[mythtv-users] Transcoding to mp4 to reduce file size

[Dan Wilson]

On 11/10/2007 at 9:37 AM Chris Isip wrote:

> On Nov 9, 2007 7:16 PM, Dan Wilson <dwilson at dslextreme.com> wrote:
> 
> > On 11/9/2007 at 6:31 PM Chris Isip wrote:
> >
> > > I'm hitting the limits of my file storage.  I was wondering if there
> is
> > > a
> > > way that I can transcode the mpeg2 programs to mpeg4 and still let the
> > > videos be viewable in mythtv "Watch Recordings".
> > >
> >
> > I use the internal transcoding available in myth to convert mpeg2 into
> > mpeg4.  I get about 50% reduction in size, bringing an hour of SD tv
> down to
> > about 1 GB.
> >
> 
> I was looking more towards a reduction  in size from 1.43  GB to 200 MB
> for
> a 1 hour SD show.  I found a ffmpeg formula for transoding to ipod touch
> and
> it did just that.  The quality was acceptable for playback fullscreen on
> my
> TV as well , but mythtv will not play it ( I tried renaming the transcoded
> file to the original filename).
> 
> Has anybody used ffmpeg or mencoder to achieve this.  I'm not really sure
> what myth thinks the video should be before it can play it.  Theres
> probably
> going to be some database edits as well.
> 

Well, I only get a reduction to 1GB because I set the quality to high and set fps to 2200.  If you reduced fps and turned off the "high quality" flag, I imagine you would get a significantly reduced file.

Dan.