[mythtv-users] Dumping MPEG files to DVDs

[John Pilkington]

On 10/05/16 15:26, Mike Perkins wrote:
> On 10/05/16 14:50, Andre Newman MythTV wrote:
>>>>
>>>> The older the DVD player and the more recent the recording the less
>>>> chance of it working properly. Broadcast encoders (even mpeg2) have
>>>> developed significantly in the last few years, the DVD spec is
>>>> exactly as it was when it was written.
>>>>
>>>> I find it mostly works, and when it doesn’t, go try a different dvd
>>>> player.
>>>>
>>>> Andre
>>>>
>>> I'm not sure whether I've been bitten recently by this.  I burn DVDs
>>> from UK SD dvb-t recordings using MythArchive with a tweaked
>>> mythburn.py, the project-x demuxer and mp2 audio; the .iso images
>>> include 'implantisomd5' and all burning is done and verified by k3b.
>>>
>>> Recently I've found that a few DVDs are rejected or play badly in my
>>> stand-alone players, although mythfrontend plays them fine.  I
>>> haven't seen any pattern in this - but it's annoying…
>>
>> I especially got caught by Film4, I gave up trying to archive to DVD
>> because very few recordings would play. BBC 1,2,3&4 were ok  for years
>> and then they changed their encoding profiles and it never worked again.
>>
>> You may spot a pattern, all channels from a particular broadcaster or
>> especially all channels together in a mux are often updated together.
>>
>>
>> I used various mastering software, including project-x for cleanup but
>> the result was always the same, I found my PS3 was much more tolerant
>> than my more normal Yamaha DVD player.
>>
>> More recently I’ve noticed the same with HD recordings and blurays,
>> about three or four years ago I could reliably record a show and
>> archive it off to bluray. I gave up trying a couple of years ago when
>> everyone bought newer h264 encoders and overnight nothing would work,
>> even the PS3 doesn’t play any current recordings.
>>
>> These days huge hard disks are so cheap all my DVDs, Blurays and even
>> some CDV are stored in a box in the garage. The blurays and DVDs I
>> made of favourite recordings all got ripped and back on to the hard
>> disk again, they play fine then.
>>
>> If you want to take something to someone to show them it’s harder, I
>> found that good HD recordings can make very good SD DVDs when re-encoded.
>>
> Don't forget that most modern TVs and other media players will accept
> USB sticks these days and you can get them up to 64GB. Plenty enough to
> take around if you need to.
>

True, and I shall probably move towards that or a USB HD.  But I suspect 
that my recent problem is in reading rather than decoding; I have two 
apparently successful verified burns of the same .iso, but one plays (in 
my quite-old-and-low-prestige players) and one doesn't.

But it's worth pointing out that MythArchive doesn't just dump the 
recorded file onto the dvd - it uses dvdauthor, and 1.2MB of 
mythburn.log gives immense detail of the adjustments made by mpeg2enc
during the process.  I would expect these to ensure dvd-spec compliance.

... but perhaps I should get another player before they go extinct.

John