[mythtv-users] using mythtranscode to keep commercials?

[Graham Stead]

Richard Shaw wrote:
> You can do a manual cutlist by editing the recording, then to a
> mythtranscode -l --outfile $FILE (I believe) which should honor the
> cutlist...
>
> Richard
>
>   
I have tried several permutations but cannot get a transcoded file 
containing only commercials. One of several things happens:
a) Using --inversecut with mythtranscode always produces an error #-84
b) Manually inverting the cut list and running as you describe (I 
replaced $FILE with an actual filename) produces a file barely smaller 
than the original, when the transcoded file should be ~70% smaller:

$ mythtranscode --honorcutlist --infile 1003_20080625030000.mpg 
--outfile 1003_20080625030000.co.mpg -p autodetect --showprogress 
--verbose most > transcode.log
<snip - the cutlist is read properly by mythtranscode>
2008-06-25 18:33:46.075 Honoring the cutlist while transcoding
2008-06-25 18:33:46.076 Cutlist        : 
553-16913,21426-32807,40926-65974,74081-87735,95543-105000
2008-06-25 18:33:46.076 Original Length: 107805 frames
2008-06-25 18:33:46.077 New Length     : 31905 frames
<snip>

As you can see, the output file is not trimmed properly:
$ ls -ltr
-rw-r--r-- 1 mythtv mythtv 2334797824 2008-06-25 04:00 
1003_20080625030000.mpg
-rw-r--r-- 1 gstead  mythtv 2230351876 2008-06-25 18:36 
1003_20080625030000.co.mpg

Either I am completely clueless (quite possible!) or perhaps there is 
some bug in mythtranscode?

What's strange is this works when invoked from the frontend. When 
transcoding is invoked this way, does anyone know if the mythtranscode 
executable invoked, or is an internal function run instead?

Any other thoughts?

best,
-Graham