I seem to remember reading MCEBuddy might be able to accomplish that task as part of stripping commercials. The trick is to know the show has actually ended.
TabloRipper merely runs ffmpeg in the background to rip shows ‘as-is’, there are no ‘smarts’ associated with that task.
Alright, I have MCEBuddy so I’ll look into it. Thanks.
My apologies if this has been covered before, I can’t seem to find it anywhere in this thread. Is there a way to pass the subtitles recorded by the Tablo through to the exported file and then be able to use them when imported to Plex?
I haven’t tried it personally, but this topic seems to come up frequently. Here’s one example to get you started:
And once you have .SRT files, add them to Plex:
Adding local subtitles to your media
One more question (for now)…
I am trying to use MCEBuddy to place my exported files into folders based on metadata. The files that I export from Tablo Ripper with metadata unchecked don’t seem to have the required metadata for MCEBuddy to place in proper folders. The files I export from Tablo Ripper with metadata checked don’t seem to be picked up by MCEBuddy from monitored folders to be processed. Make sense? Am I missing something?
Thanks!
Helpful hints for MCEBuddy - don’t select the option to have TabloRipper include metadata, it confuses MCEBuddy (but standard TabloRipper file naming alone seems to do the trick). And refer to this post for how I’m controlling the output folder:
Thanks for the tips. Unfortunately, I’m still not able to get MCEBuddy to create a folder based on the Show title or season number. It seems like my mp4 from Tablo Ripper that I’m feeding MCEBuddy has no metadata.
For example, I get this when I use your suggested string…
C:\Users\AechSee\Downloads\complete\TV Shows\Community - s01e13 - Investigative Journalism\Season\Community - s01e13 - Investigative Journalism, Movies
Any thoughts?
The trick is to get the “custom file renaming” string exactly correct. Here’s my string:
%ifseason%<TV Shows\%showname%\Season %season%\%originalfilename%, Movies\%originalfilename%>
Paste it into the text box on your conversion task, and make sure the “enable custom file renaming” box is checked.
If you get it right, it’ll work. Till then, frustration.
I copied your string exactly and am still having the same issue.
It really seems like the issue is the video file has no metadata attached to it. When I play the source file in VLC and look at Media Information and metadata, there is no info.
My apologies if I’m missing something obvious. I’m so close to getting exactly what I want out of this.
Thanks again for all your great support (of your app and others).
I’m no MCEBuddy expert, I just played with it until I found a way that works for me (and others).
I’m running MCEBuddy 2.4, Beta 3, the paid version. Not sure if that factors into the equation, but I suspect it might.
I followed the instructions here: Advanced concepts to use MCEBuddy
And you’re correct - unless you enable the “add metadata” setting in TabloRipper, there’s no metadata. And even if you do enable it, I’m not including the season/episode metadata.
The version of MCEBuddy I’m using is able to determine the “season/episode” from the file name (just like Plex does). I’m guessing the version you’re using cannot. Perhaps you can look into why not?
@AechSee — I too struggled to get the proper output based on the string that cyclej uses. last night i finally just cleaned all mcebuddy and comskip from the pc and installed the lastest donater version of everything. Suddenly it all works like it should. Folders and files properly named using the same custom string that did not work a few days ago. I cant swear thats your problem but it sure fixed mine. Best of luck to you, its a real PITA i know. Im interested in how it works out for you.
@CycleJ Thank you for all your work on TR, it’s the perfect tool to use with Tablo, MCE Buddy and Plex!
I’m having one issue with the Channel Prefix setting. I have the setting selected but the exported files do not contain the Channel Prefix within the file name. I verified that the Settings.xml file does display true as the value for UseChannelPrefix [true].
I’m hoping to use the Channel Prefix to use a couple of different profiles for Commskip. Is there anything that I need to do on my end to activate this?
Versions:
TabloRipper 1.6.6
Tablo 2.2.8
Thanks!
This is the output for the Shades of Blue episode from last night, “Shades of Blue - s01e05 - Equal & Opposite”. So there is no error thrown, it just does not output the channel prefix.
This is the output from the log file:
2/4/2016 10:05:19 PM InitClient
2/4/2016 10:05:19 PM SetTablo
2/4/2016 10:05:19 PM Using last selected IP (192.168.1.XX)
2/4/2016 10:05:19 PM Tablo IP = 192.168.1.XX
2/4/2016 10:05:19 PM SyncTabloRecordings
2/4/2016 10:05:20 PM recList.ids.Count=2
2/4/2016 10:05:20 PM newCompletedList.recIdList.Count=0
2/4/2016 10:05:20 PM Your tablo cannot retrieve this recording (id=66)
2/4/2016 10:05:20 PM RemuxRecording
2/4/2016 10:05:20 PM FFMPEG : D:\Data\Tablo\App\ffmpeg.exe
2/4/2016 10:05:20 PM TempOutput: D:\Data\Tablo\tmp\RecId_7385.mp4
2/4/2016 10:05:20 PM Output : D:\Data\Tablo\TV Shows\Shades of Blue - s01e05 - Equal & Opposite.mp4
2/4/2016 10:05:20 PM Options: -y -i http://192.168.1.XX:18080/pvr/7385/pl/playlist.m3u8 -codec copy -strict -2 -c:a aac -threads 0 “D:\Data\Tablo\tmp\RecId_7385.mp4”
2/4/2016 10:05:20 PM Running as user: D:\Data\Tablo\App\ffmpeg.exe -y -i http://192.168.1.XX:18080/pvr/7385/pl/playlist.m3u8 -codec copy -strict -2 -c:a aac -threads 0 “D:\Data\Tablo\tmp\RecId_7385.mp4” in C:\Program Files\TabloRipper\
I have only played around with the Commskip profiles a little bit. I found a few templates that MCE Buddy users shared that seem to clean up CBS and Fox better then the general template. So I have three conversion profiles that I was using with WMC recordings. I’m sure the general template will be fine but I just figured I would try setting up the different channel profiles again if the option was available.
