[mythtv-users] Recordings to DVD

Dave Caplinger dent at cox.net
Thu May 5 04:06:34 UTC 2005


On Wed, 2005-05-04 at 13:27 -0400, Andrew Hogue wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I just wanted to hear from people who have been able to transfer their
> recordings to DVD successfully with Menus.
...<snip>...
> Basically, the process I use is:
> --------------------------------
> - record shows using mythtv 0.17 + pvr250 at 720x480 2200 bitrate
> - find commercial breaks and flag them
> - use latest nuvexport to export MPEG2->MPEG2(cutlist only)  I have also
> tried the MPEG->DVD option resulting in the same problem.
> - create menu menu.xml file using qdvdauthor
> - run dvdauthor -x "menu.xml"

After lots of help from this list, I do the following:

- Record shows using mythtv 0.16 + pvr250 @ 720x480
- Export shows w/ nuvexport (to .nuv & .sql)
- Open .nuv file in gopdit, edit commercials
   (I find this a lot faster than trying to do it in MythTV)
- Use qdvdauthor to make menus, add background images

As for gopdit - make sure that in 'Preferences -> Postprocessing' you're
calling replex.  My postprocessing filter command is:

  replex -k -i PS -t DVD -o "%s" &> /dev/null

which as far as I remember is the default anyway.  I also have the
'Adjust GOP timing' feature on.  I get tons of warnings spewed about A/V
sync issues, but it works anyway.  Also, keep in mind that in gopdit you
select which portions you want to keep, not which portions you want to
cut out.

My qdvdauthor config is a bit more complicated:

I usually change the jpeg2yuv call from
   jpeg2yuv -n 50 ...
to:
   jpeg2yuv -n 450 ...

in the "create DVD" dialog in order to increase the time that the menu
plays before starting over.  I also usually have qdvdauthor write it's
output commands to a script file and then run it myself rather than
doing it from the interface since I'm typically doing it remotely over
X11, and running the script like:

   nohup ./build.sh &

sends the script output to nohup.out where I can 'tail -f' it to keep
track of what it's doing, and this output is a lot faster than trying to
keep the X gui updated.

Speaking of doing this remotely via X11, I do the gopdit edit sessons
remotely as well; it's still faster than trying to edit commercials with
an IR remote directly in MythTV (for me at least).

For background images, I use avidemux2 to find a nice frame and export
it as a .jpg, but that's all I'm using avidemux2 for.

Finally - qdvdauthor and gopdit are both kind of particular; gopdit has
a habit of not keeping it's clipping list display in the window updated,
even though it really is keeping correct track of what you are clipping.
Qdvdauthor is similarly finicky; you really need to build the DVD in a
very specific order:

1) Start qdvdauthor
2) Immediately go to Tools -> Setup and define the DVD name, working
directory, etc.
3) Import a background image (lo and behold, your frame size will now
change)
4) Add your movie sources
5) Drag your movie sources to make buttons (get used to keeping track of
what X and Y positions you're using so you can manually line things up)
6) Change your button label text font, color, etc. (keeping track of X,Y
coords for alignment)
7) DVD Author -> Create DVD
8) Make the "-n 50" to "-n 450" change at the beginning of the jpeg2nuv
commandline
9) Start the build (or export the commands and run the script yourself)

One bad thing that I've seen w/ qdvdauthor is that it won't let you
select which frame of your movie you want to use for the button - it
uses the first frame.  So if that frame is black, you're going to have
very boring buttons.  Maybe this has been addressed in a newer version;
you can see that I'm not on current code for any of this. (It hasn't
been broken enough to warrant "fixing" yet...)

I hope this helps you...

-- 
Dave Caplinger



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