Watching SageTV files on ATV2?

[CANightHawk]

Hi all,

I tried to search the forums here, really I did. Couldn't find a direct hit, so I am asking my question 'my way' -- Please bear with my ineptitude.

* I have a main SageTV server, using a VGA output to go to my living room TV.
* I have an AppleTV revision 2 [aka ATV2, the black box] which has access to my home network and my PC's iTunes via Home Sharing.

* I'd LIKE to be able to record something on SageTV server, and have the ATV2 be able to display it. Picture quality is not terribly important, and I have a 2 terabyte drive I can throw at the situation. I will then delete the video files (as they are watched) later from SageTV, and iTunes if necessary.


So a few questions --

1. How can I automatically ADD the SageTV recorded items into iTunes, so that ATV2 can display them via AirPlay? I tried dragging and dropping the MPEG-2 files into iTunes but nothing happened, as they weren't "tagged" with a category of TV or Movies, and basically ended up not being transferred.

2. Do I have to transcode the MPEG-2 stream into something ATV2 / iTunes can read? What options do you recommend? Is there a specific SageTV frame size or codec that I should be using?

3. Is PlayOn Basic compatible with, or interface with, ATV2? I don't have a Mac laptop (or current access to an Intel Mac laptop) for tethered jailbreaking of my ATV2. Until an untethered solution comes out, I can't use Flash Black [from fireCore, I think], which, as I understand it would get me much further along in not having to transcode, will use network shares, etc.

I'd like to keep the "master" MPEG-2 stream as long as possible in case a family member would like to [easily] burn the MPEG-2 to DVD for archiving.

I love the SageTV interface. I even like PlaceShifter. I just don't have a spare PC to set up in the guest bedroom for folks .. yet. My ATV2 does a lot of stuff, but I'd like it to do a lot more.

I know some of these things are way off topic. But the core video files are recorded in SageTV as MPEG-2's, so I figured I'd start with the resident and fantastic gurus here.

Thanks everyone for any advice or assistance.

[wayner]

I am not sure what is ideal for ATV but if you go into the details screen of a TV recording and click convert you will see a bunch of options including some for the iPod/iPhone. You could try converting to one of these with different options and see what works best. There are plugins that will automatically convert a show once it is finished - I know that SJQ can do this but I believe that there are also some very simple plugins to do the same.

What is your original source for recordings? Are they MPEG-2 files, or TS files and are they HD? You might even want to use different conversions for different source files.

[CANightHawk]

Originally Posted by wayner

I am not sure what is ideal for ATV but if you go into the details screen of a TV recording and click convert you will see a bunch of options including some for the iPod/iPhone. You could try converting to one of these with different options and see what works best. There are plugins that will automatically convert a show once it is finished - I know that SJQ can do this but I believe that there are also some very simple plugins to do the same.

What is your original source for recordings? Are they MPEG-2 files, or TS files and are they HD? You might even want to use different conversions for different source files.

Hi Wayner,

I did find the option for conversion on favorite recording, which is great, thanks for the suggestion. AppleTV preset works a treat.

The original source for the recordings is my Hauppauge PVR-150 capture card, which outputs MPEG-2. Not HD .. yet. Will upgrade to HD at some point, although I'm still feeling out the limitations and options with my ATV2.

So far, the ATV2 is working very well as a standalone player, PQ is great considering the source resolution (SDTV).

Here's what I'd really like to do with my ATV2 --
1. Have a file auto-converted (DONE! Yay! )
2. Have that file auto-move into my iTunes library automatically (half-done? )
3. Watch on my ATV2 (DONE! for converted, manually moved files. Yay! )

Problem I'm having is with step 2. Converted file goes into a folder that is called "Automatically move to iTunes" (created by iTunes, ironically) but those files only get imported into iTunes when it is **CLOSED** [which removes the PC from the list of accessible computers on my ATV2, um what? Plus, files over a gigabyte don't auto-add for some dumb Apple reason]

So if SJQ can do this (which I have installed but have no idea how to program or use), that would be pretty awesome.

I'd like to remove the monitor and kb/mouse from my PC altogether, and do as much as possible through VNC on my iPad, but to increase the WAF I'd also like to not have to monkey with moving converted files over manually all the time ...

