MCEBuddy 2.x Guide To Convert .TS To .MP4

[BTJustice]

MCEBuddy 2.x
http://mcebuddy2x.codeplex.com/

Use this guide at your own risk as I will not be responsible if you lose or mess up your recordings or NPVR. Smart NPVR users back up the NPVR profile folder and the recordings folder

This guide is for the current 2.x versions of MCEBuddy. The purpose is to have MCEBuddy convert NPVR's .TS recordings to smaller file size .MP4s with very minimal loss of video quality.

1. Download the latest version of MCEBuddy which is at the top of the list from the link above. You will need to know if your version of Windows is 32-bit or 64-bit.
   
2. Open the .ZIP file after the download completes and install MCEBuddy.
   
3. Once MCEBuddy is installed, open the attached .ZIP file at the bottom of this post.
   
4. Extract both files to C:\Program Files\MCEBuddy2x\config and overwrite the two files already there.
   

YOU MUST TELL MCEBUDDY WHERE NPVR SAVES .TS RECORDINGS TO!!! To do that...

1. Open MCEBuddy.
   
2. Click the SETTINGS button.
   
3. Click on NPVR Recordings under MONITOR LOCATIONS and click the CHANGE button.
   
4. In the MONITOR PATH field, it will say D:\Recorded TV. Click the button with the 3 ... on it to browse to your recordings folder.
   
5. Click OK then click OK again.
   

The attached config files will setup MCEBuddy using a conversion task called .TS to .MP4 which will...

• Convert .TS to .MP4 starting 10 seconds into the recording to help avoid audio/video sync issues using 1000 video bitrate and 160 audio bitrate.
  
• Extract CC and save them to a .SRT file.
  
• Not delete original .TS recordings.
  
• Disable Comskip.
  
• Disable cropping.
  
• Maintain recorded aspect ratio.
  

To stop CC .SRT files from being created...

1. Open MCEBuddy.
   
2. Click the SETTINGS button.
   
3. Click on .TS to .MP4 under CONVERSION TASKS and click the CHANGE button.
   
4. You will see a double arrowhead pointing UP and DOWN. Click on that.
   
5. Uncheck the box to the left of EXTRACT CC.
   
6. Click OK. You will be warned that there is no destination directory provided which is what we want so converted recordings are placed in the same folder the .TS file is/was in.
   

NPVR will play the .TS file instead of the .MP4 unless the .TS file has been deleted. I usually watch my recordings with either VLC or Media Player Classic set to the correct aspect ratio. If you want to keep the .TS and watch the .MP4, use one of these programs.

To delete the original .TS file after creating a .MP4 so the .MP4 plays in NPVR and to save hard drive space...

1. Open MCEBuddy.
   
2. Click the SETTINGS button.
   
3. You will see a double arrowhead pointing UP and DOWN. Click on that.
   
4. Uncheck the box to the left of DELETE ORIGINAL FILE.
   
5. Click YES on the confirmation then click OK.
   

Conversion times will depend on how good your computer is. A 1 hour recording takes about 40 minutes to convert on my 6-core AMD 3.2 GHz CPU with 12 GBs of DDR3 RAM running Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit.

DO NOT ENABLE COMSKIP IN MCEBUDDY!!! For whatever reason, it screws up the timing in the .SRT files and it varies a lot during different recordings making it hard to get the offset just right.

If you have specific questions about MCEBuddy, check out the MCEBuddy Forum.

ENJOY!

[BTJustice]

Just an update. I have now recorded 100+ different shows on different channels. The attached config files in the initial post here work FLAWLESSLY and the converted .TS videos look great. Mencoder does a nice job.

[jchaven]

This is a really nice write-up! I gather from your directions that you do not cut out commercials, correct? If you do cut commercials, how do you do it?

Thanks,
Joey

[BTJustice]

Thanks. If you don't care about .SRT creation, MCEBuddy with Comskip enabled does a good job. The best way would probably be to find some sort of video editor with .TS support, cut out the commercials, re-save the .TS file, and then let MCEBuddy do the conversion.

[OTAjunkie]

Actually if you use Mencoder you can convert the TS to AVI or mpeg then you run the comclean.bat you can remove the commercials.
It can be done with your postprocessing(which has comskip).

[BTJustice]

MCEBuddy 2.3.1 has been released.
Attached config files in the first post updated to 2012-10-5.

[skl111]

MCEBuddy 2.3.1 has been released.
Attached config files in the first post updated to 2012-10-5.

Any chance you can make config files for MKV?

[wileecoyote]

Okay, being that I'm an extreme noob to NPVR, give me a hand in figuring all this out.

I want to record a show, run comskip on it, compress with MCEBuddy and rename/download thumbs with imageGrabLite. I have already set up the postupdateepg.bat and postprocessing.bat to handle comskip and renaming/thumb creation. Where does MCEBuddy fit into all that?

Also, it states in your first post not to use comskip, but in one of your later posts it says its working fine. Is it possible to use comskip with MCEBuddy?

Any help figuring all this out would be appreciated. Thanks!

[BTJustice]

Any chance you can make config files for MKV?

I am perfectly happy with .MP4, but I suppose you could simply rename the all the .MP4s to .MKV in the [.TS to .MP4] profile.

[BTJustice]

Okay, being that I'm an extreme noob to NPVR, give me a hand in figuring all this out.

I want to record a show, run comskip on it, compress with MCEBuddy and rename/download thumbs with imageGrabLite. I have already set up the postupdateepg.bat and postprocessing.bat to handle comskip and renaming/thumb creation. Where does MCEBuddy fit into all that?

Also, it states in your first post not to use comskip, but in one of your later posts it says its working fine. Is it possible to use comskip with MCEBuddy?

Any help figuring all this out would be appreciated. Thanks!

MCEBuddy just converts .TS to .MP4 using the config files attached to the first post. Using COMSKIP WITHIN MCEBuddy screws up some things like .SRT files. You can probably run COMSKIP separately like you plan to do then convert using MCEBuddy.