[mythtv-users] Storage space and PVR-250

[William Powers]

Try this:  Go into the default recording profile for the PVR250 and set 
your resolution to 352x480 and your encoder bitrate to 2200 
kbit/second.  That's about the absolute minimum bitrate/resolution combo 
I've found to be usable for standard TV.  YMMV.  Record something and 
try watching it over your 802.11b link.  If the playback is jerky, then 
you'll probably need to upgrade to 802.11g or faster, regardless of 
whether you like the picture quality or not.

If the playback is smooth, but you can't stand the picture quality, try 
increasing the bitrate without increasing the resolution and see if you 
can find a setting that works for you.  If you must increase the 
resolution (to, say, 480x480), then you will have to substantially 
increase the bitrate (eg., I use at least 4500 kbps/sec at 480x480 or 
better).  The more you must increase the bitrate, the less the chance 
that 802.11b is going to work for you.

Good luck!

Bill

Derek Tattersall wrote:

>I just set up a mythtv box using a pvr-250 as the capture card. I
>scheduled a recording of a 1/2 hour tv show, and it worked well. When I
>played back the recording it looked great. So far so good. However that
>1/2 hour recording takes up 13gb on my disk. I would like to find a more
>efficient way to store recordings even if I have to sacrifice some
>quality.
>
>How do I set up mythtv to reencode the recordings to a more space
>efficient format?
>