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

[Brian Wood]

On Apr 15, 2006, at 9:51 AM, Jeff Simpson wrote:

>> 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.
>
> I think he wanted to record it live as it is being broadcast and
> watched. With the current hardware, this is a daunting task - the
> hauppauge PVR cards output their audio and video in a format that is
> not exactly DVD, so the audio/video needs to be de/remultiplexed. I
> suppose it can be done on the fly, but I don't know if there are any
> software tools that handle it that way.

Since MythBurn can convert a two-hour movie to a DVD in far less than  
two hours, I figured it should be possible to build a chain of the  
right software tools to do it, with some limitations. Your LiveTV  
recording profile would have to be chosen with care for example.
>
> To answer the question about "how come consumer devices can do it and
> myth can't", it's because their hardware was designed for that
> specific purpose. They take video in and convert direct to DVD. I'd
> like to see what device you were thinking of that does this, actua

I bought a device for $99 that converts VHS tape to DVD in real-time,  
just put in the tape, a blank DVD, push the button and walk away.  
Considering that the unit has a VHS transport and a DVD-burning drive  
in it, I would conclude that DVD-compatible MPEG encoders are  
available very cheap. I'm wondering if there is some way to "jeep"  
this unit to turn it into a capture device (sans tuner obviously).

I thought that the DirecTV units with DVD burners could do this is as  
well, but of course they are dealing with an already existing MPEG  
stream, I don't know if the satellite MPEG is DVD compatible or not.

> If you just wanted to burn while watching something pre-recorded,
> that's no problem at all, linux is very good at sharing files. Just
> make sure you don't delete it after you're done viewing it if mythburn
> isn't done, yet.