Hi. I’ve just enabled DVR for the first time today. My current setup I’m looking at leaving has been an SSD with Windows and NextPVR, a 250GB mechanical drive which is monitored by MCEBuddy, which transcodes and move the finished file to my NAS where the Plex TV library is. I understand what when Plex finishes recording, the file is moved to the library destination. But where does it put the incomplete file while writing it?
I’m trying to figure out what the process is for recording, running a post-processing script if necessary, and then storing the finished product, which seems to be invisible to the user. Since my Windows is on a slim m2 SSD without much space, and my library destination is on the network, I’d like to know how DVR stores files when making a recording.
Last time I looked the content is written in small chunks to the plex transcode location. Once the content is done recording it is muxed together and placed in the .grab folder in library location selected. If your library has more then one storage location available you can specify what location to use while setting up the recording. Post processing will pull from the .grab folder if you use it.
With MCEBuddy you don’t exactly need to use post processing. I would suggest you research the pro’s and con’s of it and decide on what is best for you. I used post processing at one point, but have opted out now. I would just suggest you be careful about what you do in post processing because it holds the content until done. If you do allot of recording and transcode in post processing you can get way behind very easily. This is compounded if you don’t have a really robust CPU.
Okay, I did see the “.grab” folder in my DVR after the show finished recording while it was removing commercials. When does it move in the library proper?
I’m looking at a post processing equivalent to MCEbuddy, probably involving Handbrake, because MCEbuddy while great is a Windows app and I’m looking to move to Linux for less nuisances.
You will need to create your own post processing using Comskip/Comchap and ffmpeg or handbrake. There are some post processing threads on the forum discussing Linux post processing.
The file will move from the .grab to its final location once post processing completes if used. The .grab folder is just a quick holding spot to allow user customized post processing scripts access to the content.
