[mythtv-users] MythTv 0.23 recording resolution and playback issues

[Ebsen, Mike P.]

The issue that I have is the apparent behavior differences between the 9.10 and 10.04 releases.  The 9.10 release produces *.mpg files that are only 548x480 while the 10.04 release produces *.mpg files that are 1920x1080 for EXTACTLY the same broadcasted content.  The machines are running side-by-side.  The user specified configurations look identical for both the front and back ends.

When I examine the recorded *.mpg files using VLC media player, the recorded content from 9.10 is small and properly framed while the 10.04 release has approximately 700 pixels of black border on the left and right edges and approximately 250 pixel on the top and bottom.

I haven't found anything that will explain the apparent differences.



From: mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org [mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org] On Behalf Of Ebsen, Mike P.
Sent: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 10:53 AM
To: Discussion about mythtv
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] MythTv 0.23 recording resolution and playback issues



From: mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org [mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org] On Behalf Of Raymond Wagner
Sent: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 9:23 AM
To: Discussion about mythtv
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] MythTv 0.23 recording resolution and playback issues

On 5/19/2010 08:18, Ebsen, Mike P. wrote:
The 10.04 release seems to always record at 1920x1080 resolution independent of the broadcaster's source format.  Old TV shows, like Hogan's Heros, that are still being broadcasted at a very grainy 548x480 are small fields of video information with large black unused bands on top, bottom, left and right edges of the 1920x1080 *.mpg recorded file.

Your 2250 is a digital tuner.  The recordings it makes are /exactly/ what is being broadcast.  MythTV is not altering the stream in any manner.  If you plug in a QAM-capable TV, you will see the exact same thing.

Another detriment of the 10.04 resolution issue is recorded file sizes.  Recording the same program on the 9.10 and 10.04 with the same quality setting (Normal) results in drastically different file sizes.  The older 9.10 release could record an old TV show at a data rate of 780 MByte/half hour.  The latest 10.04 release records the same show at a rate of 3.3 GByte/half hour (and a whole bunch of dark pixels surrounding the relatively small image in the middle).

The quality settings on a digital tuner do absolutely nothing.  MythTV will store the stream exactly as it is received, and will do no additional processing.

  I thought one of the attributes of the latest 10.04 release was the newest H.264 codecs that were both faster and more efficient at video compression.  My observations don't align with these assumptions.

MythTV does not use H.264 for video compression.  It can only use MJPEG and ASP, and then only for analog framegrabbers.  The claim was that a sync of the internal ffmpeg library prior to the release of 0.23 brought a better optimized H.264 video decompressor, that is roughly 15% faster than before.  This is irrelevant because everything you ever record off that 2250 will be MPEG2.
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