Plex Scanner and BMT Agent for SageTV

[craigap]

I just started trying out Plex and I'm am curious as to what sort of advantages there are for using this Plex Scanner over just pointing the Plex server to my SageTV recordings folders? My initial impression is that the Plex Scanner is built to gather metadata and fanart for recordings via BMT, but it looks like Plex does this already. What am I missing? Thanks.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by craigap

I just started trying out Plex and I'm am curious as to what sort of advantages there are for using this Plex Scanner over just pointing the Plex server to my SageTV recordings folders? My initial impression is that the Plex Scanner is built to gather metadata and fanart for recordings via BMT, but it looks like Plex does this already. What am I missing? Thanks.

Plex will only recognize shows if the filename is formatted correctly. That is not the case for SageTV recordings. The plugin allows Plex to recognize SageTV recordings. Otherwise it doesn't find anything.

[craigap]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

Plex will only recognize shows if the filename is formatted correctly. That is not the case for SageTV recordings. The plugin allows Plex to recognize SageTV recordings. Otherwise it doesn't find anything.

If I'm understanding you correctly; If I point Plex to my SageTV recordings folders for then I shouldn't see them populate into Plex when I create the Plex TV show Library??.... Because they do for me.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by craigap

If I'm understanding you correctly; If I point Plex to my SageTV recordings folders for then I shouldn't see them populate into Plex when I create the Plex TV show Library??.... Because they do for me.

Correct. When you create a library as "TV Shows" it doesn't recognize anything and produces an empty library. If you create it as "Home Videos" it will recognize the videos but you will only get the filenames. No metadata.

You must use the Plex Scanner in order to get the metadata for SageTV recordings. Either that or do something to rename your recordings to the "<Series Title> - s<Season Number>e<Episode number> - <Episode Name>" format that Plex uses to recognize shows.

[craigap]

Well, this is odd then. I just installed the Plex Server on my HTPC that has SageTV installed; and all I have done so far is set up the Plex TV shows library by pointing to the two folders that I have for SageTV recordings, and I seem to get all the TV shows populating just fine into Plex that SageTV has recorded. Plus, Plex has added fanart, show description, as well as, labels it with a season and episode number. See attached image.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by craigap

Well, this is odd then. I just installed the Plex Server on my HTPC that has SageTV installed; and all I have done so far is set up the Plex TV shows library by pointing to the two folders that I have for SageTV recordings, and I seem to get all the TV shows populating just fine into Plex that SageTV has recorded. Plus, Plex has added fanart, show description, as well as, labels it with a season and episode number. See attached image.

You aren't using the SageTV Scanner/BMT Agent yet? Are you using a renamer on your recordings?

[craigap]

I have not tried to install the Plex Scanner, and I have not done any renaming of my recordings or use any renaming tool that I am aware off. I have the BMT plugin installed, as well as, Complimentary Metadata Tools. Would one of those do something to the names of the recordings? I see that BMT is somehow part of the plex scanner, but like I said, I have not yet tried installing the scanner yet.

[HelenWeathers]

I use Plex for Movies and TV shows in two rooms - as long as I have Sage save recordings with the season and episode numbers imbeded in the filename Plex picks them up fine w/o the plugin. If you don't have season and episode in the TV show filename, you will need the plugin - unless Plex has advanced some since I set mine up.

[craigap]

Originally Posted by HelenWeathers

... as long as I have Sage save recordings with the season and episode numbers imbeded in the filename Plex picks them up fine w/o the plugin.

I see there is a setting under "Detailed Setup" > "Customize" > "Include Season and Episode in File names" that I have set to "Yes". I guess that's why it works for me. Thanks.

[Taddeusz]

The only problem is that recorded movies won't be detected as they don't have the SxxExx in the name. Plex actually ignores everything after the second "-". I suppose you could create a separate library with the Scanner for SageTV recorded movies. Which is what I already do.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

The only problem is that recorded movies won't be detected as they don't have the SxxExx in the name. Plex actually ignores everything after the second "-". I suppose you could create a separate library with the Scanner for SageTV recorded movies. Which is what I already do.

Why not use the Sage Scanner with the Plex Agent it works much better.

[wayner]

You also need to send the metadata to Plex to get shows like sports to show up as Sage can't scrape the filenames for them to get them into Plex.

[Monedeath]

Originally Posted by wayner

You also need to send the metadata to Plex to get shows like sports to show up as Sage can't scrape the filenames for them to get them into Plex.

Which isn't to mention certain networks that don't always provide accurate program guide data for what they're showing until after the fact. The Weather Channel is particularly bad for changing their programming lineup at the last minute. Nothing like having an episode of what was supposed to be an episode of "Highway Through Hell" with a filename to match that, turn into "Coast Guard Rescue: HMS Bounty" while the EPG did eventually update to reflect that change(so it is reflected in the metadata Sage is holding onto), the filename(and likely the metadata embedded in the file) didn't reflect that change.

