Tvheadend

You could use ffmpeg, but generally speaking there is no reason to. Unless a channel is doing something really funky, Kodi can play a recorded .ts file with no problem whatsoever. And even if you do decide to conver for some reason, you'd want to use a post-recording script - see https://tvheadend.org/projects/tvheadend/wiki/Tvheadend_post_recording_scripts

For an example of using ffmpeg to do a conversion see https://freetoairamerica.wordpress.com/2015/01/07/how-to-play-video-recorded-from-high-bitrate-422-sources-on-low-power-systems/

K Shea wrote:

You could use ffmpeg, but generally speaking there is no reason to. Unless a channel is doing something really funky, Kodi can play a recorded .ts file with no problem whatsoever. And even if you do decide to conver for some reason, you'd want to use a post-recording script - see https://tvheadend.org/projects/tvheadend/wiki/Tvheadend_post_recording_scripts

For an example of using ffmpeg to do a conversion see https://freetoairamerica.wordpress.com/2015/01/07/how-to-play-video-recorded-from-high-bitrate-422-sources-on-low-power-systems/

Thanks for that.
I would need to do some deinterlacing (I think that is the term, getting rid of the interlace lines a recorded TV show makes) after the recording too.

I also keep just the .ts files for all recordings, which I will play "soon" and then delete, and Kodi plays that just fine. For anything I want to store for longer periods, and therefore look for a smaller file, I use this ffmpeg command in a Python script, started manually:

# HandbrakeCLI options:
# -O, --optimize          Optimize mp4 files for HTTP streaming ("fast start")
# --preset "Normal" 
# + Normal:  -e x264  -q 20.0 -a 1 -E faac -B 160 -6 dpl2 -R Auto -D 0.0 --audio-copy-mask aac,ac3,dtshd,dts,mp3 
# --audio-fallback ffac3 -f mp4 --loose-anamorphic --modulus 2 -m --x264-preset veryfast --h264-profile main --h264-level 4.0
#command = 
'/usr/bin/HandBrakeCLI --preset "Normal" -O -i "' + fname + '.ts' + '" -o "path/' + fname + '.mkv" </dev/null  1> path/handbrake.log 2> path/handbrakeERR.log'

fname is the filename of the video without extension

Not sure how it deals with de-interlacing, but I think this is taken care off in Kodi anyway? At least, it works fine with me from DVB-S(2) recordings.

The thing about some programs like that, although I don't know about Handbrake specifically, is they are just a wrapper for ffmpeg. They save you from having to figure out some of ffmpeg's more arcane options, but often they run much more slowly than ffmpeg directly. Again, I don't know for sure about Handbrake, it is a very popular program so maybe it does have its own codecs, but still I suspect it takes longer than ffmpeg to do a similar conversion.

The other thing I don't like about some such programs is that they often re-encode the audio even when it isn't necessary, and lose the 5.1 surround sound in the process. With ffmpeg at least, if you tell it to to a straight copy of the audio track, it will do so without losing the 5.1. Again, I don't know how Handbrake works specifically, so that may or may not be an issue. Just something to check if you are so inclined.

It looks as if Kodi views the .ts file just fine. I guess I will leave it as is.
Unfortunately, I will still have the commercials in the file, that's the only downside.