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

[Chris Isip]

I finally got around to trying a few scripts for transcoding down the size
of my recordings. I tried converting to mpeg4 first but at about 250
bitrate, the videos became very blocky and I haven't achieved the 90%
filesize reduction I was shooting for. Last night I realized that mythtv can
play h264, just not AAC.  So I converted a few recordings to h264 with mp3
audio and was able to bring the size of an hour recording from 1.5 Gig to
150 megabytes.  On a 32 inch  crt  tv  watching about 6 feet away, the
resulting video is very watchable.  There is some graphical distortion a few
seconds after forwarding or rewinding.    Apart from  transcoding, the seek
table needed to be rebuilt and the database record for the filesize needs to
be updated.  I got this idea from a cleanvideo.py script from
http://computing.dwighthubbard.info/.   I integrated some ideas from the
cleanvideo script with the script I use for transcoding videos for the ipod
touch changing the audio codec  to mp3.     Hopefully, these videos would
still work in the ipod touch and mythweb.
I am now in the process of encoding entire batches of shows on a per title
basis using another 3 Ghz P4 machine.  Thanks to all who replied to this
thread.

Chris
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