Controlling a recordings file size???

[clubrulz]

I have my GB PVR set up on an old computer in my basement and usually just copy the file to my USB stick to watch on my home theatre. This worked great until I tried a 2 hr program (5.8 GB) and the USB stick being only 4 GB created a problem. So my question is: Is there any place in the GB PVR settings to control the size of the output file? Say I was recording a hockey game, could I set the file size to 2 GB and then just have 4 - 2GB files created?

[martint123]

I don't think there is an option for this. The only way would be a standalone file splitter.
Can't you run an ethernet link from server to theatre and have a media extender, then you could drive everything from the TV with an MVP or PCH/NMT device

[pBS]

only analog has control over that output filesize...[quality settings]
you can easily split the file up and reassemble on other side if you have someplace to copy it to...but if playing on stick it'd have to be split up manually..

actually ffmpeg can do it...using -ss and -t to set start and length times...
used with '-vcodec copy' and '-acodec copy' it'll be quite fast,in fact only copying without altering video data...
the output will be files that are playable separately..
let me know if you need any help with the ffmpeg line if yo go this route..

[mvallevand]

The lazyman's solution (for me) would be to buy an 8GB drive for $20 dollars.

However another easy to use solution is mpgtx

http://mpgtx.sourceforge.net/

Because it breaks on a GOP you won't have the problems of some chopping utilities, to break your file into 3 chunk it is simply mpgtx -3 filename.mpg

Martin

[CornStopper]

Beat me too it mvallevand, was going to suggest getting a bigger usb stick. Or lower the quality setting at the time of recording, not the best solution, as I have found that analog recordings are not as good on lower quality setting.

[clubrulz]

thanks for the suggestions. I ended up buying a 16 GB flash drive, but have found that I get an error message stating the destination drive is full. I am assuming this is because the drive is formatted to FAT 32. Can I simply reformat to NTFS?

pBS...

I will try to add this into a transcode script. Does it matter where in the line I add these two flags?

[stustunz]

yes format to ntfs otherwise you cant transfer/use anything bigger than 4gig and no meta data etc

[pBS]

hmm, it usually doesn't matter what order...[but does in some cases]
i'd just use mpgtx as it *is* easier and faster and does a quality job of it...
ffmpeg would just do same thing much slower...
and you'd have to decide where to cut.. can only specify how many secs to skip, and how many to output...
you'd have to do the math...

ffmpeg.exe -y -i %1 -ss %skipsecs% -t %length-secs% -vcodec copy -acodec copy "%~dpn1-1.mpg"