[ale] OT converting old videos, cataloging dvds, storing forever

[Ron Frazier (ALE)]

Hi all,

FYI, just found this editor that looks cool.  I may return the device I 
have because I'm not sure it's the most compatible and economical 
capture solution.

http://www.openshot.org/
http://www.pcworld.com/article/230531/free_openshot_video_editor_is_tremendous.html

Sincerely,

Ron


On 10/15/2012 4:45 PM, JD wrote:
>> I also wanted to share a great way to track and catalog DVD's that
>> you've purchased.  It's an android app called MyMovies (free - limited
>> to 50 titles) and MyMovies Pro ($6 - unlimited).  It's ultra cool.  Just
>>      
> Hopefully, someone else has found a fantastic Linux video editor and will be
> able to let us all know about it.
>
>
>
> Previously I used a F/LOSS web server + back-end DB to catalog DVDs and
> recordings.  Over time, that became too much effort and I didn't like that the
> program forced me to a specific DB and the export was only to HTML files.  Tried
> a Java desktop client too, but it was toooo damn slow.  It didn't play nice on
> my network.
>
> Ended up using the time-proven 'ls -Rl' technique with numbered DVDs.  With a
> large number of data DVDs holding TV recordings in xvid/avi or h.264/mkv, a
> quick 'egrep -i' searches by title for the specific numbered disk containing the
> recorded show/movie.  As a CLI person, the most-used desktops all have a script
> that will ssh over to the main box with all the dvd-0xyz.txt files and perform
> the query.  For more information, XBMC has the catalog with actors, directors,
> year, genre, title,  etc ....  grep is just so useful and text is so easy to
> search.
>
> I love that the grep clearly returns the numbered data DVD I need to load.
>
> As to converting VHS to MPEG or XVID or h.264, almost any $20 USB TV adapter can
> record SD content to MPEG2.  Just pick from a MythTV compatible device to be
> happiest long term.  If you want to record OTA HD content, I'd suggest more
> effort for the selected hardware.  I love the HD-Homerun network tuners. Those
> work well with OTA except 1 channel that doesn't come in at my house. It is
> hardly a major issue, since 69 other channels do come in OTA from Marietta.
>
> For finding commercials and editing them out, I searched for Linux-based
> solutions for years and finally gave up. Comskip does run nice under WINE, I've
> never found a Linux-based editor that will accept the comskip created cut files
> (there's like 6 different formats that comskip will create) as the starting
> point for where to cut commercials.  Comskip is about 90% accurate.  Comskip can
> output cut marker files that XBMC and mplayer will honor without altering the
> source video file. That can be handy when you just want to skip commercials, but
> not waste time actually modifying the file contents.
>
> Instead of fighting it, I bought - yes, purchased a Windows tool called
> VideoRedo TV Suite.  It appears to use comskip code internally to create cut
> markers.  There's a point where $50 is worth it to me.  That $50 program has
> been heavily automated here to generate the cut marker files overnight. It takes
> about 45 seconds of human effort to confirm the cut locations and request the
> modified file be saved.  If you are willing to live with 90% accurate cuts, it
> could all be automated.  Networks have changed up the markers commonly searched
> by VRDP and comskip to trick them into keeping commercials and removing some of
> the desired content.  Older stations with less money like RTV are almost 100%
> accurate with cut locations.
>
> At this point, my systems are almost automatic with just a few manual
> "confirmation" places.  WTV -->  MPEG2 -->  h.264/mkv with CC1 and CC3 closed
> captions included.  If there are multiple audio channels in the stream, that can
> require special processing, but that usually happens with a few PBS programs
> with audio tracks for the deaf or background-only audio.
>
> I've blogged about almost all of these solutions over the years. The most recent
> articles are about building your own DB4 antenna for $20 or so that actually
> beat some Antennas Direct models.
>
>
> And just to be clear, I also wimped out and use Windows7 to record TV. It is
> just so easy to setup with free schedule data. That OS runs inside a virtual
> machine under KVM and has been doing it nicely for over a year.  THAT was not an
> easy thing to accomplish to get satisfactory results. Microsoft did (does?) some
> things trying to protect Joe-end-user from doing foolish things, like blocking
> recording directly to NAS storage.
>
> I suspect there are hundreds of years of knowledge lurking related to this problem.
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>    

-- 

(To whom it may concern.  My email address has changed.  Replying to former
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(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
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Ron Frazier
770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
linuxdude AT techstarship.com