Hi Fred and welcome to MCE.
The key is getting the initial setup working, then you can tinker with the MCE processing.
Here’s my initial setup. I originally purchased (years ago) a WD MyCloud PR2100 NAS (network storage) and upped it to 12 TB. I’d originally hoped to use this as my Plex Server. After using it for a couple years and finding it really doesn’t have the guts that I’d hoped, I bought a computer with an i5 CPU and added a 2 GB drive for storage. I call this my PlexServer which also houses the MCE software.
I’ve added several folders to the PlexServer 2nd drive called:
DVR Recordings - (Plex saves recordings to here)
MCE Buddy Temp - (Set this as your MCE temp folder)
MCE Buddy Out - (where MCE saves processed vids)
I could have kept these on the main c: drive but wanted them kept separate for speed purposes.
In Plex, I set my DVR target folder for all recordings to the DVR Recordings.
Don’t forget to have it “Monitor subdirectories” and the search pattern .
Then click Expert Settings:
exclude *.grab The grab folder is where the actually recording takes place and the file gets moved out of this folder when recording is complete.
Once you’ve done the initial setup, take one of your 1/2 hour shows from where ever you are storing and use it as your test dummy. Copy and paste the .ts file to your DVR Recordings folder, wait a minute and let MCE do its thing. If you don’t like the result, delete the creation the MCE saved the the MCE Buddy Out folder and tinker with the settings.
I personally like how MCE handles the commercial removal better than Plex. And it converts from .ts to MP4 or other formats nicely, so I just let MCE do it’s thing. As for conversion tasks, I have 4 different ones. I like the option of subtitles which I use for movies and some TV shows. But recordings such as baseball and reruns of Seinfeld, I don’t need them. The old Twilight Zone series can be lesser quality and some I choose to leave in .ts format. As for quality, I use MP4 Normal most of the time since the MP4 High Quality takes so much longer.
Now let’s talk about final location. Once you get the outcome you are looking for with the video, you can change the “Out” folder to your shared Plex folder but I choose not to. My Plex shared folder is on the WD drive and it’s very neatly arranged so I can find things easily. I have separate folders for Music, TV and Movies. Inside each of these are folders for each series or type of show, ie. Disney, Back to the Future, Seinfeld, Big Bang. So every so often, I go into the “Out” folder and “cut/paste” into the specific folders. Because of this, I added the “Recordings” and “Out” folders to my Plex library. Once I’ve cut and pasted, Plex recognizes they’ve been moved.
With that being said, I’m not sure why you need the post processing script.
