[mythtv-users] Optimal capture resolution for DVD burning

[Nick Craig-Wood]

JCA <1.41421 at gmail.com> wrote:
>      I am currently capturing the video signal from my TV at a 720x480
>  resolution. This resolution is set in two places; first, by means of
>  the ivtvctl command on my WinTV PVR-150 board, and also in the
>  mythfrontend configuration. This works fine. The only problem is that
>  the resulting data occupies a lot of disk space: A three hour show
>  takes up some 7 GB.
> 
>      What I want to do is to capture material and then burn it to a
>  DVD. I understand that capturing at 720x480 is overkill, for
>  broadcasts in the US do not have that resolution. My question would
>  therefore be, What capture resolution should I use, if I want to burn
>  the resulting material to DVD to be watched on a 32" or larger TV,
>  while keeping the best quality without wasting space? The ideal
>  solution would be one that minimizes the processing of the captured
>  material for burning to DVD - currently I only have to replex the MPEG
>  files created by MythTV, in order to obtain output MPEG files that I
>  can directly feed to dvdauthor for the creation of the DVD burning
>  file hierarchy.

You can change the width of the capture and still have DVD compliant
MPEG, eg 352x480 is reasonable quality and low datarate.

Note that the acceptable output formats for DVD are (from DVD FAQ)

  MPEG-2, 525/60 (NTSC): 720x480, 704x480, 352x480
  MPEG-2, 625/50 (PAL):  720x576, 704x576, 352x576
  MPEG-1, 525/60 (NTSC): 352x240
  MPEG-1, 625/50 (PAL):  352x288

Most DVD players will play other widths also.  I discovered my
exceptionally fussy Pioneer player will play 544 wide video.

-- 
Nick Craig-Wood <nick at craig-wood.com> -- http://www.craig-wood.com/nick