[mythtv-users] Transcode Issues in v0.26

[Rich Freeman]

Ever since upgrading to v0.26 I've been having problems with
transcoding.  This is using /fixes from Feb 7th on Gentoo (which I
maintain).

I'm recording from a PVR-350 and capturing HD from QAM.  Due to poor
encoding quality on the PVR-350 I'm capturing at a high bitrate either
way.

Usually things transcode fine.  However, sometimes I'll get a show
that transcodes down to a REALLY low bitrate - maybe 100-300 kbps.
The result is a highly pixelated video.  I haven't been able to
discern any pattern and it can happen from either video source.

I'd also be interested in recommended settings.  That is another issue
- I can't be certain which source some shows will be recorded from due
to conflicts, and while I'd like to downsize HD to 720p I don't want
it to upsize SD to that resolution, and the bitrate should be
appropriate for the final resolution.  I'm not sure the transcoder
profiles really let you accomplish this.

My end goals:
For SD: convert audio to mp3, no resize (about 640x480), reduce
bitrate dramatically, use mp4.

For HD: AC3 passthrough if possible, resize to 720p if not already
there, use mp4 and drop bitrate to something appropriate (and I'm fine
with using a quality-based variable bitrate - don't care about exact
file size).

Oh, I really don't care if mythtranscode does the work.  If it is
easier to accomplish this with some script, handbrake, etc that's fine
by me.  However, it needs to be error-resilient - no deleting every
20th show when something goes wrong (on error just don't transcode)...

Ideas?  Oh, if there is some way to preserve pre-transcoded videos (it
is ok to make them orphans) let me know.  I could find lots of
examples of mangled files, but I'd be interested in whether a
particular file is consistently managed and that would no doubt aid
debugging.

Rich