Plex Scanner and BMT Agent for SageTV

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by macsupergeek

Its all working for me except for when I delete a show in replay -- it stays in Plex. I have Plex set to scan folder for changes and I tried update hourly and instead of removing the reference to the show/episode that is no longer there it just puts a yellow triangle exclamation point on it. Some metadata was also messed up, but only for some obscure Reality TV shows that my wife watches. The other thing I thought was weird was the tagging of some of the files as "specials" within the episodes directories. So while its accurate for the most part its not completely representing exactly what is in Sage and BMT. I thought that whatever was represented in BMT is what would show up in Plex -- should I remove my Recorded Shows in plex and try a re-scan? I just went and verified that the section is set to SageTV Scanner and BMT Agent.

So the specials come from when we do not have a season or episode number from BMT. WE have to put the file in some sort of season episode structure in order for plex to pick it up...so that explains that. Glad everythign is working for you.

Yes try removing the section from plex, completely stop plex, move new code in place, restart plex, readd sections, rescan.

[Dargason]

Plex has a 'feature' that leaves items in its database even after the files have been deleted: http://wiki.plexapp.com/index.php/Pl..._Soft_Deletion

It sounds like much of your problem is related to this. You can disable this feature by selecting "Empty trash after each scan" or you can just empty the trash manually every now and then.

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by Dargason

Plex has a 'feature' that leaves items in its database even after the files have been deleted: http://wiki.plexapp.com/index.php/Pl..._Soft_Deletion

It sounds like much of your problem is related to this. You can disable this feature by selecting "Empty trash after each scan" or you can just empty the trash manually every now and then.

Thanks! i forgot about that feature and should have posted it for everyone..thanks Dargason!

[g-man]

I am having an issue getting the sageTV scanner to show when adding a media folder. I am running WHS and when I unzip the "Scanner" and "Plug-ins" files to the Plex Media Center root folder it is just dropping it in the root. I am looking at the structure of the Plex folders and this doesn't look right. All of the other .bundle folders are sitting in the /Resources/Plug-ins folder so my assumption is that everything else in the zip may have landed in the wrong place.

Is the structure different for Plex in WHS or am I just not reading the install correctly? Can someone help me figure out where all of the files should sit so I can see the Sage scanner.

Thanks for all of the hard work pulling this together!

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by g-man

I am having an issue getting the sageTV scanner to show when adding a media folder. I am running WHS and when I unzip the "Scanner" and "Plug-ins" files to the Plex Media Center root folder it is just dropping it in the root. I am looking at the structure of the Plex folders and this doesn't look right. All of the other .bundle folders are sitting in the /Resources/Plug-ins folder so my assumption is that everything else in the zip may have landed in the wrong place.

Is the structure different for Plex in WHS or am I just not reading the install correctly? Can someone help me figure out where all of the files should sit so I can see the Sage scanner.

Thanks for all of the hard work pulling this together!

I will look for the exact dir structure, but what you want the end result to be is this

Plex Path/Plex Media Server/Plug-ins/BMTAgent.bundle
and
Plex Path/Plex Media Server/Scanners/Movies/SageTV Movies Scanner
and
Plex Path/Plex Media Server/Scanners/Series/SageTV Scanner

if you right click on the plex icon in the system tray and hit go to plugins this will take you to the location you want the bmt agent, going up a directory should reveal a Scanners folder. if it is not there simply create it following the strcuture above.

Also you will need to stop and restart plex.

[PiX64]

Everything I have found seems to indicate that the WHS location is similiar to that of the regular windows install. lemme know if my post above didn't help you find the right locations.

[PiX64]

So bad news on the Syncing of Watched status and delete from a Native plex front. I just got done talking to some of the people over at plex, and There is currently NO support for hooks in Plex. Which basically means I cannot create a listner of sorts, or a launch a script upon completion of a event.

