[mythtv-users] Question on recording sizes and DVD burning

Wed Jan 22 08:49:26 UTC 2014

On 01/21/2014 11:12 PM, John Finlay wrote:
> On 1/21/2014 5:02 PM, Joseph DeGraw wrote:
>> On 01/21/2014 06:17 PM, John Finlay wrote:
>>> On 1/21/2014 2:03 PM, Joseph DeGraw wrote:
>>>> On 01/21/2014 04:16 PM, John Finlay wrote:
>>>>> On 1/21/2014 8:51 AM, Joseph DeGraw wrote:
>>>>>> On 01/21/2014 11:32 AM, John Pilkington wrote:
>>>>>>> On 21/01/14 15:21, Joseph DeGraw wrote:
>>>>>>>> On 01/21/2014 09:56 AM, John Pilkington wrote:
>>>>>>>>> On 21/01/14 14:27, Joseph DeGraw wrote:
>>>>>>>>>> On 01/21/2014 09:08 AM, Joseph DeGraw wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>> A while ago I upgraded my hardware to include HD recording
>>>>>>>>>>> with a
>>>>>>>>>>> ceton
>>>>>>>>>>> card and its been great. However, My girlfriend wants to burn
>>>>>>>>>>> some of
>>>>>>>>>>> her shows to DVD that are 2 hours long. However the size of the
>>>>>>>>>>> files
>>>>>>>>>>> are like 10 gigs. In mytharchive they can come down to just
>>>>>>>>>>> over 5
>>>>>>>>>>> gigs.
>>>>>>>>>>> The shows are 1920x? HD from comcast provider. I was thinking
>>>>>>>>>>> that
>>>>>>>>>>> reducing them to 720i would be fine to make them smaller to
>>>>>>>>>>> fit on
>>>>>>>>>>> DVD.
>>>>>>>>>>> This brings up transcoding (which Im looking into right now)
>>>>>>>>>>> and
>>>>>>>>>>> profiles.
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> How do you handle this?
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> jdegraw
>>>>>>>>>> Ok, I have gone into the menu in mytharchive after reading an
>>>>>>>>>> older
>>>>>>>>>> thread and selected a recording profile. I guess my only
>>>>>>>>>> question
>>>>>>>>>> is :
>>>>>>>>>> What do the different profiles mean?
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> HQ, EP, LP, SD
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> I know if I select a SD setting it will not finish and stalls
>>>>>>>>>> out. I
>>>>>>>>>> dont even get an error message. Therefore, Iam trying the LP one
>>>>>>>>>> for a
>>>>>>>>>> single sided DVD for a 10 gig, 2 hour Lifetime Network movie.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> MythTV .27 / Mythbuntu 12.04 based
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> With much of the USA now apparently HD only this is clearly
>>>>>>>>> getting to
>>>>>>>>> be a common problem, and at present I don't think MythArchive
>>>>>>>>> handles
>>>>>>>>> it well.  The encoder options are defined here: (Fedora build)
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> /usr/share/mythtv/mytharchive/encoder_profiles/ffmpeg_dvd_ntsc.xml
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> and are used within
>>>>>>>>> /usr/share/mythtv/mytharchive/scripts/mythburn.py
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I suspect that the best option would be two-pass specifying the
>>>>>>>>> required file size; a fairly minor edit of the HQ option,
>>>>>>>>> probably,
>>>>>>>>> but requiring some research in the ffmpeg documentation or code.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> As far as I can see the -b:v value doesn't do much.  The pal-dvd
>>>>>>>>> profile, which I use, seems to focus on a q value of 2 as its
>>>>>>>>> guiding
>>>>>>>>> light.  That isn't specified in the file above.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> If at present you are getting a 5 GB file the m2vrequantiser
>>>>>>>>> option
>>>>>>>>> within MythArchive will shrink that quickly with a quality that
>>>>>>>>> should
>>>>>>>>> be acceptable, but I wouldn't like to rely on it for much higher
>>>>>>>>> ratios.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> HTH
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> John P
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>>> mythtv-users mailing list
>>>>>>>>> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
>>>>>>>>> http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Thank you John,
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> So, It seems that SP is the profile to use on these large HD
>>>>>>>> recordings.
>>>>>>>> Iam having a problem that it seems to take a rather long time
>>>>>>>> to run
>>>>>>>> mytharchive and it seems to be stuck at this point:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> *mythffmpeg -threads 6 -v 1 -i
>>>>>>>> "/var/lib/mytharchive/temp/work/1/newfile.mpg" -r ntsc -target
>>>>>>>> ntsc-dvd
>>>>>>>> -b:v 4771k -s 720x480 -acodec copy -copyts -aspect 16:9
>>>>>>>> "/var/lib/mytharchive/temp/work/1/newfile2.mpg" -map 0:0 -map
>>>>>>>> 0:1 *
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I see that mythmmpeg is still running and taking up ALOT of CPU
>>>>>>>> time.
>>>>>>>> Using 'Top' it shows approximately 200 in cpu usage. Seems to
>>>>>>>> just sit
>>>>>>>> there for hours. Is this normal? I dont have any error messages
