[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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