MythExport
Update for 2.2.3 on Mythbuntu 11.10 / important information
Found starting with this difficult and this is the purpose of this post.
Important information for new users / users who want to modify the system
/etc/mythtv/mythexport/mythexport.cfg contains the default directory
/etc/mythtv/mythexport/mythexport_settings.cfg is of no use these days.
/usr/share/mythexport/ExortBase.pm has the file extention setting.
/etc/init.d/mythexport change the ARGS="" to ARGS="debug" to get debug mode running.
/usr/share/mythexport/configs contains the perl scripts that control conversions. The file name and package name must match except for the .pm
Add -async 2 to the ffmpeg command to help keep audio sync (I'm still testing this).
The web page needs the directory set in "Choose a Location:"
Use "mythexport_addjob starttime=%STARTTIME% chanid=%CHANID% config=PortableH264HighRes" in MythTV for a userjob to allow auotmated / selectedable / push button exporting. Just set the config to the name you want to use.
Don't forget that if you wnat to change file types, you have to tell ffmpeg the type.
I hope this helps someone else some time, enjoy :o)
This page has been updated for the 2.2.x version of MythExport that will be in Maverick.
For the previous version please go here: http://www.mythbuntu.org/wiki/mythexport-215
General Issues
- The web interface does not enable any password protection by default, you may want to secure it using one of the following:
- ffmpeg no longer supports AAC encoding
- Because of this, MythExport will now create ffmpeg args that use MP3 for sound instead, if you are using an old config please edit your existing config with the web interface to update it.
- https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ffmpeg/+bug/412063
- It looks like Medibuntu has released an update to libavcodec-extra-52 which gives us libfaac support again. The MythExport web interface will default your ffmpeg settings to use MP3, if you update to the Medibuntu package and want to use AAC it should be as simple as removing the libmp3lame from your configuration and replacing it with libfaac.
New in 2.2.x
- The configurations have changed. MythExport will now read from default configurations in /usr/share/mythexport.
Introduction
MythExport is a Perl daemon that can be used with MythTV to export recordings into a format playable on portable devices such as iPod Video, iPod Touch, PSP, and other devices. Besides converting your recordings, this script also grabs data from the MythTV MySQL database and injects it as iTunes data into the exported video so that it will show up correctly on your iPod. MythExport may also be used to take your recordings "On The Go" and provides a RSS feed to all exported recordings. New versions are often released to the Mythbuntu Testing Repository (see Testing Packages section) between releases.
Installation
Install MythExport and AtomicParsley:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mythexport atomicparsley
Configuration
Everything in MythExport is now configurable from the web interface. Hit http://localhost/mythexport (substitute localhost if you are accessing it from elsewhere in your network). MythExport includes 2 portable H.264 configurations by default, if you are looking for the old configurations or additional configurations they can be found here: http://www.baablogic.net/mythexport/
Daemon Controls
john@grimlock:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/mythexport
Usage: /etc/init.d/mythexport {start|stop|restart|force-reload|status}
Detailed Page Descriptions
MythExport Setup
Here you will setup your device configurations. Choose a configuration, user job, and enter any of the optional information that you would like.
System Setup
Here you will setup the location where your exported files live and where the RSS feed looks for files.
RSS Feed
Here you can view all your rss feeds. This page includes a deep link to the current feed you are viewing.
Streaming
Here you can stream all your exported recordings. This page uses HTML5 and may not work well on all devices/browsers.
On the Go
Here you can export recordings to take On the Go. There are two available options: 1. Lightweight - Will export the recordings with the configuration of your choice and create an XML file that can be used within a web browser for easy recording browsing. 2. Full - Will copy recordings and create a sql dump of all relevant data for the resulting recordings. The user will then need to use MythImport to import these recordings into their On the Go backend. * The XML CSS is still very bland and ugly, this should be fancied up soon.
File Maintenance
Here you can view exported recordings on your system and delete them immediately, this will delete the files and any MythExport database entries associated with the files.
Job Queue
Here you can view the current MythExport job queue.
Configuration Files
Configuration files are now kept in the following places:
/etc/mythtv/mythexport.cfgThis config contains the directory where exported recordings will live. You can also easily modify this option via the web interface.
Exporting a Recording
Execute your user job in MythTv: Media Library -> Watch Recordings
You can check that your job has run in the Info Center (Information Center -> System Status -> Job Queue):
The User Job can be configured to run on recordings after they are created (Post Recording Processing Menu on the Recording Options screen):
You may also run user jobs easily from MythWeb.
Troubleshooting
If the MythTV Backend isn't ready when MythExport starts up, you will need to restart MythExport once the Backend is ready (this normally happens when MySQL takes it sweet old time starting up). Just do the following and everything should be good to go
sudo /etc/init.d/mythexport restartMythExport now logs everything to /var/log/mythtv/mythexport.log If you are having issues see the log for relevant information. By default, debugging info is not logged. To enable it, edit /etc/init.d/mythexport and add "debug" to the ARGS variable. Then sudo /etc/init.d/mythexport restart If you get an error about config.xml missing, this can normally be found in the home directory of the user who runs your MythTV Fronend, and can be fixed by creating a symlink in mythtv's home directory (because that is the user who runs the daemon). By default most of these symlinks should exist if you are running Jaunty or using the weekly builds, if you run into problems it is always a safe bet to make sure the config.xml exists in the following places: [/]
** These are especially important when using the RSS feature or running as a user job **
/home/%your_user_account%/.mythtv
/root/.mythtv
/home/mythtv/.mythtv