Re: how to use mencoder to record TV program

[Emanoil Kotsev <deloptes@yahoo.com>]

Serena Cantor wrote:

> mencoder
>>
driver=v4l:width=640:height=480:outfmt=i420:audiorate=44100:amode=1:audioid=1:adevice=/dev/dsp1:norm=PAL:normid=0:chanlist=europe-west
>> tv://<SOME_CHANNEL> -o out.avi

hi, 

I missed the -tv indeed

What about the mencoder commands there from the link
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/HTML/en/tv-input.html#tv-examples

do they don't work? I guess no, because otherwise you wouldn't be posting
here

mencoder -tv driver=v4l2:width=768:height=576:chanlist=china-bcast \
    -oac mp3lame -lameopts cbr:br=64 \
    -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=900:autoaspect=1 \
    -vf  scale,pp=lb -o output.avi tv://<CHANNEL>

Can you try this command and replace <CHANNEL> with the channel you want to
record? If you miss the channel then I guess the last one you've tuned the
receiver will be captured.

When recording no other application should be running that uses your tv card
like xawtv or similar. May be you have tried to watch and record at the
same time? If you want to do this you better start mencoder to record the
stream and run mplayer output.avi to watch the stream while recording.

I changed the v4l to v4l2, because I think the howto is a bit outdated. You
can try both if it's not working and if you want. I also added the chanlist
and autoaspect option and instead cropping I use scale filter.

I hope this will work. Have a look at the output.avi file and post output if
there are problems like you did now.

regards