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HOWTO: Copy videos from MythTV and watch them on a Pocket PC
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Author:  ed3120 [ Tue Jan 10, 2006 2:57 pm ]
Post subject:  HOWTO: Copy videos from MythTV and watch them on a Pocket PC
This guide explains how to copy video files from a MythTV to your Pocket PC so that you can watch them on your Pocket PC. All required software is freeware, so this can be done very easily for free!

Requirements: MythTV, a Windows machine with Activesync, and a Pocket PC with a memory card.

Doing this for a Palm is fairly similar, but I don’t have one, so I can’t write a guide for it.

Step 1: Configure Samba to allow a Windows machine to read a share on your MythTV backend. (If you have already done this, then skip to Step 2.)

An easy way to setup Samba is to use Webmin. If you have not set up Webmin, please refer to the Webmin Knoppmyth WIKI: http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page=WebminHowTo

Once you have logged into Webmin:
-Click the Servers tab
-Click Samba Windows File Sharing
-Click Create new file share
-Set share name to: mythshare (use whatever you want here)
-Set Directory to share to: /myth
-Keep the other defaults
-Click Create

The myth share should be accessible via the default mythtv account and password that was set up during your MythTV installation.

Step 2: Copy a recording from the MythTV box to your Windows machine.

Go to a Windows machine

Start -> Run

Type \\mythtv\mythshare\pretty (Recordings should have understandable names and should have the .MPG extension. If this folder is empty, then you need to fix your Myth Pretty. See: http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php? ... hPrettyFix

Pick a recording and copy it locally to your Windows machine. (We’ll copy it and rename it to c:\mythfiles\tv1.mpg for this example) Do not skip this step. If the file is not copied locally, it will not work.

Step 3: Encode the file in a Divx file that is formatted for a Pocket PC.

Get the software:
-Download PocketDivXEncoder (freeware)
-Website: http://divx.ppccool.com/
-Direct download: http://download.ppccool.com/PocketDivXE ... 0.3.50.exe

Use the software:
After downloading, launch the EXE and pick the Pocket PC icon.

Under File to encode, click the browse icon and browse for the local MPG file that you copied from the Myth box. (In this case: c:\mythfiles\tv1.mpg)

Under Output file, click the browse and give it a name with an AVI extension. (In this case: c:\mythfiles\tv1-ppc.avi)

Adjust Video Quality and Audio Quality to your tastes. Keep an eye on the final size and make sure you have room for it. (On a test encode a 30 minute file came to about 100MB at near full quality. Ratcheting down to 60MB still yielded a watchable file.) Keep in mind higher quality = more space and requires more of your Pocket PC's CPU. If you are low on storage or horsepower, keep the settings low. The resulting file isn't picture perfect, but still watchable. I imagine slow moving sitcoms will be more watchable than fast-action shows.

Click add to the list. (Queue up as many shows as you’d like.) Encryption takes about 10-20 minutes on my Athlon 2600 for 30 minutes of video, depending on the quality settings.)

Step 4: Play the file on your Pocket PC

Get the software:
-Download TCPMP - The Core Pocket Media Player (freeware)
-Website: http://tcpmp.corecodec.org/download
-Direct download: http://corecodec.org/frs/download.php/3 ... p.0.71.exe

Use the software:
Install it on your Pocket PC through ActiveSync. Copy resulting file to your pocket pc through ActiveSync or copy it onto your CF/SD media card directly if you have a card reader

Launch TCPMP on your Pocket PC. Click File – Open File…select your video file and you are ready to watch. Note the icons towards the bottom right that will let you switch between portrait and landscape mode.

Note: If anyone has any corrections or anything to add....feel free. If people find this useful, maybe I'll post it to a WIKI.
Author:  spalVl [ Tue Jan 10, 2006 10:29 pm ]
Post subject: 
Quote:
Note: If anyone has any corrections or anything to add....feel free.


Great guide !!!

Just thinking of some ways to condense steps 2-4.

I know nuvexport can be used to export .NUV files to XviD and Divx directly from the knoppmyth command line. Instead could a user job be created using nuvexport that transcodes the recording to Divx or XviD format? That would eliminate the steps of copying .NUV to a Windows machine, transcoding to Divx, and copying to PocketPC. Instead if Pocket PC has WIFI access content directly from Mythweb, if not sync with Windows PC accesing media over samba share.

Thinking in the direction of the my2ipod scripts out there.
Author:  bbutler [ Fri Jan 13, 2006 1:29 am ]
Post subject:  myth2ppc
I too got files moved over to my Pocket PC, but took a little different tack.

I first got the Myth2ipod to work. (And BTW, Great Job Wififun. My daughter is enjoying her iPod video very much. The PodCast is a wonderful tool. I wish there was a "PPCCast!")

I tried copying the created myth2ipod *.mov file to my Pocket PC. I had installed The Core Pocket Media Player onto my Pocket PC, but the *.mov wouldn't play as is, because of a license issue with AAC Audio encoding. I reviewed the ffmpeg site and found it could be configured with MP3 Audio Encoding. I reinstalled (over top of the existing installation done earlier for myth2ipod) the ffmpeg program enabling an additional audio codec. Following the same steps as those on the myth2ipod.com site, I changed a couple items to allow the resulting *.mov to be played on my Pocket PC.

