[mythtv-users] How to transcode to SD within mythtv - system too slow to play HD

[Raymond Wagner]

On 12/10/13 19:42, A. F. Cano wrote:
> Interestingly, when I tried to transcode manually with the command you 
> gave below, mythffmpeg was not installed.  I installed it via aptitude.
> We'll see if this has any effect next time I record a show.

FFmpeg is a library and transcoding application.  MythTV uses the
library for video decoding and encoding, and ships with an internal fork
of the library. Mythffmpeg is a copy of that application built using
MythTV's internal version of that library, convenient as it provides a
stable target for users wanting to distribute transcoding scripts to others.

> This is what I tried:
> 
> mythffmpeg -threads auto -v verbose -i 2131_20131127030000HD.mpg -s
> 960x512 -acodec mp2 -ac 2 -aspect 16:9 2131_20131127030000.mpg

The only reason to use mp2 is if you're trying to transcode to a format
that could be used in an actual DVD player. If you're not concerned
about size, you may as well just copy the existing audio. It's not going
to be a considerable issue when decoding.

The original aspect ratio is 1920x1080 (1088), so half would be 960x540
(544). You need you resolution to be in multiples of 16. It's possible
ffmpeg was automatically padding to meet that requirement.

> One other question.  I deleted a test recording from within myth.  It
> says that deleting the show from the list does not remove the file.
> Is there a way to manually remove recordings completely? the mpg file,
> the data that gets stored in the database, etc...  I'm aware that there
> is some expiration time, but since the disk is not full, myth is
> apparently not removing shows.

With the default settings, deletion should be performed at the next pass
of the auto-expirer, which should be no longer than 15 minutes. Was this
an original recording, or one you had transcoded? If the latter, is it
possible there was a permissions issue?