[mythtv-users] transcoding widescreen recordings

[f-myth-users at media.mit.edu]

    > Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2008 00:59:08 -0400
    > From: "Michael T. Dean" <mtdean at thirdcontact.com>

    > Set up your STB to output widescreen, then test record it.  It may 
    > already work.  If not, figure out if your STB uses WSS.  If so, start 
    > searching the ivtv lists for WSS and then search the Myth lists for WSS.

To the OP:

You'll probably want to put this in whatever starts your backend:

ivtvctl -b wss,cc -x 1 -d /dev/video0
ivtvctl -b wss,cc -x 1 -d /dev/video1
[ . . . etc for each of your ivtv-based encodeders . . . ]

You'll probably want to put this in whatever starts your frontend:

ivtvctl -w wss,cc      -d /dev/video0
[assuming that your decoder is a PVR-350; I don't recall from this thread.]

I can't say for sure that that's all you need to do, but it may give
you a place to start looking in the documentation.  (I think I tried
this once recording from a source that outputted WSS (e.g., my DVD
player---or even a VHS tape made from the output of the DVD player)
and I know my TV notices it (because it's spec'ed to and I can see
it change aspect ratios when enabled), but IIRC, I didn't see ivtv
actually passing this through.  OTOH, I don't recall testing it
very thoroughly (since neither my broadcast analog channels nor
my STB seems to ever emit the signal---I'd have seen it when the
STB went straight to the TV or to the TV via the VCR, as the above
tests showed), and the test was done w/ivtv 0.4.1 and myth 0.18.1,
so who knows what's different with modern versions of both.  In
particular, I think ivtvctl changed names to v4l2-ctl, at least.)