[mythtv-users] Transcode script for pillar boxed SDTV broadcasts on HDTV
Patrick Wagstrom
patrick at wagstrom.net
Tue May 29 19:17:49 UTC 2007
Steve Greene wrote:
> Everyone has probably seen pillarbox broadcasts on HDTV. Because of the
> upsampling, they are still better than the analog broadcasts. Does
> anyone have a script to eliminate the pillar box and create DVD-ready
> files? Are the developers working on a solution for MythDVD?
see ticket 2581 for something quite related
http://svn.mythtv.org/trac/ticket/2581
I'm partial to this, because I wrote the patch and filed the bug.
Basically, it allows you to define multiple transcoders that have a set
aspect ratio. For example, if you set the transcoder to be 4:3 ratio
and if it gets 16:9 input, it will just take the middle portion of the
screen and cut off the pillarboxes. If it's 4:3 input, it leaves the
ratio unchanged. Likewise, it works in reverse and can compensate for
letterboxed content broadcast in 4:3.
The videos are then transcoded just like any other video is transcoded
within MythTV. Just flag the commercials, then tell it to transcode
using autodetect[1]. So, if DVD export works for MPEG4 on your system,
then you'll get the correct aspect ratio.
I've been using it for the last 8 months on my system and my analog
tuner is now idle most of the time, the SD over HD is just better.
Of course, as a downside, not everything is exposed in the UI, but it's
a start. I utilize a cronjob that periodically goes and changes the
transcoders for shows that I know to be pillorboxed. For other
programs, I need to go in by hand and do some SQL hackery, but I can
share the script if folks want it. Here's hoping that mentioning it
will give the patch another kick for the devs and other folks to look at it.
--Patrick
[1] Provided you've run the script I mentioned later in this email. I
tried to hack up a UI that allows you to actually pick your transcoder,
but at the time the transcoders were hardcoded and each had separate
functions in the source. It burned my eyes and I figured I could do it
with a shell script faster.
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