Setting Up PlayLater

[HDMission]

I know this probably isn’t the best place to post this but I wanted to cast a wide net.

I have been a Sage user for about 10 years and have been really happy with my setup for quite a while.

Client PC – to manually rip movies and transfer them over to the server.
Sage Server with 2 HD-PVRs to record from Dish Network. We very rarely watch live tv, actually almost never. That said I am looking for help to make a change.

I have been scouring this forum reading about PlayOn & PlayLater. Sounds like some people use this, if there are any other alternatives I am open to those as well. I thought I would give it a go so I bought the lifetime package for $50 I have been relatively successful at recording shows. I am going to test Netflix and Hulu to give me the broad variety but I digress.

I recorded a show and I moved them to the Recorded TV folder they don’t show up. I know I am doing something wrong or they need to be converted, or both.

I am not technical at all, so please provide detail if you can.

I would love to:
•Record using PlayLater on my Client PC (because it can do the heavy lifting). I think I’m good here.
•Que up PlayLater recordings on my Client PC. Got the PC Part and I think I can even control this from a tablet, just not an iPad. No big deal here, got it.

This is where I need the help.

•PlayLater records in MP4 format.
o Do I need to convert these?
o Can it be done automatically?
o Do I need any new software?
o How should I do this?
•Transfer from the Client PC to the Server, I was thinking of using DropIt or RoboBasket. Any suggestions on if there is alternatives?
o Anyone have experience on how would I do this?

I saw MXG refer to this in this thread http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...ight=playlater

But no details.

Like I said, I could use some specific guidance. I hope to get this as automated as possible so I only have to choose shows to drop in my que and everything else happens automatically.

Thanks in advance.

[tmiranda]

Sage should play the mp4. Two things to checks:
- Did you do a scan after moving the files? You have used Sage a long time so I'm pretty sure you didn't forget this but ....

- Check the sage.properties file to make shre mp4 is listed under video formats. I forget the property name, something like video_formats or video_types. Poke around in there and make sure mp4 is listed.

[HDMission]

Thanks for the direction. I will go check that tonight and report back. I hope it is that easy.

Fingers crossed.

[BobPhoenix]

I put my PlayLater recordings in an import folder rather than a recording folder. If nothing else works try that instead.

I have had no problems getting SageTV to recognize and play them. I have ~2 thousand (give or take 500) series recordings now from Amazon Prime and Netflix. My import folders exist on an unRAID NAS PC. I have SageTV set for manual scanning of import folders. Once I move a group of files to the correct import folder I start a manual scan. With BMT installed I get show/episode descriptions. About the only thing I've had to do is rename the SxxExx to the correct theTVDB.com season and episode so BMT scans it correctly. Also on Amazon Prime they have a tendency to put a name in like this "Show Season 1 - S01E01 - episode name.mp4" and I then also remove the "Season 1" as that causes BMT problems when scanning.

[pjpjpjpj]

As Bob says above, just have the PlayLater save to a folder that gets scanned. The BMT plugin can label them and make them recordings; otherwise they will just show up as videos. The folder they are in doesn't make a determination of whether they are viewed as recordings or videos (it's unclear whether you are confused about that). And you can have MP4s labeled as recordings, you don't need to convert them.

Note that if you make them recordings and you move the files after that, they get tagged as "archived" and you then need to manually go in and uncheck the archive status to get them back in your "current" recordings list.

Also note that if you did want to change format (for any reason), you can (manually) use the native Sage converter and that allows you to save the converted file to another folder (and delete the original), so it's sorta like an "auto-move"; set a bunch of files to convert and when they are done, they will be in the other folder where you want them.

[HDMission]

First, tmiranda, bob and PJ thanks for responding.

Ok, I did do the refresh. But to show how little experience I have with sage I couldn't begin to tell you how to edit the sage.properties. So feeling very intimidated I took a step back. It might be best for me to describe my setup better, what I tried, what I figured out and you might be able to help with a solution.

I configured my Sage a little bit using the following plugins: I am running Custom Main Menu, SageMyMovies and PlayOn (which i just put on and haven't used yet.

SageMyMovies modifies my main menu to:
MyMovies (This replaces the Videos folder)
TV (where I access my recorded DISH shows from my HDPVRs)
Music
Photos
Search
etc.

