Recording compressed video?

[mixedup]

Hi,

[1] Is the basic concept that you have to record TV in full mpg first, and then do compression as an afterfact? I'm guessing due to the performance/intensity of grabbing the mpeg2 format to disk first?

[2] If yes what is the basic concept/design to compress automatically? Is it something like:
- dirmon - to monitor for new recordings (but how does it tell if the file is finished?)
- triggers mencoder for transcode
- puts the final compressed version in the gb-pvr recording area - but can you just copy an AVI file into this GB-PVR directory and it will pick it up with a recording? or does it need to be registered in some GB-PVR database? I note if you put AVI's in the video area you then can't delete them through the interface
- delete original

Tks

[sub]

[1] Is the basic concept that you have to record TV in full mpg first, and then do compression as an afterfact? I'm guessing due to the performance/intensity of grabbing the mpeg2 format to disk first?

The idea is to record in whatever native format the cards produce, .mpg or .avi depending on the card.

Trying to compress on the fly as it records, to any non-native format, would result in a big pile of steaming poo...it'd use huge amounts of CPU, most peoples machines wouldnt keep up. You wouldnt be able to record more than one file at a time etc.

[2] If yes what is the basic concept/design to compress automatically? Is it something like:
- dirmon - to monitor for new recordings (but how does it tell if the file is finished?)
- triggers mencoder for transcode
- puts the final compressed version in the gb-pvr recording area - but can you just copy an AVI file into this GB-PVR directory and it will pick it up with a recording? or does it need to be registered in some GB-PVR database? I note if you put AVI's in the video area you then can't delete them through the interface
- delete original

There are lots of ways you can do it. The easiest is just to set GB-PVR to auto convert .MPG to .AVI, and it'll take care of the rest.

[mixedup]

The easiest is just to set GB-PVR to auto convert .MPG to .AVI, and it'll take care of the rest.

Thanks - I'm at 0.94.13 so I'd better check for an update too & the online doco.

Is there a way to arrange it so that such auto converts will occur late at night, or whilst there's not much else going on with the PC? My PC's not the latest spec so I need to be a little careful about doing too many things at once, e.g. recording, watching and transcoding might be a bit much I'm guessing

[sub]

Is there a way to arrange it so that such auto converts will occur late at night, or whilst there's not much else going on with the PC?

Yes, but you'd need a later version than that.