Loving Plex :) Works brilliantly, but having a little issue with wtv files.
I like the windows media center for recording TV - the quality is a lot better than the totalmedia 3.5 that came with the tv card. However, the wtv files are very hit and miss if they play or not via Plex.
The files work fine in media center (as you'd expect) and they show up in Plex complete with artwork. However, when you come to play them on the roku box you get the loading bar sit there for some minutes before it announces the server is not working or the file is unavaliable. Sometimes it will play, and play well. It seems that if you play it via plex on the server PC it will sometimes eventually load and play, and after that it will sometimes play on roku, but mostly not
I have tried some conversion utilities to convert to mp4, but they take forever to convert even a half hour show and tie up the server PC in the process.
I'd like to use the wtv files if possible - is there a way? Or can anyone reccomend a program that will record in mp4 files in the first place with good quality?
I use a similar setup with the WMC and plex and experienced similar issues on the Roku. But when I got my smart TV most of the issues went away.
As for a different piece of software, I have used BeyondTV http://www.snapstream.com/products/beyondtv/default.asp and really liked it. I can't remember if the software would do MP4 but as I recall the file size was smaller than the WTV files.
I am currently working on a way to rename the files so that plex is able to get the data for the files. The recordings are only a back up if we miss a show and are deleted if we already watched them, so the converting isn't worth the time in my situation.
I've had success with MCE Buddy (http://mcebuddy2x.codeplex.com/) and there's a low / medium / high processing... it unfortuantely can take some time if there's a lot of conversions and you set it to low to not interrupt PLEX streaming.
Thanks for the replies. Settled on MC TVconverter. Works well and doesn't take over my PC. Not too worried about zapping ad breaks, but does sit in the system tray and watch for new stuff and convert it automatically.
I've had problems streaming .wtv files from Windows Media Center to my recently purchased Samsung Smart TV, so looked into Plex, whose app is on my Smart TV. After installing the Plex app on the TV, and the server on my PC, I noticed I couldn't view .wtv files either when added to Plex's TV Show Library. I now notice from hints (somewhere) in this forum that, while .wtv files are NOT recognized in TV Shows library, they ARE if you put them in as Home Movies library.
Incidentally, the .wtv files from Windows Media Center play beautifully on the Samsung Smart TV when played from the Home Movies library, even though they're not recognized when added to the TV Shows library.
I believe somewhere in this forum theres a description of how to edit .wtv into the Plex database, but it certainly seems to me that Plex developers should add .wtv format capability permanently to their TV Shows library once and for all. (Seems like it should be a snap...)
Summing it up, If .wtv files play from the Home Movies library, they certainly ought to play from the TV Shows library!
Not that I disagree, but you can use MCEBuddy to convert WTV to another format that Plex can better handle. It is an extra step, may compromise quality somewhat, and takes some time, but it can be fully automated.
In my experience, Plex handles .wtv files just fine, so why would I convert them? I just wish Plex would handle them in the TV Shows library the same way they do in the Home Movies library.
I wish someone could write a custom scanner for these. I (was) just living without the metadata. Now the home movies trick doesn't even work for me anymore. regardless, it would be nice to have support for WMC recordings.
In my experience, Plex handles .wtv files just fine, so why would I convert them? I just wish Plex would handle them in the TV Shows library the same way they do in the Home Movies library.
For one, it fixes the TV Shows issue and is something you have control over rather than waiting for the Plex team to fix. Also, MCEBuddy can strip commercials in the process of conversion, and it can convert to formats more easily streamed than WTV files. If none of that applies, then keep doing what you are doing and wait for something out of your control to be changed so you can add WTV files to the TV Shows category.
The TV Shows issue is nowhere near as big of a deal to me as waiting for conversions/commercial strippings to occur while my wife is waiting to view her soap after work when the broadcast just finished. If I've got to put it in the Home Movies library for now, so be it. As far as ease of streaming from Plex, it couldn't get any easier in my situation. The .wtv files begin streaming immediately, pixel perfect in 1080, with Dolby 5.1 intact. Rewind, fast forward, pause, jump to, all fantastic. No pauses, shakes, jitters, or any other hicups or burps. My only downside is they're coming from the wrong library container, which for me is a very minor annoyance. But appreciate your input on converters, will keep 'em in mind should the need arise.
Few things to consider when using recorded TV media from Windows Media Center:
DRM:
.wtv files recorded by WMC (TV show or movies) can be protected by DRM (Digital Rights Management, sort of encryption Key).It's up to the content owner to request that the distributor (TV network) add the encryption key in the signal. So your TV shows will play fine in WMC as it is managed by Microsoft DRM but nothing will play (or just the first few sec or so) outside of WMC. You can view the same media on another PC running WMC remotely on your network but the 2nd PC will also need to comply with the encryption DRM feature, Microsoft call it PlayReady (similar to FairPlay on Apple devices). If you try to convert such protected media(with MCEBuddy or Handbreak), it will be very difficult or impossible to do unless you remove the key first...Good luck with that, I gave up this option a long time ago!
MCEBuddy:
So if your content is not protected, then MCEBuddy is your best option as it does all you need:
1- Watch folder with new recorder material by WMC
2- Automatically convert, compress, remove ads, rename, etc (will even email you when the job is done, truly awesome)
3- Move the converted files in folder that you've selected
4- Follow Plex TV Show Folder structure (TV show/show name) so you can watch using Plex TV Show library
You need to setup a conversion activity for each TV show but once it's setup, you have nothing else to do....
MCEBuddy is very simple to setup at first and can be as complex as the time you invest in.
I've been trying to figure out quite a few things with Plex during the past week and most things work well within my home network. But I am unable to stream some of the wtv files from WMC. I expect they are DRM protected. I get a grey screen when I try to stream them. Is there anything that can be done to view the DRM recordings? Online one sees content that shows DRM channel recordings being played via Plex and I haven't seen any mention of the grey screen resulting from DRM protection.
Then, does anyone know why I might not be able to connect to my server remotely? I have a DynDNS and the configuration indicates that the port is open and available using "canyouseeme.org". Port 32400 with my DynDNS IP is seen. Any hints?
