Some keep saying that there's no point to ever-increasing drive storage numbers. I disagree. Huge drives will always be appreciated in media PCs, where good-quality video (even if compressed) takes up a good chunk of storage space.
As the owner of a MythTV box equipped with dual HD cable boxes (*and* fortunate enough to have a cable provider that doesn't 5C encode its HD premium movie channels) and a HD over-the-air capture card, all of which I can use simultaneously, I can testify to that.
Here's my experience with bandwidth use: * Digital non-HDTV channels generate the smallest files at about 900-1000MB/hour for a movie channel and up to 1200MB/hour for a cartoon (with probably a lower-quality feed). * Analog channels such as TCM generate about 2900MB/hour due to the extra noise. * HDTV premium movie channels generate about 4400MB-4700MB/hour. * A high-bandwidth HDTV channel (defined as HDNet or Discovery HD Theater and most network affiliates over cable or over-the-air) generates 7400-7700MB/hour . . . * Except for ABC and Fox, whose 720p programs record at about 5.8GB/hour.
On the MythTV box's dedicated NAS, I have (according to MythWeb) 176 programs, using 1.6 TB (324 hrs 32 mins) out of 1.8 TB (111 GB free). Almost all of the programs are high-definition movies. Examples:
* The Untouchables, 125 minutes, 16GB * St. Elmo's Fire, 120 minutes, 15GB * Shakespeare in Love, 125 minutes, 16GB * Ben-Hur, 215 minutes, 15GB * The Matrix Revolutions, 135 minutes, 11GB * A Passage to India, 165 minutes, 21GB * La Bamba, 110 minutes, 14GB * Mona Lisa Smile, 120 minutes, 6.1GB (Commercials transencoded out) * Spider-Man 2, 135 minutes, 12GB * Batman Begins, 150 minutes, 11GB * Seabiscuit, 180 minutes, 10GB (Commercials transencoded out) * Witness, 115 minutes, 11GB * The Passion of the Christ, 135 minutes, 9.8GB * The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 205 minutes, 19GB * Doctor Zhivago, 215 minutes, 14GB * Emma, 129 minutes, 12GB * Bye Bye Birdie, 124 minutes, 16GB * Giant, 204 minutes, 26GB * GoodFellas, 154 minutes, 12GB * Bullitt, 124 minutes, 16GB * Real Genius, 119 minutes, 11GB * Pulp Fiction, 164 minutes, 12GB
. . . etc., etc. Many of the larger-sized films were recorded off of HDnet Movies, which is an especial godsend for any movie lover. (I *can't wait* for the day TCM starts broadcasting in HD!) My all-time champion, now unfortunately lost in a box rebuild, was NBC's The Sound of Music annual broadcast. Four hours, including commercials, and 28GB!
The HDTV broadcasts which he records are already compressed using MPEG2 compression. It's much better quality (and exactly the same as when you watch it at home) to just record the MPEG bitstream coming in off the firewire cable, rather than convert it to analog and then back to digital again.
MPEG2 requires a quite a bit of space relative to newer formats. I believe upwards of 2.5mb/sec. I was thinking MPEG4 a la DivX or Xvid could give similar picture quality with a smaller footprint.
Which HDTV card do you use? I use the Technisat Air2PC-ATSC-PCI [www.bbti.us] in Windows XP Pro. SP2. Nice cheap card for ATSC. However, its software (DVB Viewer) is buggy and feature limited.
Those are supported in the latest (2.6.16) linux kernels without having to add anything (I just upgraded Fedora core 4 to a 2.6.16 kernel) - then you can use dvb-apps to scan for stations and zap it to channels, plays with xine and mplayer, save the transport stream to disk, re-encode with mencoder, etc. I also have a Technisat Skystar2 card that works about the same for the free satellite stations.
Which HDTV card do you use? I use the Technisat Air2PC-ATSC-PCI in Windows XP Pro. SP2. Nice cheap card for ATSC.
I have the Airstar HD5000, the Air2PC's successor. Not that having one versus the other matters in what we both use it for, ATSC. Linux supports both cards very well.
However, its software (DVB Viewer) is buggy and feature limited.
