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Updated Wiki: Documentation

rboy1 — Sat, 25 May 2013 12:01:04 GMT

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This Wiki contains the FAQ's and User Guide to using MCEBuddy 2.x

In this Wiki you can find basic usage guides, advanced conversion parameters and FAQ's. These will updated from time to time to keep up with feedback and changes.

See the Table of Contents at the bottom of this page to get a list of all the help pages/guides

The getting started basic MCEBuddy User Guide is availiable at MCEBuddy User Guide

To understand the basics or advanced features of MCEBuddy, use the Documentation link and browse the pages.
If you have any questions, please use the Discussion page to ask questions and get answers
If you have found any bugs, please use the Issue Tracker link to submit them with as many details as possible to allow us to replicate.If possible upload a directly there or to an FTP server below and provide the filename in the ticket.
If you have any enhancements, suggestions or feature requests, please use the Dicussions page to submit them with details/scenarios
If you want the latest version of MCEBuddy, goto the Downloads link. Each release has it's own directory and the 32bit and 64bit versions for each release are in each directory. Remote Client Installation is OPTIONAL. You can extract the files from the zip archive into a local folder and run MCEBuddy.GUI directly from there (helps when there is no administrative rights).

Hope you enjoy this program.

Ramit & Derek

PS - Thanks to Suma for help with getting the User Guide done.

Table of Contents

Updated Wiki: Writing a Remote Client for MCEBuddy

rboy1 — Sat, 25 May 2013 12:00:06 GMT

The MCEBuddy Engine uses XML SOAP 1.1 to communicate with the clients. This allows users to write custom Remote Clients using the publicly exposed interfaces and classes.

This guide is a starting point on how to write a remote client for MCEBuddy. It is an evolving document and feedback is openly welcome.

Download the source code (refer to Documentation on connecting to CodePlex) for MCEBuddy2x
Include the namespace MCEBuddy.Globals in your project. This namespace contains all the key objects that will be required to configure and connect to the MCEBuddy engine
The public interfaces to the MCEBuddy engine is provided by the ICore interface
Open the file Status.cs in the Project MCEBuddy.GUI, refer to the method TryConnect to get started with how to remotely connect to the engine.

Updated Wiki: MCEBuddy Advanced Commands

rboy1 — Fri, 24 May 2013 17:50:11 GMT

Advanced concepts to use MCEBuddy

MCEBuddy GUI Startup Options

MCEBuddy support the following options while starting the GUI (MCEBuddy.GUI.exe). Include these parameters by right clicking on the application short cut in the Start Menu and add them to the target path.

/startmin - Start the GUI minimized
/startengine - Force the engine to start (after connection with engine is established)

e.g. "C:\Program Files\MCEBuddy2x\MCEBuddy.GUI.exe" /startmin /startengine

Note: The parameters will come after the double quotes close and a space between each parameter

Tuning Comskip Commercial Detection

Comskip can be fine tuned to better detect and cut commercials for each country/region. There is a file names comskip.ini in the comskip directory in the MCEBuddy installation directory (by default C:\Program Files\MCEBuddy2x). The details of the tuning parameters can be found at: http://www.kaashoek.com/files/tuning.htm

If the video appears to get cut for about 3 seconds after the commerical ends (i.e. the commercial skipping cuts 3 seconds into the actual video post the end of the commerical), this could be because of the -ss settings in the <encoder>-video section of the profile. the -ss 3 command is required to get rid of corrupted video at the beginning to avoid audio sync issues. Remove the -ss 3 from the video parameters to fix this issue. Refer to the Audio Sync Issues section at the end of this document for details on the -ss command.

Multiple Audio Tracks in Converted File (v2.3.12+)

This only works with FFMPEG based profiles and if the source file has multiple audio tracks. Handbrake and MEncoder do not support converting/copying multiple audio tracks.

Select <Default> as the Audio Language in the conversion options AND add -map 0:a -map 0:v to the ffmpeg-video section for the FFMPEG profile and it will copy/convert all audio tracks.

Show Analyzer (v2.1.2+)

MCEBuddy supports ShowAnalyzer version 1.0 and greater. Once you download and install ShowAnalyzer it will show up as an option on the conversion profile settings page under commerical detection.

Filename and Showname Pattern Matching (v2.2.3+)

MCEBuddy supports multiple wildcard name matching to match shownames and filenames using the ; operator. E.g. once can specify *.wtv;*.avi*.mpg as the name selection criteria or ncis*;house*.mpg to match all names that start with ncis and house (ending with a .mpg).

If you want to specify a name avoid list, i.e. select all/abc files EXCEPT xyz, then prefix the name selection criteria with a ~ operator. E.g. ncis*;~ncis miami* will select all files that start with ncis but NOT those starting with ncis miami. E.g. *.*;~*.mp4;~*.avi will select all files except those starting with .mp4 and .avi

Name matching is case insensitive.

To select all default video types use the expression [video] which will match the following expression *.dvr-ms;*.wtv;*.asf;*.avi;*.divx;*.dv;*.flv;*.gxf;*.m1v;*.m2v;*.m2ts;*.m4v;*.mkv;*.mov;*.mp2;*.mp4;*.mpeg;*.mpeg1;*.mpeg2;*.mpeg4;*.mpg;*.mts;*.mxf;*.ogm;*.ts;*.vob;*.wmv;*.tp

For advanced users MCEBuddy also supports REGEX expressions. To provide a regex expression prefix the regex matching pattern with regex: and then the regex pattern (this is a very advanced concept).

Multiple Conversion Tasks Customized by ShowName or FileName (v2.2.3+)

Refer to Filename and Showname Pattern Matching above to understand how to create patterns for filename and shownames.

You can create multiple conversions tasks in MCEBuddy. Each conversion task will process each file in the queue. Order of conversions tasks do not matter when creating filename and showname filters. If you want to create custom conversion tasks for different files/shows you can do so with the help of the Filename or Showname pattern matching filters in the Conversion Tasks Settings page, under Advanced Settings.

For e.g. if you want to create 3 tasks, one that processes all NCIS files, one that processes all Star Trek files and one that processes all other files (i.e. default). To do so you will first create 3 conversion tasks.

In the first conversion task, where you want to process NCIS, under Filename or Showname filters (depending on what you want to filter based on, the name of the file or the name of the show taken from the metadata), you will enter NCIS* . This tell the conversion task to process only those files starting with NCIS.

In the second conversion task, where you want to process Star Trek files, under the Filename orShowname filter you will enter Star Trek* .

In the third conversion task, you want to process ALL other files (ie default), then you will enter the following *;~NCIS*;~Star Trek* . The first * tells the conversion task to process ALL files, the~NCIS* tells the task NOT to process files starting with NCIS and ~Star Trek* tells the task NOT to process files starting with Star Trek, i.e. process all files except those which are being processed by the first two tasks.

