[mythtv-users] American Idol Finale

[James Buckley]

On 23/05/07, Bruce Markey <bjm at lvcm.com> wrote:
>
> Tonight is the American Idol Finale. Having re-watched last
> year's finale a few days ago, I was reminded of a few things
> to be aware of that others may want to consider.
>
> - Record this even of you don't think you care.
>
> - Add at least 15 minutes of End Late time. I'd recommend 29.
>
> - Consider using a profile with a higher max bitrate and max audio.
>
> Even if you think AI is tacky, one of the nice things about a
> DVR is that you can painlessly record things then delete even if
> you don't watch (I always record more stuff than I actually watch).
> If something happens that friends and co-workers talk about, you
> can FF to see it for yourself. The finale last year was spectacular
> with many unannounced guests including Prince (on American Idol?).
> Even if you don't care who wins, there may be bands or singers
> you do want to see. If you've got enough cards and disk space,
> there's no reason not to record it. The same holds true for the
> Super Bowl, Academy Awards, etc.
>
> Fox is flexible with the timing like an awards show. If they run
> late, the local news can wait. I believe last year ran ~11min
> over (now that I've said that, they'll probably end on time ;-).
> 15min should be enough to cover any slip but if you're into the
> next time slot, might as well add 29. this is about a half hour
> without intruding on shows that start on the next half hour. I
> usually use 29 or 59 for sports. The show is two hours and adding
> another half hour shouldn't matter if you have hundreds of GB of
> disk space.
>
> It's best to set the extra time ahead of time and look at the
> "Upcoming Recordings" page to see how things will fit. However,
> if a show is already recording when you realize that you may need
> more time, you can go to the upcoming page or any other scheduling
> page and press Enter then select "Change Ending Time" then add
> more time on the fly.
>
> I used to think that a camera panning following a football player
> running down a green field was a lot of motion and it is but this
> is nothing compared to thousands of pieces of confetti swirling
> all over the screen. This is hard to compress and looks like crap
> unless the maximum bitrate is high enough to somewhat show the
> scene without too much losiness. Therefore, for hardware encoders,
> you should use a profile where the "Max. Bitrate" is at least double
> the average "Bitrate" so it can do a better job during the confetti
> drop and pyrotechnics at the end. Because this is a music show, it
> makes sense to use the max audio bitrate. This wouldn't increase
> the file size too much but may (or may not) improve audio fidelity.
>
> If you make changes to a profile, make sure to do a test recording
> first to be sure there are no unwelcome surprises.


Good info there, shame that in the UK it's not broadcasted until Friday...
(unless they've moved it this week)
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