[mythtv-users] Question on recording sizes and DVD burning

Wed Jan 22 20:24:32 UTC 2014

On 1/22/2014 12:49 AM, Joseph DeGraw wrote:
> On 01/21/2014 11:12 PM, John Finlay wrote:
>> On 1/21/2014 5:02 PM, Joseph DeGraw wrote:
>>> On 01/21/2014 06:17 PM, John Finlay wrote:
>>>> On 1/21/2014 2:03 PM, Joseph DeGraw wrote:
>>>>> On 01/21/2014 04:16 PM, John Finlay wrote:
>>>>>> On 1/21/2014 8:51 AM, Joseph DeGraw wrote:
>>>>>>> On 01/21/2014 11:32 AM, John Pilkington wrote:
>>>>>>>> On 21/01/14 15:21, Joseph DeGraw wrote:
>>>>>>>>> On 01/21/2014 09:56 AM, John Pilkington wrote:
>>>>>>>>>> On 21/01/14 14:27, Joseph DeGraw wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>> On 01/21/2014 09:08 AM, Joseph DeGraw wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>> A while ago I upgraded my hardware to include HD recording
>>>>>>>>>>>> with a
>>>>>>>>>>>> ceton
>>>>>>>>>>>> card and its been great. However, My girlfriend wants to burn
>>>>>>>>>>>> some of
>>>>>>>>>>>> her shows to DVD that are 2 hours long. However the size of the
>>>>>>>>>>>> files
>>>>>>>>>>>> are like 10 gigs. In mytharchive they can come down to just
>>>>>>>>>>>> over 5
>>>>>>>>>>>> gigs.
>>>>>>>>>>>> The shows are 1920x? HD from comcast provider. I was thinking
>>>>>>>>>>>> that
>>>>>>>>>>>> reducing them to 720i would be fine to make them smaller to
>>>>>>>>>>>> fit on
>>>>>>>>>>>> DVD.
>>>>>>>>>>>> This brings up transcoding (which Im looking into right now)
>>>>>>>>>>>> and
>>>>>>>>>>>> profiles.
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> How do you handle this?
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> jdegraw
>>>>>>>>>>> Ok, I have gone into the menu in mytharchive after reading an
>>>>>>>>>>> older
>>>>>>>>>>> thread and selected a recording profile. I guess my only
>>>>>>>>>>> question
>>>>>>>>>>> is :
>>>>>>>>>>> What do the different profiles mean?
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> HQ, EP, LP, SD
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> I know if I select a SD setting it will not finish and stalls
>>>>>>>>>>> out. I
>>>>>>>>>>> dont even get an error message. Therefore, Iam trying the LP one
>>>>>>>>>>> for a
>>>>>>>>>>> single sided DVD for a 10 gig, 2 hour Lifetime Network movie.
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> MythTV .27 / Mythbuntu 12.04 based
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> With much of the USA now apparently HD only this is clearly
>>>>>>>>>> getting to
>>>>>>>>>> be a common problem, and at present I don't think MythArchive
>>>>>>>>>> handles
>>>>>>>>>> it well.  The encoder options are defined here: (Fedora build)
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> /usr/share/mythtv/mytharchive/encoder_profiles/ffmpeg_dvd_ntsc.xml
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> and are used within
>>>>>>>>>> /usr/share/mythtv/mytharchive/scripts/mythburn.py
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> I suspect that the best option would be two-pass specifying the
>>>>>>>>>> required file size; a fairly minor edit of the HQ option,
>>>>>>>>>> probably,
>>>>>>>>>> but requiring some research in the ffmpeg documentation or code.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> As far as I can see the -b:v value doesn't do much.  The pal-dvd
>>>>>>>>>> profile, which I use, seems to focus on a q value of 2 as its
>>>>>>>>>> guiding
>>>>>>>>>> light.  That isn't specified in the file above.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> If at present you are getting a 5 GB file the m2vrequantiser
>>>>>>>>>> option
>>>>>>>>>> within MythArchive will shrink that quickly with a quality that
>>>>>>>>>> should
>>>>>>>>>> be acceptable, but I wouldn't like to rely on it for much higher
>>>>>>>>>> ratios.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> HTH
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> John P
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>>>> mythtv-users mailing list
>>>>>>>>>> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
>>>>>>>>>> http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Thank you John,
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> So, It seems that SP is the profile to use on these large HD
>>>>>>>>> recordings.
>>>>>>>>> Iam having a problem that it seems to take a rather long time
>>>>>>>>> to run
>>>>>>>>> mytharchive and it seems to be stuck at this point:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> *mythffmpeg -threads 6 -v 1 -i
>>>>>>>>> "/var/lib/mytharchive/temp/work/1/newfile.mpg" -r ntsc -target
>>>>>>>>> ntsc-dvd
>>>>>>>>> -b:v 4771k -s 720x480 -acodec copy -copyts -aspect 16:9
>>>>>>>>> "/var/lib/mytharchive/temp/work/1/newfile2.mpg" -map 0:0 -map
>>>>>>>>> 0:1 *
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I see that mythmmpeg is still running and taking up ALOT of CPU
>>>>>>>>> time.
>>>>>>>>> Using 'Top' it shows approximately 200 in cpu usage. Seems to
>>>>>>>>> just sit
>>>>>>>>> there for hours. Is this normal? I dont have any error messages
>>>>>>>>> in any
>>>>>>>>> of the logs - mythburn.log, progress.log, kern.log.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> What does show in 'top' is that mythmmpeg is still running and
