MCEBuddy - KNOWN ISSUES

Here are a list of known issues which are limitations of the operating system or an underlying component like Comskip, FFMPEG, Handbrake or MEncoder etc.

  1. The default comskip.ini file is not perfect for cutting commercials from all countries. It needs to be tweaked for your specific country / channel. Refer to MCEBuddy Advanced Commands for details on how to fine tune the comskip.ini to detect commercials more accurately and also to the Comskip Custom INI’s for custom Comskip.ini files for different countries and channels (submitted by users).

  2. While extracting Subtitles (SRT files) with commercial cutting enabled; sometimes the SRT files will keep getting out of sync progressively with the video. This is an issue with the fact that the underlying encoders will align the cut video segments with the next GOP frame which may be several seconds into the video after the cut segments starts, hence introduce during a few seconds “delay” with respect to the Subtitles. This causes the SRT files to get out of sync with the converted video after each commercial is cut. There is a parameter known as SubtitleSegmentOffset in MCEBuddy.conf which can be used to correct the progressive delay introduced by each cut commercials. Refer to MCEBuddy Advanced Commands for more details. In the GUI this can accessed under Expert SettingsSubtitle commercial sync.

  3. Video metadata lookup (TVDB, MovieDB) and timezones. TVDB and MovieDB use the network timezone for show information. Network timezone = local timezone if the video is recorded and coverted on the same machine. If the machine timezone changes (or video is taken to a machine on a different timezone), the lookup may not work since the network timezone is not known and MCEBuddy assumed that the local timezone is the network timezone.

  4. If there are multiple shows premiered on the same day, then MCEBuddy will take the first show if looking up internet metadata (TVDB, IMDB etc) by original air date (if the subtitles/shownames don’t match).

  5. Some TV Tuner cards which are installed as Network drivers (such as Ceton) may not work with UPnP enabled. This is due to a problem with the faulty TV Tuner network drivers being unable to process broadcast discovery packets, enabling UPnP in MCEBuddy causes the card to stop working. There are 3 solutions:

    • Update to MCEBuddy 2.4.9 or newer
    • Update the drivers to the latest version (Ceton BETA drives appears to solve the problem)
    • Uncheck UPnP in the settings page, click Ok and then reboot the computer
  6. Some TV’s (including some Samsung TV’s) appear to be have MP4 and MKV files audio slowly drift out of sync over time. The same files however play fine on a computer (like WMP, VLC or KMPlayer). This is an issue with these TV’s handling the files created by FFMPEG. The answer is simple, open the profiles.conf and in the profiles you’re using replace in the order=ffmpeg with order=handbrake (i.e. use the handbrake based profile). For some reason these TV’s are able to sync audio with ffmpeg created files but can playback handbrake based profiles correctly.

  7. While MCEBuddy supports converting Audio only files (e.g. MP3 or WTV without video), NOTE: YOU WILL NEED TO USE A FFMPEG BASED PROFILE TO CONVERT AUDIO ONLY FILES (i.e. files without video). Handbrake and Mencoder do NOT support conversions of files without any video streams.

  8. TiVO files downloaded with “fast transfers” require TiVO desktop installed on the machine where MCEBuddy engine is running as a Command Line Service (TiVO Desktop is a 32bit program and cannot be accessed through a windows service). Otherwise download TiVO files with kmttg or TiVo Desktop in PS format.

  9. Currently hardware encoding is only supported via handbrake profiles (via QuickSync) and ffmpeg profiles (via NvEnc)

  10. Hardware encoding and Library management (iTunes and WMP) requires atleast 1 user to be logged in locally or remotely

  11. Some Media Extenders such as XBox, Ceton Echo and Linksys DMA2100 do not support H.264 in WTV, only MPEG2. So either use the WTV Unprocessed profile if the original video plays back on the extender OR to use the WTV Legacy profile

  12. Some Samsung TV’s have an issue with playing back video created using the MKV Unprocessed profile, see this post for details for the fix