[mythtv-users] Archiving Shows to DVD

[Garry Cook]

On 8/29/05, Martin Bene <martin.bene at icomedias.com> wrote:
> 
> > By the way, many of my recordings are transcoded to mpeg4...
> > Should I assume this script won't transcode them properly?
> 
> Unfortunately: yes, you should assume that. The script not only won't
> transcode them properly, it won't transcode them at all :-)
> 
> The scripts assume that the original files are mpeg2 in a DVD comaptible
> resolution (720x576 for pal and 720x480 for ntsc; 704x576 and 704x480
> are also mentioned in the standard and should work, as should a few
> low-res settings).
> 
> Transcoding differet formats is on the radar for the scripts, but not
> right away.
> 
> Next thing I'll add is recoding mpeg2 audio to ac3 for ntsc DVDs - on
> pal, mpeg2 is a required format for all players so no problems there. On
> NTSC ac3 is required and mpeg2 optional; just another way to introduce
> artifical regional incompatibilities in the DVD standard. Works nicely
> on my system, just need to bundle it up as a tarball.
> 
> After that, I'd like to have bitrate reduction using tcrequant - some of
> the DVB stations I receive broadcast at bitrates of ~ 7500kb/s which
> comes to ~ 4GB per hour. Meaning: a feature length film won't fit on a
> DVD as-is.
> 
> Once that works I might add transcoding of different formats - no
> promises though: my system is DVB only, and I don't currently transcode
> anything, so motivation is fairly low.
> 
> Bye, Martin

I've been following this thread for a few days, and hoped to try out
the scripts sometime this week. However, after seeing this post it
appears as though I need some clarification.

If I understand correctly, if I have already transcoded programs from
MPEG2 (recorded from PVR250s and/or PVR500) to MPEG4, then I cannot
use these scripts to burn to DVD. Is this correct?

I guess what I need to do is start recording programs with a different
profile, so that they will not be automagically transcoded, if I want
to burn them to DVD. Please confirm...

Thanks. 
--g