Get thee to MythTV immediately! Or, if you don't want to go to the trouble of installing a Linux box just for it, get yourself Sage TV or some commercial package. I can'
part of me wants to bow before you for your system.
the other part of me wants to mock you for telling all of slashdot that you recorded "mona lisa smile."
part of me wants to bow before you for your system.
And you should! (As well as bowing before my four-digit Slashdot ID, you 900K+ peon.)
Seriously, I really am curious to hear whether the commercial PVR software packages like Windows MCE, SageTV, or EyeTV can, like my MythTV box, simultaneously record two FireWire streams and one ATSC stream. (I could of course record more if desired simply by using additional cable boxes and capture cards.) Having never owned any of them, I don't have any firsthand experie
Analog channels such as TCM generate about 2900MB/hour due to the extra noise.
GAH! Information... lacking... all... context...
A high-bandwidth HDTV channel (defined as HDNet or Discovery HD Theater and most network affiliates over cable or over-the-air) generates 7400-7700MB/hour . ..
HDTV streams have HORRIBLY poor compression. They encode with a constant bitrate, and use a very, very small GOP size (so you don't have to wait very long for the picture to appear when channel-surfing).
Nice imitation of Comic Book Guy's death-in-Lucite speech. Otherwise, not sure what you mean here. My understanding is that, over FireWire, *all* the channels on the cable box--whether HD digital, regular digital, or analog--are sent in MPEG2 format. The fact remains that in my experience analog channels take up much more space per hour than non-HD digital cha
The fact remains that in my experience analog channels take up much more space per hour than non-HD digital channels, whose signals are of course much cleaner.
Bitrate and filesize of an analog capture are traits that YOU SET, not some inherent property the video has. If you would have said "my cable box encodes them at..." or "they don't look very good below this size..." etc., I likely would have understood.
With (apparently) better hardware MPEG-2 capture cards, only perhaps a bitrate of half that would b
Bitrate and filesize of an analog capture are traits that YOU SET, not some inherent property the video has.
As I've made clear from the beginning, I don't have any analog capture cards. Neither FireWire cable boxes nor ATSC capture cards emit any analog signals to me from my perspective.
One of us is confused. x264 is the name of a GPLd h.264 implimentation, specifically for Linux, written by the VLC guys.
Sorry for the confusion; the last time I saw x264 discussed on mythtv-users it was said that the Linux G
Will try this; in my experience -vo gl has been slower (or, at least, no faster) than -vo xv, but perhaps the additional switches will make a difference.
I should mention that -vo gl underwent some major changes after 1.0pre7, so you need a CVS snapshot or wait for 1.0pre8 (probably a couple weeks away).
This dungeon is owned and operated by Frobozz Magic Co., Ltd.
High-definition MythTV box is *wonderful* (Score:5, Interesting)
As the owner of a MythTV box equipped with dual HD cable boxes (*and* fortunate enough to have a cable provider that doesn't 5C encode its HD premium movie channels) and a HD over-the-air capture card, all of which I can use simultaneously, I can testify to that.
Here's my experience with bandwidth use:
* Digital non-HDTV channels generate the smallest files at about 900-1000MB/hour for a movie channel and up to 1200MB/hour for a cartoon (with probably a lower-quality feed).
* Analog channels such as TCM generate about 2900MB/hour due to the extra noise.
* HDTV premium movie channels generate about 4400MB-4700MB/hour.
* A high-bandwidth HDTV channel (defined as HDNet or Discovery HD Theater and most network affiliates over cable or over-the-air) generates 7400-7700MB/hour . . .
* Except for ABC and Fox, whose 720p programs record at about 5.8GB/hour.
