Notice: If you use MCEBuddy to convert your shows and watch the converted shows through Plex this post will not be worth the read. If you wish to watch converted shows that MCEBuddy converted in the recordings directory of NextPVR or a front end like Kodi as if they was just recorded from live TV without commercials you may be interested in my post.
I have been using WMC for the past 5 years and finally I had some major issues with my TV guide, so it forced me to do some searching on another solution. I always thought my channels were DRM protected, but I was able to discover that was only movie channels like HBO and Stars. After getting everything setup with my HDHomerun Prime I wanted to have the ability to remove commercials from my shows and convert them to a different format for storage savings. To do this I found MCEBuddy did a good job of accomplishing this task, but if I wanted to use MCEBuddy I would have to use Plex or KodiPlexConnect with Kodi to see my converted shows and categorize them. I wanted to keep my recorded shows listed under recordings, so I decided to do some testing on converting the files and getting them to still operate under NextPVR. I use the Kodi front end, so that with NextPVR and the shows look nice under the recording directly with certain skins. I was able to figure out a solution to make this happen using MCEBuddy and a custom script (PowerShell) that I wrote.
How This Works
Using NextPVR with or without Kodi it will record your shows and put them into the recorded shows directory. NextPVR will record the show as a .ts format. You can use MCEBuddy to convert the show to MP4 High Quality and replace the original recorded show with the converted. As long as you keep the name the same NextPVR will play the converted show as normal with the commercials now removed. The script I wrote monitors the conversion directory and once the show is finished being converted by MCEBuddy this script will move the show into the original recording directory. You can run it on startup with a scheduled task and it will loop and monitor the directory for changes. I put more setup instructions in the script and what needs setup inside MCEBuddy. I recommend putting MCEBuddy and this script on the same machine and have plenty of CPU power for processing.
Extra Features
I built in under the variables the option to enable monitoring within the console and setup the ability to send email alerts if a show isn't moved. If you don't enter anything into the email area the script will run either way.
The script is attached to this post. It is a PowerShell script and nothing else is included in the zip. The instructions are in the PowerShell script to set it up to run on startup. I don't post scripts that much, but I do have some other scripts I have posted on SpiceWorks for PowerShell if you wanted to look my username up to trust the zip file.
I have been using WMC for the past 5 years and finally I had some major issues with my TV guide, so it forced me to do some searching on another solution. I always thought my channels were DRM protected, but I was able to discover that was only movie channels like HBO and Stars. After getting everything setup with my HDHomerun Prime I wanted to have the ability to remove commercials from my shows and convert them to a different format for storage savings. To do this I found MCEBuddy did a good job of accomplishing this task, but if I wanted to use MCEBuddy I would have to use Plex or KodiPlexConnect with Kodi to see my converted shows and categorize them. I wanted to keep my recorded shows listed under recordings, so I decided to do some testing on converting the files and getting them to still operate under NextPVR. I use the Kodi front end, so that with NextPVR and the shows look nice under the recording directly with certain skins. I was able to figure out a solution to make this happen using MCEBuddy and a custom script (PowerShell) that I wrote.
How This Works
Using NextPVR with or without Kodi it will record your shows and put them into the recorded shows directory. NextPVR will record the show as a .ts format. You can use MCEBuddy to convert the show to MP4 High Quality and replace the original recorded show with the converted. As long as you keep the name the same NextPVR will play the converted show as normal with the commercials now removed. The script I wrote monitors the conversion directory and once the show is finished being converted by MCEBuddy this script will move the show into the original recording directory. You can run it on startup with a scheduled task and it will loop and monitor the directory for changes. I put more setup instructions in the script and what needs setup inside MCEBuddy. I recommend putting MCEBuddy and this script on the same machine and have plenty of CPU power for processing.
Extra Features
I built in under the variables the option to enable monitoring within the console and setup the ability to send email alerts if a show isn't moved. If you don't enter anything into the email area the script will run either way.
The script is attached to this post. It is a PowerShell script and nothing else is included in the zip. The instructions are in the PowerShell script to set it up to run on startup. I don't post scripts that much, but I do have some other scripts I have posted on SpiceWorks for PowerShell if you wanted to look my username up to trust the zip file.
