[mythtv-users] Auto music transcode for UPNP clients

Dave dbadia at gmail.com
Sat Jun 30 13:55:31 UTC 2007


On 6/28/07, stuart <stuart at xnet.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> Dave wrote:
> > Here was my problem:
> > I store my music in a lossless format (flac), but may inexpensive UPNP
> > clients understand MP3 only.
> >
> > Which left me with a few options:
> > 1. Convert my entire music collection to MP3 (never!)
> > 2. make another copy of my music collection in MP3, served by some other
> > UPNP server (ugg)
> > 3. Find a better solution
> >
> > 3 was the obvious choice…
> > So, I ended up using MP3FS to "expose" my music collection as mp3s in a
> > separate directory on my server without taking up extra disk space.
> > Next, I created a patch for the UPNP server in myth to be able to select
> > which format to send based on the IP address of the UPNP client.
> >
> > So, to use this functionality:
> > 1. Install/setup MP3FS (brilliant!) http://mp3fs.sourceforge.net/  (or
> > create your own alternate directory structure)
> > <http://mp3fs.sourceforge.net/>
> > 2. Apply patch
> > 3. Add the following settings to the settings database:
> > a. UpnpAltMusicHosts= a comma seperated list of the UPNP client IPs that
> > need MP3 format (ex: 192.168.1.132 <http://192.168.1.132>,192.168.149)
> > b. UpnpAltMusicLocation= the directory where MP3FS is set to (ex:
> > /var/local/media/musicmp3256)
> > c. UpnpNormalMusicExtension= the "regular" file extension of you music
> > files (flac for me)
> >
> > Here are the patches:
> > Myth head (rev 13718): trac #3639
> http://svn.mythtv.org/trac/ticket/3639
> > Myth 20 fixes branch patch:
> > http://davetech.wordpress.com/2007/06/19/mythtv-upnp-enhancement/
> >
> > Hope others find this useful.
> > Dave
> >
>
> Hi Dave...
>
> Wow, just read your post and still need to look into it, but...
>
> I think this exactly what I am looking for.  I, and I believe many
> others, have small video clients that just can not handle HTDV (i.e.
> ATSC / QUAM) bit rates.  But, well at least for my hardware and local
> NTSC vs ATSC reception quality, I sure can tell when I am watching a
> digital feed on an NTSC set!  Easy!
>
> So, I have been toying with the idea to transcode the video on the fly
> and serve it out with UPNP based on which client is asking for videos.
> I have a number of MediaMVPs running MVP and the current solution is
> complex and goes something like:
>
> 1) Create copies of the MythTV programs with an extension that the MVPMC
> box will not understand (i.e. avi).
> 2) Create a mirror directory tree of the same files on the MVPMC box as
> a point of reference (probably an NFS export).
> 3) Run Video Lan Client on the server.
>
> When MVPMC asks for one of these file, VLC will transcode it based on
> what MVPMC says it can handle.  It works, but....
>
> So, what you are doing is transcoding the FLACs to MP3s based on the IP
> of the client.  How hard would it be to extend that to transcode video
> files?
>
> I am also wondering if there is a way to identify which files need and
> don't need transcoding.  Are there ways of telling?
>
> ...very interesting, thanks for your work.
>
>
>
> Yeah, I had a similar (unsolved) situation here, as I have HD content on
my main system, but have clients (xbox) which need a different format.

For the music solution, the trascoding is handled by MP3FS, so that
particular solution would not apply to video.
I'm sure there are ways to do on the fly video transcoding, but I don't
think this could be accomplished real time for HD content without some
serious horsepower.

As for determining which files need transcoding, the filename (including
extension) is in the basename column of the recorded table.  That might be a
starting point.

PS I'm sure some are thinking "why would you watch HD content on an SD
set?".  it's a feature request from my wife, who approves project funding :)

Dave
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