Cayars - Setup walk through and some tips and tricks

General Discussions
901

Thumbnails for your Roku player?

902

@ember1205 said:
Thumbnails for your Roku player?

Thatā€™s sort of what the index/bif files are. They are created by plex and used in some of the different players and in the now playing screen on the server. A bif is a screen image done every X seconds that shows a static picture for a position in the show/movie. It was invented by Roku so itā€™s their standard.

On the roku and some other players this shows up when you RW or FF in the movie. You can a small window that follows the timeline to show you what will be at that scene.

So yes they are thumbnails sort of but thatā€™s not the question Iā€™m asking. The question Iā€™m specifically asking is why I named the BIF file exactly as I did. Not the functionality of the file but the name.

I renamed it this way on purpose so some other app (another hint) could also use just like plex does (another hint).

This is to much fun. Short of staring to spell the name of the other app I canā€™t think of any more hints to give. :slight_smile:

Carlo
Cough, cough ā€œEā€ :slight_smile:

903

Well, my next thought was UMS (Universal Media Server), but now Iā€™m brining back a previous thought of Emby.

904

@cayars said:

@ember1205 said:
Thumbnails for your Roku player?

Thatā€™s sort of what the index/bif files are. They are created by plex and used in some of the different players and in the now playing screen on the server. A bif is a screen image done every X seconds that shows a static picture for a position in the show/movie. It was invented by Roku so itā€™s their standard.

On the roku and some other players this shows up when you RW or FF in the movie. You can a small window that follows the timeline to show you what will be at that scene.

So yes they are thumbnails sort of but thatā€™s not the question Iā€™m asking. The question Iā€™m specifically asking is why I named the BIF file exactly as I did. Not the functionality of the file but the name.

I renamed it this way on purpose so some other app (another hint) could also use just like plex does (another hint).

This is to much fun. Short of staring to spell the name of the other app I canā€™t think of any more hints to give. :slight_smile:

Carlo
Cough, cough ā€œEā€ :slight_smile:

At this point, itā€™s clearly because Emby also uses BIF files :smiley: . Not being familiar with Emby, Iā€™m guessing you did your naming convention was used because that is the convention Emby uses (and might be more picky on the format than Plex). But that last part is just a guess.

-Shark2k

905

At this point, itā€™s clearly because Emby also uses BIF files :smiley: . Not being familiar with Emby, Iā€™m guessing you did your naming convention was used because that is the convention Emby uses (and might be more picky on the format than Plex). But that last part is just a guess.

-Shark2k

Ding, Ding, Ding, we have a winner!

I knew somebody was going to get it soon. Emby can create these BIF files like Plex can. However Emby only generates the ā€œpicā€ every 10 seconds while Plex does it every couple of seconds so itā€™s more fluid when you use them in the players. Since I have both systems running I DO NOT want both programs generating these bif files.

Plex creates these index files in itā€™s meta directory and I keep them on a 1TB SSD drive that was almost full so I was about to have a problem. Emby gives you a choice of creating the BIF files in itā€™s meta-directory (similar to Plexā€™s) or it will allow you to put it right next to the media which I really like.

With Emby if you ever have to reload a library or create a new system it will load the BIF file without re-creating them if it finds it during the scan. Plex canā€™t do this since itā€™s all meta-directory based.

I rebuilt my system about 2 years ago with only 1/2 the files I have now and it took 2 months to generate these BIF files. So I never want to do that again! With the scripts I wrote I copy the bif from the Plex meta directory to the directory containing the media. I use the filename that Emby would use so now the BIF file is created only in Plex and usable by both systems.

If I ever have to recreate a big library I wonā€™t have to regen my BIF as I can slip them back in again after the scanning is done.

Carlo

906

Out of curiosity, has anyone got these transcode scripts working with Radarr / Sonarr?

907

Sonarr Setup

Set your Sonarr settings in the autoProcess.ini file
host = Sonarr host address (localhost) #Settings/General/Start-Up
port = Sonarr port (8989) #Settings/General/Start-Up
ssl = 1 if enabled, 0 if not #Settings/General/Security
apikey = Sonarr API Key (required) #Settings/General/Security
web_root = URL base empty or e.g. /tv #Settings/General/Start-Up
Browse to the Settings>Download Client tab and enable advanced settings [Show].
Set the Drone Factory Intervalā€™ to 0 to disable it, and disable ā€˜Completed Download Handlingā€™ in Sonarr settings. The script will trigger a specific path re-scan, allowing the mp4 conversion to be completed before Sonarr starts moving stuff around. This step is optional if you do not desire any processing between the downloading by whichever downloader you choose (NZB or Torrent), but is required if you wish to convert the file to an MP4 before it is handed back to Sonarr.
Setup the postSonarr.py script via Settings > Connect > Connections > + (Add)
name - postSonarr
On Grab - No
On Download - Yes
On Upgrade - Yes
On Rename - No
Filter Series Tags - optional
Windows Users
Path - Full path to your python executable
Arguments - Full path to postSonarr.py
Nonwindows Users
Path - Full path to postSonarr.py
Arguments - Leave blank
Radarr Setup

