[mythtv-users] Best settings for transcoding HD content to save space?

[Steve Boyer]

On May 12, 2014 6:50 PM, "Raymond Wagner" <raymond at wagnerrp.com> wrote:
>
> On 5/12/2014 6:52 PM, Ben Kamen wrote:
>>
>> I've been looking at my drive space wondering if I can trim down
>> per/show usage by good transcoding settings.
>>
>> So I thought I'd solicit the group to see how they have their
>> transcoders set..
>>
>> I do have a 42" LCD -- so I'd like to be able to watch the HD stuff back
>> on that without cringing.
>>
>> (So just the high quality settings and what program is your myth set to
>> use?)
>
>
> You're best off just performing lossless cutting and being done with it.
 Disk space is cheap.  Transcoding takes time.  If you absolutely must
transcode, you do not want to use the internal transcoder.

I have a different setup at home - the nythbackend runs on a headless PC
and everything accesses it via WiFi. Not a problem for my 802.11n devices,
but the PS3 which is hooked up to my living room TV is g only. To watch on
it, I HAVE to transcode. I actually had to build FFmpeg from source and use
AAC+x264. Audio is 160k using libfdk_aac (which is why you have to build
from source) and libx264 and preset veryfast and crf 22 (tailor to viewing
pleasure - I'm trying out 18 as an experiment now).

I actually found the script on the MythTV wiki very out of date. See what I
did at
http://gomezdevelopment.wordpress.com/2014/01/14/mythtv-x264-mp4-compression-scripts/for
a copy as well. One issue with the script is I've noticed is it only
does stereo audio at the moment.

My back end is a core 2 duo 6300 or something with 1 GB of RAM. It takes
about 60 to 90 minutes to encode a 60 minute show, and at CRF 22, most 1
hour shows (commercials and all) come in between 500-700 MBs.

Steve
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