On Mon, Nov 26, 2001 at 10:36:42PM -0500, Stan Brown wrote: > I'm still endevoring to get decent quality recording from my TV card. Been there. :-) > I > started with vcr, but someone sugested that I look at mp1e (other > sugestions welcome BTW). I have shortlisted mp1e and the NVrec suite for my PVR. I am leaning towards real-time recording to mpeg1 (with mp1e for the time being until RTErec works better -- note that mp1e has a/v sync issues -- I expect RTErec to be a lot better). MPEG1 files are seekable while they are being written which is essential for time-shifting (and nuking commercials while doing it). AVI (i.e. divx, divx4, etc.) files are not seekable (FF, REW) until the file is complete and the encoder has closed it. > 1. How can I use it for vcr like recording? I see that I can start it from > cron, but how do I tell it to stop? I have a wrapper that does the calculations based on an end time but it winds up with a command like: $ mp1e -n 318011 -s 320x240 -b 1800 -f 29.97 -a 0 -p /dev/dsp1 -S 32 The switch you are interested in is -n. That is the number of frames to capture. So if you have exactly 1 hour of recording you want to do the -n value == fps (29.97 in my example) * secs. > (Oh, BTW how do I prevent the speakers > from sudenly playing the audio as the recording is done?). Mine do that too. Annoying. That is because mp1e, when it dicks with the mixer to make sure it is recording from the TV card turns on the audio (adjusts volume and mute) on the mixer device it is recording from. On my card (using the alsa driver) at least this is all wrong. The volume for the device it selects to record from is for output only. It does not affect the recording volume level. There is another channel that adjusts the record level in general. Also, it is possible to record from one device and playback on another at the same time even. So I can listen to MP3's while I record TV. A much better solution, which I am working on is using the btaudio device to record from and eliminating the sound card from the whole recording mess. > 2. Is there a reasonable way to tune all the switches for the best quality > my machine will support? Other than experimenting with your setup? I think we all wish that it could be automatic and determined. No such luck. Way too many factors involved. b. -- Brian J. Murrell
