[mythtv-users] Can't convert TV recording MPG files for other computers - codecs

[Nick Rout]

On Mon, Feb 9, 2009 at 11:55 AM, David Watkins <watkinshome at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2009/2/8 OCG Technical Support <support at ocg.ca>:
>> Myth recorded my shows from satellite (DVB) and from analog cable via
>> PVR-500.  Myth creates these files in the /storage/recordings directory
>
> DVB files are encoded before transmission and the PVR-500 has a
> hardware encoder.  So in both cases the files are encoded before
> mythtv gets its hands on them.
>
> I find a lossless transcode makes subsequent manipulation of the
> recorded files much more reliable.
>
> ffmpeg -i infile.mpg -acodec copy -vcodec copy outfile.mpg

My usual process for re-encoding is to run the file through dvbcut
(http://dvbcut.sourceforge.net/) to remove ads and then avidemux to
encode however I want.

If I was on windows dvbcut would not be available to I would use
projectX followed by avidemux.

If windows programs aren't reading your .mpg files it is entirely due
to the inadequacies of the programs. However as you haven't bothered
to tell us what programs you have tried, its hard to comment further.
However both DVB-S and a PVR-500 result (in my experience) in standard
mpeg2 encodings, which projectX and avidemux will do fine with.