[mythtv-users] tips on auto-transcoding a recording?

James Miller gajs-f0el at dea.spamcon.org
Tue May 24 22:48:48 UTC 2016


Preparing for a trip overseas and would like to have the ability to view a 
particular recording that my Myth machine is set to auto-record. Mythweb 
is correctly configured for this, so that part of the equation is in 
place. But how to set up the more crucial part--auto-transcoding the 
recording so that it is substantially smaller and thus quicker to 
download--is escaping me. The recording winds up as an mpg file, one 
recorded from an unencrypted NTSC cable connection. I don't care whether 
commercials get cut out, btw.

I was able to set up just this sort of auto-transcoding on my old Myth 
system by just ferreting around through the menu system. This time, either 
my memory and technical acumen have become seriously degraded, thus 
preventing me from accomplishing what I previously had done, or some 
changes to how auto-transcoding is done have been introduced--changes that 
are proving much more difficult for me to grasp.

As to what I'm trying to do more specifically, I would like for that mpg 
file that gets recorded each weekday to, once recording has been 
completed, be transcoded into a file roughly one-tenth the size of the 
original. Replacing the original with the lower-quality transcoded version 
is what I'm after. I realize, based on past experience, that the video 
quality will be pretty terrible at the specified file size--I will be 
viewing it on a netbook, btw. But I can live with the quality degradation 
for the short period during which I will be needing to do this. Format of 
the re-encoded file is not terribly important as I will be using mplayer 
on the netbook end to view it, and mplayer seems to handle just about any 
format I've ever tried with it.

As I said, I've ferreted through the Myth menus and have not thus far 
discovered a way to accomplish what I'm aiming for. I also took a look at 
the wiki and tried and experiment or two, but without success so far. 
Finally, I am trying to set this up at the last minute, as departure is 
slated for tomorrow. So it may be asking too much--given my pretty modest 
technical acumen--to try and set this up on such notice.

Any tips on how to accomplish my aims will be appreciated.

PS This is MythTV 27 running under Gentoo.


More information about the mythtv-users mailing list