I first dropped a PlayLater file (MP4 of course) into my Recorded TV folder on my server where all my DISH recordings are. I thought/hoped it would see the new file and organize it, provide the show details like it does for the recorded items. I refreshed and no luck. I assume it is because Sage does not look at this folder because it is not an Media Center Imported Directory. I went into Setup -> Detailed Setup -> General -> Media Center Import Directories and designated the Recorded TV as an import Directory. Refreshed and no luck.

So I dropped the file into the Photos folder. I when to the Setup and selected the Photos folder on my server as a Media Center Imported Directory. I refreshed and went back to my main menu -> Photos but it only provides options to Browse Photos, Start Slideshow and Random Slideshow. SO it didn't even display the MP4 even if I Browse Photos.

Now I just wanted to find the file. I went to Main Menu -> Search -> Browse File Systems -> Browse Import Library Paths (Import Folders:2) -> Photos and there it was. I selected it and it played.

So I can play the PlayLater Files as you all thought I could, and I can probably put them in any of the existing folders on my server, I'm not even using the photos or music folders.

I figure my problem is, once I get them on the server I don't know how to access them from the main menu that is easy (not driving down through the Search Menu) and organized (like my Recorded TV is) way.

Any thoughts? If you do have an idea or two, specific details would help. I am not as familiar as I should be with Sage's inner workings.

Thanks again,
HDMission

[pjpjpjpj]

Yeah, it's the way Sage displays things. I use ADM and use folder directories (creating custom menu items to look at specific folders) to make sure I can find things where I want them - but there are other ways as well (some/many here vigorously tag everything with metadata and sort by "movie" or "TV" or genre or whatever).

The biggest thing is that Sage does not relate the physical folder on your drive with what type of file it is. If you put videos and photos and music in a single folder, you would have to mark that folder for all three to see each of them... but the music would only show under music, the photos as photos, and the videos in the video view within the folder called "(whatever you called it)". It doesn't matter if the folder is labeled as being photos or whatever, Sage doesn't look at the name of the folder. Sage determines whether the file is imported video or recording based on metadata only. There are plugins to manipulate this (as mentioned above), but otherwise you pretty much only will get "recordings" from things you recorded from Sage, and everything else will be videos.

[talbot3]

I just recently started using playlater to record my Hulu queue. I just pointed the playlater download folder to a folder I created in my sagetv video import folder. BMT and sagetv automatically fetch metadata and fanart and add it to my recordings. Its been working pretty good so far.

I also found a program on github to automate playlater recording my Hulu queue. https://github.com/CodePenguin/PlayPass/releases

[samgreco]

Originally Posted by talbot3

I also found a program on github to automate my playlater recording my Hulu queue. https://github.com/CodePenguin/PlayPass/releases

Well that is a game changer for me

[tmiranda]

I just took advantage of the lifetime PlayOn + PlayLater for $19.99. I guess I need to figure out how it works now

[steambuilder]

I just signed up for PlayLater also. Because of my Exede Satellite service I can only download files between 12-5am. I downloaded the the Github file above but haven't got a clue as to how to use it. I am not a programmer nor have I ever played one on TV. Anyone know how it works?
Thanks
Doug

[talbot3]

I found the readme that came with the playpass to be pretty helpful. The setup is fairly straightforward.

1. Unzip contents to a folder.

2. Create a file called "myconfig.cfg" in the folder. I then opened the file with notepad and pasted the following into the file:

<playpass>
	<settings />
	<passes>
		<pass enabled="1" description="Hulu Queue">
			<scan name="Hulu" />
			<scan name="Your Queue" />
			<scan name="Sort By Date" />
			<queue name="*" />
		</pass>
	</passes>
</playpass>

You can create as many passes as you want if you follow the playon upnp structure.

3. I created to .bat files. The first called "playpass check.bat" and the second called "playpass add.bat".

edit playpass check.bat with notepad:

playpass.exe myconfig.cfg
pause

edit playpass add.bat with notepad:

PlayPass.exe -queue MyConfig.cfg

Run "playpass check.bat" to test if the exe can read your config file and come up with the videos to queue. Run "playpass add.bat" to add the videos to the playlater queue.

4. Setup windows scheduler to execute the "playpass add.bat" at what ever schedule you want.

[samgreco]

I just set this (PlayPass) up as well. Works very well for Hulu. Amazon is a bit tricky. I haven't figured out yet how to get it to deal with Series/Subfolders yet.

