[mythtv-users] H.264 Recorded TV Program Image

[Dan Wilga]

On 12/17/14 10:54 AM, jim wrote:
> I wonder if others are experiencing this same scenario?
> When mythtv handles mpeg-2 encoded programs it appears to generate, or
> grab, a single-frame for the user to see when browsing the recorded TV
> programs. After a TV program has been transcoded to H.264 mythtv still
> plays the program without issue, but the single frame is often scrambled
> or nearly all  grey. If others have seen this too, does anyone know of a
> way to achieve better results with the H.264 encoded programming? Thanks.
>
I have lots of things that are either recorded directly in H.264 with an 
MPEG4 container (from a HD-PVR), or converted to H.264 with a .mkv 
container using Handbrake. I've only seen the grey preview problem you 
describe once or twice.

You might try looking in your backend server log (or "ps -auxw | grep 
mythpreviewgen" for something currently running) for calls to 
mythpreviewgen, and then run the same command manually on the 
commandline. Add "-v all" to get lots and lots of debugging info.