>>>>>>>>> sometimes
>>>>>>>>> will spawn another mythmmpeg process.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> jdegraw
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Yes, I think it's normal.   That's one of the problems.  Try
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> mythffmpeg  -v verbose -i "infileHD.mpg" -target ntsc-dvd
>>>>>>>> "outfileSD.mpg"
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> on a short recording and see how it goes.  I'm not sure how far my
>>>>>>>> experience, with h264 recordings, relates to yours, but the -copyts
>>>>>>>> seemed to be the main problem for me.  ffmpeg -i <filename> should
>>>>>>>> show what you're dealing with.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>> mythtv-users mailing list
>>>>>>>> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
>>>>>>>> http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I will give that a try. Thank you very much for your responses.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I did try it earlier on a 1/2 show and it did a good job and burned
>>>>>>> the
>>>>>>> cd. Currently, mythffmpeg is still running but at a lower cpu use.
>>>>>>> But I
>>>>>>> dont see any disk activity. So, Im going to just let it run till
>>>>>>> this
>>>>>>> afternoon. I will also try your suggestion and see what I get.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Last time I actually ran out of swap space. So, I bought an
>>>>>>> additional 4
>>>>>>> gigs to boost me to 8 gigs. Now that is not a problem anymore :)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Nothing in the error logs and mytharchive log still shows the
>>>>>>> mythffmpeg
>>>>>>> command line in the log as the last entry. Perhaps I assumed that
>>>>>>> something was going wrong and killed the process, removed the lock
>>>>>>> file
>>>>>>> and cleaned up the temp directory when I should have just let it run
>>>>>>> instead?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> I gave up using mytharchive and use mythffmpeg to transcode my HD
>>>>>> programs for making DVDs and use a command line like:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> mythffmpeg -i <inputfilename>.mpg -map 0:0 -map 0:<1 or 2>
>>>>>> -deinterlace -target ntsc-dvd -aspect 16:9 -acodec copy
>>>>>> <outputfilename>.mpg
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The -map 0:<1 or 2> is used to select the best audio channel which
>>>>>> usually is ac3 5.1. I leave out the -deinterlace if the program is
>>>>>> 720p. I copy the audio since I see no reason to transcode it to mp2.
>>>>>> For a 120m movie in 1080i it takes about 140m using my old dual core
>>>>>> AMD and produces a file which is about 4.1G. The transcode uses about
>>>>>> 120% CPU according to top.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Then I use dvdauthor and mkisofs to gen the ISO.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> John
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> mythtv-users mailing list
>>>>>> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
>>>>>> http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>>>>>>
>>>>> Ok, Adding to my last post (sorry) I guess the reason it takes soooooo
>>>>> long for me is that Iam rescaling a 1920x<whatever> recording with
>>>>> a bit
>>>>> rate of 9000 to a 720 resolution and a bit rate of 4771.
>>>>>
>>>>> I will just let it run and see how long this thing goes. Probably look
>>>>> around to see if this thing is broadcast in 720 instead. Then I dont
>>>>> have to convert the video and it will probably take alot less time.
>>>>>
>>>>> jdegraw
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>
>>>> Actually it seems that you are transcoding to 480 not 720. The
>>>> confusion is that you are going from 1920x1080 (1080i) to 720x480
>>>> (480i) . Try a command similar to mine and see if that works better.
>>>> If so then the command generated by mytharchive is likely the problem.
>>>>
>>>> John
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> mythtv-users mailing list
>>>> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
>>>> http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>>>>
>>> John,
>>>
>>> Im running your settings right now. This will probably take a while and
>>> not sure if I will still be awake when it finishes. I noticed you didnt
>>> use the 'threads' option in your command line for mythffmpeg. Any
>>> reason?
>>>
>>>
>> You don't need to run the command for long to see if it is working
>> better. What is the fps it's working at? Should be over 10 fps for it
>> to finish in under 6h
>>
>> John
>> _______________________________________________
>> mythtv-users mailing list
>> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
>> http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>>
> John,
>
> I got approx. 61fps, The video came out to 5gb. Worked good.
>
> Using the same command line arguments as you I was able to get the video
> down to 5gb. Not bad. I have not even cut commercials yet so that will
> take it farther.
>
>
I didn't add the -threads option just to keep things simple but you can 
try adding -threads to the decode and encode to see what difference in 
speed they make.

John