[mythtv-users] transcoding/exporting to xvid and winff on Mythbuntu

[F P]

Hi,

I'll give an update on my own question.
I've not succeeded so far in letting winff work, but I have now found
something fine.
What I do now is:
1. In case I want to keep the movie for a while but reduce space
usage: internal transcode, at quite high settings: 480/auto, mpeg4,
res 1800, high qual, 2 threads (btw: the resulting nuv file can be
played with vlc with no issue)
2. In case I want to keep the movie indefinitely and maybe archive it
on a CD/DVD: run the great script mythnuv2mkv
(http://web.aanet.com.au/~auric/?q=node/6), with med or high quality,
depending on the movie. It gives a h264+aac file in the matroska
container. Med qual converts 3.5GB movie in ~500MB at very good
quality, in roughly 2.5 hours on my AMD dual core. The script also
updates the video database and adds metadata. Very nice indeed. In
case you want to try it, a suggestion: I've found out that the script
must be in /usr/local/bin or similar, not in the user home directory,
or else it will not work as a user job.

I'm still interested in your archiving strategy, if you want to share
it, besides the always valid considerations on HD and CD/DVD cost that
someone already shared.

Cheers
Francesco

On Mon, Oct 13, 2008 at 2:37 PM, F P <zagor.fp at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm not satisfied with the quality of the xvid/divx that I obtain with
> the nuvexport script.
> Also the size of the file and the time to process is quite bad: 1.2GB
> for a 2h movie, and ~3hours of processing time, on a dual core.
> I'm using the nuvexport-xvid script, with --mencoder -nice 19.
> Variable bit rate, dual pass.
>
> Now I'm testing mythtv internal transcoder, but it's quite difficult
> to make a comparison test, for it deletes the original file, after
> transcoding. That's really fast, though: I've set it up to rescale it
> to 480/auto, mpeg4, res 1200, high qual, 2 threads. It shrinks from
> 3.4GB to 750Mb in a reasonable quality, in 45min... but in a .nuv
> file, with a terrible name....
>
> So, would you please post your archiving method (internal transcode,
> nuvexport.... mencoder, ffmpeg, mpeg4, rtjpeg, xvid, divix, h264....)
> and settings?
> My target is to reduce size, allow compatibility with players on other
> PCs (also windows), play the resulting file on a TV set, not LCD.
>
> In my serach for the right way of archiving/encoding/transcoding I've
> stumbled upon winff, which seems nice and fast.
> Now, I don't seem to be able to let it work on my mythbuntu 8.04.1.
> I have the medibuntu repo active, and ffmpeg is the latest version
> available, with xvid/divx/h264 support, I guess.
> I have xvid, divx etc available and they work (in fact I can transcode
> to xvid using nuvexport-xvid script).
>
> winff stops immediatly because ffmpeg claims that "xvid" is missing
> ("unknown codec" if I remember correctly), or "divx" or "h264": always
> failing for the same reason.
> ffmpeg from the command line fails with the same messages.
> Anybody knows what to do on mythbuntu to let it work? How to install
> the missing codec or let ffmpeg point to the existing codecs?
>
> Thanks
> F.
>