What are the benefits of post processing? Will it help my amazon tv play the content it currently struggles with?
Advantages: using comskip to remove commercials, and transcoding the recorded file to a format your devices can process better. Exactly why I use post processing.
@johnm_ColaSC said:
Advantages: using comskip to remove commercials, and transcoding the recorded file to a format your devices can process better. Exactly why I use post processing.
As for the OP question, I have no idea about if transcoding will help play on an Amazon TV. I find that mp4 or mkv works fine on any device I use.
I have donator comskip and while it gets rid of commercials pretty effectively, I have yet to get it to give me 100% of a show. I’m getting 17 minutes out of 30. Maybe more, maybe less, but never complete to credits. I would welcome some advice. Also, I’ve noticed it takes FOREVER after I record something before it becomes available. What’s the down time? It seems that after I DVR with HDHomeRun it’s available immediately.
What I’ve been doing is using HDHomeRun software to DVR because it’s more reliable than the Plex, then I cut the commercials myself and process with MCEBuddy. It works but I’d love to not have to manually cut the commercials.
Thanks!
johnm, I just saw your comment on my thread. Thanks again! I’m going to try 107.
@raineyland With comskip the detect_method in the comskip.ini file determines how it detects and removes commercials. I use mcebuddy as part of post processing. My last recording, SD show not HD, finished recording at 6:00 pm and was done post processing and in my library at 6:02 pm. The recording was a 30 minute show and was 21 minutes 41 seconds in length when done post processing. I use a detect_method of 107 which works well for all of the shows I record. Since you mentioned mcebuddy I know you are running windows. The donator version of comskip comes with a ComskipINIEditor that can be run to look at details of each setting in the ini file.
@johnm_ColaSC said:
@raineyland With comskip the detect_method in the comskip.ini file determines how it detects and removes commercials. I use mcebuddy as part of post processing. My last recording, SD show not HD, finished recording at 6:00 pm and was done post processing and in my library at 6:02 pm. The recording was a 30 minute show and was 21 minutes 41 seconds in length when done post processing. I use a detect_method of 107 which works well for all of the shows I record. Since you mentioned mcebuddy I know you are running windows. The donator version of comskip comes with a ComskipINIEditor that can be run to look at details of each setting in the ini file.
Thanks! I haven’t had time to mess with this since I posted, but I will today or tomorrow. That said, when I send to MCEBuddy through post processing, it’s fast like you said.(not that fast though, is that from record to comskip/MCE to library? In two minutes? If so, you must have a killer server, lol) If I don’t send it to MCEBuddy, if I just record with plex, it takes forever to become available. Have you experienced that at all?
You may not be any help with this question, and I know I’m in the wring thread, but I just thought I’d throw it out there…Plex Cloud is working great on every device except Xbox One S. The server says the movie starts playing, but it actually never does. Any thoughts? I haven’t found a thread for this, so I may post a separate thread. Thanks in advance!
The time is from the recording end time in Plex to showing in the library with mcebuddy processing done. System is not really a fast machine by current processors. Running a 3-4 year old i5-3570 processor. We built a new computer in December 2016 for my son. He bought an i7-3700 which blows my computer away. Currently converting some BluRay to HEVC for storage in Plex. My computer converting to HEVC says it will take over 1 day. His computer is converting the file in about 3 hours.
Times I am seeing for mcebuddy processing:
30 minute SD show - 2-3 minutes
60 minute SD show - 3-4 minutes
30 minute HD show - 5-6 minutes
60 minute HD shows - 10-12 minutes
I use the MP4 Unprocessed profile in mcebuddy so commercials are removed and then the container is converted to MP4 from the MKV files Plex creates.
I have not experienced issues with recordings taking a long time to become available other than a few that the server apparently had some issue recording and were recording for a while after they should have stopped. After shutting down Plex and restarting the recordings were deleted.
I just loaded Plex on my sons Xbox One and was able to play a movie from my Plex Cloud server. I am not sure why you were not able to. His XBox is on a wired connection. Except our cell phones, laptops, and 2 of my security cameras, everything else is wired gigabit connections.
