i am looking for the same thing. currently using mencoder scripts from a command line and scheduling via cron. here is a good starting off point:

http://www.linuxprofessionalsolution...vlicek/tv.html

however, not very wife friendly.

if you post some of the errors you are getting with a particular package, you may be able to get help getting them installed. i couldn't get freevo installed at first, but got some answers here that helped me get it done.