[mythtv-users] Tools for handling captured video

[Boyd II, Willy]

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Jason Hunt [mailto:jhunt at akula.org] 
>Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2003 9:10 AM
>To: Discussion about mythtv
>Subject: [mythtv-users] Tools for handling captured video
>
>
>Greetings,
>
>Hey guys I apologize if this type of question is out of topic 
>for the mailing list, but I was wondering if there is some 
>open source tools to help me handle some of my captured videos.
>
>Here is what I have for example.  I am using a PVR-350, and 
>when I capture a show that last 30 minutes at 480x480 it is 
>still taking up like 1 gig.  I believe since the PVR-350 
>encodes the file as as mpeg file I can not further reduce it 
>with transcoder?  However, I did see something in the docs:
>
>
>"The transcoder re-encodes files from one MythTV format to 
>another. The main purpose of the transcoder is to allow users 
>with hardware encoders (PVR-250) or systems that can only 
>record in RTJpeg due to performance reasons (multiple capture 
>cards, slow system, etc) to create MPEG44 streams to save space."
>
>I am not sure if this applies, but how would one convert this 
>via the command line?

Honestly I'm not positive with the command-line, as I've never really tried.
But if you to watch the show through MythTV, and hit 'X', it will start the
transcoding and run it in the background (meaning you can stop watching now
if you like).  This also depends on your recording profiles being set up
right (make sure Transcoders is set to MPEG4, pick your bitrate, etc)

>
>I guess another question would be what is a good capture video 
>resolution? 480x480 didn't seem like a bad choice, but a 1 gig 
>for 30 mins seems rather large.

What's just as important is the bitrate.  If you have your PVR encoder set
to record at 6000/8000peak (check the recording profiles in setup), then it
will be the same file size regardless of resolution (but one may look
better).  Experiment with cranking down the bitrate and the resolution until
you get something that looks acceptable but is decent size.  I recently
started using 480x352 and 2500/5000 peak, but it looks a little too muddy to
me, so I'm still fooling with it.

>
>Anyway, let's say I do have a video that is 1 gig in size, how 
>can I split this file so I can make a two SVCD's on CDROM for 
>example.  I guess my question also is what tools do people use 
>to split videos up in say 15 meg parts when the upload them to USENET.

Not sure here.  I'm sure someone else will chime in.

>
>As always, thanks for any help.
>
>
>