>>>>>>>> in any
>>>>>>>> of the logs - mythburn.log, progress.log, kern.log.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> What does show in 'top' is that mythmmpeg is still running and
>>>>>>>> sometimes
>>>>>>>> will spawn another mythmmpeg process.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> jdegraw
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Yes, I think it's normal.   That's one of the problems.  Try
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> mythffmpeg  -v verbose -i "infileHD.mpg" -target ntsc-dvd
>>>>>>> "outfileSD.mpg"
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> on a short recording and see how it goes.  I'm not sure how far my
>>>>>>> experience, with h264 recordings, relates to yours, but the -copyts
>>>>>>> seemed to be the main problem for me.  ffmpeg -i <filename> should
>>>>>>> show what you're dealing with.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>> mythtv-users mailing list
>>>>>>> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
>>>>>>> http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> I will give that a try. Thank you very much for your responses.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I did try it earlier on a 1/2 show and it did a good job and burned
>>>>>> the
>>>>>> cd. Currently, mythffmpeg is still running but at a lower cpu use.
>>>>>> But I
>>>>>> dont see any disk activity. So, Im going to just let it run till
>>>>>> this
>>>>>> afternoon. I will also try your suggestion and see what I get.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Last time I actually ran out of swap space. So, I bought an
>>>>>> additional 4
>>>>>> gigs to boost me to 8 gigs. Now that is not a problem anymore :)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Nothing in the error logs and mytharchive log still shows the
>>>>>> mythffmpeg
>>>>>> command line in the log as the last entry. Perhaps I assumed that
>>>>>> something was going wrong and killed the process, removed the lock
>>>>>> file
>>>>>> and cleaned up the temp directory when I should have just let it run
>>>>>> instead?
>>>>>>
>>>>> I gave up using mytharchive and use mythffmpeg to transcode my HD
>>>>> programs for making DVDs and use a command line like:
>>>>>
>>>>> mythffmpeg -i <inputfilename>.mpg -map 0:0 -map 0:<1 or 2>
>>>>> -deinterlace -target ntsc-dvd -aspect 16:9 -acodec copy
>>>>> <outputfilename>.mpg
>>>>>
>>>>> The -map 0:<1 or 2> is used to select the best audio channel which
>>>>> usually is ac3 5.1. I leave out the -deinterlace if the program is
>>>>> 720p. I copy the audio since I see no reason to transcode it to mp2.
>>>>> For a 120m movie in 1080i it takes about 140m using my old dual core
>>>>> AMD and produces a file which is about 4.1G. The transcode uses about
>>>>> 120% CPU according to top.
>>>>>
>>>>> Then I use dvdauthor and mkisofs to gen the ISO.
>>>>>
>>>>> John
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> mythtv-users mailing list
>>>>> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
>>>>> http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>>>>>
>>>> Ok, Adding to my last post (sorry) I guess the reason it takes soooooo
>>>> long for me is that Iam rescaling a 1920x<whatever> recording with
>>>> a bit
>>>> rate of 9000 to a 720 resolution and a bit rate of 4771.
>>>>
>>>> I will just let it run and see how long this thing goes. Probably look
>>>> around to see if this thing is broadcast in 720 instead. Then I dont
>>>> have to convert the video and it will probably take alot less time.
>>>>
>>>> jdegraw
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>
>>> Actually it seems that you are transcoding to 480 not 720. The
>>> confusion is that you are going from 1920x1080 (1080i) to 720x480
>>> (480i) . Try a command similar to mine and see if that works better.
>>> If so then the command generated by mytharchive is likely the problem.
>>>
>>> John
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> mythtv-users mailing list
>>> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
>>> http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>>>
>> John,
>>
>> Im running your settings right now. This will probably take a while and
>> not sure if I will still be awake when it finishes. I noticed you didnt
>> use the 'threads' option in your command line for mythffmpeg. Any
>> reason?
>>
>>
> You don't need to run the command for long to see if it is working
> better. What is the fps it's working at? Should be over 10 fps for it
> to finish in under 6h
>
> John
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>
John,

I got approx. 61fps, The video came out to 5gb. Worked good.

Using the same command line arguments as you I was able to get the video
down to 5gb. Not bad. I have not even cut commercials yet so that will
take it farther.

Thank you,

jdegraw