[SOLVED] Video recorder, how to record a television programme using the computer?

lugoteehalt · 04-04-2010, 07:13 PM

Have a television card on the computer. Works perfectly well and it would be nice to use the computer as a television program recorder. Buggering about with a DVD recorder is a lot of trouble.

How is it possible to do this - surely pretty basic - job? Buggered if I know.

It is important to compress the thing into *.avi format or something like that. Otherwise it takes up a huge amount of space.

How would mplayer do it for example?

Thanks any help.

Tuttle · 04-04-2010, 08:16 PM

I have some scripts I made a long time ago, tailor them to your requirements/card

Capture TV

Code:

#!/bin/sh
sudo nice -n -1 mencoder -tv \
driver=v4l2:device=/dev/video0:input=3:normid=0:mjpeg:decimation=1:quality=100:brightness=-8:contrast=0:saturation=0:alsa \
-ovc lavc -oac lavc -lavcopts vbitrate=1500:abitrate=128:mbd=1:v4mv \
-vf lavcdeint,crop=688:560:10:8,scale=448:336 \
-o ~/Capture\ -\ rename_me_NOW!!.avi tv://
sleep 1
sudo chown $USER ~/Capture\ -\ rename_me_NOW!!.avi

Capture TV hq

Code:

#!/bin/sh
exec	mencoder -tv \
	driver=v4l2:device=/dev/video0:input=1:normid=0:mjpeg:decimation=1:quality=100:brightness=10:contrast=-2:saturation=10:alsa \
	-ovc lavc -oac lavc -lavcopts aspect=4/3:vbitrate=2000:vhq \
	-vf crop=700:572:2:2,lavcdeint \
	-o ~/Capture\ -\ rename_me_NOW!!.avi \
	tv://
exit

Capture TV wide

Code:

#!/bin/sh
sudo nice -n -1 mencoder -tv \
driver=v4l2:device=/dev/video0:input=3:normid=0:mjpeg:decimation=1:quality=100:brightness=-8:contrast=0:saturation=0:alsa \
-ovc lavc -oac lavc -lavcopts vbitrate=1500:abitrate=128:mbd=1:v4mv \
-vf lavcdeint,crop=688:416:10:80,scale=512:288 \
-o ~/Capture-ws\ -\ rename_me_NOW!!.avi \
tv://
sleep 1
sudo chown $USER ~/Capture-ws\ -\ rename_me_NOW!!.avi

Capture TV wide+hq

Code:

#!/bin/sh
exec	mencoder -tv \
	driver=v4l2:device=/dev/video0:input=1:normid=0:mjpeg:decimation=1:quality=100:brightness=10:contrast=-2:saturation=10:alsa \
	-ovc lavc -oac lavc -lavcopts aspect=16/9:vbitrate=2000:vhq \
	-vf crop=700:432:2:72,lavcdeint \
	-o ~/Capture-ws\ -\ rename_me_NOW!!.avi \
	tv://
exit

The ones with sudo in them raise the priority of the process... good luck!

H_TeXMeX_H · 04-05-2010, 04:45 AM

You can try:

http://xawdecode.sourceforge.net/
http://mplayer-tools.sourceforge.net/
http://www.artificialworlds.net/wiki/RecordTV/RecordTV

lugoteehalt · 07-18-2010, 11:42 PM

Thanks, in the spirit of keeping things as simple as possible this just about works for me:

Code:

mencoder -o mencoderTest.avi -ovc lavc -lavcopts vhq -oac pcm tv://

lavc gives compression, but the quality is very bad so put vhq, very high quality, in; seems to improve things but don't really know. The sound is pcm which means uncompressed - compress it and the audio visual synchronisation A/V sync goes down the tubes.

No ~/.mplayer/mcoder.conf file for simplicity.

The big thing is to bugger about with alsamixer for your life. <m> and <space>.

Just thought I'd put in the simplest possible thing I've come up with.

H_TeXMeX_H · 07-19-2010, 03:06 AM

For on-the-fly compression of multimedia, may want to try transcode ... it's kinda difficult to use, but they say it may be able to handle it. I can't find the article right now, but it was faster than mencoder and ffmpeg and was capable of this.