What do you recommend? Are there freeware apps that will do the auto-move as soon as a file is ready? Or I can give SJQ a try if you would be so kind as to tell me where to look as to how to program it? (or hey even better I'd love a pre-cooked script ... that'd be awesome )

I read somewhere about setting up an RSS feed in iTunes, but I've never done that before. Seems like that could be a good option though. Depends on the transfer/RSS update frequency. I know, Google is my friend and all, but what is the best resource for finding out how to do that, is there a site that might be good?

[wayner]

It sounds like you are having an iTunes sync issue rather than a Sage issue so I don't know how to help you. Maybe there is other software that you can use to move the files to your iDevice. Maybe something like PadSync. I think that there is other software that can do this as well.

In my opinion iTunes is an extremely buggy, and slow piece of software, at least on Windows.

[bhyman1]

I'd like to do the same thing with my Sage server and ATV2.

I haven't found a way to get rid of the commercials from the tv recordings so they won't show up in the auto convert. I don't believe the commercial detection plugin would facilitate this?, I could be wrong.

Any thoughts?

[wayner]

Originally Posted by bhyman1

I haven't found a way to get rid of the commercials from the tv recordings so they won't show up in the auto convert. I don't believe the commercial detection plugin would facilitate this?, I could be wrong.

If the ATV does not recognize edl files then you will have to physically cut the commercials out of the file. This would have to be a multi-step process although all of it could be initiated by SJQ.

Step one is to identify commercials - this can be done with Comskip. You will want it to create a vprj file which can be used by VideoRedo. You will then run VideoRedo and pass it two parameters - your video file plus your vprj file. It will create a new file that will have the commercials cut out. You will then run this new file through a convert process to convert to an ATV2 friendly format.

That is a little more work and there is some downside as if the commercial markings are inaccurate then you might miss part of your show.

VideoRedo is probably one of the best video file editors out there but you have to pay for it. The latest version can handle H.264 files from the HD-PVR, the earlier versions could handle MPEG files plus files from Windows Media Center.

[CANightHawk]

Since it is perfectly legal, and quite easy to do, why not jailbreak the ATV2?

I use a jailbroken ATV2 with XBMC. Works GREAT. Also, autoskips commercials (since I have an autoskip EDL generator running). Haven't watched a commercial in months ;>

To jailbreak you can use a really simple procedure by FireCore. [search in Google] I'm sure there are other ways to do it, but that's what I used.

I actually have 2 ATV2's. I can watch two different programs, one on each ATV2, in standard def [but I'm sure if I record HD it will play back 720p]. Also I can watch a separate stream on my Mac desktop, Windows laptop, and via AirVideo I can watch still more streams on my iPhone and iPad. Crazy.

I heart my SageTV.

[wayner]

Does this work for MPEG-2 files. I thought that the ATV2 had issues with playing back MPEG-2 files?

[dgeezer]

My Atv2 is jailbroken and running XBMC and will play SD mpeg2 recordings from my Pvr150 just fine. It will not play back any HD recording from my hdhomerun.
I don't normally use it for any tv play back but I think that edl files are supported.

[wayner]

So it will natively play SD MPEG-2 files but not HD MPEG-2 files. I guess you could get around that by converting the files first.

By the way, can you watch shows on your ATV2 that are still being recorded by Sage?

[dgeezer]

Well, I tried playing back some recordings this morning on my ATV2 to see if the EDL files would work. What I found was that after the latest update to the ATV2 software and/or the latest XBMC update even my SD mpeg2 recordings won't play without pausing and buffering every 45 seconds or so. Fairly high bit rate 720p mkv rips play back just fine. If you wanted to convert all your shows to H264 mkv or mp4 then I am pretty sure that they would play fine. I bought the ATV2 as soon as I read that it could be jailbroken and run XBMC. I have most of the frontrow menu items disabled since I have never used any of the apple features. I was disappointed that the ATV2 wouldn't play mpeg2 files succesfully. I have kept it around for Pandora radio and because it will play mkvs with DTS sound and my HD200 won't.

I didn't try playing back a show as it's recording but I'm sure this won't work either.

[Flips]

That is a bummer about hd mpegs. I was looking at an ATV2 to get TV to a bedroom TV. I would have bought an HD300 (RIP) if that was an option.

I thought HD mpegs wouldn’t be much of a problem, and thought I would have issues with some mkv, etc…

Has anyone tried Plex? That would be an option to convert realtime and stream it to the ATV2 from what I have briefly read.

flips