I am working on some ideas on how to get around this little hurdle and have come up with 2 ideas so far
1) a standalone script which would run periodically scanning the plex xml for changes/deletions in the plex media structure.

2) Build it into the scanner or agent. Currently the scanner and agent sync watched status from sage to plex..i don't see why we couldn't go the other way during the scans...if scan is set to run periodically, or even as a directory changes, then we may be able to use it as to way syncing.

Any other thoughts?

[Dargason]

I'm not sure what restrictions the scanner has on it, but that sounds like the more straightforward way to go, even if all it does is launch a stand-alone script like you described in (1).

I actually logged on here to request another feature. I was thinking it would be nice to sync playlists... I don't really understand how playlists work in Sage or even if Plex does playlists at all.

I don't honestly have any real experience with playlists because my music collection has always been tiny and I hardly ever listen. But I just got moved to a noisy cubicle and music seems to be the accepted way of getting work done. So I've started downloading a bunch of music and trying to learn to use playlists.

I would be nice if the playlists I make with sage could could be accessable somehow within the Plex player... maybe by navigating to the 'folder' view or something. Or maybe that's what the 'Collections' folder is all about.

If it's tough to do, it's no big deal. But if you can think of an easy way (maybe as simple as copying some files or something?) that would be great!

Edit: I'm going to try the SageSync plugin and see if it does what I'm looking for.

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by Dargason

I'm not sure what restrictions the scanner has on it, but that sounds like the more straightforward way to go, even if all it does is launch a stand-alone script like you described in (1).

I actually logged on here to request another feature. I was thinking it would be nice to sync playlists... I don't really understand how playlists work in Sage or even if Plex does playlists at all.

I don't honestly have any real experience with playlists because my music collection has always been tiny and I hardly ever listen. But I just got moved to a noisy cubicle and music seems to be the accepted way of getting work done. So I've started downloading a bunch of music and trying to learn to use playlists.

I would be nice if the playlists I make with sage could could be accessable somehow within the Plex player... maybe by navigating to the 'folder' view or something. Or maybe that's what the 'Collections' folder is all about.

If it's tough to do, it's no big deal. But if you can think of an easy way (maybe as simple as copying some files or something?) that would be great!

Edit: I'm going to try the SageSync plugin and see if it does what I'm looking for.

Well,

Are you planning on having plex manage your music? If so then this may be possible, although I really have no plans at all to sync music in any way shape or form, not even playlists. Plex does certain things really really well, and from what i have seen those things are Movies, TV Shows, Music, Home movies/pictures...Grabbing metadata and getting all the pretty info you want to know about about.

If you are planning on having plex manage your music which im guess you are, then I can take a look at how collections/playlists work in relation to music, but my guess is the only way a one to one copy of a playlist will work is if you have the DIR structure setup exactly the same in both systems.

[Jason]

Originally Posted by PiX64

Any other thoughts?

My initial thought is to ditch the syncing of the two distinct databases (plex's watched status and the data Sage stores in it's wiz.bin file...) and go with a new DB.

This is a bit more than a 'simple' sync, but sending the data from both apps to a central server such as Trakt.tv and then letting them manage it...

I am sure it would require another plugin for this specific function.

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by Jason

My initial thought is to ditch the syncing of the two distinct databases (plex's watched status and the data Sage stores in it's wiz.bin file...) and go with a new DB.

This is a bit more than a 'simple' sync, but sending the data from both apps to a central server such as Trakt.tv and then letting them manage it...

I am sure it would require another plugin for this specific function.

so then you are adding even another layer which makes the simplicity of this increasingly more complicated.

While i like your idea of abstracting things we care about from a specific system and rather use a central repository for those things, I think that may be a little bit out of scope for this.

Thanks for the idea.

