[MPlayer-users] TV capture and playback, sound problems and splitting

[Grzegorz Nowak]

Hi everybody.
I have searched and destroyed a couple of webpages in the past few weeks, to
find solutions for my problems without luck.

1)
When I watch TV with mplayer I use this command: mplayer -tv
driver=v4l2:immediatemode=0:norm=pal:input=3:width=640:height=480 -double
-vf lavcdeint -vo sdl tv://
This works, but the sound has echo... I think it is very strange. This is
somehow connected to the switch immediatemode=0. I Use immediatemode because
i get the sound from my line in. If the default is used: immediatemode=0
then I have to change the volume in the soundmixer for the line in, every
time I want to see TV. Is there any explanation for this?

2)
I initially used this to record from the capturecard: mencoder -tv
driver=v4l2:input=3:adevice=/dev/dsp:width=720:height=578 tv:// -o
tv.avi-ovc lavc -oac mp3lame -lameopts mode=1:vbr=2:q=4

Video stream: 797.843 kbit/s (99730 B/s) size: 14468883 bytes 145.080 secs
3625 frames
Audio stream: 137.526 kbit/s (17190 B/s) size: 2493648 bytes 145.058 secs
v4l2: 3638 frames successfully processed, 0 frames dropped.

I would like to have audio and video stream the same length in seconds
(difference 22ms). I then believe it will be in sync.. I therefore try this:
adding -mc 0.1 -audio-delay 0 -audio-preload 0 -noskip -delay 0 in different
ways

And here it is:

mencoder -tv driver=v4l2:input=3:adevice=/dev/dsp:width=720:height=578 tv://
-o tv.avi -ovc lavc -oac mp3lame -lameopts mode=1:vbr=2:q=4 -mc
0.1-audio-delay 0 -audio-preload 0 -noskip -delay 0

and the result:

Video stream: 813.377 kbit/s (101672 B/s) size: 20301898 bytes 199.680 secs
4992 frames
Audio stream: 149.698 kbit/s (18712 B/s) size: 3735962 bytes 199.654 secs
v4l2: 5002 frames successfully processed, 0 frames dropped.

Not quite the the same length: difference = 16ms

3)
When capturing, is it possible to make mencoder to split files in volumes on
the fly? When I try to backup my old camera recordings on VHS-tapes, they
are like 4 hours long, and the result is a couple of GB. I would like
mencoder, when capturing, to make the output files no bigger than 1 GB for
example. Can it be done? Or should I do it manually?

4) Is it common practise when capturing for backup reasons, to capture audio
and video one at a time?

Any Ideas?? Thank you.

Grzegorz