[mythtv-users] Video Cam to AVI, AVI to DVD, AVI playback ??

[Dewey Smolka]

On 10/31/06, Ed Gatzke <ed.gatzke.groups at gmail.com> wrote:
> Is there an easy way to get video out of a camcorder using firewire?  My PC
> software makes AVI files, but I assume myth or linux can do this.  Can they
> do this easily?
>

First, what format does your camcorder record in? Does your
(presumably proprietary) PC sofware do the conversion or does the
camcorder? What make/model is the camcorder?

>  Also, can I burn AVI to DVD?  I have had success with TV recordings, but I
> did not see an option for AVI (or ripped DVDs for that matter).  I assume
> the AVI needs transcoding.

What capture card are you using? AVI is an MPEG-4 format; most
recommended cards for Mythtv are hardware-encoding MPEG-2 cards.

If I can parse your question a bit -- is there any way to dump raw
video from your camera with firewire?

Maybe. It depends how the camera stores raw data.

Second is there any other way to get the data into Mythtv and later onto a DVD.

Yes, most certainly.

The problem you're likely running into is in using a PC-based program
to transcode raw DV into MPEG-4, then having to transcode that into
DVD-compliant MPEG-2.

The quick and dirty hack would be to plug your camera's output into
the input of your capture card, do:

$cat /dev/video0 > /path/to/myvideo.mpg

and press 'play' on your camera.

This will simply capture whatever your camera is putting out in
whatever format and resolution you have your capture card configured
for.

Depending on the make and model of your camera, you may be able to
dump raw DV with it, which should make it easier to format for DVD.

But what you're asking for is a bit confusing. If the camera records
natively in MPEG-4 AVI, then Myth can import whatever recordings as
is. If the camera records natively in MPEG-2 or raw DV, then Myth also
is able to deal with the files as is.

If, on the other hand, the camera records in a proprietary format that
requires a Win-based program to transcode into MPEG-4, then you're
going to have trouble with a purely digital chain.