The advantage of post processing is simply to allow plex to be involved and have knowledge of all steps of making the content available. Prior to 1.7.x I used a variation fo the mp4 unprocessed option John mentioned above. One problem though is that it doesn’t do anything to actually reduce the video file size with a better video codec. If you do try to use the post processing script to change the mpeg stream to a h.264/g.265 stream you hold the video in post processing so long other issues start to occur. Those other issues range from multiple extra recordings of the same content and content being held in post processing if it can’t keep up.
My suggestion would be to forego post processing from in plex and use MCEBuddy’s monitor function. That will let plex record and release the content to the library and your server then MCEBUDDY could convert the video at its pace. There are also issues that can come up if you cut the commercials. I would suggest letting MCEbuddy and comskip just mark the commercials as chapters and then convert the entire file to h.264(h.265 if you have the right clients to work with it)
Thanks so much - tried mcebuddy and purchased it. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to move the file to my nas even with admin password added. Do you have a converting preference to recommend? I use a synology disk station.
Have you looked at any of the suggestions here: https://mcebuddy2x.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=MCEBuddy%20Common%20Issues
Here is one on network shares:
MCEBuddy cannot access mapped drive, network path/share or other drives such a google drive, dropbox drives etc in CustomCommands
Cause
Drive has not accessible to LocalSystem account
Network path is password protected
Network path is already mapped by Windows
No username has been entered in the authentication pages of MCEBuddy settings
Network path is offline
Resolution
If you’re using a network path/share, mapped drives, google drives or any other non local drives, make sure these drives are available to the LocalSystem account for services running in kernel space context. By default mapped drives are ONLY available for the user who has logged into the system and then mapped the drives (network, google, remote etc) in the context of the user login.
Since MCEBuddy runs as a service in using the LocalSystem account (kernel context) these mapped drives are not available to MCEBuddy. There are 2 options here:
-
Find a way to map the drives (for network drives, read the other questions in this document to see how to map network drives in System context) to Local System account to it’s accessible to Services running in kernel space.
-
Run MCEBuddy Engine as a Command Line Service from the Start Menu -> MCEBuddy -> MCEBuddy Command Line Service. This runs the engine locally (after the user has logged) from the User’s context and hence all mapped drives available to the user will be available to MCEBuddy.
b) For accessing network shares through CustomCommands you need to add the network login credentials to Settings -> Expert Settings -> Network Authentication. This MUST match the same credentials that have been used to access the network share via Windows Explorer or if the network share has been mapped to a drive. See point © below.
c) Check if the path has already been mapped by Windows. To check the mappings, open a command prompt (Start -> Run -> cmd). Type net use and it should show you the mapped drives. Make sure you are using the same credentials that have been used to map the network shares/drives in Windows. Windows only allows for one set of credentials per network share. If you don’t need the mapped drive/paths you can disconnect them using the command net /delete .
d) Make sure the network drive is connected and accessible.
Windows is VERY FINICKY. You cannot map the same Network share more than once with different credentials.
If you’ve connected to the remote computer using Windows Explorer or the Run command, then you’ve already logged in with one set of credentials. If MCEBuddy now tries to connect with a different set of credentials it will FAIL since Windows will reject it.
Update, I found a post that said to change detect method to 255, max volume to 50, and verbose to 1. It is MUCH better now, as far as I can tell. I’m going to compare some stuff to be sure, but, no more 7 minute cuts…
Thanks, guys!
What detect_method were you using before? I use 107.
As far as mapped network drives with MCEBuddy goes you need to make sure you setup the user for MCEBuddy to use. When you setup the monitor location MCEBuddy will warn you if you use a UNC path that you need to specify the user of and password for the connection. Just make sure you do that.
@johnm_ColaSC said:
What detect_method were you using before? I use 107.
I tried 107 like you suggested, and I didn’t see any change from before. The setup I mentioned has recorded multiple TV shows and one movie and cut them almost perfectly, as best I can tell. What I’m really TRYING to DVR is Lethal Weapon and Lucifer this fall, maybe Gotham, lol. So I’'m trying to find settings that will work with those channels and their formats. Hopefully this is it! Lol.