In step 1 of the instructions on the myth2ipod site, I changed:

This:
./configure --enable-xvid --enable-gpl --enable-faac

To This:
./configure --enable-xvid --enable-gpl --enable-faac --enable-mp3lame

In step 2, added a line:

From:
wget http://myth2ipod.com/myth2ipod.txt
nano myth2ipod.txt
chmod +x myth2ipod.txt
mv myth2ipod.txt /usr/local/bin/myth2ipod

To:
wget http://myth2ipod.com/myth2ipod.txt
mv myth2ipod.txt myth2ppc.txt
nano myth2ppc.txt

When editing the user variables, I also changed the encoding options to meet the Pocket PC's needs. My user variables and changes are:

my $portable = "ppc";
my $feedfile = "/myth/PocketPC/feed.php";
my $feedpath = "/myth/PocketPC/";
my $wwwloc = "/var/www/";
my $feedurl = "http://mymythbackendipaddress/ppcfeed/";

Note about my user variables:
1. Change mymythbackendipaddress to your actual IP address.
2. You'll need to create the Feedpath directory under /myth
3. I also created a Symbolic Link under my root webpage directory to point to the /myth/PocketPC/ directory.

I changed the my encodeoptions:

From:
my $encodeopt = "-y -cropleft 10 -cropright 10 -croptop 8 -cropbottom 8
-deinterlace -vcodec xvid -s 320x240 -r 29.97 -b 384 -qmin 2 -qmax 5 -bufsize 4096 -acodec aac -ab 96 -g 300";

To:
my $encodeopt = "-y -cropleft 10 -cropright 10 -croptop 8 -cropbottom 8
-deinterlace -vcodec xvid -s 320x240 -r 29.97 -b 384 -qmin 2 -qmax 5 -bufsize 4096 -acodec mp3 -ab 96 -g 300";

I also changed:

From:
sub DoPassOne {
$cmd = "/usr/local/bin/ffmpeg -i $directory/$file -comment '$file' -title '$title' -author 'MythTV - myth2ipod' -timestamp '$rightnow' $encodeopt -pass 1 -passlogfile /tmp/myth2ipod_log -f mov $feedpath'$filename'.pass1";

To:
sub DoPassOne {
$cmd = "/usr/local/bin/ffmpeg -i $directory/$file -comment '$file' -title '$title' -author 'MythTV - myth2ppc' -t
imestamp '$rightnow' $encodeopt -pass 1 -passlogfile /tmp/myth2ppc_log -f mov $feedpath'$filename'.pass1";

and From:
sub DoPassTwo {
$cmd = "/usr/local/bin/ffmpeg -i $directory/$file -comment '$file' -title '$title' -author 'MythTV - myth2ipod' -timestamp '$rightnow' $encodeopt -pass 2 -passlogfile /tmp/myth2ipod_log -f mov $feedpath'$filename'.pass2";

To:
sub DoPassTwo {
$cmd = "/usr/local/bin/ffmpeg -i $directory/$file -comment '$file' -title '$title' -author 'MythTV - myth2ppc' -timestamp '$rightnow' $encodeopt -pass 2 -passlogfile /tmp/myth2ppc_log -f mov $feedpath'$filename'.pass2";

And one last edit:

From:
$cmd = "rm -f /tmp/myth2ipod_log*";

To:
$cmd = "rm -f /tmp/myth2ppc_log*";

I also edited the GenerateRSS subroutines, but since this isn't for a PodCast, it doesn't matter.

Finish up Step 2 in the instructions with:

chmod +x myth2ppc.txt
mv myth2ppc.txt /usr/local/bin/myth2ppc

In Step 3, I change it:

From:
/usr/local/bin/myth2ipod "%DIR%" "%FILE%"

To:
/usr/local/bin/myth2ppc "%DIR%" "%FILE%"

and gave it a name called "Encode for Pocket PC"

I added my new User Job to be performed after commercial flagging (Step 4).

You can skip Steps 5 since it pretains to iPods.

Also, don't forget to go into the TV setups and Check "Allow User Job to be run on this backend" or your jobs will stay in queue and not run.

After the file is transcoded, you'll be able to go to http://mythipaddress/PocketPC and copy your files to you Pocket PC.

I've done several recordings now and for a 2 hour movie, the resulting file is about 500MB. The quality is outstanding. The video is very clear and the audio is rich.

Good luck!

--Brian

KnoppMyth R5A26
DFI UT LanParty nF3 250Gb
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
1GB Ram
1 200GB Seagate HDD
1 300GB Seagate HDD both in LVM
Haupauge PVR-350
nVidia 5200 Video Card
Internal Zip-100 Drive
Memorez DVD-RW DL
Author:  ed3120 [ Sat Jan 14, 2006 10:37 am ]
Post subject: 
bbutler,

I like your method, and I'm trying to set it up, but the user job keeps failing. (It says succesful in the backend status, but I know it's just running through the script without actually doing anything.)

