Cayars - Setup walk through and some tips and tricks

General Discussions
1021

@markbebout said:
Thanks all! Appreciate the help!

You Welcome

1022

Did you abandon the distributed transcoding script totally, or is there still hope?
I have been converting a whole lot of my archive with your script already, and I am still in the process of doing so - but it is going to take quite a while, and I estimate there is about 40TB yet to be converted.
Iā€™ve upgraded my CPU to i7-7700K, and that combined with the converting of files in advance seems to help alot on the CPU load - though it still reaches 100% some times during the evening, and it would be awesome if I could benefit from the extra CPU in another computer to take some of the load until I am able to see how the cpu load will be when I am done converting my archive.

1023

@cayars iā€™ve got 6 hddā€™s 4tb red without raid, is it possible to make raid @ windows server 2012 r2 with snapraid without lossing data?

1024

@Thunder7ga said:

@cayars said:
Iā€™ll stand by my comment that hard coded Subtitles are evil. Why have subtitles forced on you if you understand the language being used? If itā€™s a soft subtitle then it can be turned on or off base on need but itā€™s never forced on you.

Iā€™ll never, ever do forced/hard subtitles in my scripts.

Agree if we are talking about COMPLETE movie subtitles. I DO encode ā€œforeignā€ language parts that are not already displaying automatically. All my family and friends who use my server all need those to know what is being said.

Can you explain how you do that? Been trying to figure this out and no matter what I try, I canā€™t get it to work with the script. Rip the bluray to mkv and I check subtitles and forced subtitles, script finds the subtitles but the forced donā€™t show up.

Thanks for the help!

1025

@roadzy said:

@Thunder7ga said:

@cayars said:
Iā€™ll stand by my comment that hard coded Subtitles are evil. Why have subtitles forced on you if you understand the language being used? If itā€™s a soft subtitle then it can be turned on or off base on need but itā€™s never forced on you.

Iā€™ll never, ever do forced/hard subtitles in my scripts.

Agree if we are talking about COMPLETE movie subtitles. I DO encode ā€œforeignā€ language parts that are not already displaying automatically. All my family and friends who use my server all need those to know what is being said.

Can you explain how you do that? Been trying to figure this out and no matter what I try, I canā€™t get it to work with the script. Rip the bluray to mkv and I check subtitles and forced subtitles, script finds the subtitles but the forced donā€™t show up.

Thanks for the help!

First, I find the subtitles (SRT File) that I need on one of the various sites (i.e. Subscene or OpenSubtitles) and verify the timing listed in them match the parts of my rip, if not, I figure out the ā€œoffsetā€ in milliseconds (i.e. 1000ms is 1 second). Then I use a program called HANDBRAKE. Add the ripped media file (mp4, mkv, etc) as the source, select the desired PRESET media output type (i.e. 1080p, 720p, etc), goto the SUBTITLES tab and IMPORT SRT file, adjust the OFFSET if needed (plus or minus so many milliseconds), click BURN IN. Name the DESTINATION file and then START ENCODE.

1026

Sorry guys, was hoping to get the FTP server back up but hitting problems on Comcast (had to switch from Verizon). Anyway, here is the current version for those that might need it.

1027

@stevencas said:
Did you abandon the distributed transcoding script totally, or is there still hope?
I have been converting a whole lot of my archive with your script already, and I am still in the process of doing so - but it is going to take quite a while, and I estimate there is about 40TB yet to be converted.
Iā€™ve upgraded my CPU to i7-7700K, and that combined with the converting of files in advance seems to help alot on the CPU load - though it still reaches 100% some times during the evening, and it would be awesome if I could benefit from the extra CPU in another computer to take some of the load until I am able to see how the cpu load will be when I am done converting my archive.

Nope not at all. I just posted the latest here in the thread where Iā€™ll probably keep it updated from now on. Iā€™ve got a few ideas for some additional features Iā€™ll be adding soonish. HW transcoding does throw a few monkey wrenches into things at times and Iā€™m trying to keep everything working with multiple HW transcoding as well as software.

1028

@COMELOL-SERVER said:
@cayars iā€™ve got 6 hddā€™s 4tb red without raid, is it possible to make raid @ windows server 2012 r2 with snapraid without lossing data?

SnapRaid isnā€™t really RAID at all. Itā€™s nothing more than parity to help you recover from a crash. You need access to the individual drives in order to use it. Thatā€™s why I recommend SnapRaid with DrivePool which makes for a very powerful, flexible solution for Plex on Windows.

1029

@cayars said:

@COMELOL-SERVER said:
@cayars iā€™ve got 6 hddā€™s 4tb red without raid, is it possible to make raid @ windows server 2012 r2 with snapraid without lossing data?

