[mythtv-users] Using Handbrake to transcode recordings to an iPhone

[Harry Devine]

On 03/09/2011 01:04 PM, Gabe Rubin wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 9:56 AM, Harry Devine<lifter89 at comcast.net>  wrote:
>> On 3/9/2011 12:50 PM, Gabe Rubin wrote:
>>> On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 6:18 AM, Harry Devine<lifter89 at comcast.net>    wrote:
>>>> I found a thread yesterday that discussed this, so I thought I'd give it
>>>> a try since I just got a Verizon iPhone, and thought it would be neat to
>>>> bring a few recordings with me to watch during my lunch break at work.
>>>> I installed Handbrake on my backend, and ran the following command:
>>>>
>>>> ./HandbrakeCLI -i<file>    -o<file>.mp4 --preset="iPhone&    iPod Touch"
>>>>
>>>> That created an mp4 file that I got down to my Windows box.  When I try
>>>> to use iTunes to put it on to my iPhone,  I get an error saying that the
>>>> file could not be imported since it cannot be played on the iPhone
>>>> (something like that; I'm paraphrasing).
>>>>
>>>> Has anyone had much luck or success getting recordings transcoded for,
>>>> and on to, an iPhone?  Specifically an iPhone 4?  The iPhone OS version
>>>> is 4.2.6 if that matters.  I also have it jail-broken too.
>>>>
>>> Harry, I tried to do this using tools available on myth (although not
>>> handbrake).  I found that it was better to install handbrake on my
>>> windows machine, copy the file from my mythbox, and transcode on the
>>> windows box.  The added benefit is that the Windows box is a quad-core
>>> phenom and the mythbox is a single core sempron, so it likely works a
>>> lot faster on the windows box and does not tie up myth's resources.
>>>
>>> The windows version has a gui frontend and presets for the iphone.  I
>>> can transcode an hour HD recording to the iPhone in around real time.
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> mythtv-users mailing list
>>> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
>>> http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>>>
>> Thanks!  I'll give that a shot.  But you are able to take the transcoded
>> file and put it onto your iPhone via iTunes and play it, correct?
>>
> Yes.  I was also able to put them on an iPad (which was my primary
> target).  I did it at the iPhone setting to conserve space and put
> more movies on the iPad.  Works really well (plus the cool factor of
> telling people that I converted these movies from my homebrew dvr, yet
> another reason myth is a superior product).
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>
I got this to work for me pretty well.  I used the windows GUI at first, 
but it took over 4 hours to transcode a recording.  When it was done, I 
was able to transfer it to my iPhone via iTunes.  I did notice that the 
file was an m4v file and not an mp4.  So,  I re-did the cli version on 
my backend and, wouldn't ya know it, it worked as well.  I did use the 
iPhone preset instead of "iPhone & iPod Touch" preset.

So my next step will be to script it and make a user job out of it.  One 
question with that though (and I can make this a seperate thread if it 
will help): I have 1 user job already which will run mythlink.pl to 
create human readable show name links.  Does Myth run each job in order, 
1 at a time?  Or are they kicked off simultaneously?  I don't want to 
have the iPhone transcode going on while the mythlink.pl job is 
running.  Granted, the mythlink job is relatively fast.

Just curious.  Thanks for the help, and for any answers on the job 
questions.
Harry