Custom File Renaming Pattern (v2.1.6+)

MCEBuddy allows you to create your own custom file name and directory structure using the metadata stored in the file and downloaded from the internet.

The following commands are currently supported by MCEBuddy

%originalfilename% - Name of the source file (without the path or extension)
%showname% - Showname / Title
%episodename% - Episode Name / Subtitle
%season%## - Season No
%episode%## - Episode No
%network% - Network channel on the show was recorded (v2.1.10+)
%airyear% - Original Air Year
%airmonth% - Original Air Month
%airmonthshort% - Original Air Month Name Abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%airmonthlong% - Original Air Month Full Name (v2.3.11+)
%airday% - Original Air Day
%airdayshort% - Original Air Day of Week Abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%airdaylong% - Original Air Day of Week Full Name (v2.3.11+)
%airhour% - Hour of air date (v2.3.6+)
%airhourampm% - Air date hour in AM/PM (v2.3.12+)
%airminute% - Minute of air date (v2.3.6+)
%recordyear% - Record Year
%recordmonth% - Record Month
%recordmonthshort% - Record Month Name Abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%recordmonthlong% - Record Month Full Name (v2.3.11+)
%recordday% - Record Day
%recorddayshort% - Record Day of Week Abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%recorddaylong% - Record Day of Week Full Name (v2.3.11+)
%recordhour% - Record Hour (v2.1.10+)
%recordhourampm% - Record Hour in AM/PM (v2.1.12+)
%recordminute% - Record Minute (v2.1.10+)
%ismovie%<RenamePatternIfTrue,RenamePatternIfFalse> - If recording is a movie rename using True pattern, else rename using False pattern (v2.3.12+)
\ - Directory Separator

E.g.: TVShows\%showname%\Season %season%\%showname% - S%season%##E%episode%## - %episodename% - %airyear%_%airmonth%_%airday%

Will produce: TVShows\CSI\Season 1\CSI - S01E02 - Best of times - 2012_01_06.<ext>

E.g.: Recording\%ismovie%<Movie\%showname%,TVShows\%showname%\Season %season%\%showname% - S%season%##E%episode%##>-Converted

Will produce:

Recording\Movies\Star Wars-Converted.<ext> (for a movie) OR

Recording\TVShows\CSI\Season 1\CSI - S01E02-Converted.<ext> (for non movies)

The extension is added automatically depending upon the profile specifications.

The number of #'s at the end for Episode and Season indicates the number of digits in the written number. E.g. %season%## will give the output at 01 while %season%### will give the output at 001. #'s are optional, leaving them out will write the number without any formatting. i.e. %season% will give 1 as the output.

Audio Sync/Missing Issues

Sometimes the audio and video go out of sync due to corruption at the start of the video. To solve this problem add the parameter -ss 10 at the BEGINNING of the <encoder>-video parameter in the profile. DO NOT put this parameter in the general parameters section. (do not forget the - before the ss and make sure there is a space between ss and 10)

E.g. ffmpeg-video=-ss 10

This indicates that ffmpeg will skip the first 10 seconds of the video/audio after decoding it (if you put this in the general parameters section then the encoder will skip over first 10 which DOES NOT solve the problem, the video/audio need to be first decoded and then discarded to be put back in sync).

You can play with the number to find the right mix, it can be as low as 3 or as high as 30 depending upon the corruption. You'll be surprised how many videos are corrupted at the start and FFMPEG is very sensitive to corruption as far as audio sync goes. You often cannot see the corruption while play the video (it will look okay), these are at the frame level and often ignored by players.

Also try to play with the AudioDelay parameter (given above). Set to skip to see if that resolves the issue. If the Audio sync is still off, try setting the AudioDelay number to +ve or -ve to advance or retard the audio sync and see how it behaves. It is a trial and error process.

If you're using FFMPEG or Handbrake as the encoder with your profile AND your output extension is .MP4 or .M4V AND your audio is going out of sync ONLY when you remove commercials (i.e. the Audio is in sync without commercials removal), try to use an alternative commerical stripping by using the command CutMP4Alternative=true in your profile.

If that doesn't work try using UniversalCommercialRemover=true in your profile. See above for more details.

Sometimes the Audio gets cut out completely in between a video. Try using PreConversionCommercialRemover=true in your profile. See above for more details.

Using Custom XML Files (v2.3.12+)

MCEBuddy looks for a XML file along with the original source video (with the same source video filename). It uses this file to extract Metadata information for non WTV/DVRMS files.

Also, it MCEBuddy find a XML file created during the conversion process (e.g. from Comskip), it will copy the XML file to to the destination directory along with the converted file.

Using Custom EDL Files (v2.3.12+)

MCEBuddy looks for a EDL file along with the original source video (with the same source video filename). If it finds the EDL file with the source video it copies the EDL file to the output directory along with the converted file.

MCEBuddy gives preference to the Custom EDL file over Comskip/ShowAnalyzer generated EDL files.

Using Custom SRT Files (v2.1.8+)

MCEBuddy looks for a SRT file along with the original source video OR in the temp working directory (with the same source video filename). If it finds the SRT file in either place it copies the SRT file to the output directory along with the converted video (with preference given to a SRT file in the temp working directory).

If ExtractCC is enabled in the Conversion Task -> Advanced Settings it will trim the Custom SRT file to be in sync with the EDL file (commercial removal). MCEBuddy gives preference to the Custom SRT files over the CC generated SRT file.

Comskip can be set to generate SRT files (output_srt=1) or CCExtractor can be used using from Custom Commands (if the ExtractCC from the GUI fails to work) to generate SRT files during the conversion process. Once generated, MCEBuddy will copy them to the output directory along with the converted file.

MultiThreading Support (v2.1.2+)

MCEBuddy by default calculates how many threads are required for the programs to run optimally. However this can be overridden manually by specifying the threads in the general parameters in the profiles file for each profile and encoder type.

Advanced parameters to configure MCEBuddy

(apply to mcebuddy.conf)

HOW TO MAKE CHANGES TO MCEBUDDY.CONF

Start the MCEBuddy application from the Start Menu. Click on Stop to stop the MCEBuddy engine. This is VERY important, if you don't press Stop, the changes you make to mcebuddy.conf will be overwritten. Open mcebuddy.conf in Notepad, make the required changes and save the file. Now click Start on the MCEBuddy application.

DO NOT REPLACE the file mcebuddy.conf directly with an old version, it will break MCEBuddy. Open, edit and save it. The old version is preserved for your reference only.