On the MythTV box's dedicated NAS, I have (according to MythWeb) 176 programs, using 1.6 TB (324 hrs 32 mins) out of 1.8 TB (111 GB free). Almost all of the programs are high-definition movies. Examples:
* The Untouchables, 125 minutes, 16GB
* St. Elmo's Fire, 120 minutes, 15GB
* Shakespeare in Love, 125 minutes, 16GB
* Ben-Hur, 215 minutes, 15GB
* The Matrix Revolutions, 135 minutes, 11GB
* A Passage to India, 165 minutes, 21GB
* La Bamba, 110 minutes, 14GB
* Mona Lisa Smile, 120 minutes, 6.1GB (Commercials transencoded out)
* Spider-Man 2, 135 minutes, 12GB
* Batman Begins, 150 minutes, 11GB
* Seabiscuit, 180 minutes, 10GB (Commercials transencoded out)
* Witness, 115 minutes, 11GB
* The Passion of the Christ, 135 minutes, 9.8GB
* The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 205 minutes, 19GB
* Doctor Zhivago, 215 minutes, 14GB
* Emma, 129 minutes, 12GB
* Bye Bye Birdie, 124 minutes, 16GB
* Giant, 204 minutes, 26GB
* GoodFellas, 154 minutes, 12GB
* Bullitt, 124 minutes, 16GB
* Real Genius, 119 minutes, 11GB
* Pulp Fiction, 164 minutes, 12GB
. . . etc., etc. Many of the larger-sized films were recorded off of HDnet Movies, which is an especial godsend for any movie lover. (I *can't wait* for the day TCM starts broadcasting in HD!) My all-time champion, now unfortunately lost in a box rebuild, was NBC's The Sound of Music annual broadcast. Four hours, including commercials, and 28GB!
Re:High-definition MythTV box is *wonderful* (Score:1)
Re:High-definition MythTV box is *wonderful* (Score:2)
The HDTV broadcasts which he records are already compressed using MPEG2 compression. It's much better quality (and exactly the same as when you watch it at home) to just record the MPEG bitstream coming in off the firewire cable, rather than convert it to analog and then back to digital again.
Re:High-definition MythTV box is *wonderful* (Score:1)
Which HDTV card? (Score:2)
Re:Which HDTV card? (Score:1)
Re:Which HDTV card? (Score:2)
I have the Airstar HD5000, the Air2PC's successor. Not that having one versus the other matters in what we both use it for, ATSC. Linux supports both cards very well.
Get thee to MythTV immediately! Or, if you don't want to go to the trouble of installing a Linux box just for it, get yourself Sage TV or some commercial package. I can'
Re:Which HDTV card? (Score:2)
Re:High-definition MythTV box is *wonderful* (Score:1)
Re:High-definition MythTV box is *wonderful* (Score:2)
And you should! (As well as bowing before my four-digit Slashdot ID, you 900K+ peon.)
Seriously, I really am curious to hear whether the commercial PVR software packages like Windows MCE, SageTV, or EyeTV can, like my MythTV box, simultaneously record two FireWire streams and one ATSC stream. (I could of course record more if desired simply by using additional cable boxes and capture cards.) Having never owned any of them, I don't have any firsthand experie
Re:High-definition MythTV box is *wonderful* (Score:3, Interesting)
GAH! Information... lacking... all... context...
HDTV streams have HORRIBLY poor compression. They encode with a constant bitrate, and use a very, very small GOP size (so you don't have to wait very long for the picture to appear when channel-surfing).
Using a better codec
Re:High-definition MythTV box is *wonderful* (Score:2)
Nice imitation of Comic Book Guy's death-in-Lucite speech. Otherwise, not sure what you mean here. My understanding is that, over FireWire, *all* the channels on the cable box--whether HD digital, regular digital, or analog--are sent in MPEG2 format. The fact remains that in my experience analog channels take up much more space per hour than non-HD digital cha
Re:High-definition MythTV box is *wonderful* (Score:2)
Bitrate and filesize of an analog capture are traits that YOU SET, not some inherent property the video has. If you would have said "my cable box encodes them at..." or "they don't look very good below this size..." etc., I likely would have understood.
With (apparently) better hardware MPEG-2 capture cards, only perhaps a bitrate of half that would b
Re:High-definition MythTV box is *wonderful* (Score:2)
As I've made clear from the beginning, I don't have any analog capture cards. Neither FireWire cable boxes nor ATSC capture cards emit any analog signals to me from my perspective.
Sorry for the confusion; the last time I saw x264 discussed on mythtv-users it was said that the Linux G
Re:High-definition MythTV box is *wonderful* (Score:2)
I should mention that -vo gl underwent some major changes after 1.0pre7, so you need a CVS snapshot or wait for 1.0pre8 (probably a couple weeks away).