Thanks!
@tickko I just looked at the metadata, and the “channel” info seems to be one of the things that disappeared in the Tablo 2.2.8 update. I didn’t notice because I wasn’t using it. That’s the bad news.
The good news is that TabloRipper 2.0 uses the Nuvyyo official/documented API, and the channel info is present using that interface. I’m not quite ready to begin beta testing the new version yet, because I’m waiting for the next Tablo update (2.3.0?).
If you decide to try the not-ready-for-primetime version of the beta, fair warning: the new/documented API is currently throttled within your Tablo, and runs at approximately 1/2 the speed of the old/undocumented API.
PS: Here’s the file name from a rip I did using the beta version: 2.1 - Brooklyn Nine-Nine - s03e13 - The Cruise.mp4
The “channel” is first, with a “-” separating it from the rest of the file name. If you have any suggestions on making this easier to use with Commskip, please let me know.
@CycleJ That output would work perfectly with MCE Buddy. I personally would rather have it at the end of the filename string (i.e. Brooklyn Nine-Nine - s03e13 - The Cruise - 2.1.mp4 or Brooklyn Nine-Nine - s03e13 - The Cruise - ch2.1.mp4) but that may be how Commskip requires the filename to be. I have my channel templates setup within MCEB. You setup tasks within MCEB and set the “File name match” to the channel and then set the Commskip INI field for that task.
For example: Channel 6.1 (Fox) would would have a filename match of “[asterisks]6.1 -[asterisks]”.
Then for any channels that I do not have a template for, they run through a “general” MCEB task, I set the “File name match” to “[asterisks];~[asterisks]6.1 -[asterisks];~[asterisks]12.1 -[asterisks]” within MCEB for that.
I would be more then willing to test the early beta that you have right now! What part of the process is 1/2 the speed? The entire extraction process or the retrieving the metadata? Is it stable enough to run as a daily task?
Have you ever thought about setting up the file naming process so that it was similar to how MCE Buddy does it? Where you can specify how the file is named based on “regular expression”?
Thanks!
I really like your suggestion to add the channel info at the end instead of the beginning. MCEB and Plex pretty much ignore that part of the file name anyway.
Your question “is it stable enough”? Stable - yes. Tested - somewhat. I had to replace the API code completely, so it’s ‘new’. Didn’t change the GUI or background service code at all, so it’s unchanged. The helper class connecting them is 20% new due to interface changes.
That’s the long version. Short version: I’d be using it today, except for the speed issue.
FFMPEG which does the actual heavy lifting runs at exactly the same speed. But my code has to perform at least 2 API calls for each recording vs. 1 API call. This is limited to 2 tps by your tablo. If you have 100 recordings, I have to make 200 API calls to get that list. And that’s done every time I need to load the list.
The next version of the Tablo software will improve on that 2 tps limit, perhaps as much as 10 tps. And that’s when I plan on starting the TabloRipper migration to the official/documented API.
I’ll move the channel info later today, and let you know when there’s a new beta posted. I don’t bump the version numbers on betas, so you’ll have to uninstall/reinstall to pick up the changes.
If you’re willing to endure the speed issues, I’m more than willing to accept any/all assistance in testing.
PS - I’m not ignoring your output file naming suggestion. I’ll think about it in my spare time 
I just posted a new beta (aka “slow”) version with “channel” included in the file name as you suggested. Let me know what you think.
@CycleJ I downloaded the beta version that you had uploaded last night and the channel prefix worked perfectly. Thanks for updating the source with the channel at the end of the file name. I think it will work even better because when MCE Buddy processed the tasks, it was able to use the channel but for some reason it isn’t taking the channel off of the TV Series Title so it placed the completed video in a folder as “12.1 Last Man Stand” instead of just “Last Man Standing”. (Having the channel in the folder name really isn’t that big of deal though, Plex had no issue cataloging it.)
I will install the new beta that you just uploaded this morning and see how it goes! I did not notice that the extracts were slow but I only had 2 shows on Tablo, I could see how a large library could be noticeable with that limitation.
PS - I understand completely about having time. I really appreciate all the work that you did (and are doing) on this tool. Moving from WMC to Tablo was a very simple transition thanks to you.
@tickko Only 2 recordings? That makes you the perfect person to test this beta!
What I need to give some thought is what would ‘user specified naming’ look like. You could give me a string, for example ‘%title - s%seasone%episode’ and I could replace the % variables with ‘title’, ‘season’, and ‘episode’. Etc.
Just not sure it’d be useful. Cute - maybe. But I’ve been shooting for ‘simple’, where I just do the right thing in all cases.
Can you come up with suggestions to improve my ‘canned’ file naming? Or a case where we’d need some dynamic options?
That’s why I put it in the ‘let me think about it’ bucket. What’s really been cool is all the feedback I’ve received from people who’ve been doing this longer than me (I dropped Dish 8 months ago). Some of the best changes have come from those suggestions.
So keep thinking. I look forward to your contributions!
