Quick guide to Trailers on the MVP

[mkenyon2]

This is a guide for MVP users in the US. This should also work in other countries, but you will need to make some changes for PAL format if you use it. (I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with PAL settings, so I don't know which changes would be necessary.)

Because the MVP doesn't like straight .mov files... it's a good idea to get trailers downloaded by International Cinema listings transecoded (converted) to .mpg, otherwise known as mpeg 4.

This is not a straight forward process, but I will try to sum it up here.

First of all, you are going to need something to Transecode the .mov files over to .mpg. There are several ways, but the one I was shown was to get ffmpeg program. You can find the latest install here: http://ffdshow.faireal.net/mirror/ffmpeg/

The site has various 7-zip files. (7-zip is just another type of file compression) Extract the latest one to a folder like 'C:\FFMpeg\'.

International Cinema listing setup is covered pretty well, so at this point, I'm assuming you have it at least working on your PC where GBPVR is running. You may have also set up a Scheduled Task to update the listings. But to get the conversion process running automatically, we're going to do something a little different.

In your '\Plugins\InternationalCinemaListings\Trailers' folder put 2 .bat files. startConvert and Convert. I'm going to list them, then we'll discuss them.

startConvert.bat
"C:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr\Plugins\InternationalCinemaListingsUpdater.exe"
for %%i in (*.mov) do call Convert.bat %%~ni

for %%j in (*.mpeg) do ren "%%~nj.mpeg" "%%~nj.mpg"

del *.mov

Convert.bat
IF EXIST "%*.mpg" ren "%*.mpg" "%*.mpeg"
IF NOT EXIST "%*.mpeg" D:\FFMpeg\ffmpeg -i "%*.mov" -target svcd "%*.mpeg"

In startConvert.bat I have it calling the Updater, becuase I have my scheduled task calling startConvert. (I hate to have multiple tasks if I don't have to.) So, of course, we start by getting the freshest, ripest data. This will also try to pull trailers down as .mov files.

Then we have a string of batch file code to get all the downloaded .mov files and pass them to our Convert.bat.

Convert.bat simply changes existing .mpgs to .mpeg, becuase while working with FFMpeg we want the .mpeg extension. (More info?)
Then of course we call ffmpeg to do the actual conversion. You can see the path to ffmpeg in the second line. Change that to wherever you have your copy. I have mine on the D: drive.

Note: For the actual conversion, I currently have 'svcd' because it is smaller. However, if you feel you need it, and don't mind the larger files, you could use 'dvd'.

When Convert.bat is done, it drops back to startConvert.bat which renames all the .mpegs to .mpg. Then it removes the .mov. This was key for me, because Cinema lister tries the .mov files first (at least with the version I had) and the MVP wouldn't play them.

Now, if you haven't already, make sure the Scheduled task calls startConvert from the folder you created it in, and test it out. You should now have a bunch of .mpg files that are playable on the MVP.


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Please post any comments/corrections to this guide here. I will edit the guide if necessary.

[McBainUK]

Thanks for this, good work. Link to the guide added to the plugin's wiki page:

http://gbpvr.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Plugin/Cinema

[pastro]

Probably want to change the target to svcd instead of dvd. It will make a smaller file. Hate to see the del *.mov line since I was hoping that the trailers wouldn't be downloaded if they existed. Maybe McBainUK can help out here by not downloading if either the mov or the mpg exists.
Use a target of pal-svcd for Pal systems.

[mkenyon2]

Actually, I haven't noticed it re-download anything with just the .mpgs there. Although, I didn't watch super close.

[mkenyon2]

Could/should we make this sticky?

[Ragingfire105]

First off Great job on the batches worked great after a little modification.

1. Obviously the location of the FFMPEG.exe file must be changed. One Quirk if the path has any spaces it wont work unless you use the short file names for them.

Ex: C:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr\Third Party\FFmpeg\ffmpeg must be
C:\Progra~1\devnz\gbpvr\THIRDP~1\FFmpeg\ffmpeg

If you search for "short file names" on the internet you can find the scheme that is used for changing Long file names to short.

2. the delete command at the end of the startconvert batch assumes that all .mov's were converted properly. If your MVP will play .mov's but you would prefer to have .mpg's you can replace the last line of the startconvert batch with

for %%i in (*.mpg) do del "%%~ni.mov"

This will delete all the .mov's that have a corresponding .mpg

PS: First post ever. LOL

[TomH]

With your instructions/scipts to transcode the .mov to .mpg you have made my life one of Marital Bliss once again,

Thanks a tonne,
TomH

[steeb]

This is excellent, movie trailers on my MVP now work hassle free thanks to a couple of .bat files

Cheers

STEEB

[Ppsychling]

No matter how hard I've tried I just can't get use to the PVRX2 interface. So, as always I've reverted back to the GBPVR interface. Last night I couldn't tever, I've one problem! Wiake the PVRX2 interface any longer and went into the config.xml file and changed the PVRX2 reference to GBPVR and I am much happier with my MVP interface now. How with the GBPVR interface I am missing plugins even though they are installed, namely International Cinema Listing. As long as I used PVRX2 the cinema listing plugin showed up.

Does anyone know how to get the Cinema Listing to show up in the GBPVR MVP main menu interface if you are not using PVRX2?

Regards,

[pastro]

No matter how hard I've tried I just can't get use to the PVRX2 interface. So, as always I've reverted back to the GBPVR interface. Last night I couldn't tever, I've one problem! Wiake the PVRX2 interface any longer and went into the config.xml file and changed the PVRX2 reference to GBPVR and I am much happier with my MVP interface now. How with the GBPVR interface I am missing plugins even though they are installed, namely International Cinema Listing. As long as I used PVRX2 the cinema listing plugin showed up.

Does anyone know how to get the Cinema Listing to show up in the GBPVR MVP main menu interface if you are not using PVRX2?

Regards,

I don't think the latest version is GBPVR compatible, only PVRX2. You might want to start a new thread or PM McBainUK to see if the old version is available.