I'd like to announce the release of vdr-convert at https://projects.vdr-developer.org/projects/vdr-convert

One of two people asked me to release it when ready, and after converting / testing most of my 4TB archive with it, I think it's about ready for the VDR community to use.

What is it?

A shell script with associated tools to transcode the content of VDR1.x and VDR2.x recordings as accurately as possible, including all streams, audio, AD, subtitles, and metadata into more compressed format, while maintaining perceived quality. H264 and AAC are the chosen codecs for the main streams. SD recordings are reduced to anywhere from 35% - 90% of original size depending on content and compression settings. On average, you can expect to save 1/3 of the disk space used for SD recordings.

The USP is that this tool may be the only tool capable of converting/compressing old VDR1.x recordings with dvb subtitles into VDR2 compatible .ts files playable on VDR2 and 3rd party players such as Kodi, MPC-HC and VLC.

The script also has ongoing use to automatically compress recordings once complete, or for automatic export, optionally by FTP (I use it this way).

I created a comprehensive WIKI documenting the various usage scenarios and issues found during test. The files are in the Git repository. For VDR1.x conversion, a couple of tools need compiling from source.

Have fun!

Richard