[mythtv-users] Best way to auto Transcode MPEG2 SD to save storage space

[Roger Heflin]

On Sat, Dec 31, 2011 at 4:58 PM, Raymond Wagner <raymond at wagnerrp.com> wrote:
> On 12/31/2011 15:38, Roger Heflin wrote:
>> On SD to SD I get around 1.15GB ->  390MB, on 1080i I get 10GB ->  600MB, so there is a decent amount of savings.
>
> On the other hand, that 700MB you recovered is going to cost you all of
> about $0.02 of disk space, so really an absolutely inconsequential
> amount of savings.  Converting 10GB of video down to 600MB, I surely
> hope you are dropping it to 480p at that point, as 1.5-2hrs of HD video
> in low bitrate will look absolutely abysmal.  Even 480p at that bitrate
> h.264 will result in very noticeable quality loss.

HD reduced 480P looks decent at those bitrates with divx/mpeg4 when
being viewed at 10-15ft on a 50" TV, once the myth index is rebuilt
the seeks work cleanly without the index being rebuilt seeks aren't
clean.

Take that 700MB/video saved * 100's of videos and it starts to matter...

Note that at 1500gb/$50 (old pre-flood prices) == 10GB/$0.33 so about
$0.33 of disk space, it takes about 30Wh (over idle) to convert on the
machine I have so about $0.003 of power at the around $0.10/Kwh I pay.
   On that slow p4 the guy has it is probably 2-3 times the power, but
given the disks savings/cost it is still going to be a win.     SD ->
SD is a smaller savings, but is also much faster (2x).