If you add this as an extra parameter to nuvexport in line 120, it will use the cutlist from myth`s commercial flagging and remove the commercials too.

Thanks, but I can't seem to get nuvexport to work. I spent all weekend on it, but it fails on the ffmpeg part (0 out of xxxx frames). Its wierd since the I am using ffmpeg in the other script with no problem.

First off, I'd like to say, great to see there is a script to get video onto the iPod.

I posted this message to the ffmpeg-user mailing list but without reply so far, so here goes:

I am using the 3277056 CVS build of ffmpeg in conjunction with the myth2ipod script (http://myth2ipod.com/) to transcode files from MythTV's NUV format to iPod's MPEG-4 format. (Note: this is installed on FC4)




What I am seeing is that, depending on the channel the program was recorded from, ffmpeg fails to transcode the stream as shown below:

1. Example of working transcode



* Note: manually stopped by me as it works from here on

2. Example of failed transcode



The only difference I can see between the two NUV files is that the one that fails has a second (empty?) audio stream.
Stream #0.2[0x2d1](eng): Audio: 0x0000

I am using the same command line options in both cases.

In fact, all files from this channel 1012 (and two others) have this same 'feature' of a second audio stream, and therefore all files from these channels fail transcoding by ffmpeg.

Channel Number works? Channel Name
1004_ no TEN
1009_ no ABC
1010_ yes ABC2
1012_ no Nine
1017_ yes Seven

Is there a way to ignore the "Stream #0.2[0x2d1](eng): Audio: 0x0000"? I have tried various combinations of the -map option without any success?

Thanks
Frank.

I have some questions about this script.

I'm not sure what all of the variables do. I don't know perl so if someone could help me out that'd be great. If someone would post an explanation of what all of the user variables do, it would be awesome.

I just got the video ipod for christmas and got the AV cable. So now I can record shows for my girlfriend and bring them over to her place. I can't wait to get this thing working.

Thanks,
~Eric

Nice job and thanks for the script.

I went out and bought an 60gig video ipod today thanks to this script. And it looks to be well worth it after I got it all going. Now I can watch my recorded shows while I'm traveling for work. (yes, and at work )

Thanks again.

P.S. if you can get a SVN or CVS repo up for the php interface. I'd be willing to help build that part. (plus willing to add to the perl script)

Thanks to everyone for the work on this topic, and the helpful posts.

I cannot get the nuvexport patch to apply correctly. I have version 8b of the original file, and when I try to apply the patch, I get the following:

homer:~/Myth2iPod$ patch myth2ipod myth2portable.patch
patching file myth2ipod
Hunk #3 FAILED at 14.
patch: **** `<' expected at line 23 of patch
homer:~/Myth2iPod$

line 23 in my file is an "<". I am not an expert, and am not sure now to proceed.

Also, in the original perl script, what do the "feedfile" and feedurl refer to? I am not really planning to automate the conversions, as I will only convert a few files, and will probably have edited the cut points in MythTV first.

TIA for any responses!

I'm having what seems to be a kind of unique problem; I have myth2ipod installed (VERSION: Beta .8b), everything is working great on the server side (or appears to be). However, the video files don't appear on the iPod interface after they're copied over.

I did make one change to the script; I changed the single quotes around the title variable to escaped double quotes, so that it wouldn't break on shows with an apostrophe in the title ("That 70's Show"). I did this for both the pass1 and pass2 sections of the script. Otherwise, the only changes to the script were to the user customized variables at the top of the script.

Source video is obtained via a Hauppage PVR-350, so it's in MPEG2 format. The ffmpeg conversion runs fine and produces no errors in mythbackend.log. I can play back the resulting .mov files in Totem on the Linux box. The php feed file is created fine.

I have a second computer that is running Windows XP with the latest version of iTunes on it. I subscribed to the myth2ipod podcast feed from my MythTV server, and my recorded shows are automatically pulled down to iTunes. I can play them back within iTunes fine by double-clicking on the video file.