Custom eMail Notification Subject Lines (v2.3.13+)

The following parameters can be edited to create custom subject lines for eMail notifications for events. If there is nothing specified then MCEBuddy will use the default subject lines.

eMailSuccessSubject=<Custom subject line for a successful conversion>

eMailFailedSubject=<Custom Subject Line for a failed conversion>

eMailCancelledSubject=<Custom Subject Line for a cancelled conversion>

eMailStartSubject=<Custom Subject Line on the start of a conversion>

eMailDownloadFailedSubject=<Custom Subject Line when downloading series information fails>

Each custom subject line can contain User Custom Commands that will be replaced by MCEBuddy at runtime. Refer to the Running Custom Commands for a liist of custom commands that can be used in the subject line.

e.g. eMailSuccessSubject=Show %showname% for file %originalfilename% conversion successful using task %taskname%

NOTE: Not always will all the data be available in the custom commands, for e.g. when download information has failed or on a start event the video metadata like episode name and converted file name may not be available.

CustomComskipPath=xyz (v2.1.12+)

This parameter can be set if you want a use a custom version of Comskip, e.g. a Donator version or special/old version, that is lying in a different directory than the one that ships with MCEBuddy.

e.g. CustomComskipPath=D:\Donator MCEBuddy\comskip.exe

NOTE: The path must be to the executable comskip AND the directory should contain ALL the files necessary for Comskip to run (comskip.ini, comskip.dictionary etc). When using this parameter the default comskip.ini that ships with MCEBuddy is NOT used rather it expects the comskip.ini to be present in the same directory as the custom comskip.exe.

If a special comskip.ini has been specified in the Conversion Task advanced settings page then that special comskip.ini that WILL be used rather than the one lying in the custom comskip.exe directory.

IgnoreCopyProtection=false (v2.1.12+)

By default, this value is false. If this is set to true, then MCEBuddy will ignore the Copy Protection flag on the recording if it encounters it during conversion. It will only record an error in the conversion log and continue the conversion. If the recording is really copy protected then the final video will be look garbled. This flag can help because sometimes videos are incorrectly flagged by recording software/tuners. When this is set to false, if MCEBuddy encounters an Copy Protection flag it will stop the conversion after logging an error.

UseRecycleBin=false (v2.1.12+)

By default, this value is false. If this is set to true, then MCEBuddy will use the Recycle Bin when deleting the original video recording and related files (like EDL, XML etc).

DownloadBanner=true (v2.1.12+)

By default, this value is true. If this is set to false, then MCEBuddy will not download the Banner file (artwork) for the movie or tv series. This can be used when you want to download the series information (check Download Series Details from the Conversion Task page) but not download the artwork / banner file.

CPUAffinity=<binary mask integer> (v2.1.12+)

This parameter can be set to set the CPU affinity mask. This limits MCEBuddy to 1 or more processors only as specified in the bitmask. While this number is written as an integer, the integer represent a binary mask with each bit representing a processor. HINT: Convert the integer to a binary representation, each bit in the binary number presents a CPU processor.

E.g.:

CPUAffinity=1 will select the 1st CPU processor

CPUAffinity=2 will select the 2nd CPU processor

CPUAffinity=3 will select the 1st and 2nd CPU processor

CPUAffinity=4 will select the 3rd CPU processor

CPUAffinity=5 will select the 1st and 3rd CPU processor

CPUAffinity=6 will select the 2nd and 3rd CPU processor

CPUAffinity=7 will select the 1st, 2nd and 3rd CPU processor

TempWorkingPath=xyz (v2.1.2+)

This parameter is used to manually specific the temp working directory for MCEBuddy, i.e. xyz. By default MCEBuddy uses a directory called working within the MCEBuddy installation directory (e.g. C:\Program Files\MCEBuddy2x\working) (it will make multiple directories if using multiple simultaneous conversions with a number at the end for each parallel conversion, e.g. working0, working1 etc). This has to be a complete working path with rights to be able to create, modify and delete files/directories else the conversion might fail. This parameter should come under the section [Engine] in the conf file.

E.g. TempWorkingPath=D:\Temp\MCEBuddy

PollPeriod=xxx (v2.1.2+)

This parameter specifies how often MCEBuddy should check the Monitor Locations for new files. xxx is defined in number of seconds. This parameter should come under the section [Engine] in the conf file.

E.g. PollPeriod=150

NOTE: By default MCEBuddy uses 300 seconds as the interval to check for new files.

LocalServerPort=xxx (v2.2.16+)

This parameter specifies the TCP/IP port of the installed MCEBuddy server engine on the local machine. MCEBuddy registers this port with the any UPnP enabled routers on the network by default to enable remote connections from outside the network (NAT). This is the MCEBuddy GUI application should connect to for the local machine. The default port used by MCEBuddy is 23332. This parameter should come under the section [Engine] in the conf file.

E.g. ServerPort=23332

SubtitleSegmentOffset=x.x (v2.3.12+)

This parameter is used when the subtitles go progressively out of sync after commercials are removed from the video. This happens because when a video is cut, the video is aligned with the next GOP and I Frame sequence which can be a few seconds away from the actual cutting point. Hence each time the video is cut the subtitles get progressively out of sync with the video. This setting is used to bring the subtitles back into sync with the video. Each time the video commercial is cut out, the subtitles are time shifted by this amount (+ve or -ve in seconds), hence bringing the subtitles back into sync with the video segments.

E.g. SubtitleSegmentOffset=5.4

HangPeriod=xxx (v2.2.4+)

This parameter specifies how long MCEBuddy will wait for a console output from the application (e.g. handbrake or ffmpeg etc) before it determines that the application has hung and terminates it. xxx is defined in number of seconds. This parameter should come under the section [Engine] in the conf file. Use 0 to disable hang detection (i.e. MCEBuddy will wait forever for the process to exist normally).

E.g. HangPeriod=500

NOTE: By default MCEBuddy uses 300 seconds as the interval to determine a hung application

FFMpegBackupRemux (v2.1.12+)

This is a special section in the configuration file that stores the command parameters for the ReMux operations which are carried out using FFMPEG if the main ReMuxSupp application fails/not used to remux the video. First the CopyRemux is used, if that fails then the SlowRemux is used. CopyRemux is used first for MPEG2 video files to stream copy the video without recoding the video. If the original video is not MPEG2 or CopyRemux fails then SlowRemux parameters are used to remux the video. THESE SHOULD NOT BE CHANGED UNLESS THE BACKUP REMUX IS COMPLETELY FAILING. Each of these entries will have a number after them like CopyRemux0, CopyRemux1, SlowRemux0, SlowRemux1 etc. These numbers indicate successive remux parameters to be tried if the previous one fails, i.e. if SlowRemux0 fails then MCEBuddy will look for SlowRemux1 and if that fails then it looks for SlowRemux2 etc.

You can also specify -i <source> in the remux parameters as a placeholder for the input filename which MCEBuddy will replace at runtime. This can be useful if you want to specify parameters before the input file in the FFMPEG parameter command.

