[mythtv-users] Playing DVDs from the backend optical drive on a frontend device ?

[Nick Rout]

On Mon, Oct 10, 2011 at 9:25 PM, Frank Phillips <frankalso at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 10, 2011 at 12:19 AM, linux guy <linuxguy123 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> BTW, I am not sure about the MKV file being ready (almost) immediately.
>> MakeMKV and others have options for single and dual pass conversion.
>> Obviously if it can stream it can convert the file in a single pass.
>>
>
> Single-pass/dual-pass are transcoding terms. Even though the MakeMKV
> homepage calls it a "transcoder", I consider this an incorrect usage
> since it does not convert using a different codec. It only repackages
> the files in different containers (e.g. HDMV to MKV). There is no
> recompression, the codec remains the same as the original: mpeg2, h264
> or vc1. The only way it can create a smaller representation than what
> is on disc is if you tell it to skip certain tracks, such as hidef
> audio.
>
> Install mkvtoolnix and run mkvmerge -i on one of the files and you can
> see what tracks it contains. Each of these tracks can be extracted
> (with mkvextract) into normal audio or video files. The mkv is just a
> container.

mediainfo is also good for looking at what tracks (i prefer the word
streams) are in the file.