SnapRaid isnā€™t really RAID at all. Itā€™s nothing more than parity to help you recover from a crash. You need access to the individual drives in order to use it. Thatā€™s why I recommend SnapRaid with DrivePool which makes for a very powerful, flexible solution for Plex on Windows.

easy to implement with data on the disks , right?

1030

@COMELOL-SERVER said:

@cayars said:

@COMELOL-SERVER said:
@cayars iā€™ve got 6 hddā€™s 4tb red without raid, is it possible to make raid @ windows server 2012 r2 with snapraid without lossing data?

SnapRaid isnā€™t really RAID at all. Itā€™s nothing more than parity to help you recover from a crash. You need access to the individual drives in order to use it. Thatā€™s why I recommend SnapRaid with DrivePool which makes for a very powerful, flexible solution for Plex on Windows.

easy to implement with data on the disks , right?

Absolutely. It doesnā€™t affect your data at all. No need to reformat or any thing of that nature.

1031

@cayars May I ask you a bit more specific about your Setup? Do you have all of your Data and Parity Drives internal with SATA or via NAS or USB?

1032

@cayars I have the old version of your ā€œConvertā€ script as Iā€™ve started using it since early this year (2017). I see that the last modified date, in your FTP server, of Convert 2.2 is 4/16/2017. How do I upgrade my existing Convert (which is running fine btw, except for the fact that I still donā€™t know how to run it silently, I hope you can still help me with this) to the latest version? Do I just overwrite the files over?

Another issue that I have is with Plex for Roku. My media files are converted by your script and creates the AAC Stereo track as the first track properly. But for some reason, Plex for Roku always plays the AC3 5.1 (2nd track) by default. When I manually change the audio stream, it goes into transcode mode instead of Direct stream. Is this something to be expected?

1033

@loibi2 said:
@cayars May I ask you a bit more specific about your Setup? Do you have all of your Data and Parity Drives internal with SATA or via NAS or USB?

Yes to all 3 and then some.
Iā€™ve got 6 drives or so internal.
8 drives in a USB enclosure
4 or 5 USB attached drives
2 NAS boxes
SAN Box as well

So I make use of the technologies I have. :slight_smile:

My parity drives are on the NAS so Iā€™m writing to them via the network. Itā€™s a bit slower but when Iā€™m mostly just doing SYNC updates itā€™s not a big deal at all. In the the event of a full drive restore it adds a bit of time but Iā€™m ok with that since Iā€™m only restoring a drive and all other content would still be available for plex use.

I do it this way so I can maximize local drives for actual storage of movies/shows.

1034

@kevindd992002 said:
@cayars I have the old version of your ā€œConvertā€ script as Iā€™ve started using it since early this year (2017). I see that the last modified date, in your FTP server, of Convert 2.2 is 4/16/2017. How do I upgrade my existing Convert (which is running fine btw, except for the fact that I still donā€™t know how to run it silently, I hope you can still help me with this) to the latest version? Do I just overwrite the files over?

Big difference between version 1 and version 2 of the scripts. You will need to reinstall following the directions provided in the zip.

Another issue that I have is with Plex for Roku. My media files are converted by your script and creates the AAC Stereo track as the first track properly. But for some reason, Plex for Roku always plays the AC3 5.1 (2nd track) by default. When I manually change the audio stream, it goes into transcode mode instead of Direct stream. Is this something to be expected?

This was fixed in version 2 of the scripts. Version one didnā€™t mark the AAC track as the default.

1035

@cayars said:

@kevindd992002 said:
@cayars I have the old version of your ā€œConvertā€ script as Iā€™ve started using it since early this year (2017). I see that the last modified date, in your FTP server, of Convert 2.2 is 4/16/2017. How do I upgrade my existing Convert (which is running fine btw, except for the fact that I still donā€™t know how to run it silently, I hope you can still help me with this) to the latest version? Do I just overwrite the files over?

Big difference between version 1 and version 2 of the scripts. You will need to reinstall following the directions provided in the zip.

Another issue that I have is with Plex for Roku. My media files are converted by your script and creates the AAC Stereo track as the first track properly. But for some reason, Plex for Roku always plays the AC3 5.1 (2nd track) by default. When I manually change the audio stream, it goes into transcode mode instead of Direct stream. Is this something to be expected?

This was fixed in version 2 of the scripts. Version one didnā€™t mark the AAC track as the default.

Got it. A couple of questions still:

  1. Is Python 3 better than Python 2.7? If so, can Python 3 co-exist with Python 2.7 if I install Python 3 separately?

  2. I forgot if I ran the pip commands when I was first setting this up. If so and as per your instructions, will re-running them all do any harm?

  3. Which is a better hardware encoding between using an nVidia GPU and Intel Quicksync? Currently, I have a GTX 1080Ti and an Intel 2600K but Iā€™ll be building a new rig containing the same GPU and the new 8700K. The default one is using the CPU, right?