E.g. CopyRemux0 = -fflags +genpts -i <source> -map 0:a -map 0:v -vcodec copy -acodec copy

MCEBuddy automatically detects the frame rate of the video through the use of -r auto in the FFMPEG Remux parameters in CopyRemux and SlowRemux. This can be disabled by removing -r auto. It can also be overridden by manually specifying the frame rate to use (which can be useful if the average rate of dropped and/or duplicate frames is very high leading to stuttering videos).

E.g. -r auto
E.g. -r 25
E.g. -r 30*1000/1001

MCEBuddy monitors the Average Rate of Dropped frames and Average Rate of Duplicate frames, the key is average rate and not absolute value. If this exceeds a threshold then the auto detected frame rate is incorrect and needs to be corrected. These thresholds can be specified in the parameters RemuxDropThreshold and RemuxDuplicateThreshold. If that threshold is exceeded you may need to manually specify the frame rate (see above).

E.g. RemuxDropThreshold=3.0
E.g. RemuxDuplicateThreshold=3.0

[FFMpegBackupRemux]
CopyRemux0=<FFMPEG Remux parameters>
SlowRemux0=<FFMPEG Remux parameters>
SlowRemux1=<FFMPEG Remux parameters>
RemuxDropThreshold=<Average Rate of Dropped Frames threshold>
RemuxDuplicateThreshold=<Average Rate of Duplicate Frames threshold>

Advanced parameters to tweak the conversion

(apply to each profile in profiles.conf)

Inserting Special Commands (v2.3.12+)

You can get MCEBuddy to insert special commands in the 4 sections of the profile

<encoder>-general
<encoder>-video
<encoder>-audio
<encoder>-audioac3

The following special commands will be replaced by MCEBuddy at runtime:

<source_without_ext> - Source filename without extension
<source> - source filename
<converted_without_ext> - Output filename without extension
<converted> - Output filename

E.g. mencoder-general = -sub "<converted_without_ext>.srt" -ss 3

will be replaced at runtime with (assuming the output file is c:\temp\test file.avi):

mencoder-general = -sub "c:\temp\Test File.srt" -ss 3

NOTE: MCEBuddy does not put quotes around the replacement parameters, some command expect quotes to be sure to put quotes where required.

ForceWTVStreamsRemuxing=true (v2.3.12+)

This parameter tells MCEBuddy to use DirectShow to extract the audio and video streams from the WTV file and remux them into a TS file. This has the advantage that uses Windows codecs, is fast and also support encrypted/Copy Protected content. The disadvantage is that it only support one audio and video stream in the WTV file.

NOTE: By default Streams remuxing is used for DVR-MS files and also as the last option for WTV files if all else fails.

AllowH264CopyRemuxing=true (v2.3.12+)

This parameter tells MCEBuddy to internally allow remuxing H264 video into a TS format without converting it to MPEG2 video first. This can be used when one wants to change the format of the video while retaining the original H264 video without recoding it. E.g. from WTV to MP4 or WTV to MKV or WTV to TS, or even WTV to WTV and remove commercials etc.

For more details on this refer to this thread http://mcebuddy2x.codeplex.com/discussions/431449

NOTE: The limitation on this is that Comskip cannot be used for commercial removal since comskip does not support H264 in TS processing, however ShowAnalyzer can be used in it's place.

UseWTVRemuxsupp=true (v2.3.11+)

This parameter tells MCEBuddy to use Remuxsupp FIRST to remux WTV files before trying other remuxers. This can help with some videos (rare) that not remuxed properly with FFMPEG or other remuxers but work with Remuxsupp. Usually Remuxsupp does not work well with many videos.
NOTE: This only helps in certain situations where files remuxed by FFMPEG are not able to be converted by MEncoder.

ForceEDL=true (v2.1.4+)

This is only effective when Comskip is enabled and Custom EDL files are not provided. When the commercial removal option is set to Comskip it tells MCEBuddy to force use the EDL file instead of the EDLP file from Comskip. EDL/EDLP files indicate the sections (timestamps) of the video to cut (commercials), however the timestamps differ slight for each video format, some use EDL and others EDLP. If your video/show is getting cut before/after commercials by a few seconds then try using this parameter.
NOTE: By default MCEBuddy uses EDL for .TS files and EDLP for all others

ForceEDLP=true (v2.1.4+)

This is only effective when Comskip is enabled and Custom EDL files are not provided. When the commercial removal option is set to Comskip it tells MCEBuddy to use the EDLP file instead of the EDL file from Comskip. EDL/EDLP files indicate the sections (timestamps) of the video to cut (commercials), however the timestamps differ slight for each video format, some use EDL and others EDLP. If your video/show is getting cut before/after commercials by a few seconds then try using this parameter.
NOTE: By default MCEBuddy uses EDL for .TS files and EDLP for all others

FixedResolution=true (v2.1.4+)

This tells MCEBUddy not to change source video resolution while converting (keep source resolution). When this parameter is set, MCEBuddy ignores the Max Width slider on the Conversion Task -> Advanced Settings page.

(v2.3.13+) When this is set, it also fixes the bitrate to what is specified in the profile. Normally MCEBuddy will adjust the bitrate as specified in the profile (which is optimized for 720 pixel width) to compensate for the change in converted video resolution (up or down) as limited by the Max Width slider. If the user does not want to limit the resolution then they should increase the Max Width slider in the Conversion Task Settings -> Advanced Settings page all the way to the right.

SkipCropping=true (v2.1.4+)

This tells MCEBuddy not to autodetect crop information and skip cropping the video. This helps when the video edges are being cut off or if you have a video with no black bars on the sides to be removed, it will speed up the conversion process. Auto cropping can also sometimes skew the aspect ratio, so setting this will make MCEBuddy skip cropping.

<encoder>-AudioDelay=xxx/auto/skip (v2.1.2-2.2.18, 2.2.19+)

This parameter is set for each encoder type, e.g. ffmpeg, mencoder or handbrake
When xxx is set to skip then it tells MCEBuddy to skip auto correction of audio delay (sync). This is useful for some file formats such as AVI where audio gets skewed on auto correction.
If this parameter is set to a numerical value, then this parameter is used to manually specify the audio delay correction to correct audio sync, xxx is a +ve or a -ve number in seconds. If the value is equal to auto, it adds or subtracts the delay specified to the auto calculated audio delay for the video. A value of 0 means that MCEBuddy will skip any delay correction.
By default this this parameter is set to skip.

