ok, i give up. i've been trying for days to figure out how to reliably convert vdr recordings to divx to save space (approx 300-400MB/hour vs approx 2GB/hr) . the best i've managed is that *some* recordings can be converted, but some won't. i have no idea why some work and some don't - as far as i can tell, it seems to be random (but i know it can't be).
the other thing i can't figure out is how to get mencoder to process multiple input files - e.g. 001.vdr 002.vdr 003.vdr etc, for when the recording is >2GB. i didn't realise at first that mencoder ignored any input files past the first (i only found out when i noticed that a converted show finished halfway through...fortunately, i hadn't deleted the VDR recording yet). even if i try feeding it on stdin, it complains about "Cannot seek backward in linear streams!"
i guess i have to do it in two stages. first convert multiple files to a single file, and then convert that to divx. but how?
this is what i have so far:
---cut here--- #! /bin/bash
# vdr2dix.sh [dir] # # e.g. vdr2divx.sh /video/FooBar/2005-03-22.23.59.99.99.rec # will convert to divx & save as /video/DIVX/FooBar.2005.03.22.avi
OUTDIR=/video/DIVX
IN=$1 program=$(echo $IN | sed -e 's=/video/==' -e 's=/.*==') date=$(echo $IN | sed -e 's=.*([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9]).*=\1=')
OUT="$OUTDIR/$program.$date.avi"
echo $IN "===>" $OUT
ARGS="-oac mp3lame -ovc lavc"
echo mencoder $ARGS -o $OUT $IN/[0-9]*.vdr mencoder $ARGS -o $OUT $IN/[0-9]*.vdr ---cut here---
so, what's the secret? what do i have to do to convert vdr recordings to divx (or any other format)?
i've searched google dozens of times and seen various partial "solutions" posted to various places, but none of them seem to work either, or they've been abandoned, or they're ancient and don't work with current versions of software, and (worst of all) many of them seem to depend on some windows program or other to do part of the job. i don't want to run any windows crap, even with wine. i don't want to run java stuff either. and i don't want to run a GUI to do it - i want simple command line tools that i can use in a script.
so:
1. what *linux-native* tools do i need to do the job?
i have pretty nearly every video codec, library, player, and editing tool available for debian (sid) already installed. i can compile and install anything else i need, if only i knew what i needed.
2. what command-line options do i give to mencoder (and/or any other tools)?
3. if there's an English language FAQ or a HOWTO, please point me at it.
this must be a FAQ by now, but if anybody knows it doesn't look like they're telling (or if they are, it's in German which i can't read).
i've run out of clues.....any help would be appreciated.
craig
ps: i've looked at projectx. by messing about with the incredibly clumsy GUI for ages, i can get it to convert multiple 0*.vdr files into one stream file for conversion with mencoder. i can't get it to do the same thing from the command line, which makes it absolutely useless for scripting purposes. i don't like java apps anyway. they're way too fragile. they have a tendency to break without warning just because you upgrade some unrelated library, and i really dislike having to "fix" the same thing over and over again every month or two.