  4. Iā€™m using Couchpotato, Sonarr, Plex, and Sab in my system. I saw that there are separate sections for these in your INIā€™s. Do you have a guide that will correctly set all up the best way possible?

1036

  1. yes they can coexist on the same computer. Iā€™m using a combination of different computers. On my plex server I believe Iā€™m still using 2.7.

  2. In the Zip file there is a file called instruction.txt which has all the PIP commands you need to run.

  3. Going to depend on your system. Most likely the QSV/Intel.

  4. I donā€™t talk about that stuff here. Send me a PM. :slight_smile:

1037

@cayars said:

  1. yes they can coexist on the same computer. Iā€™m using a combination of different computers. On my plex server I believe Iā€™m still using 2.7.

  2. In the Zip file there is a file called instruction.txt which has all the PIP commands you need to run.

  3. Going to depend on your system. Most likely the QSV/Intel.

  4. I donā€™t talk about that stuff here. Send me a PM. :slight_smile:

  1. Ok.

  2. Yes, I read that. What I was curious about is if thereā€™s any ill effects if I run all the commands now even if I ran them already in the past?

  3. Got it. When you say experimental, what kind of bugs are we expecting?

  4. Ok, Iā€™ll send you a PM about this question :slight_smile:

1038

@cayars said:

@loibi2 said:
@cayars May I ask you a bit more specific about your Setup? Do you have all of your Data and Parity Drives internal with SATA or via NAS or USB?

Yes to all 3 and then some.
Iā€™ve got 6 drives or so internal.
8 drives in a USB enclosure
4 or 5 USB attached drives
2 NAS boxes
SAN Box as well

So I make use of the technologies I have. :slight_smile:

My parity drives are on the NAS so Iā€™m writing to them via the network. Itā€™s a bit slower but when Iā€™m mostly just doing SYNC updates itā€™s not a big deal at all. In the the event of a full drive restore it adds a bit of time but Iā€™m ok with that since Iā€™m only restoring a drive and all other content would still be available for plex use.

I do it this way so I can maximize local drives for actual storage of movies/shows.

Ok thanks.

Currently got 4 internal Drives and 4 external via USB - wanna get rid of the many USB Drives.
What Kind of USB enclosure are you using? Will they Show up as individual Drives?
NAS boxes - you connect em via iSCSI? If it is a 2bay NAS will they Show up as individual Drives?

1039

http://www.provantage.com/startech-s358bu33erm~7STR93J5.htm?source=googleps&gclid=Cj0KCQjwvOzOBRDGARIsAICjxocmyfIK6DlDQqGlDdDsafSrG16pV0yVg8ltsOA7Maaa5MkmhSZTvQ4aAkXnEALw_wcB

Thatā€™s what Iā€™m currently using for USB enclosure. Works well with ESATA or USB3 and a good cost. Doesnā€™t support RAID but I donā€™t want that. Each drive in the enclosure is a separate drive letter to the operating system.

Iā€™m using the NAS boxes mostly to just write parity to from SnapRAID so I just set them up as SMB links.
I use iSCSI for SAN mounts however.

SnapRAID will write parity to a network drive but a network drive canā€™t be a ā€œsourceā€ drive. For SnapRAID to work it needs to have a ā€œlocalā€ drive letter. Thatā€™s why I use iSCSI for the media drives but not for the parity drives.

Iā€™m using a couple of the cheap WD NAS boxes that are super cheap (think Walmart). Think USB3 drive but with Ethernet connection vs USB3. Not really much different than plugging in a USB 3 drive to your router. Works great for parity drives.

1040

@kevindd992002 said:

@cayars said:

  1. yes they can coexist on the same computer. Iā€™m using a combination of different computers. On my plex server I believe Iā€™m still using 2.7.

  2. In the Zip file there is a file called instruction.txt which has all the PIP commands you need to run.

  3. Going to depend on your system. Most likely the QSV/Intel.

  4. I donā€™t talk about that stuff here. Send me a PM. :slight_smile:

  1. Ok.

  2. Yes, I read that. What I was curious about is if thereā€™s any ill effects if I run all the commands now even if I ran them already in the past?

  3. Got it. When you say experimental, what kind of bugs are we expecting?

  4. Ok, Iā€™ll send you a PM about this question :slight_smile:

@cayars

I already installed Python 3.6 and run the pip commands successfully, so disregard that and the experimental hardware encoding question.

Did you receive my PM regarding the CP/Sonarr/Sab/Convert script configuration though?

One more thing that I noticed when I tried Convert 2.2 with CPU encoding. The output file has an extension of .mp4.original. Why is it appeding the .original there?

The only two parameter values I changed in the default autoprocess.ini are these:

output_directory =
download-artwork = False

Everything else is at their absolute defaults when I got the Convert 2.2 zip file from your FTP server.