E.g. mencoder-AudioDelay=0.85

2ChannelAudio=true (v2.1.5 - v2.1.9, v2.2.13+)

When this parameter is set MCEBuddy limits the output audio to 2 channels irrespective of number of inputs channels
This can be useful to when specialized devices/software can read only 2 channels
By default MCEBuddy sets the output channels to the number of input channels
(As of 2.1.10, this can also be set in the Conversion Task GUI - profile overrides GUI)

MEncoderEDLSkip=true (v2.1.4+)

This parameter tells MCEBuddy not to use the EDL command with MEncoder to remove commercials from the video during conversion (which can save time but sometime cause the audio to go out of sync in rare cases).
If this parameter is set then MCEBuddy will remove the commercials AFTER the conversion is completed by using MP4Box to cut the commercials. Please do not set CutMP4Alternative=true when using this parameter.
This can be used to if converting with Mencoder is causing your Audio to go out of sync while removing commercials (it has no impact if commercial stripping is disabled) and none of the other parameters (-ss 30 or mencoder-audiodelay=skip ) do not work.

UniversalCommercialRemover=true (v2.3.11+)

When is parameter is set it tells MCEBuddy to use the Universal Commercial Remover after the conversion is complete (where as the default are very specific commercials remover functions for each file type, but they can sometimes fail as they are very sensitive to errors and sync issues). This helps when the standard profile is failing or causing audio issues during the commercial removal stage. While this cutter can leave some artifacts where the video is cut, however it works on ALL file types and will work successfully without any audio sync issues.

The other advantage of UniversalCommercialRemover=true is that it support files with multiple audio tracks and preserves them where as other mechanisms may or may not support depending up the file type.

(v2.3.12+) Setting UniversalCommercialRemover=true will force all commercials to be cut post conversion, unless PreConversionCommercialRemover=true is set. This can be used an option if commercial removal are failing or if a new file format is being used which is not natively supported by MCEBuddy.

PreConversionCommercialRemover=true (v2.3.12+)

When is parameter is set it tells MCEBuddy to use the Universal Commercial Remover to remove the commercials before the conversion (rather than the usual case of removing commercials after conversion). This helps when the conversion is failing during the commercial removal stage. While this cutter can leave some artifacts where the video is cut, however it works on ALL file types and will work successfully without any audio sync issues. This option is independent of UniversalCommercialRemover. If the preconversion commercial removal fails, it will automatically fall back to the post conversion commercial remover.

CutMP4Alternate=true (v2.1.4+)

When is parameter is set it tells MCEBuddy to use an alternative mechanism for remove commercials from MP4 and M4V files after the conversion is complete. By default MCEBuddy uses MP4Box to remove commercials during the last step, if this parameter is set it will use MEncoder to remove commercials. This helps sometime when the Audio Goes out of sync with the video after using Comskip/ShowAnalyzer but is in sync without Comskip. NOTE: This parameter is only effective when using using FFMPEG or Handbrake encoders. When using mEncdoder as the encoder, this parameter has NO effect as the commercial will always be stripped during the conversion itself (unlike FFMPEG and Handbrake, who's commercials are stripped out AFTER the conversion is complete).

CommercialSkipCut=true (v2.1.4+)

If this parameter is set, it tells MCEBuddy to do the Commercial Scan but NOT to cut the commercials. Instead it will copy the generated EDL file to the output directory along with the converted file.
Comskip generates 2 types of files, EDL and EDLP. Use the ForceEDL and ForceEDLP command to specify which file to use. See above for more details.
NOTE: When this parameter is set, the Closed Caption/SRT files generated will NOT be trimmed to match the EDL file.

Running Custom Commands (v2.1.8+)

MCEBuddy can provide the user with an option to run a single command at the end of the conversion process just before the file is renamed and moved to the destination directory.
To do so ALL the following 4 parameters need to be defined for the profile for which a custom command needs to be run.

CustomCommandPath=<Full Path of the executable>

CustomCommandParameters=<Optional parameters to be passed - see below for list>

CustomCommandHangPeriod=<0 or +ve number>

CustomCommandCritical=<true or false>

In the CustomCommandParameters you can use the parameter:

%convertedfile% - will be replaced with the full name and path of converted file as part of the parameters passed to the custom program.
%sourcefile% - will be replaced with the name and path of the original source video.
%remuxfile% - will be replaced with the name and path of the intermediary .TS file generated in the temp working directory if the source video is a WTV or DVR-MS file. Please note this will be blank if the source video is not a WTV or DVR-MS file. The following data is extracted from the Source Video metadata when available
%srtfile% - Full path to SRT file, if it exists, otherwise blank (v2.3.12+)
%edlfile% - Full path to EDL file, if it exists, otherwise blank (v2.3.12+)
%taskname% - Name of the task being used (v2.3.13+)
%profile% - Name of profile being used (v2.3.13+)
%workingpath% - Full path to the temp folder where the converted file is kept (v2.3.12+)
%originalfilepath% - Full path of the source file
%originalfilename% - Name of the source file (without the path or extension)
%showname% - Title of the show
%episodename% - Subtitle of the show
%episodedescription% - Description of the show
%season%## - Season no
%episode%## - Episode no
%bannerfile% - Full path to downloaded banner file
%bannerurl% - URL to banner file
%imdbmovieid% - IMDB.com Movie Id
%movieid% - MovieDB.com Movie Id
%seriesid% - TVDB.com Series Id
%genre% - Genre
%ismovie% - True or False if the video is a movie
%airyear% - Year of air date
%airmonth% - Month of air date
%airmonthshort% - Month of air date abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%airmonthlong% - Month of air date full name (v2.3.11+)
%airday% - Day of air date (v2.3.6+)
%airdayshort% - Day of air date abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%airdaylong% - Day of air date full name (v2.3.11+)
%airhour% - Hour of air date (v2.3.6+)
%airhourampm% - Hour of air date in AM/PM (v2.3.12+)
%airminute% - Minute of air date (v2.3.6+)
%recordyear% - Year of record date
%recordmonth% - Month of record date
%recordmonthshort% - Month of record date abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%recordmonthlong% - Month of record date full name (v2.3.11+)
%recordday% - Day of record date (v2.3.11+)
%recorddayshort% - Day of week from record date abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%recorddaylong% - Day of week from record date full name (v2.3.11+)
%recordhour% - Hour of record date (v2.3.12+)
%recordhourampm% - Hour of record date in AM/PM (v2.3.12+)
%recordminute% - Minute of record date
%network% - Network channel on the show was recorded

CustomCommandParameters is CASE SENSITIVE.

e.g. CustomCommandPath = C:\Test 1\test.exe

e.g. CustomCommandParameters = /i "%convertedfile%" /o "%sourcefile%" -t

In the above exampled, %convertedfile% will be replaced by the full path and filename of the converted file. The %sourcefile% will be replaced with the full path and name of the original source video.

(v2.1.4 - v2.3.12) MCEBuddy encloses the parameters in DOUBLE QUOTES.

