[mythtv-users] Re:MythBurn under Fedora?

[Ross Campbell]

> >I was wondering if anyone has had any sucess in getting mythBurn
> >working under fedora. I just got a DVD burner and would like to burn
> >off a bunch of Biographys I have saved to free up some space. Thanks
> >for any advice/tips anyone can provide,

The easiest thing to do to keep all your recordings is to build a RAID
array or buy larger disks. The second easiest thing to do is to burn
dvds full of your .nuv files (probably with the "pretty" names...)
before you delete them. If you want to cram a bunch of episodes onto a
few DVDs, then you should consider delving into nuvexport and using
other tools to burn your DVDs. If you just want a convenient web
interface for making a quick dvd out of a few  shows, MythBurn is
great!

I have gotten it to work under FC1 after much fiddling. If you're
squeamish about compiling your own packages, editing shell scripts,
and debugging... then I'd recommend against it. If all of that just
sounds like another day or two's worth of fun, then here's a rough
summary of what I did to get it to work: (sorry if it's
incomplete/inaccurate, I'm away from my mythtv system at the moment)


system assumptions:
- dvd writer is recognized as a SCSI device, not IDE
- PVRX50 card outputting standard dvd-compliant MPEG2 files

system package upgrades: (not all may be necessary, but in the process
of getting it to work, I tried a lot of upgrades)
- Upgrade ImageMagick from FC1 old version to latest version - install
any missing libs or optional packages
- Upgrade ffmpeg to cvs version - build from source, enable most
options - install any missing dependencies
- Upgrade avidemux to cvs - build, enable most options - install any
missing dependencies
- Upgrade transcode to cvs - build, enable most options - install any
missing dependencies


MythBurn
1) grab latest mythburn from cvs and check software requirements
2) edit install script to point to my default locations
3) install
4) edit default location in scripts for webserver root, change default
user for web, change scripts for database access to reflect my mythtv
user and password
5) grep "/usr/local" in scripts direcory - edit as appropriate to
reflect where my programs are actually stored
6) change the burn script to use mplex ("multiplex") instead of replex
since replex created DVDs that had skips for NTSC
7) do research about why my stills used in dvd menus were colored
wrong and upside down - google for options, hack ImageMagick tool
options in scripts to get stills to be correct (I think I had to
remove "-k" and "-z" or something like that)


I made a bunch of dvd+r coasters in the process of getting this to
work, but fortunately the logging in mythburn made my debugging
relatively easy. Perhaps now there is a much easier way to do this
that what I've outlined, but it *can* be done on just about any OS
with some patience and does work quite well.

The only caveat I have is that mythburn only works with *TRUE* mpeg2
files. If you transcode your pvr250 "nuv" files in mythtv, they will
most likely no longer be mpeg2 files and you will not be able to burn
them with mythburn without first somehow converting them back to mpeg2

The options I wish mythburn had are:
- ability to automatically convert non-mpeg2 transcoded files to mpeg2
- ability to resample mpeg2 files to fit larger videos onto a dvd
(i.e. 2 1/2 hours)
- ability to use nuvexport to burn videos to dvd

-Ross