more
shows, and not lose current recordings)

Now, to do what you *STATED* -- move recordings to a DVD format that
can be played in any standard DVD player...

I use mythtvburn and nuv2disc and they both have ups and downs

- BOTH: if your recordings are *not* exactly in mpeg2 format, you're
going to need to go through a lot of machinations to (re)transcode the
files and then burn them to DVD. This takes a really, really, really
long time, and there are more steps that _most_ _people_ are willing
to follow to get a good end result. Also, both will likely require a
fairly significant amount more work on the users' part than merely
typing "apt-get install foo"
 
- mythtvburn: I'd really like to see this become part of mythweb and
have more people working on these scripts (and a plugin) to get them
working perfectly. At the moment, this is my favorite tool for
recording shows to dvd. Problem is that there haven't been many
updates since the phpBB message board that was used for the its forum
was hacked and all data was lost :(  I like being able to select shows
to burn from a web interface. I wish I could select non mpeg2 shows
and just have them automatically re-transcoded. I'd also like to have
a checkbox for "make all the selected shows fit on one dvd" and have
mythtvburn work out the tcrequant runs on each file. But... after some
mild hacking, I'm relatively happy with mythtvburn for burning *uncut*
MPEG2 records to DVD.

- nuv2disc: It has a GUI. It's not a standard GUI, and it's not truly
a myth plugin. It generates dvd menus that are nicer than mythtvburn.
It can generate vcds. It scans every recording to test if they are
mpeg2 when you enter the create dvd mode and that takes many many
hours for my list of recordings. Nuv2disc has an interface for making
non-mpeg2 recordings into dvd-compliant ones. There's no web
interface.


Overall, I've had better luck with mythtvburn, and I really do feel
that it's a shame that we're so close to actually having working
solutions to burning dvds out of any recordings... Most of us are
hackers and have been able to hack a solution together, so the
motivation for developers for a completely seamless implementation of
archiving of recordings to dvds is low :(

As suggested before, the best overall solution would be to first build
a plugin for media management that would allow moving of media files,
selecting media files and burning them *unaltered* to cd or dvd. After
we have that in place, there's a structure to build on for burning
DVDs. Any takers? Anyone looking for a school project? LxM?

> Perhaps that's your better option - my player's made by a company called
> Crystal and I think it's the DVX-??? model.  It was £30, but I'm afraid I
> don't recall the web site.

Yes - seems that today's cheap dvd players will play just about
anything you throw at them. If you have an older name brand dvd
player, you're out of luck.

> >>> No one ever wants to hear it, but Windows.  I have no problems making
> >>> DVDs from my shows by processing them with a combination of VirtualDub
> >>> and Nero on my Windows machine.

I can unfortunately see how many people would currently look to
Windows DVD recording software as the best solution. Pity, too, since
all the command line tools are there in Linux - we just need some
elegant duct tape and glue :)

> >> Not everyone wants to pay £60+ on Windows just to create DVDs -
> >> especially when it can be done for nothing with existing linux software.

My time that I've invested in getting dvd burning to work as well as
it does is worth a lot more than that... Fortunately for me, I don't
have worry too much about justifying time I spend on mythtv :)


-Ross