(v2.3.12+) MCEBuddy does NOT enclose the parameters in DOUBLE QUOTES. Some applications required the parameters to be in DOUBLE QUOTES, so YOU need to ADD the DOUBLE QUOTES around the parameters in the CustomCommandParameters as shown in the example above.

The number of #'s at the end for Episode and Season indicates the number of digits in the written number. E.g. %season%## will give the output at 01 while %season%### will give the output at 001. #'s are optional, leaving them out will write the number without any formatting. i.e. %season% will give 1 as the output.

NOTE: While running a custom command, the output is redirected to the log file with a debug log status.

CustomCommandHangPeriod represents the number of SECONDS MCEBuddy will wait during which if no output is detected and logged to the log file and it determines the process to be hung and kills it. Set it to 0 to DISABLE hang detection. Please note that if hang detection is disabled, MCEBuddy will wait endlessly for the process to finish before proceeding (or the task is deleted/stopped).

CustomCommandCritical, when this is set to true, MCEBuddy will fail the entire conversion if the custom command is invalid or if the process is terminated (due to hang detection). If it is set to false then MCEBuddy will continue with the conversion processing irrespective of the custom command failure/success UNLESS the converted file has been renamed or deleted. By default the value is false.

NOTE: MCEBuddy will fail the conversion process if the custom command deletes or renames the converted file (%convertedfile%). Also note, Custom Command will fail if it cannot find the file specified (avoid using executables files on network drives since MCEBuddy uses the Windows Service account to access network drives and sometimes these are not mapped correctly due to credential issues)

Updated Wiki: MCEBuddy Common Issues

rboy1 — Sat, 18 May 2013 15:35:52 GMT

I've setup MCEBuddy to monitor folders but it won't add files/not all files show up in the queue

Cause

The monitor path is invalid/incorrect
The file search pattern for the Monitoring folder does not match the files in the directory
The filters on the Conversion Task Settings page don't match the file metadata
The files are marked readonly or are locked by another process. MCEbuddy needs exclusive access to convert files.

Resolution

Check the monitor location directory configured in the monitor locations tasks
Check the file search pattern (e.g. *.wtv) for the monitoring location task. It may not be setup to accept all video/video files types in the directory being monitored.
Remove the readonly option on the files, right click on the file and select properties. Uncheckthe ReadOnly box.
If the file is locked by another process, you'll have to find out which process and then close the process/release the file.

Check the Filename, Showname and Network name Filters on the Conversion Task Settings page

Refer to the MCEBuddy Advanced Commands page for more details on filename and showname pattern matching.

I'm adding files to MCEBuddy but it won't show up in the queue

Cause

The files are marked readonly or are locked by another process. MCEbuddy needs exclusive access to convert files.

The filters in the Conversion Task Settings do not match the Metadata on the file

Resolution

Remove the readonly option on the files, right click on the file and select properties. Uncheckthe ReadOnly box. If the file is locked by another process, you'll have to find out which process and then close the process/release the file.

Check the Filename, Showname and Network name filters in the Conversion Task Settings page. If the filters don't match the metadata on the file, the files will not be added to the queue.

I keep getting MCEBuddy Service is unavailable. Please start from windows control panel or check engine connection.

Cause

Either the service has not been started

OR there is a conflict with another port

OR ShowAnalyzer is causing MCEBuddy to hang

Resolution

Check that the service has been started. Click Start -> Control Panel -> Windows Services -> Select MCEBuddy 2.x -> Right click and click Start

If there is a conflict with another port, MCEBuddy will fail to start, check the Windows Event logs for more information and see the Installation Issues for more details.

If you have ShowAnalyzer installed; there's a bug in ShowAnalyzer which causes it to hang. The MCEBuddy User Application makes a call to check the status of ShowAnalyzer which causes it to hang and it presents itself as not able to connect to service issue.

Uninstallation, rebooting the computer and reinstalling Showanalyzer usually solves the problem. If it persists, try to uninstall ShowAnalyzer and use Comskip instead.

I am unable to access files created by MCEBuddy from a remote computer on my shared drive

Cause

Permissions or owner are set incorrectly on the parent folder which causes the files created by MCEBuddy to inherit permission that don't match the shared folder permissions.

Resolution

Ensure that the destination folder and the files are inheriting the permissions from the parent folder and the parent folder has the permissions you need for others to view the files (e.g. Read/Write/Modify for Guests or any other user). Also ensure that owner for the parent folder is set to you.

I am unable to play back WTV files created by MCEBuddy in Windows Media Play or Media Center

Cause

The correct filters are not setup to decode MPEG2 video in a WTV file.

Resolution

Open FFDShow Video Configuration from the Start Menu -> ffdshow (assuming you let MCEBuddy install FFDShow, if not install it).

Under MPEG-2 and MPEG2 in AVI, set the codec to libavcodec.

Reboot the computer.

MCEBuddy sometimes creates video with no audio

Cause: Some recording have multiple audio tracks, sometimes these audio tracks are earing/visual impaired tracks and often they do no contain any audio. MCEBuddy by default chooses the first audio track, so if the first audio track is an impaired audio track there will be no audio in the converted file.

Resolution: When the file is added to the queue, right click on the file and select MediaInfo. This will show all the available audio tracks in the file. If the file contains impaired audio tracks then note the language of the audio track which NOT impaired. Open Settings -> Change Conversion Task Settings -> Advanced Settings -> Audio Language. Select the audio language of the non-impaired audio track as determined from MediaInfo earlier. Do not worry if more than one audio tracks (impaired and non-impaired) have the same language. MCEBuddy will choose the non-impaired audio track when an Audio Language has been selected.

How do I prevent MCEBuddy from reconverting my videos

There are multiple options to prevent MCEBuddy from reconverting video files:

If you're upgrading from a version before 2.1.7 please save the history file manually (C:\Program Files\MCEBuddy2x\config\history) and restore it after upgrading. (2.1.7 and above save the history file during uninstallation and restore it on installation)
If you're using 2.1.5 or greater you can use this option to manually add the files not to be converted to the history file in the following manner. In Windows Explorer select all the files you want to add to the history file. Drag and Drop them into MCEBuddy window (MCEBuddy should be started and it should start converting them). Now select all the files in the conversion queue (Click on the 1st file and press Shift + End) and then click Delete. It will stop converting all the files and add them to the History file and they will not be reconverted unless you add them manually.
Create a folder called MCEBuddyArchive. Put all files you don't want converted into this folder, MCEBuddy will not convert any files inside this folder. Please note, when the Archive Files option is selected in the advanced settings page, MCEBuddy does this automatically.
Open the Conversion Task you're created. In the Advanced Settings is a File Name Match (read the documentation MCEBuddy Advanced Commands). You can specify a negative filter (with ~) to specify which files NOT to convert OR a regular filter to specify which files to convert.
If you're using the Monitor Locations option to automatically convert videos by monitoring a folder for new videos AND the Monitor Folder and Destination Folder are the same, change the Monitor Location Search Pattern. E.g. all source videos are WTV files, all destination videos are MP4. Open the Monitor Location task and set the Search Pattern to *.wtv, so now MCEBuddy will only pick up WTV files to convert. Or you can use a -ve filter again like [videos];~*.mp4 or *.*;~*.mp4 to convert all files except .mp4 (the [videos] or *.* is important to specify since there must be atleast one +ve filter to select files)

My audio is out of sync with my video

Cause

There are many reasons for the Audio to be out of sync with Video. It can vary from corrupted frames to country format differences.

