[mythtv-users] Thoughts on a Direct DVD Burning Feature

[Niels Dybdahl]

On 4/14/06, Brad Benson <bbenso1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > BTW last time I recorded a 90 minutes show on a DVD, MythBurn used
> > around 30 minutes (1.8 GHz CPU), the burning was done at 4x speed
> > (around 4 GB at around 5 MB/s which is around 13 minutes). So MythBurn
> > can do it faster than "real time".
> > If you need to recompress the recording to a smaller size, then you
> > have to add around 30 minutes. Still faster than "real time".
> >
>
>  Except here's the problem with that:  the data can be burned in 13 minutes,
> but if you're going to burn at >1x you need to have all (or at least most)
> of the data before you start or else you risk burning faster than the
> broadcast is coming in.  I could be wrong on this, but I believe that, like
> CD's, DVD's must be burned in a single session.  So if you run out of
> broadcast data to burn what happens while you wait for more data?

My DVD-drive is capable of making a pause while burning, but in some
cases it fails doing this and the DVD can not be used.

>  And if you just burn at 1x and start burning when the show starts how will
> you know if you need to recompress the recording?

My DVD-drive can not even burn at 1x. The slowest speed is 4x. I have
no idea how this is handled by DVD-recorders.

>You won't until after
> you've reached the limit.  I suppose you could use your recording bitrate
> information along with the recording length to calculate the final size of
> the recording.  If it's larger than a disc then recompress it.  But that has
> another problem.  If you're going to recompress the recording you definitely
> need to have the whole thing first.  Which means you can't start your 30
> minute recompress process until after the 90 minute show ends.  At which
> point you might as well just use MythBurn.
>
>  Right?

The original poster was not asking to burn during recording, but burn
during viewing. He explicitly mentions someone "who come over to watch
a show". At that time the length of the recording is often known.
So it is possible to burn the show while watching it if the recording
has completed by using MythBurn.

Niels Dybdahl