[MPlayer-users] How to use mencoder as a "tivo"

[Cameron Hutchison]

Once upon a time Manolis Tzanidakis said...
> Hello,
> I really enjoyed the thread "tv card basics" and I'm (almost)
> successfully using mencoder to record tv programs to divx with the
> following command :
> 
> # mencoder -tv on:driver=v4l:width=640:height=480:channel=$1 -ovc lavc
> -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=650:vme=5 -vop pp=lb -oac mp3lame
> -lameopts vbr=0:br=64:aq=9:mode=3 -ofps 25 
> 
> However this doesn't record any sound. I have connected tv card's audio
> out to my sblive's input (mixer tab: line) & I can hear audio with
> xawtv & mplayer -tv. Anyone knows how to also record audio ?

You've probably got a mixer value muted. I think there are two mixer
settings for input - one is the volume of the line in as it will be
passed to line out. The other is the recording level. I'm guessing that
you've got the recording level set to zero. I'm using ALSA on my sblive
and I've got to set the "Capture" mixer element > 0 to record sound.

> Last but not least how can I tell mencoder to rec for a specified time,
> i.e. 40 mins ? I wanna run it w/ crontab to rec my favorite shows
> automatically...

-endpos - see the man page for the syntax of the value. (I use HH:MM:SS)

40 minutes would be "-endpos 00:40:00"