[mythtv-users] User Job fails.

[A. F. Cano]

On Fri, Jan 15, 2016 at 02:05:32PM +1030, Mark Perkins wrote:
> 
> 
> [ lots of useful stuff excised for brevity ] 
> 
> If you want to respect MythTV options like "keep the original file" you
> would need to use mythtranscode via the inbuilt transcoding function,
> otherwise you would need to write your script to query the setting from
> MythTV and respond accordingly.

As I pointed out elsewhere in this thread, I tried the "transcode low"
function quite a while back.  In fact it seemed the logical thing to do,
but it creaed files that were as big or bigger than the original HD
files and just like the originals, couldn't be played on the low power
computer.  The images looked a lot fuzzier though.  Not sure if there is
any option that can be given to the built-in transcode (by config file?)
to have it actually reduce the resolution.  That is the only thing that
will allow the low-power machine to display the video without pauses to
catch up.

> ...
> The crux of the issue in my mind is maintaining two versions of a single
> recording inside MythTV recording screens. The database is created with
> the premise that each recording is essentially unique. I'm not saying it
> can't be done, just that if it is not done correctly with care you may
> do a LOT of damage.

Noted.  Complex and dangerous.  Looks like the option to put the
transcoded files in mythvideo sub-system is one thing to dig into.

> .
> Check the wiki for full details of what mythvideo can / cannot do but

I will dig into that.  Thanks for the tip.

> in short it is a way of making non myth files available inside MythTV
> - in a fashion. Two key points - firstly files through mythvideo appear
> in the mythvideo screens not the recording screens and are handled 100%
> separately to recordings; secondly there is no ongoing linkage between
> the recording metadata and the mythvideo metadata. For example if you
> watch something that you pushed to mythvideo from your recordings it
> won't mark it as watched in the recording screens.

I can live with that.

> 
> ...
> 
> Alternatively is there anything that can be done to allow your FE to
> play HD? There are some great results being achieved on Raspberry Pi,

Actually, I'm attempting this as a temporary solution until 2 ECS Liva
(one the original Liva, the second a Liva X) get repaired or replaced.
They both blew the graphics processor.  The first one has already
been sent back.  Knowing that it would take weeks, I bought another one
(the Liva X) and configured it quickly by

dd if=<previously saved image> of=/dev/mmcblk0

and then forcing reinstallation of /boot/efi.

Well, that second Liva lasted a week (the first one 6 months).  It also
blew the graphics processor.  Luckily the cpu still works fine so it can
still function as a backend, but I can now only display low-res video on
older computers with not enough graphics power for HD.

> what FE hardware do you have?

2 broken Livas, which when they were working were great.  The low
powered computers I'm trying to use now are an old Dell Inspirion 8600
with an nvidia 4200go GPU that can't keep up with HD and a toshiba
Satellite with a radeon GPU and very low res.  The Dell at least has
a 1920x1200 display and can almost display 720p.