[mythtv-users] Transcoding Questions in 0.12

[Clif Deanhardt]

When I was first getting into MythTv, I loaded up the CVS (back in early
September) and fired up transcoding for the shows being recorded by my
PVR250.  Half hour shows that were 1.8g MPEG-2 files were being compressed
to 384MB MPEG-4's with the default settings.

That was WAY, WAY cool, but I was (and still am, to a lesser degree) having
some flakey problems with segfaults and stuff, so I wiped the machine and
loaded from scratch using A.Thimms RPMS for 0.11.  This reduced my crash
interval from daily to weekly, so I decided to live with it and wait
anxiously for 0.12 to come out so I could transcode again.

I installed it last night and set it up to transcode (using the defaults
which seem to be the same as they were in the CVS).  But my 1.8g files are
only being dropped down to 1.0g MPEG-4s.  Is there a guide to setting up the
transcoder to squeeze better?  I've read the Docs/Faqs and I think it's all
set up as it should be.

Part of my confusion may come from the different recording profile
interface.  When I choose "hardware encoders"/"default" I see the normal
options for the PVR250, including an option for "automatically transcode".

When I choose "Transcoders" I see two entries: "RTJpeg/MPEG-4" and "MPEG-2".
Each of these has codec options underneath it, so I'm assuming they mean
"when asked to transcode something that is of this format (RTJpeg/MPEG-4 or
MPEG-2) use this codec and these settings to do that.  Given that
assumption, I focused on the MPEG-2 selection (since I'm using the PVR250).
In it's settings, it too has an option for "automatically transcode".  Does
that mean that after the "Default" uses this transcoder to convert it from a
MPEG-2 to an MPEG-4, this transcoder will fire off ANOTHER transcoding
session to convert the new MPEG-4 into something else (using the
RTJpeg/MPEG-4 transcoder in that case)???

At any rate, it *seems* that when  I convert a MPEG-2 to an MPEG-4 (both at
2200 bitrate and the same audio setings) it only takes a 1.8g file to a 1.0g
file.

So the short questions are:

1. What am I doing wrong/how do I get the transcoder to crunch like I used
to have it doing?
2. Which of the "automatically transcode" check boxes do I need to have
checked if I want scheduled recordings from my PVR250 to be converted into
MPEG-4s?

If it helps, you can see my database settings for the codec at
http://www.deanhardt.com/dbsettings.htm.

Thanks in advance!  And Thanks to Isaac and crew for putting together such
an outstanding project!

Clif