[mythtv-users] IPad and mythtv.

[Jarod Wilson]

On Thu, May 27, 2010 at 4:33 PM, jedi <jedi at mishnet.org> wrote:
> On Thu, May 27, 2010 at 10:07:31AM -0700, Scott Kidder wrote:
>> On Thu, May 27, 2010 at 5:55 AM, Raymond Wagner <raymond at wagnerrp.com>wrote:
>>
>> > On 5/27/2010 08:33, Phil Linttell wrote:
>> >
>> >> There's a whole variety of mobile devices and
>> >> embedded TV front-ends these days, and it's simply not practical to do
>> >> static transcoding of all recorded content to each potential target.
>> >>
>> >
>> > Why not?  iPods, phones, PSPs, are all going to have similar capabilities
>> > in terms of their hardware decoders (and none in terms of software
>> > decoders).  TVs are likely able to playback anything you record directly.
>> >  That means its a single transcode to support most devices available.  A
>> > near term plan for MythTV by one of the devs is to rework the storage of
>> > recordings, to allow multiple files to be stored against a single recording.
>> >  This would significantly improve management of multiple transcodes.
>>
>>
>>  It would be wonderful if a single encoding could be used with all devices,
>> but I don't think it is realistically possible.  The bit-rates and
>
>    Elgato seems to be taking this approach with the iPhone/iPad support.

I'm not quite clear if you're saying "this approach" to mean "a single
encoding" or a multiple encoding route...

In any case, their new HD-PVR-alike toy says something about recording
at least two separate files for each recording, one for the iPad, one
for the iPhone/iPod. From
http://www.elgato.com/elgato/na/mainmenu/products/EyeTV-HD/product1.en.html:

"EyeTV HD features a unique dual-format capture mode and can record in
both the iPad and iPhone formats at the same time. This feature
supports super-fast exports to iTunes from EyeTV, and facilitates the
streaming of live and recorded TV to an iPhone or iPad using the
optional EyeTV app."

It also mentions being able to record "full HD" as well. Appears you
may have to pick between the two -- "full HD" or "dual lower
resolutions".

I'm actually somewhat interested in getting one of these and playing
with EyeTV some. They've got some pretty spiffy additional transcoding
and streaming support that can be set up to use their turbo.264 hd
encoder stick (which I have one of), making real-time video
transcoding not that hard on the cpu, which was what it seems many
people were citing as the main reason real-time transcoding for
streaming wasn't practical...

-- 
Jarod Wilson
jarod at wilsonet.com