[mythtv] Need some help with programming questions

[Gerald Gryschuk]

Hi.

I'm adding an interface to burn recordings to CD/DVD and I'm wondering
if anyone can answer a couple of questions.

1) Is there a library call or external program that Myth already depends
on that I can use to get the header information from the recorded video
files in order to tell me what format they are in?  Depending on the
type of burned CD/DVD I need to be able to differentiate between
RJPEG,MPEG2 or other formats that may be supported. Heck I need to be
able to tell that an MPEG2 is in the correct format for a standard DVD.
This type of thing makes it possible to reject selections that don't
match the burn type.

2) Does anyone know how to make a file that looks exactly like a blank
DVD? I tried copying a blank DVD using 'dd' which didn't work. I also
just tried creating a large file using dd and '/dev/zero' which also
didn't work. Presumably the latter failed because there's some type of
info at the beginning of a blank DVD that says it's a blank. I want to
do this to attach the file to a loop device symlinked to /dev/dvd in
order to avoid using up blank DVD's during testing.

Thanks for any help.

-- 
Gerald Gryschuk <gerald.gryschuk at shaw.ca>