Did this:

		<pass enabled="0" description="Amazon Queue">
			<scan name="Amazon Instant Video" />
			<scan name="Prime Watchlist" />
			<scan name="TV Shows" />
			<scan name="*" />
			<queue name="*" />
		</pass>
	</passes>

But it only shows the "sub-folders" of TV Shows. It doesn't drill further down.

[talbot3]

Sam,

I just tested your amazon pass (after enabling it) it did queue the first subdirectory of "TV Shows". You may have to create a pass specific for each subdirectory that contains video files.

[samgreco]

Actually I figured that would work, but was hoping for a more universal config. So that way anything I add to the Watchlist would get picked up automatically when I run the program overnight.

Works well with Hulu's layout. Anything added to the Hulu Queue gets picked up at the next run of the program.

[HDMission]

Ok, I am on my way to running my SageTV into the ground. I know it is my own doing but I would appreciate guidance.

I did a little experimenting, and turned things into one hot mess. This and this is what I did.

I disabled the Custom Main Menu and MyMovies. From what I read above I can't use either of those plugins and build add a Menu selection for the PlayLater files. Please correct me if I am wrong because I put a lot of work into MyMovies.

Anyway

I downloaded the ADM plugin. I created a Internet TV option in my main menu and gave it the Action Type: File Browser: Imports. I pointed it at the folder I stored some PlayLater files. It saw the files and I could play them. That was a good thing, but...They were displayed in a clunky way, just listed out in as they were in the folder. Not grouped like in the recorded TV folder (I had a couple shows of Property Brothers, couple of another show and they were just listed out)

So, I need help.

With ADM, I know I can create Main Menu items. I just need some specific guidance because I can't figure out how to do a couple of them.

Recorded TV - I got this one, I will use the existing item.
Internet TV - I would like this to present my PlayLater files like the Recorded TV option. Does anyone know how to do this?
Videos - How do I get this to look like MyMovies with the scrolling wall of movie covers. My wife loved that, and honestly so did I.

Can anyone guide me on what Action Types the Internet TV has to be or what I have to do to get my Videos/Movies to present well again?

[pjpjpjpj]

I'm a little confused by your post, but I can offer this:
The videos you downloaded will always be listed as separate files unless they are actually TV shows where you modify the metadata and use the plugin to convert videos to recordings, such that they show up as the same show with different episodes. Then Sage will group them together. However, they will then show up in recordings. I don't think there is any way to have non-recordings grouped together as a "line item" in another menu item.

I use ADM and I (sorta) achieve this by creating folders on my server for each item - say, for instance, the 6 Star Wars movies or 8 Harry Potter movies. So when you looked at that download folder, it would have subfolders (which I had to manually create) for each of those items labeled "Star Wars Saga" or whatever. You could then (presumably) direct the specific downloads of those items to save to those subfolders, or you could manually move them there after they downloaded.

The ability to direct an ADM menu item to a specific folder sometimes depends on layers of folders; sometimes you have to create a subfolder or two in order to drill down to get the menu item to only show what you want.

As for getting videos to look like a wall, you can not do that without a UI-modifying plugin like My Movies or even Gemstone/Phoenix. The best you can do in ADM is adjust the rows/columns (which is a function of basic Sage, ADM or not) to like 4 wide by 3 high, which gives a "sorta" wall look. the right portion of the screen will still be taken up by info.

[HDMission]

pj, thanks for the response. Sorry my email wasn't clear but your info helps.

I believe I am going to go with Gemstone after reading several threads. It will give me the menu functionality to add my PlayLater files and display my movies in a pretty cool manner.

Now I hit a speed bump though. I downloaded the Gemstone plugin and loaded it just like the directions. But I am not getting half the options the FAQ and reference threads list. Also, I can't figure out how to assign a flow to a menu item like Videos. Did I miss a "How To" guide?

I am sure I am missing something.

Should I look to remove all plug-ins and start fresh? Would I remove all the plug-ins? Do I have to delete any files?

If anyone can help it would be much appreciated.

[waynedunham]

I haven't delved deeply into it yet, but I just started using Playlater to grab some shows that I can't get on cable, or older shows that I'd like to watch again.
The shows record just fine and I can view them in SageTV just fine. However comskip doesn't want to run on them. I am saving them via Playlater settings in mp4 format and mp4 is one of the valid extensions in my comskip settings (via the SageTV plugin). If I use the plugin to search for files it shows all the Playlater files as "queued", but they never process.
Any clues where to look?

[KryptoNyte]

Are the mp4's h.264 video encoding? Are you using the donator's version of comskip or the free version?