[mythtv-users] HD MPEG2 ->SD DVD?

[Ken Scales]

Ken Mandelberg wrote:
> Obviously I need to transcode, build an ISO, and then burn. I've tried 
> mythtranscode and nuvexport, and have yet to get something that looks 
> decent, has the right dvd resolution and proper audio sync.
>
> I would appreciate some hints (linux only).
>   
I transcoded several recordings (720p with AC3 DD5.1) for DVD a few 
months ago using ffmpeg with very good success using the script below. 
When I burned the resulting files to DVD using mytharchive, the result 
was an anamorphic DVD (aka "enhanced for widescreen TVs") with 5.1 
audio. Yeah!

That was when I was running mythbuntu 7.10 -- unfortunately, my recent 
attempts since upgrading to 8.04 haven't turned out quite as good. The 
video isn't nearly as smooth as the earlier transcodes were, as if 
frames were being dropped. Not sure why the newer ones aren't as good.  
Something I plan to investigate. (Not pointing the finger anywhere; 
there may be new options to ffmpeg that I need to add, or it may be 
something about my source recordings. I was using the medibuntu version 
of ffmpeg for both configs.)

Anyway, here's the quickie bash script I used. You'll want to customize 
the values for IN_DIR and OUT_DIR to suit your setup. I have a 
quad-core; you may want to change or remove the "-threads 3" parameter.  
Call the script with the name of the file you want to transcode, e.g.:
   $  hd2dvd recording.mpg

Good luck / Ken

----------  hd2dvd -------------
#! /bin/bash

FILENAME="$1"
IN_DIR="/storage/VRD"
OUT_DIR="/nas/DVDFMT"

echo "--- Converting $1 to DVD format ---"

vidname=$(basename $FILENAME .mpg)
echo "Source filename:  $IN_DIR/$vidname.mpg"
echo "Output filename:  $OUT_DIR/$vidname-dvd.mpg"

#echo "ffmpeg -i $IN_DIR/$vidname.mpg -aspect 16:9 -target ntsc-dvd 
-acodec copy $OUT_DIR/$vidname-dvd.mpg"
#ffmpeg -i $IN_DIR/$vidname.mpg -aspect 16:9 -target ntsc-dvd -acodec 
copy $OUT_DIR/$vidname-dvd.mpg

echo "ffmpeg -i $IN_DIR/$vidname.mpg -aspect 16:9 -threads 3 -target 
ntsc-dvd -acodec copy $OUT_DIR/$vidname-dvd.mpg"
ffmpeg -i $IN_DIR/$vidname.mpg -aspect 16:9 -threads 3 -target ntsc-dvd 
-acodec copy $OUT_DIR/$vidname-dvd.mpg

echo "--- $1 has been converted to DVD format ---"
echo "     ---------   Done   -------------"

-------- End of hd2dvd --------------