[mythtv-users] mytharchive

[Josh White]

On Sat, Sep 13, 2008 at 8:59 PM, <robbinsck1 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Happy Saturday Night!
>
>
> I'm trying to use mytharchive to create a DVD copy of an episode of a show
> so my wife can play it in her Classroom.  I'm running into trouble, however,
> because I have my system setup with a dedicated backend (which stores all
> the recordings locally), and several remote frontends.  It seems that
> mytharchive needa a 'local' copy of the file to process it, but that's not
> possible with my setup (I thought of temporarily installing mythfrontend on
> the backend server, but I don't have a dvd burner on that machine, so I'm
> stuck there too).  I looked it up in the wiki, and it reccommends the
> following:
>
>
> "MythArchive reports that files are not available locally
>
> MythTV usually streams video if you have a separate frontend and backend.
> MythArchive cannot use streamed video: it needs to be able to access the
> file locally. This can be accomplished by exporting the directory containing
> your recordings via NFS <http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/NFS>  and
> then adding the mountpoint to the frontend's Storage Group <
> http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Storage_Groups> ."
> So now my problem lies in how do I create a "frontend storage group" that I
> can point my frontend to.  I have no problem with NFS, and I have mapped the
> "recordings" folder to a local folder on my frontend machine but I'm not
> sure how to create a "frontend storage group" specifically.  I konw how to
> create a storage group for the backend, but not for the frontend.  So how
> can I trick mytharchive into thinking my recordings folder is on the local
> machine?  I suppose I could create a storage group for the backend that
> would make the backend connect via NFS to the share on my frontend (which is
> actually an NFS share from a physical drive on the Backend) but that seems
> like it could create a black hole or something worse (and seems incredibly
> hoaky besides).
>
> Has anyone else out there managed to use mytharchve to make a DVD from a
> recording file that is stored on a remote backend?  Is there any non-stupid
> way of doing it that doesn't involve major hacking? Any advice would be
> greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> Josh
>
>
> Yes, it can be done. I do it all the time, you will need to make the
> location of the recordings a writable NFS share then mount it with the
> frontend in the same directory structure.
>
> So when you goto for example. /var/lib/mythtv/recordings on the frontend it
> will have the identical content as the backend. Because it is.
> In other words if you recordings are in /var/lib/mythtv/recordings on your
> server.
>
> Then mount your frontend like this...
>
> Sudo mount serverip:/var/lib/mythtv/recordings /var/lib/mythtv/recordings.
>
> You can also edit your /etc/fstab file so it auto mounts on boot.
>
> Beware if you have any recordings in your frontends
> /var/lib/mythtv/recordings directory they won't be accessible anymore.
>
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>
Thanks for the assistance; I moved my mount point to mirror that of the
backend, and it seems to work, but now I have a new problem.  I always skip
commercials, and I'd like to strip the commercials from the file that will
be used to create the DVD (so the students don't have to watch them).
According to the wiki:

To create a DVD

   - Choose *Export Video Files | Create DVD*
   - Choose what size DVD is required and whether files will be copied from
   the file system or if an ISO image for later burning or actually burn the
   ISO image to a blank DVD. Press 'Next'.
   - Choose what files to burn to DVD. If the file is a MythTV recording and
   the file has a cut list MythArchive can edit out sections of the recording
   according to the cutlist. If editing the files' metadata is necessary
   (title, subtile, description etc) press 'Menu' to show the popup menu and
   choose 'Edit Details'. Press 'Next'.
   - Choose the menu theme to use on the produced DVD. Press 'Next'.
   - The final page of the wizard displays the shows chosen to burn to disc
   and the order in which they will appear on the DVD. It also shows whether a
   cutlist will be used. An item can be moved up and down the list by clicking
   SELECT on file in the list and using the up/down keys to move the file to
   its new position. Pressing SELECT again will fix the file in its new
   position. On this page the re-encoding profile can also be chosen. Each file
   can have a different encoding profile if so desired. If the file is already
   a DVD compliant file the default is to not re-encode the file but this can
   be overridden with other profiles (possibly to reduce the file size to make
   more room for files on the final disc). The Thumb Image Selector from can
   also be run from this page - See below. Press 'Finish'
   - The script to create the DVD will now be run and the log viewer will
   now be shown.

Keys :-

   - C - toggle use cut list

But when I get to the "Select Archive Items" screen, the lower left of the
screen reads "No Cutlist Available" and I'm unsure of how to create one/make
one available.  I watched the show today, and it skipped commercials
correctly, so I'm not worried about that, but I would like to know how to
get from the point of having the file "commercial flagged" to having a
"cutlist" I can use in this context.   How do I do that?  I guess I don't
understand the difference between a file that has been commercial flagged,
and one with a cutlist (is there a difference?).

Again, from the Wiki:
Creating a cutlist From MythTV Jump to:
navigation<http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Creating_a_cutlist#column-one>,
search <http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Creating_a_cutlist#searchInput>

While MythTV is very good at skipping commercials, usually, sometimes it
doesn't do so well. If you want to edit out commercials yourself, it's
actually very easy.

   - Enter Edit Mode by pressing *E* on the keyboard. If commercial
   detection is enabled, *Z* will load the detected commercials.
   - Move forward and back in the video file using the *forward* and
*back*keys to move forward or back by one time unit (defaults to 1
second), and
   using the *<* and *>* keys you can move forward and back by 10 units at a
   time. Use *Up* and *Down* to change the time unit - values are 1 frame,
   0.5 seconds, 1 second, 5 seconds, 20 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes, 10
   minutes. Use the *Page Up* and *Page Down* keys to move between cut
   points.
   - When you locate the start of a commercial, just press the *enter* or *
   space* key and select 'Delete after this frame' from the pop up menu.
   - When you locate the end of a commercial, press the *enter* or
*space*key and select 'Delete before this frame' from the pop up menu.
   - When you've completed your editing, press *E*. The very tail of the
   video will play and you'll pop back to the watch recorded programs screen.
   - If you, or automatic detection, have bollocksed up the list enough,
   then the '*Home* key will clear the list.

That's it. Now when you watch the program it will be commercial free.

So I tried to find some assistance from the wiki, but the above seems to be
a way to tweak the commercial flag points, and would lead me to conclude
that commrecial flagging creates a cutlist, but I'm not sure.

And again, thanks for the help so far, and thanks for any help going
forward!

-Josh
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