Resolution

There are many things can do to resync the Audio with the Video.

If you're using a FFMPEG profile, trying setting the -ss parameter to -ss 30 to see if that solves the problem.
Try setting the <encoder>-audiodelay=skip for the profile you're using.
If point 2 does not work, then you can use the same parameter and replace skip with a +ve or a -ve number. This will advance or retard the audio by that many seconds. This can help bring the Audio back into sync with the Video through trial and error. Make sure you replace <encoder> with the profile encoder you're using. e.g. ffmpeg-audiodelay=1.25
If you're using MEncoder in your profile and your audio is going out of sync ONLY when commercial removal is enabled then try to use the mencoderedlskip=true option to use the MP4Box fallback method to strip out commercials. (again this will only help if commercials removal is causing the desync in audio while using MEncoder).
If you're using FFMPEG or Handbrake and .mp4 or .m4v outputs then try playing with CutMP4Alternative=true
Try setting UniversalCommercialRemover=true if the above doesn't work.

Refer to the MCEBuddy Advanced Commands for more details on the above.

The video I'm converting succeeds but has garbled video and audio

Cause

The video is copy protected.

Resolution

Record a non-copy protected video. There is no way to convert copy protected videos. To check for Copy Protection, right click on the video -> click properties. Check the Video properties page and look for the copy protection field.

When I use the MKV profile, I am unable to play it back with Windows Media Player

Cause

There is no MKV Media Splitter for Windows Media Player

Resolution

Download and install a MKV Media Splitter, e.g. Haali Media Splitter

When I use the NoRecode profile, I am unable to play it back with Windows Media Player

Cause

Windows does not have a MPEG-2 video splitter installed

Resolution

Download and install a MPEG-2 video splitter. e.g. FFDSHOW

My video is stuttering/broken after conversion

Cause

Source video is corrupted or broken
Check the log files, if the average rate of dropped and/or duplicate frames are high, MCEBuddy is unable to detect the correct video frame rate which leads to stuttering video.

Resolution

For corrupted original video, check the quality of the recording signal. A low quality signal can lead to corrupted recordings.

For incorrect frame rate issues, open mcebuddy.conf. Under the section [FFMpegBackupRemux], replace auto in -r auto with the correct frame rate of the video. (this can be done via trial and error or with the help of 3rd party software)

e.g. -r 25
e.g. -r 30*1000/1001

Refer to MCEBuddy Advanced Commands for more details.

My original video has 6 channel/multichannel audio but my converted file only has stereo/2 channel audio

Cause

MCEBuddy by default limits all the output audio to 2 channel audio (stereo) to preserve compatibility with many 3rd party players and Windows Media Player (which doesn't support multichannel audio)

Resolution

In MCEBuddy, in the Conversion Tasks page, under Advanced Settings, enable Multichannel Audio. This will tell MCEBuddy to output multichannel audio if the source video has multichannel audio.

System does not wake up from standby/suspend even though I've enabled the Wake option in the settings page

OR

System goes to sleep even if I have UN-Checked Allow Sleep in the Settings page

Cause

Windows (Vista and 7) sometimes by default sets the Operating System to disable Wake Up timers. this is especially true for portable systems and laptops. When the System Wakeup timers are disabled no application can wake up the system from standy/suspend mode. Also sometime computer BIOS have disabled wake timers and wake support.

Resolution

Make sure Allow Wake from USB (or equivalent power wake options) are enabled in the BIOS.

Make sure Wake Timers are enabled in the system. Follow the steps below to enable Wake Timers.
1. Open the Control Panel (start -> Control Panel)
2. Look for Power Options and open it
3. For the active plan (the plan with the dot next to it), click on Change Plan Settings
4. Click on Change Advanced Power Settings
5. Click on the + next to the Sleep option
6. Click on the + next to Allow Wake Timers
7. Set the option to Enable for On Battery and Plugged In
8. Click OK

MCEBuddy does not start and stop at the time entered in the Settings page

Cause

The wake and start time are accidentally set in a 12 hour mode

Resolution

Set the start and stop time in a 24 hour mode. i.e. 01:30 PM should be set as 13:30

All my conversions keeps failing OR files are immediately removed from the queue after starting the conversion OR random files keep failing at random points OR my conversion never finishes (it just hangs)

Cause

MCEBuddy is running out of diskspace and the conversions fail in between at random points when it runs out of disk space. This is aggrevated when multiple conversions are being used.
Antivirus software is interfering with the conversion

Resolution

a) Sometimes Antivirus software such as AVAST are known to interfere with MCEBuddy. These software lock down the file when it is accessed by MCEBuddy and this causes the conversion not to start, hang or randomly fail. Try to disable the Antivirus and see if that solves the problem.

b) MCEBuddy needs 3 TIMES the size of the file being converted as free space on the INSTALLATION DRIVE. i.e. If MCEBuddy is installed on C drive and you're converting a 4GB file then you need 12GB of free space on C drive.

NOTE: MCEBuddy needs 1.5X free space for EACH file being converted simultaneously. i.e. if you have 3 simultaneous conversions and each file is 4GB in size, you need 1.5x3x4 = 18GB of free space on the installation directory!

If you do not have enough space in the installation drive, you have 2 options
1. Reduce the number of simultaneous conversions
2. Set the temp directory to point to a different drive where there is more space. Refer to MCEBuddy Advanced Commands for more details.

I pressed Start, I can see the files in the queue but Conversion task is showing Idle or Paused

Cause

The Start/Stop conversion time scheduler has been set on the settings page and the current time is not within the specified conversion period

The Pause button has been pressed

Resolution

There are the following options:
1. Wait for the conversion time period specified in the settings page and MCEBuddy will start automatically
2. Click settings and change/disable the Start/Stop time period in the settings page
3. Click on the Resume button on the GUI page

I'm not able to use a network path for Monitor Path or Destination Path. It gives an error or nothing happens

Cause

Network path is password protected
Network path is already mapped by Windows
Network path is offline

Resolution

a) Make sure you enter the username and password in the MCEBuddy Credential box next to the Monitor Path or Destination Path text box by clicking on the button.

b) Check if the path has already been mapped by Windows, this can create a conflict.
To check the mappings, open a command prompt (Start -> Run -> cmd). Type net use and it should show you the mapped drives. You'll have to disconnect the necessary paths (net /delete <pathname>).
Alternatively, map your path to a drive in window (explorer -> tools -> map network drive) and then don't enter any username and password in mcebuddy instead use the mapped drive.

c) Make sure the network drive is connected and accessible.

