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

[Sven Bretfeld]

Hi Ryan

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

> Your request makes some more sense with a description of your setup
> and what you are trying to do (segregate archive/backup/non-backup
> recordings etc.).  Moving recordings to mythvideo on a separate
> partition will work.  

I found that just copying/moving the unchanged mpg file of a recording
(mpeg-2) to /var/lib/mythtv/videos doesn't work. The file is not
recognized by MythVideo (yes, I did the update). At least this was so
some weeks ago (when Mythbuntu 10.4 was in the testing stadium).

> But there might be a better way. Check out the mythlink script:
> http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Mythlink.pl With that you can create man
> readable links to recordings in man readable subdirectories. Then you
> just have to tell your backup script which of those subdirectories to
> backup/ignore.

That's a possibility. And how about storage-groups? I just read the
respective article on mythtv.org. Would it be possible to make two
storage-groups for 'movies-to-keep' and 'series-to-keep' and have these
in folders different from default recordings? The advantage would be
that I could assign the correct storage-group already in the recording
schedule. Would it be possible to tell the MythTV backend to never
expire recordings in those storage-groups?

> FYI: On my setup I have a partition on a RAID-5 array for all my myth
> data: recordings and mythvideo.  I don't archive anything (it is
> deleted after I watch it).  But for some shows I wait for the entire
> season to record before I watch it (nobody better tell me what is
> happening in this season's Lost!).

In this season, they will all be Lost (if the RAID breaks) :-)

>> 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.
>
> Well in my experience mythtranscode works well on standard definition
> mpeg-2 recordings (like from the hauppauge pvr-x50 capture cards).

I have experimented with mythtranscode with different settings. I was
only able to reduce the file-size to 50%. That's still quite much. With
mythnuv2mkv.sh I was able to come to 25% with still a reasonable
quality. But this script takes hours to finish the job, and while it
runs mencoder my CPU temperature boosts up to an alarming degree and
won't cool down until I reboot. I don't know why, maybe a hardware
defect. My machine (the fan?) produces a crazy high pitched noise some
minutes after mythnuv2mkv is started.

Anyway, I think it's the best to reinstall my backend server and to
assign more HD space to MythTV and keep the recordings there. I hope
that the backups work.

Greetings

Sven