Other edge cases I've seen include other networks who will just provide enough data to the guide for them to know an episode of _______________ will be showing, but no data as to which episode is showing, at least at the time of airing. So no SxxExx or even Episode Name is present in the filename.

[Taddeusz]

I'm not sure why but some time ago the BMT agent seems to have stopped working for me. It pulls regular metadata but doesn't seem to be able to get any fanart. If I create a new Library and use the SageTV scanner with the tvdb agent it seems to work fine. But using the BMT agent on a new library fails to find any art.

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

I'm not sure why but some time ago the BMT agent seems to have stopped working for me. It pulls regular metadata but doesn't seem to be able to get any fanart. If I create a new Library and use the SageTV scanner with the tvdb agent it seems to work fine. But using the BMT agent on a new library fails to find any art.

There is a goofy bug within plex/agent code where it would lose context of what it was doing, and I never could quite figure it out.

Usually going into that item and manually updating its metadata within the plex ui would fix the issue.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by PiX64

There is a goofy bug within plex/agent code where it would lose context of what it was doing, and I never could quite figure it out.

Usually going into that item and manually updating its metadata within the plex ui would fix the issue.

That would be difficult since all the art was lost from every single recording in my Plex library.

[Taddeusz]

Is there a forum thread for the newer Plex Scanner? It seems that Plex has, yet again, changed stuff around. Apparently there's now a bundle requirement to have an __iter__.py file as is evidenced by this section of log and explains why I am no longer getting any art:

2015-10-14 13:34:51,220 (193c) :  CRITICAL (core:572) - Exception in the update function of agent named 'SageTV BMT Agent (TV Shows)', called with guid 'com.plexapp.agents.bmtagenttvshows://70831?lang=en' (most recent call last):
  File "bundles-release/Framework.bundle-dist/Contents/Resources/Versions/2/Python/Framework/api/agentkit.py", line 1055, in _update
  File "C:\Users\jbean\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\Plug-ins\BMTAgentTVShows.bundle\Contents\Code\__init__.py", line 236, in update
    for star in stars:
  File "bundles-release/Framework.bundle-dist/Contents/Resources/Versions/2/Python/Framework/code/sandbox.py", line 107, in <lambda>
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute '__iter__'

[wildgoose]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

Is there a forum thread for the newer Plex Scanner? It seems that Plex has, yet again, changed stuff around. Apparently there's now a bundle requirement to have an __iter__.py file as is evidenced by this section of log and explains why I am no longer getting any art:

2015-10-14 13:34:51,220 (193c) :  CRITICAL (core:572) - Exception in the update function of agent named 'SageTV BMT Agent (TV Shows)', called with guid 'com.plexapp.agents.bmtagenttvshows://70831?lang=en' (most recent call last):
  File "bundles-release/Framework.bundle-dist/Contents/Resources/Versions/2/Python/Framework/api/agentkit.py", line 1055, in _update
  File "C:\Users\jbean\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\Plug-ins\BMTAgentTVShows.bundle\Contents\Code\__init__.py", line 236, in update
    for star in stars:
  File "bundles-release/Framework.bundle-dist/Contents/Resources/Versions/2/Python/Framework/code/sandbox.py", line 107, in <lambda>
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute '__iter__'

Ah, the BMT Agent plugin needs to be updated to work with the latest PLEX server it seems. What PLEX server version are you using? I'll take a look at this tonight.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by wildgoose

Ah, the BMT Agent plugin needs to be updated to work with the latest PLEX server it seems. What PLEX server version are you using? I'll take a look at this tonight.

The latest, 0.9.12.13.

[wildgoose]

Originally Posted by wildgoose

Ah, the BMT Agent plugin needs to be updated to work with the latest PLEX server it seems. What PLEX server version are you using? I'll take a look at this tonight.

Spoke too soon. This doesn't look like it's related to PLEX. From your log looks like it's chocking on this line:

https://github.com/ai7/sagetv-for-pl...init__.py#L236

                stars = show.get('PeopleListInShow')
                episode.guest_stars.clear()
                for star in stars:
                    episode.guest_stars.add(star)

stars is None, so the for loop crashes. show basically comes from SageTV, so this is saying the SageTV object's show field is missing the 'PeopleListInShow' field. It's strange this field would be missing all of a sudden.

In theory if you comment out the last 2 lines in the file, it should bypass the problem:

C:\Users\jbean\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\Plug-ins\BMTAgentTVShows.bundle\Contents\Code\__init__.py

                stars = show.get('PeopleListInShow')
                episode.guest_stars.clear()
                #for star in stars:
                #    episode.guest_stars.add(star)

Let me know if this makes any difference. I can send you an update file if you want. PM me.