[mythtv-users] Mpeg2

[Nick]

On 26/09/05, James Roberts <jamestrob at gmail.com> wrote:
> I've been happily on release .16 for some time now, but having recently
> benefitted from the $40 MediaMVP deal at Radioshack, I thought I'd ask
> whether the ability to transcode TO mpeg2 has made it's way into the current
> features.  Looking at the list archives, I'm seeing mixed signals whether
> this might be the case or not.  It's hard to upgrade what works so well, but
> if that's there I'll do it in a heartbeat.  (Otherwise, I'm going to have to
> debate withmyself the purchase of a PVR-500).

If this is for archival purposes and you need MPEG2, you should be
able to do this outside of MythTV if it doesn't (I'm pretty sure it
doesn't) offer this. If not capturing 'raw' video, this transcoding
can reduce the quality of the video, depending on the bitrate used for
the first recording.

Like Phill, I have DVB-T cards which drop MPEG2 to disk, and a PVR-350
which captures to MPEG2 with hardware assistance. I've never
transcoded MPEG2 to a lower bitrate version, as the PVR-350 is pretty
good at recording at a wide range of bitrates. DVB-T though comes 'as
it is' so if it's too big for a DVD disk after removing commericals, I
normally convert it to an MPEG4 video format such as DivX or XVID.

Nick