TV_ENCODE!...
VCR's are for Wimps
... We're also no fan of DVR's (digital video recorders). Can you believe they make you pay a monthly license for a DVR? Can you believe that even if you buy a DVR it may be grossly expensive to repair if / when it ever fails? Can you believe how difficult it can be to extract your recorded programs from your DVR and then play them back on your computer or other home-media device?
But What OTHER Option is There?
TV_ENCODE! of course. Actually, there are a million good broadcast video recording software suites out there for the Linux platform (the only good ones are non Win-based actually). Take a look at Myth TV for example, it's a fantastic all in one Home Theatre Suite with Open Source Video Recording built in. However, for those who just want a nice little "quick-and-dirty" to run in the background as a scheduled job, here's TV_ENCODE! It will record broadcast video from an 'standard' (non-HD) tuner and save in *.avi files of the libav codec type with MP3 audio.
What about ATSC or other HDTV Tuners?
I have no idea, I haven't tried it out with any yet, but I'm inclined to believe it will fail. The backend needs to be setup properly, and I don't believe the v4l drivers are friendly to HDTV tuners are the moment anyway. It is, however, most certainly on the 'to-do' list.
But Where do I Get It?
From this website. Simply go to the downloads section and grab the latest version:
HTTP://download.spinellicreations.com/tv_encode
TV_ENCODE! is licensed under the GNU GPL version 3 by Vince Spinelli for SpinelliCreations. The license is available here -- HTTP://download.spinellicreations.com/tv_encode/z_LICENSE.txt
The current working version is 1.4, and the revision history is available here -- HTTP://download.spinellicreations.com/tv_encode/z_REV_HISTORY.txt
The README file for the current working version is avilable here -- HTTP://download.spinellicreations.com/tv_encode/z_README.txt
What do I Need?
0- A copy of TV_ENCODE! (see above)
1- Any Linux OS with a 2.6 Kernel
2- LAME MP3 Encoder -- http://lame.sourceforge.net
3- FFdshow Codec Pack -- sourceforge.net/projects/ffdshow
4- MPlayer with MEncoder -- http://mplayer.hq
5- Video 4 Linux(2) -- http://linux.bytesex.org/v4l2
6- A video card whose chipset is compatiable with v4l or v4l(2). Most are, but be wary of many of the 'usb tv' devices out there at a bargain, as they're shoddy at best, and typically aren't supported.
7- About 500 MB to 1 GB of hdd space per hour of video that you wish to record
8- A minimum of roughly an 1.5 GHz CPU for halfway decent encoding on the fly (realtime)
Built: Apr. 06, 2009
Updated: N/A
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C. 2005-2008 SpinelliCreations, all rights reserved.
