[mythtv-users] How I burn a DVD from captured MythTV video

[Couvrette, Jeffrey C.]

After reading James' reply to the "Conversion to DVD" post a couple of days
ago, I was finally able figure out how to do all the DVD burning of recorded
TV shows I had been wanting to do for a while - without booting up into
Windows to run Nero.  I figured I would write up my procedure that now works
for me in the event that it could be useful to other MythTV users.

My system is running Redhat 9 and the 0.12 release version of MythTV with a
PVR250 as my capture card.  My capture settings for the PVR250 are 352x480
and I use 3500k/5000k for my bitrate settings. 

The software that needs to be downloaded and installed is as follows:

avidemux2 - I use the version avidemux2-2.0.18-0.dag.rh90.i386.rpm

dvd+rw-tools - I  use the version dvd+rw-tools-5.13.4.7.4-1.i386.rpm

dvdauthor - I use the version dvdauthor-0.5.3-1.9.i386.rpm

The Process:

First, I find the .nuv file for the program that I want to burn to DVD and
rename it an easier filename to refer to, such as program.mpg

Then I run avidemux2.  It will ask if you want to index the MPEG video.  I
select yes.  After that, you should see your TV program in the box.  I then
skip past the commercials at the very beginning of the recording that I want
to exclude and then pause at the start of the program.  I then click on the
"A" marker to mark the beginning of the segment.  I then find the end of the
segment and click "B".  I then go to File->Save Raw Video Stream and save it
to a file such as program1.m2v .  Then I go to File -> Save Audio and save
it to a file such as program1.mp2 .  If you want to edit out commercials
through the entire program, you can repeat these procedures and save the
individual commercial-less segments as program1, program2...

I then run the following command for each segment:

mplex -f 8 -o program1-%d.mpg program1.mp2 program1.m2v

The -f 8 defines that mplex output a dvd compatible stream, and the -o
defines the output file which is program1-%d.mpg where the %d lets mplex
split the file into multiple files such as program1-1 and program1-2 if the
file is too large.

I then run dvdauthor to create a dvd-video file system with the following
commands:

dvdauthor -o mydvd program1-1.mpg program 1-2.mpg ... program2-1.mpg ...

dvdauthor -T -o mydvd

where mydvd is the folder containing the system to be burned to DVD.

I then insert a blank DVD (I use DVD+R) into my drive and run the following
command:

growisofs - /dev/scd0 -V LABEL -dvd-video mydvd

where LABEL is whatever you want the volume label of the dvd to be.

I then delete all the extra files and folders I have created to clear up
space (after checking that the DVD does actually play in my DVD player).

This creates a standalone-DVD-player compatible DVD that starts playing
automatically and does not have a menu.  If you want to get more complicated
and create a menu or have multiple titles on one DVD, check out this site:

http://www.tappin.me.uk/Linux/dvd.html

This site discusses primarily how to take DV video from a DV camera and make
it into a DVD under Linux, but it is very applicable to what us as MythTV
users are doing.  I am actually very interested in doing DV editing and
production under Linux, but it is going to take a while for me to give up
Adobe Premiere. 

I am very new to this process, so if anyone wants to add to this, correct
this, or add to a how-to with part of this, that would be great.  Feel free
to directly change and resubmit.  I just wanted to create an easy to
understand process for anyone like me that would be searching through the
archives that is thinking about buying a DVD burner or already has one and
wants to use it for this application. 

Thanks to everyone who posts - I would still be running Windows watching
re-runs of Seinfeld on TV if this mailing list and its archives weren't
here. 

Jeff Couvrette