Set your Radarr settings in the autoProcess.ini file

host = Radarr host address (localhost) #Settings/General/Start-Up
port = Radarr port (7878) #Settings/General/Start-Up
ssl = 1 if enabled, 0 if not #Settings/General/Security
apikey = Radarr API Key (required) #Settings/General/Security
web_root = URL base empty or e.g. /tv #Settings/General/Start-Up
Browse to the Settings>Download Client tab and enable advanced settings [Show].
Set the Drone Factory Intervalā€™ to 0 to disable it, and disable ā€˜Completed Download Handlingā€™ in Radarr settings. The script will trigger a specific path re-scan, allowing the mp4 conversion to be completed before Radarr starts moving stuff around. This step is optional if you do not desire any processing between the downloading by whichever downloader you choose (NZB or Torrent), but is required if you wish to convert the file to an MP4 before it is handed back to Radarr.
Setup the postRadarr.py script via Settings > Connect > Connections > + (Add)
name - postRadarr
On Grab - No
On Download - Yes
On Upgrade - Yes
On Rename - No
Filter Series Tags - optional
Windows Users
Path - Full path to your python executable
Arguments - Full path to postRadarr.py
Nonwindows Users
Path - Full path to postRadarr.py
Arguments - Leave blank

908

@cayars said:

thanks, do you know of a command to see what file ffmpeg is currently encoding?

Isnā€™t Quick Sync supposed to be faster than regular cpu encoding? Iā€™m finding the opposite?

909

just scroll up in the box and youā€™ll see the name of the file itā€™s processing.

Yes Quick sync should be faster on any recent CPU. What CPU do you have? BTW if running on windows download a copy of GPU-Z to check the status of the GPU while itā€™s transcoding.

910

@cayars said:
just scroll up in the box and youā€™ll see the name of the file itā€™s processing.

Yes Quick sync should be faster on any recent CPU. What CPU do you have? BTW if running on windows download a copy of GPU-Z to check the status of the GPU while itā€™s transcoding.

E3-1245v2.

Iā€™ve been experimenting with both yours and sickbeard_mp4_automator.

With the delete_original option disabled, is it possible to move it to the final location as well?

Iā€™m finding right now itā€™s converting then leaving the created mp4 in C:\Downloads\xx while it moves the original to the correct location.

Ugh scratch that. No idea whats going on. Itā€™s converting a copy that its leaving in C:\Downloads, then moving the original to the correct location, then doing ANOTHER transcode. Damn it.

911

Iā€™m basically trying to download a file, convert that file on the local disk, then transfer both the original and transcoded file to another disk but I canā€™t get it to play ball. :ā€™(

912

Youā€™re not really going to get that functionality out of this on itā€™s own (I donā€™t think). The idea for us is to get rid of the original not keep it. We want to replace it not create stacked movies.

What happens if you have Top Gun (1986).mp4 (with mpeg4 codec) and then the converted Top Gun (1986).mp4 for h.264 condec? They have the same name?

Carlo

913

Iā€™m interested in everyoneā€™s feedback on the following question (I can move to another thread if needed).

Background

Iā€™m currently running Windows Home Server 2011. The major functionality that I use the server for are:

  • NAS server (~5 TB of data currently)
  • Plex Server
  • Subsonic server (for music only)
  • MCE Buddy for removing commercials from Tablo DVR recordings

On the server I have been using Stablebit DrivePool/Scanner along with SnapRaid for drive parity (per Carloā€™s previous recommendations). All important files are backed up to Amazon Cloud Drive currently but I will be switching to Crashplan soon due to the loss of the unlimited plan.

Question

I have started recently evaluating my upgrade options as my server hardware is getting older and WHS is getting closer to itā€™s end of life and have come up with the following options:

  • Upgrade to a new Windows Server version
  • Upgrade to Windows 10 Pro (I realize this is not a server OS) - this is my leading candidate as I donā€™t feel I will utilize any of the server features in Windows Server
  • Change to Unraid/FreeNAS/OpenMediaVault and run Windows VM for MCEBuddy functionality
  • Purchase Synlogy/QNAP for NAS functionality and a separate PC for server functionality

I am mainly a Windows guy and thatā€™s why I have mainly leaned more towards a Windows solution. I would really appreciate any feedback on what option everyone feels is the best way forward including any pros/cons or other options that I should be considering.

914

Easy, Switch to Windows 10 on the new hardware. For what you are using this for Desktop vs Server makes no/little difference at all. If youā€™re not a fan of windows 10 menu system (Iā€™m not) then install Classic Start Menu which will allow you to run the menu system like youā€™re used to.

Carlo

915

2nd windows 10.

916

@cayars @shpankey Thanks for the feedback. Thatā€™s the way I was leaning too but wanted to put it here in case there was another option that I had missed.

917

No problem. Unless you have specific requirements that wonā€™t allow the use of Windows then this would be the server software of choice in my book since it has the most support of features across the board. As a simple example take the new DVR/Live TV offerings, it will have the most support for hardware.

Carlo

918

I know this wasnt really the purpose of your conversion script however would it be possible to use it to convert to h265 rather than 264?

919

Yes, I believe you should be able to do this as well.

920

Do you have any suggestions for settings? Going to do some playing tomorrow but wondered if anyone had already had any success.