[mythtv-users] Advice on exporting recordings - Where to start? myth_make_x264.pl?

[Matthias Thyroff]

Hello All,

I am using mythtv since 2006, and every now and then, i start again
looking into the issue of exporting/transcoding recordings for archiving
purposes.

I have tried different scripts documented in the wiki but I keep failing
one way or the other. Unfortunately, I am not a programmer so I can't
really debug what is going on.

What I want is a user-job, that transcodes my recordings (HDTV 720P,
HDTV 1080i, SD, all from DVB) and stores them in my
/storage/av/video/TV_transcoded directory.

I would like to cut commercials and transcode to lower quality to save
space. Lower resolution / higher compression, if these options are
configurable - great. MKV would be my favourite output format, with h264
inside, plus all audio tracks in ac3 and/or mp3, plus subtitles, if
available)

I found myth_make_x264.pl in the wiki which looks quite promising, but
it does not work (the log looks good up to the point where an mv command
fails because
/storage/temp/11301_20150524175600/11301_20150524175600.mpg.ts is not
found. I am not sure at which stage this file should be created from the
recording's mpg.)

I also found mythvidexport.py. Started as a user job, it fails. (logs?
Don't know where to look) Started with the same parameters on the shell,
it will copy yesterday's news program (chosen as test sample) into
/Movies/Danger Zone 4: Mad Girls, Bad Girls.mpg (???) No transcoding, I
think there are other options just to move the file (mythvfs?)

mythbrake.sh also looks good. But the handbrake transcode fails with
"Error: Invalid audio codec: 0x100".

There is also the mythnuv2mkv script with a note from 2012 that a link
to the script is dead and and some information from archive.org...

Sigh. Before diving deep into trouble-shooting (and molesting the
list... :-) : There are so many approaches to this topic, is there any
such thing as an "official approach"? Or at least a recommended approach
from users who are successfully practicing what I want to do? Something
that will also work when 0.28 gets released because it is still
supported? The wiki seems to have just too much outdated information.
 
Thanks in advance for any help!

Regards,

Matthias