I have a HAUPPAUGE WinTV-quadHD PCI Express TV Tuner Card 1609 in my Plex Media Server box that I use to record OTA TV.
All of the DVR files get saved in a .ts format which makes for HUGE recordings. With this file type it seems to produce about a gig of data for every 10 minutes recording. Way too much…
I contacted Hauppauge about this and they suggested I use their WinTV settings to make the recording files save as a .mpg not as a .ts. This kind of works as some 30 minute shows now only take about 300MB or so, but some shows are still recording at the rate of a gig per ten minutes.
This leads to two questions:
Is there a way I can make Plex control the TV tuner card so that I get the .mpg files and not .ts files?
If not, how do you all handle converting all of your .ts files into .mpgs? I know I could use handbrake, but I’d prefer an automated process, not one that I have to manage myself.
First the ts file is just a container for the audio/video streams recorded inside the ts file. In the US for TV recordings you are more than likely receiving mpeg2 video which creates really large files. Converting the internal video will reduce the size of the ts file as Hauppauge mentioned. I am assuming that the conversion they mentioned is transcoding the mpeg2 video to probably h264.
You can setup your own post processing within Plex DVR. Just add the post processing script to your DVR configuration. You’re script can then use Handbrake or some other conversion process to transcode the recordings after they finish. If you are running on Windows you can also use mcebuddy to remove commercials and transcode the files automatically.
I use mcebudddy to remove commercials and convert the container from ts to MP4. I don’t transcode the internal video stream just the container. This allows me to watch recordings about 10-15 minutes after they are finished. I then manually run recordings through Handbrake to convert the video streams to h265 for permanently storage. I choose the h265 format for storage savings. All my clients that I use regularly are able to Direct Play the h265 stream so my server is not transcoding during playback. Even my son is able to use his Fire TV stick from his apartment to Direct Play the recordings.
I googled around trying to find documentation on Plex post processing script, but don’t really see anything besides Reddit and Forum posts. Is there some official documentation out there that I am overlooking?
Actually… I’m looking into MCEbuddy now. It looks like the script is a Windows script that uses the CLI of these other programs to do post processing. Is that correct?
Mcebuddy basically provides a single install that packages comskip/comchap to remove commercials, ffmpeg and handbrake to transcode video/audio along with a GUI tool to configure what you want done during conversions. There is Reddit article on using mcebuddy written by another Plex user along with a script he wrote to do the post processing.
You can try that if you want, that is what it was designed to do. In the past there was some issues with the conversions, as soon as some users turned off the experimental feature the problem seemed to go away on their systems. If you are going to try that feature I would suggest turning it on at times you have no critical recordings scheduled. When doing any testing I personally do the testing either after the prime time recordings have finished and record things while I am asleep or do testing during the morning/afternoon. Ensuring that I can get my system restored to a stable environment before the next set of prime time recordings start for the night.
@johnm_ColaSC said:
Mcebuddy basically provides a single install that packages comskip/comchap to remove commercials, ffmpeg and handbrake to transcode video/audio along with a GUI tool to configure what you want done during conversions. There is Reddit article on using mcebuddy written by another Plex user along with a script he wrote to do the post processing.
Ok, I think this is making sense now, but I have a few follow up questions.
If I use MCEBuddy to convert to mp4 and remove commercials, then I won’t have to worry about generating scripts to do these two tasks? It’s not that I can’t learn to write the scripts, but I have a lot of other things to do and would prefer for my DVR to “just work”. I’ll throw money at it if I have to
Why use Handbrake to convert to h265 for permanent storage? Why do it manually? I’m guessing that script could be made to do this automatically, if desired; have you looked into doing that?
@pbenzschawel said:
Wouldn’t the experimental transcoding feature built into PMS convert to H.264 and reduce the file size?
I didn’t see this before, thanks for pointing it out. If it wasn’t experimental, then I would probably use it.
If I use MCEBuddy to convert to mp4 and remove commercials, then I won’t have to worry about generating scripts to do these two tasks? It’s not that I can’t learn to write the scripts, but I have a lot of other things to do and would prefer for my DVR to “just work”. I’ll throw money at it if I have to
Correct. Mcebuddy keeps you from having to write a script.
Why use Handbrake to convert to h265 for permanent storage? Why do it manually? I’m guessing that script could be made to do this automatically, if desired; have you looked into doing that?
I don’t want to tie up my recording to have mcebuddy transcode to h265. I have it simply remove commercials and remux the container from ts to mp4. My clients can then immediately start playing the recording once mcebuddy has finished.
I will get to writing a script to automate the handbrake processing just haven’t got to it yet, it’s on my list to do in the next few months but not a real high priority. Currently only takes me a 10-15 minutes to scan the recording folders for new recordings to process and set them up in Handbrake for conversion.
@per-plex-ed said:
I have a HAUPPAUGE WinTV-quadHD PCI Express TV Tuner Card 1609 in my Plex Media Server box that I use to record OTA TV.
All of the DVR files get saved in a .ts format which makes for HUGE recordings. With this file type it seems to produce about a gig of data for every 10 minutes recording. Way too much…
I contacted Hauppauge about this and they suggested I use their WinTV settings to make the recording files save as a .mpg not as a .ts. This kind of works as some 30 minute shows now only take about 300MB or so, but some shows are still recording at the rate of a gig per ten minutes.
This leads to two questions:
Is there a way I can make Plex control the TV tuner card so that I get the .mpg files and not .ts files?
If not, how do you all handle converting all of your .ts files into .mpgs? I know I could use handbrake, but I’d prefer an automated process, not one that I have to manage myself.
Or:
From your saved library the following options are available.
I do this as my TV will not Direct play ts files but optimizing works fine.
If I use MCEBuddy to convert to mp4 and remove commercials, then I won’t have to worry about generating scripts to do these two tasks? It’s not that I can’t learn to write the scripts, but I have a lot of other things to do and would prefer for my DVR to “just work”. I’ll throw money at it if I have to
Correct. Mcebuddy keeps you from having to write a script.
Why use Handbrake to convert to h265 for permanent storage? Why do it manually? I’m guessing that script could be made to do this automatically, if desired; have you looked into doing that?
I don’t want to tie up my recording to have mcebuddy transcode to h265. I have it simply remove commercials and remux the container from ts to mp4. My clients can then immediately start playing the recording once mcebuddy has finished.
I will get to writing a script to automate the handbrake processing just haven’t got to it yet, it’s on my list to do in the next few months but not a real high priority. Currently only takes me a 10-15 minutes to scan the recording folders for new recordings to process and set them up in Handbrake for conversion.
@per-plex-ed said:
I have a HAUPPAUGE WinTV-quadHD PCI Express TV Tuner Card 1609 in my Plex Media Server box that I use to record OTA TV.
All of the DVR files get saved in a .ts format which makes for HUGE recordings. With this file type it seems to produce about a gig of data for every 10 minutes recording. Way too much…
I contacted Hauppauge about this and they suggested I use their WinTV settings to make the recording files save as a .mpg not as a .ts. This kind of works as some 30 minute shows now only take about 300MB or so, but some shows are still recording at the rate of a gig per ten minutes.
This leads to two questions:
Is there a way I can make Plex control the TV tuner card so that I get the .mpg files and not .ts files?
If not, how do you all handle converting all of your .ts files into .mpgs? I know I could use handbrake, but I’d prefer an automated process, not one that I have to manage myself.
Or:
From your saved library the following options are available.
I do this as my TV will not Direct play ts files but optimizing works fine.
