[mythtv-users] HD Transcoder to .mkv?

[Rich Freeman]

On Sat, Oct 25, 2014 at 10:38 AM, Lucas Christian <lucas at lucasec.com> wrote:
> I dealt with the same problem when I was creating my initial setup, although
> I wanted to transcode my content to mp4 files compatible with iOS devices.
>

So far I've seen a few examples of transcoding recordings to make
copies playable on other devices/etc, but leaving the original
recording intact.  In one case the internal player isn't even used.

I'm curious about what people are doing about things like commercials
in this case?  Also, how do you manage deletion of recordings (do you
just let everything autoexpire regardless of watched status)?

Finally, I'm curious as to whether anybody has managed to do
transcoding of recordings intended to be played through the front end
that are something other than the .nuv containers with mpeg-4 and
mp3/pcm audio?  In particular I'd be interested in preserving AC3
while improving the codec and lowering the resolution (I don't need
everything in 1080p and FIOS tends to have very high bitrates).  Right
now I just keep shows I really care about at full-resolution, while
downscaling and dropping 5.1 on shows I don't care as much about maybe
a week after the original recording.  That can reduce disk usage by
something like 80%, but I give up more than I'd really like to while
doing it.

I haven't tried tackling this problem recently - the internal player
has certainly improved since my last attempt, so maybe it is less
fussy about input formats now.

--
Rich