MythHelper

What is it
Screenshots
Requirements
Download
Usage
Troubleshooting

What is it:

MythHelper is a Windows application which I have created to aid in the process of transcoding
recordings from my MythTV machine. Currently MythHelper will aid in trancoding to both
XVID AVI and DVD MPEG2 files.

What does it look like:

Have a look for yourself

What are the requirements:

Hardware:

Hauppauge PVR-250 or any other card that records in MPEG2 format

Software:

VirtualDub-MPEG2 (fccHandler's modified version of VirtualDub that supports MPEG2)

Temporal Cleaner Filter (cleans up temporal noise, aiding in compression)

Smart Smoother HQ Filter (a 2d filter, again aiding the compression process)

XviD codec ( I use the latest stable version)
VFAPI Converter (Allows you to frameserve to non-aware apps like Vegas)
ReadAVS (Allows VFAPI Converter to read .VDR files)
Windows Media Player (I prefer 6.4)
Windows Installer (You probably already have this)
Microsoft .NET Framework (You might have this already)

Recommended:
AVISynth

KernelDeint (The best deinterlacer around)

Configuration:

MythTV "Store" directory mapped as a drive letter in Windows
Access to mysql database from your Windows machine

How do I get it:

The source code and Windows Installer are available at the MythHelper project page

Using it:

It's pretty self-explanatory. If your database connection is made OK, then when the software loads,
it should populate the listbox with your recordings.
Click the thumbnail area to play the file with Media Player. (The thumbnail images themselves are not
created by MythHelper... they must already be there either by MythWeb or MythTV itself)
Click the Edit button to launch the various transcoding tools. If you don't use the same tools that I do,
this program probably won't help you too much..

The HQ and Normal settings will help you create an XVID AVI that is 640x480
The DVD setting will help you create an interlaced MPEG2 file

Flowchart

When you click the Edit button, MythHelper will launch the appropriate applications as described above. The
VirtualDub settings files are included and are automatically loaded in the appropriate VirtualDub instance.

The transcoding process is very CPU intensive. Converting a 23 minute show takes over 3 hours on my
Athlon XP 1800+, but the results are well worth it.

Troubleshooting:

I get an ODBC NO_DATA error when I start up MythHelper.
Solution: This is an MDAC Bug. Install the update.

How do I use AVISynth?
AVISynth operates without any user interface, by way of scripts. If you want to deinterlace with KernelDeint(), create an AVS file like this:

AVISource("k:\frameserver.vdr")
KernelDeint()

Assuming that your first instance of VirtualDub started a frameserver with the name "frameserver.vdr" on your k: drive
Open the AVS file in your second instance of VirtualDub and it will open the video, deinterlaced on the fly by AVISynth.

wdormann at yahoo.com