[mythtv-users] MythTV to MythVideo, best and easiest solution for Mythbuntu 10.4?

[Sven Bretfeld]

Hi Ryan and all others

ryan patterson <ryan.goat at gmail.com> writes:

>> This is a newbie question. What I want to do is simple. I need a User
>> Job that:
>>
>> 1. transcodes a MythTV recording, honoring the cutlist
>>
>> 2. reduces the file size /drastically/ (quality is secondary)
>>
>> 3. moves (or copies) the file to the videos directory
>>
>> 4. (looks for or keeps metadata information)
>
> I understand wanting to transcode to get a smaller file size.  But why
> do you want to move the recording to mythvideo?  You can just have the
> transcoded file replace the original file.

Hm. Now confronted with this question, I have doubts about my general
imagination of how people use MythTV. 

I have a quite small partition (225GB) for the root-filesystem including
/var/lib/recordings. It's now half filled after 1 month. A much larger
disk is mounted on /var/lib/mythtv/videos. 

I was thinking that building up collections of movies and series would
best be stored in the videos folder and managed by MythVideo. Is that
bad practice?

Also, there is the backup issue. I backup the videos folder with rsync
to a remote machine (ssh) once a week. I wouldn't do that with the
recordings folder, because this would make the backup run for hours
after a week of new recordings, many of which I don't want to keep
anyway. 

Would it be better to keep those shows, that I want to last forever,
inside of MythTV by excluding them from expiration? I would have to
reinstall then and exchange the partitions. And then, how do I organize
my backups? I want to backup only those recordings that I want to keep
for good. The rest is for daily consume only. The recordings folder is
flat, it contains no subfolders that could be selected or de-selected in
the backup configuration. Is it possible to have those shows, that I
want to keep, in certain subfolders that could be included in the
backup? How can they be restored after a reinstall? I guess it won't be
enough to copy them to the right place again, without manipulating the
DB, would it?

> Also you need to tell us what format your recordings are in and what
> resolution.

I just kept the standard of Mythbuntu. The recordings are mpg. I have no
idea about the resolution. Where can I find that value?

I know, these are questions of a bloody newbie, who in the first place
tries to get familiar with the ideas and concepts behind MythTV. Sorry
for that.

Thanks for helping and explaining me

Sven