MythTV - Exporting an HDTV Episode without Commercials to x264 .mkv

[minerva.thegift]

Hey everyone!

I have just started using Mythbuntu and I recorded my first show! I've had some issues working through all the guides and other documentation online because I am in the US and the switch over here to Digital TV (and even HDTV in some cases) has kinda thrown things off, from what I can tell.

For example, I now have a 1 hour show that is full 1080 HD. I want to cut out the commercials and export it. The problem is I can only find export to DVD options from within MythTV (via MythArchive) and that's no good - I want to keep the full 1080. My file is a ~5GB .mpg so I'd love to transcode it down to something like a x264 .mkv file. I have done a fair bit of transcoding work before, so I tried one of my tried-and-true tools, Handbrake, to just transcode the raw output .mpg from MythTV. This seems to be doable but the problem is it doesn't cut the commercials out.

I've seen some rumors about things like .nuv to .mkv converters/transcoders and some stuff about "ProjectX" (Whatever that is) but I haven't seen anything in the MythTV wiki or in any of the discussion groups I've found about how to convert a full 1080 HD recording from MythTV into a x264 .mkv file while removing all the commercials. Anybody have any ideas about how to do this?

EDIT: As I've done more looking around, I've come up with some solutions that sort of work, but I'm still looking for a more optimal solution. First off, here's what I've found:

mythnuv2mkv - This project works well at converting from the mythtv capture (either .mpeg stream or .nuv) to .mkv (and there are also .avi etc. versions.) I managed to get this to work - including the commercial cutting - by setting it up as a user job within MythTV. I followed the instructions in this forum post/guide (even though I had to tweak it slightly since, for example, I'm in the USA not Australia.) The catch is I ended up with a .mkv file that 1) Only has stereo audio and 2) Doesn't have any subs/CC which isn't a huge deal but the original has it so I'd like to keep it. I posted a comment (actually 2 comments) at the main mythnuv2mkv site and got a reply in a fairly timely manner (have to give Auric credit for that ) but he said that the issue was that mythtranscoder was passing his mythnuv2mkv script the pieces so basically it's not his fault that it's stereo and doesn't have CC, it's mythtranscoder's (and he already has a ticket in to fix that, but no luck yet.)

mencoder+EDL (Edit Decision List) - Another option I've seen tossed around is to somehow export the cutlist (as MythTV seems to call it's data about where commercials are, etc.) into some sort of file that mencoder can read so that you could do your encoding in mencoder. This option is appealing to me because I've used mencoder (and several of its derivatives and GUIs) in the past and I am very impressed with its features. I wouldn't mind just running the whole video file through something like Handbrake to convert it to x264 .mkv but the problem is then my commercials would still be there. There is some talk of exporting the MythTV cutlist to an EDL, but I have yet to find a tried-and-true method of doing this - the best I can find is a few forum posts like this one where someone posts a block of code that seems to have worked for them. I've only been able to find older ones, too, from before full 1080 HD TV was readily available, so they're not quite so useful to me. Another related option would be to use some other commercial detector like Comskip which can natively export to a format that programs like mencoder and cuttermaran can read. I might end up persuing this option more if all else fails, but I have generally liked the commercial detecting (and the interface to edit it) in MythTV so I'd really rather just export that data.

Wrapping Commercial Removal in a Script - On the MythTV Wiki I've seen a few things about setting up a script to somehow remove the commercials which you coudl feasibly combine with some other transcoder (maybe?) or just transcode to lossless .mpeg (though this would be a 'normal' .mpeg rather than a transport stream, as I understand it) and then you could run this through the encoder of your choice. This option sounds like it should work, but I'm not that big into scripting so I'm a bit nervous about attempting such a feat - I'd much rather just use some file, like mythnuv2mkv. Also, it would be nice to be able to get it all done in one step, rather than having to export to one format then turn around and re-encode that to another format.

I'll probably post this question on a few forums and see what kind of answers I can find. It just seems to me like there should be a (relatively) easy way to get a commercial-clipped x264 .mkv (with surround sound and preferably CC/subs) from a MythTV recording. I think part of the problem is the relative newness of OTA (over the air) HDTV - people just haven't had that much time to work on something like this. Still, hopefully now we can find a way to make it happen

[disturbed1]

The mythtv wiki has directions on how to do a lossless transcode to cut out the commercials. This will even rename the file correctly (rather than 1048_20100102100000.mpg ). Use handbrake on that file. Maybe 10,000 threads on myth-users mailing list about this. Seems to popup once a week or so.

a 1 hour show that is full 1080 HD...........
I want to keep the full 1080. My file is a ~5GB .mpg

And how in the hell did you get a 1080P capture at 5gig? You're using Direct TV or Dish? Most cable systems and OTA broadcasts are only 1080i. My SD 60 minute captures are that big, 1080i is usually 11-30gig. Are you sure your clip is full HD

Personally I don't keep anything MythTV records after I watch it. Record it, watch it, delete it.