[mythtv] Automated Transcoding Suggestions

[Geoffrey Hausheer]

On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 14:53:01 -0600, "Paul Thompson" said:
> I am going to come up with some way to flag associate certain Scheduled 
> Recordings to be transcoded. I think it would be good to allow different 
> transcoding profiles to be created that can be selected as the 
> transcoding choice for a particular Scheduled Recording.

Something like this is already in the works.  For me to handle the MPEG2
transcoding, it means having multiple transcoding profiles, and
associating a specific one with a recording profile.  I don't plan to
associate it on a per-recording basis though, I really see no point
personally.

> 
> Then I am going to hack some way together to cause this transcoding to 
> occur. Again, I don't know exactly how I'll implement that.

If you do this, please make use of the transcoding thread.  Myth already
supports doing automated transcoding, even if it's not with your tool of
choice.  Adding an external transcoder, and associting it with a given
transcoder profile would be a good solution.  If you don't want to remove
the nuv, just delete the line from the transcoding table when done.

> 
> The more I think about this, the more that I think I might just go ahead 
> and hack at MythTV itself. Actually, the more I think about it, the more 
> I think that this is a good replacement for the existing automatic 
> transcoding capability, which could use improvement.

Well, the transcoder has been worked on by mostly one person...me.  It
isn't a very widely used tool, and (honestly) I don't use most of the
features that it has myself.  If you want to improve it, feel free, but
please discuss it before putting together a huge patch.

> 
> Anyhow, I will probably start work on this in the next week. I wanted to 
> toss this out there on the list because:
> 
>    1. I have heard lots of discussions related to this topic.
>    2. I'd like to implement a genericly useful implementation
>       (not just something that "works for me")
> 

If you go ahead, the things I'd like are:
a) use the existing mythbackend transcoding thread to control the
transcoding.  It should be easy enough to add support for calling an
external transcoder.

b) having user-definable transcoding profiles is something I already plan
to do, so it's great if you go forward with it.  Make sure they can be
associated with a given profile (rather than the crude autodetection
method that we have today).  This should also pop open a dialog when 'X'
is selected from the playback screen.  If you want them associated with a
given recording, feel free.

c) support for manual transcoding from mythweb.

Now I'm not asking you to actually do any of the work.  I'm just telling
you where I am planning to go in the future.  Honestly, I will have very
little time for mythtv work until March, and most of what I'll be working
on until then is improving the mpeg2 stuff, which means basically nil on
the frontend/backend code.

> Btw. No offense intended toward anyone concerning existing transcoding 
> options - I just need something more.

No offense for sure.  I'll be glad to have someone actually do some
coding rather than just ask for features :)

Good luck,
.Geoff