I then drag and drop the video files onto my iPod (I have my iPod set to manually sync since I use it on several different computers and don't want the library overwritten). I then eject my iPod as normal, clicking the eject button within iTunes, and "safely removing the hardware" via the Windows XP taskbar applet.

However, the video files don't show up on the iPod within any of the video categories (movies, music videos, video podcasts). It's not that they're listed, but won't play back; they simply don't show up at all.

If I look at the iPod "recently added" within iTunes when it's connected, however, I see the video files there. They're just not showing up within the iPod interface.

What am I doing wrong??

PS - I am using the original myth2ipod script without the nuvexport patch. Like the previous poster to this thread, I couldn't get the patch to apply properly.

PPS - If I were to have downloaded a file from Bittorrent, say, 'Battlestar.Galactica.02x01.(XSVCD)-Scattered.mpg', and used 3GP Converter to convert this hypothetical file using 'Model: MP4, for PSP' and 'QVGA/29.97fps/1500kbps Stereo/128kbps' profile, and then imported that into iTunes, and copied it to the iPod, it showed up on the iPod under Movies, and worked. Er, would have worked, had this download not been hypothetical, of course. What I'm trying to say is, I can get video to play on the iPod, just not my myth2ipod converted files!

Hello,
I want to ask some questions about what this script is meant to do and at what point. Right now I am not doing any transcoding and leave my recordings as is. I edit the commercial skips so that when I play an episode again they are tweaked.

I have transcoded a couple of times and then stoped because the files were no longer playable on my Windows computer where the original .nuv files (mpeg from pvr-500) were playable.

Is this script intended to work on the original files only or will it work once they have been transcoded into another format?

I have manually ran myth2ipod once using "$ myth2ipod /mnt/store 1004_20051227213000_20051227220000.nuv" I was able to watch this video in Quicktime on Windows but haven't yet tried putting it on the ipod.
I noticed that when I did this the commercials were there.
How am I supposed to run myth2ipod so that it will skip the commercials?
Can this only be done once it has already been transcoded and commericial skipped?

Could someone provide me with a sequence of events that will lead to having iPod compatable files without commercials.

i.e.
1. record program
2. tweak commerical markings
..
..
..
10. your iPod compatible video is now available from within iTunes.


Thanks,
~Eric

UPDATE: If I manually drag the myth2ipod encoded files in iTunes to a video playlist on the iPod, they will play back properly if I go through Videos -> Video Playlists -> <Playlist Name>.

However, for whatever reason, rather than the files being organized under Videos, the added files are added to Music -> Artists -> MythTV. Any tips on how I can fix this? If I try to play back the video file from the Music menu, the iPod resets after a second or two to the main iPod menu.

I'm thrilled I can get the video to play now (via the playlist functionality), but it's strange that the files are being miscategorized as music rather than video.

Drel

Drel,

Do you have the latest iTunes available? I have the latest iTunes and myth2ipod and mine show up under video podcasts.

~Eric

Perhaps binary is better? Grab it here: http://juniks.org/myth2ipod.patch

I've verified that this works against the current (todays) version on myth2ipod.com.

Now that I have this, and iTunes. Is there anything besides itunes that does podcasts for us? I really can't take iTunes and how badly it handles a semi large music library. It chokes the entire computer which is quite pathetic for what it is physically doing at the times it kills the computer for a couple mins. (reading the library from its own database)

Example would be media monkey. It works just fine on windows and does more at the same time. However, it doesn't do podcasts.

I downloaded the patch above, and a new copy of the original. The patch applies correctly - thanks for the reply.

I only have sound on one channel - in one ear using headphones. I see that the default for ffmpeg in -ac=1 (one audio channel), but apparently this doesn't mean mono. I tried adding a line in the iPod.pm script with -ac=2, but this didn't seem to make any difference. Should I expect sound in both ears, and if so, does anyone have any suggestions?

I posted this question in the General section several days ago by mistake but have received no responses. I appologize to anyone who is seeing it for the second time.

Thangs again for all of the helpful suggestions contained in the many posts and scripts provided by this group.

This is now standard in the latest nuvexport SVN, so no need for any of this hacking any more, just upgrade!