[mythtv-users] Convert mpg to avi

[Anthony Giggins]

On 21 September 2012 09:13, Peter Bennett (cats22) <cats22 at comcast.net>wrote:

> On 09/18/2012 03:29 PM, reubencrane at gmail.com wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I am running mythtv on freebsd. Works great but I am having trouble
> > doing video conversion. I successfully used mythtranscode (had to add
> > season, episode, and another column to the recorder table) to cut
> > commericials and am now trying to use mencoder to convert the
> > resulting mpg to avi(mpeg4 and mp3) I can do a single pass but I
> > wasn't to happy with video quality during scenes with motion. So now I
> > am trying 2 and 3 passes but this always fails on second or third
> > pass. Most of the information I have googled seems dated. So could
> > someone share their preferred method to convert mythtv mpg to
> > reasonable quality file?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Reuben
> >
> My method consists of the following steps. I am not using mythtv
> transcode in this process.
>
> set LINKSDIR to a suitable directory
>
> Create symbolic links for my recordings as follows:
> /usr/share/doc/mythtv-backend/contrib/user_jobs/mythlink.pl \
>   --link $LINKSDIR/origdate --format "%U/%T/%oy%om%od %S"
>
> This creates links in that directory to all your recordings (mpg files).
> You can browse the directory and find the file that corresponds to your
> program. I copy that to another computer because my backend is a low-end
> machine with not much CPU power.
>
> For creating mkv/x264 archives, download and install handbrake-cli. To
> install on ubuntu add the following ppa:
> sudo add-apt-repository ppa:stebbins/handbrake-releases
>
> Handbrake is the best video tool I have found. The options below will
> automatically figure out and apply deinterlacing if required and will
> automatically apply correct frame rates. Some recordings may have
> variable frame rates, for example 29.97 fps for commercials, 23.976 for
> the movie. Handbrake will keep these rates in the mkv file.
>
> To archive 1080i and 1080p content with excellent quality use this
> command line
> HandBrakeCLI -i Serenity.mpg -o Serenity.mkv -f mkv -e x264
> --x264-preset superfast --x264-profile high --x264-tune film -q 30  -E
> copy --audio-fallback ffac3 --crop 0:0:0:0 -w 1920 -l 1080 --decomb
>
> This uses a 1 pass constant quality encoding, uses about 1 GiB per hour
> for the encoded file, although this will vary. On my system it is almost
> real-time encoding, to encode 1 hour takes a little over an hour, around
> 1 hour 10 minutes.
>
> To leave out excess footage at the beginning and end, add these entries
> to the end of the command line
> --start-at duration:138 --stop-at duration:1111
> 138 is the position in seconds to start encoding, and stop-at is the
> length in seconds. You can use fractions for example --start-at
> duration:2986.416766666667.
>
> To archive into 480p content use the same command line but substitute
> appropriate -w and -l values:
> -w 640 -l 480 for 4x3 (SD) pictures or -w 720 -l 404 for 16x9. For 480p
> I recommend -q 26 instead of -q 30 if you plan to watch it on a large
> screen TV (to avoid artifacts that will show up when watching a
> low-definition image enlarged). 26 will use about 300 GiB per hour. 30
> will use about 200 GiB per hour. Encoding in SD takes also a little over
> real time.
>
> Instead of "-E copy" you can use "-E lame --ac 2 --ab 128" to encode
> audio as mp3 to save more disk space.
>
> The mkv files can be played on a computer with mythtv, VLC or other
> programs, or burned on a DVD and played in a stand-alone Blu-ray player.
>
> I plan to put this all in a blog with more detail, and info on how to
> edit the files to remove commercials, join files, rip DVDs, and create
> avi files that can be burned on a DVD and played in a standalone DVD
> player.
>
> Peter
>
>
Possibly related to an issue I reported a while back, however I had no one
confirm or deny the problem

www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/515305

I've been meaning to raise a bug for this issue.

Cheers,

Anthony
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