[mythtv-users] dvd respecting cutlist
Cory Papenfuss
papenfuss at juneau.me.vt.edu
Thu Aug 12 08:03:16 EDT 2004
> imho, all of the people writing these myth->dvd scripts should get together
> and standardize on things.
>
I agree completely. I'm somewhat ignorant of nuvexport since for a
variety of reasons I haven't used it. I guess maybe the first step would be to
list what people deem important. Here's a few things that should be
straight-forward and not require too much configuration for a user:
-Video+database "mythtv disc"
Someone mentioned this in the past and I thought it sounded
interesting. Basically, a write disc (CD|DVD) that could contain the bare .nuv
file and a database entry stub that has cutlists, etc. It would be lossless,
although inefficient, and only play correctly on a mythtv box. The nice thing
is that it would be very easy to do, and allow for *SIMPLE* "archive to disc"
functions like a VCR.
-SVCD export
I think the existing packages do this well. Chances are most people
would record at higher than SVCD resolution/bitrate even on an ivtv card, so
re-encoding would generally be necessary anyway. Since there's not much room
on an SVCD, there's not much for options on menus/multiple shows, etc. Not as
much of an issue anymore since DVD burners are so cheap.
-DVD export
Here's where it gets interesting. Not everyone has the same desires
for the end result, and it significantly depends on if it's a bttv or ivtv
capture. A few options that seem popular:
-Max quality with ivtv record at dvd-friendly resolution (720x480, 704x480).
This requires GOP-based lossess MPEG cutting. Not very space-efficient since
ivtv cards need fairly high bitrate/resolution to capture quality. Get at
most 2 hours on a DVD with careful planning.
-Med quality with ivtv record. This is what I currently do. Record at medium
quality (640x480), run through denoiser/resizer 2-pass transcoder. Record 4
hours of VHS or higher quality (352x480 at 2.5Mbps). Through extensive resolution
test-pattern sample captures, I've concluded that the ivtv card (pvr-250 oem
that I have anyway) doesn't really capture more than about 400x480 anyway so
recording higher than that is silly. That's 6 1-hour long shows without
commercials. It does require significant processing for the transcode (4hr/hr
on 2 GHz athlon), but the results are pretty good and space-efficient.
Most would probably want to add menus/chapters if there were 6 shows on a
disc.
-... what else? I'm running out of steam on this post, so feel free to
contribute to a "wishlist." :)
-Cory
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