[g-man]

Originally Posted by PiX64

I will look for the exact dir structure, but what you want the end result to be is this

Plex Path/Plex Media Server/Plug-ins/BMTAgent.bundle
and
Plex Path/Plex Media Server/Scanners/Movies/SageTV Movies Scanner
and
Plex Path/Plex Media Server/Scanners/Series/SageTV Scanner

if you right click on the plex icon in the system tray and hit go to plugins this will take you to the location you want the bmt agent, going up a directory should reveal a Scanners folder. if it is not there simply create it following the strcuture above.

Also you will need to stop and restart plex.

Thanks, I figured it out with guidance from your response. I was dropping it under "Program Files" instead off app data (which is obvious if I read the instructions right the first time).

I am up and running and so far am impressed. My Mpeg-2 playback is ugly (even with transcoding on the fly) but that is to be expected. I am going to try and set up some conversion jobs and see how that works out.

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by g-man

Thanks, I figured it out with guidance from your response. I was dropping it under "Program Files" instead off app data (which is obvious if I read the instructions right the first time).

I am up and running and so far am impressed. My Mpeg-2 playback is ugly (even with transcoding on the fly) but that is to be expected. I am going to try and set up some conversion jobs and see how that works out.

Playback of any sort depends GREATLY on your server specs (by server i just mean wherever you are running Plex Media Server) What are your system specs? Also when trying to access a recording that is Mpeg2 from a client check on your server and see what the cpu usage is. Is it pinged at 100%? if it is then try right clicking on the process in task manager and allow the plex processes to run at High priority. you should immedietly notice a difference in the cpu and ram usage. This is a little know bug by the plex windows team and it only effects certain people.

What type of client are you accessing it from? Roku2, atv2, ios device, pc client?

those all could need some settings tweaked depending on device.

[WellThen]

Hi Pix64,

Just FYI, still getting the same error I got before when scraping TV info. See my original post for details:

Thanks.

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by WellThen

Hi Pix64,

Just FYI, still getting the same error I got before when scraping TV info. See my original post for details:

Thanks.

Ah yes i will look at it as soon as i finish this pesky work issue :-)

[g-man]

Hmm, I just checked the CPU on both the server and the client and CPU was sitting between 5 - 10% on both for the most part. My server is an Intel Atom 330 (my requirements are not that huge for Sage and this does great). I am testing on a Macbook Pro for the client. I am testing over wifi (G) so that may be the issue. I get a great picture, it just stops and buffers a lot. I am going to try ethernet and see if it works. I have a powerline adapter (ethernet over house electrical) in the other room and may try that just for fun. Speed is better than wifi but not as good as ethernet.

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by PiX64

Ah yes i will look at it as soon as i finish this pesky work issue :-)

Sorry if i aksed you some of these questions already but do you have plex.js installed on your server which is also running BMT?

if it is then trying running this from a webpage and lemme know what ya get.

http://x.x.x.x:port/sagex/api?c=plex...-2536705-0.mp4

[darcilicious]

Originally Posted by g-man

I am testing over wifi (G) so that may be the issue. I get a great picture, it just stops and buffers a lot. I am going to try ethernet and see if it works.

Wireless can really play havoc on video streaming. The server/client assume a full-speed connection when in fact, the client may not actually have all that strong of a signal.

Any in-house wifi video streaming I do is using wireless-N, and with multiple access points throughout the house...

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by darcilicious

Wireless can really play havoc on video streaming. The server/client assume a full-speed connection when in fact, the client may not actually have all that strong of a signal.

Any in-house wifi video streaming I do is using wireless-N, and with multiple access points throughout the house...

Great point Darci,

I also question weather or not an atom chip is powerful enough to handle the heavy on the fly transcoding from plex.

[WellThen]

Originally Posted by PiX64

Sorry if i aksed you some of these questions already but do you have plex.js installed on your server which is also running BMT?

if it is then trying running this from a webpage and lemme know what ya get.

http://x.x.x.x:port/sagex/api?c=plex...-2536705-0.mp4

Nope you didn't ask me before. I've attached the output...