I think I've narrowed the problem down to permissions. I can run:

/usr/local/bin/myth2ppc /myth/tv/ XXXXX.nuv

successfully as root (it does output a proper video file), but not as user mythtv. Did you have any problems with file permissions when setting this up? Can you manually run the command as user mythtv?

Is there any way to run a user job as root?
Author:  bmyers [ Sun Jan 15, 2006 1:38 pm ]
Post subject: 
"successfully as root (it does output a proper video file), but not as user mythtv. Did you have any problems with file permissions when setting this up? Can you manually run the command as user mythtv?

Is there any way to run a user job as root?
"


Don't have to run as root, better off if you dont actually.

Make sure your executables and directories are read/writeable by mythtv and owned by mythtv.

chmod, chown chgrp might fix your problems.

Bill
Author:  ed3120 [ Mon Jan 16, 2006 2:43 pm ]
Post subject: 
bmyers wrote:

chmod, chown chgrp might fix your problems.



You are right. I had to chmod and chown to fix it.

chgrp mythtv /myth/PocketPC
and
chown mythtv /myth/PocketPC

(as bbutler noted it in another post.)
Author:  baishen78 [ Fri Sep 15, 2006 7:57 am ]
Post subject: 
I'm glad I did a search. This is a lot easier than what I thought, mostly because I didn't realize what the pretty dir did. :) I already use PDE to convert my stuff.
Author:  bbutler [ Fri Sep 15, 2006 1:13 pm ]
Post subject:  Myth to Pocket PC on R5C7
I upgraded to R5C7 and also upgraded the myth2ipod for my daughter's iPod. In doing so, I researched how it used the cutlist to remove commercials from the recording. My Pocket PC was jealous!

I now have a working hack from the myth2ipod script that creates a file capable of being viewed on the Pocket PC using TCPMP--without commercials. As soon as I clean up the hack and get a few minutes to write up the instructions I'll post it here and probably in the Wiki.

It is very nice, not having commercials on the recording. In doing so, the number of frames processed is about 60% to 70% of the original recorded program, which reduces file size as well. I recorded an hour episode of "House" and the recording is approximately 140MB in size.
Author:  baishen78 [ Fri Sep 15, 2006 1:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Myth to Pocket PC on R5C7
bbutler wrote:
I upgraded to R5C7 and also upgraded the myth2ipod for my daughter's iPod. In doing so, I researched how it used the cutlist to remove commercials from the recording. My Pocket PC was jealous!

I now have a working hack from the myth2ipod script that creates a file capable of being viewed on the Pocket PC using TCPMP--without commercials. As soon as I clean up the hack and get a few minutes to write up the instructions I'll post it here and probably in the Wiki.

It is very nice, not having commercials on the recording. In doing so, the number of frames processed is about 60% to 70% of the original recorded program, which reduces file size as well. I recorded an hour episode of "House" and the recording is approximately 140MB in size.


Sounds great. I look forward to it. :)
Author:  baishen78 [ Mon Oct 02, 2006 11:08 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Myth to Pocket PC on R5C7
bbutler wrote:
I upgraded to R5C7 and also upgraded the myth2ipod for my daughter's iPod. In doing so, I researched how it used the cutlist to remove commercials from the recording. My Pocket PC was jealous!

I now have a working hack from the myth2ipod script that creates a file capable of being viewed on the Pocket PC using TCPMP--without commercials. As soon as I clean up the hack and get a few minutes to write up the instructions I'll post it here and probably in the Wiki.

It is very nice, not having commercials on the recording. In doing so, the number of frames processed is about 60% to 70% of the original recorded program, which reduces file size as well. I recorded an hour episode of "House" and the recording is approximately 140MB in size.


Did you post your guide yet? I jus' upgraded to 0.20 and am trancoding all my files, so I can't jus' copy them and run PDE anymore. Be nice to jus' click and have it automatically ready them for export.
Author:  bbutler [ Mon Oct 02, 2006 9:44 pm ]
Post subject: 
I haven't yet. I'm working on it though, but will still need another week at least.
Author:  baishen78 [ Tue Oct 03, 2006 8:18 am ]
Post subject: 
bbutler wrote:
I haven't yet. I'm working on it though, but will still need another week at least.


No rush. Jus' thought I'd check. :)
Author:  alexm [ Thu Oct 19, 2006 2:18 pm ]
Post subject: 
Are we there yet? :)

I am waiting for my Pocket PC to arrive and I am eagerly awaiting your script / instructions. Will they work on the latest release? (R5D1), or what release are you using?

Cheers!
Alex
Author:  pearlous [ Fri Jan 05, 2007 3:21 pm ]
Post subject:  Anyone have this working
Hi bbulter, etc.
Anyone out there got a working pocketpc convert script working? Just thought I would check. :)
Author:  cecil [ Fri Jan 05, 2007 4:40 pm ]
Post subject: 
Check the MythTV archives.
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