Windows is VERY FINICKY. You cannot MAP the same COMPUTER 2 times with different logins.

If you've connected to the remote computer using Windows Explorer or the Run command, then you've already logged in with one set of credentials. If MCEBuddy now tries to connect with the configured credentials it will FAIL since Windows will reject it.

1. Either use your own credentials and MAP the remote computer folder using Windows explorer and DO NOT enter any credentials in the Monitor Task or Conversion task pages for that remote computer. In this case MCEBuddy will use the Windows Explorer credentials.

OR

2. Enter the credentials in the MCEBuddy Monitor Task and Conversion Task page and let MCEBuddy connect to the remote computer.

Remember you CANNOT DO BOTH of the above, otherwise MCEBuddy will not be able to access the remote computer.

When I extract Closed Captions (CC) as SubTitles, the subtitles are out of sync from the start by a few seconds

Cause

By default all conversion profiles have a -ss 3 in the video conversion parameters. While this is necessary for a smooth conversion, the -ss 3 causes the conversion to skip the first 3 seconds of the video. This causes the subtitles generated to be out of sync by 3 seconds from the video

Resolution

In the Conversion Task settings page, next to the checkbox labled Extract CC, in the box labled Offset, enter -3. This will cause MCEBuddy to timeshift all the Subtitles back by 3 seconds which will compensate for the -ss 3 shift caused by the profile settings.

How do I use my custom EDL and Closed Caption/Subtitles files while converting the videos

Resolution

Place the .EDL and/or .SRT files along with the source video. MCEBuddy will automatically pick up these files (make sure Remove Ads is set to Comskip or Showanalyzer and/or Extract CC is enabled in the Conversion Task - MCEBuddy will use the custom EDL/SRT files before generating new ones). Also make sure they have the same name as the source video.

e.g. Source video -> MySerial.wtv
EDL File -> MySerial.edl
SRT File -> MySerial.srt

Refer to the MCEBuddy Advanced Commands for more details on Custom EDL/SRT Files.

I'm trying to convert my video but after a few minutes the converted file has no audio

Cause

TV shows sometimes change the audio formats between shows/advertisements which causes FFMPEG, Mencoder to fail.

Resolution

Calculate (in seconds) the amount of time the previous show/advertisements are recorded before the start of the main show, add a few seconds to it for safety and put that value in the Start Trim box under Conversion Tasks -> Advanced Settings.

E.g. There is 2 minutes and 30 seconds of video before the main show starts, put 155 in the Start Trim box.

Similarly calcuate the number of seconds after the show ends of video that is recorded (next show/advertisements) and put that value in the End Trim box.

This will make MCEBuddy trim the start and end of the video and leave just the show for conversions which should solve the problem of changing audio formats.

Updated Wiki: MCEBuddy Advanced Commands

rboy1 — Sat, 18 May 2013 14:18:43 GMT

Advanced concepts to use MCEBuddy

MCEBuddy GUI Startup Options

MCEBuddy support the following options while starting the GUI (MCEBuddy.GUI.exe). Include these parameters by right clicking on the application short cut in the Start Menu and add them to the target path.

/startmin - Start the GUI minimized
/startengine - Force the engine to start (after connection with engine is established)

e.g. "C:\Program Files\MCEBuddy2x\MCEBuddy.GUI.exe" /startmin /startengine

Note: The parameters will come after the double quotes close and a space between each parameter

Tuning Comskip Commercial Detection

Comskip can be fine tuned to better detect and cut commercials for each country/region. There is a file names comskip.ini in the comskip directory in the MCEBuddy installation directory (by default C:\Program Files\MCEBuddy2x). The details of the tuning parameters can be found at: http://www.kaashoek.com/files/tuning.htm

If the video appears to get cut for about 3 seconds after the commerical ends (i.e. the commercial skipping cuts 3 seconds into the actual video post the end of the commerical), this could be because of the -ss settings in the <encoder>-video section of the profile. the -ss 3 command is required to get rid of corrupted video at the beginning to avoid audio sync issues. Remove the -ss 3 from the video parameters to fix this issue. Refer to the Audio Sync Issues section at the end of this document for details on the -ss command.

Multiple Audio Tracks in Converted File (v2.3.12+)

This only works with FFMPEG based profiles and if the source file has multiple audio tracks. Handbrake and MEncoder do not support converting/copying multiple audio tracks.

Select <Default> as the Audio Language in the conversion options AND add -map 0:a -map 0:v to the ffmpeg-video section for the FFMPEG profile and it will copy/convert all audio tracks.

Show Analyzer (v2.1.2+)

MCEBuddy supports ShowAnalyzer version 1.0 and greater. Once you download and install ShowAnalyzer it will show up as an option on the conversion profile settings page under commerical detection.

Filename and Showname Pattern Matching (v2.2.3+)

MCEBuddy supports multiple wildcard name matching to match shownames and filenames using the ; operator. E.g. once can specify *.wtv;*.avi*.mpg as the name selection criteria or ncis*;house*.mpg to match all names that start with ncis and house (ending with a .mpg).

If you want to specify a name avoid list, i.e. select all/abc files EXCEPT xyz, then prefix the name selection criteria with a ~ operator. E.g. ncis*;~ncis miami* will select all files that start with ncis but NOT those starting with ncis miami. E.g. *.*;~*.mp4;~*.avi will select all files except those starting with .mp4 and .avi

Name matching is case insensitive.

To select all default video types use the expression [video] which will match the following expression *.dvr-ms;*.wtv;*.asf;*.avi;*.divx;*.dv;*.flv;*.gxf;*.m1v;*.m2v;*.m2ts;*.m4v;*.mkv;*.mov;*.mp2;*.mp4;*.mpeg;*.mpeg1;*.mpeg2;*.mpeg4;*.mpg;*.mts;*.mxf;*.ogm;*.ts;*.vob;*.wmv;*.tp

For advanced users MCEBuddy also supports REGEX expressions. To provide a regex expression prefix the regex matching pattern with regex: and then the regex pattern (this is a very advanced concept).

Multiple Conversion Tasks Customized by ShowName or FileName (v2.2.3+)

Refer to Filename and Showname Pattern Matching above to understand how to create patterns for filename and shownames.

You can create multiple conversions tasks in MCEBuddy. Each conversion task will process each file in the queue. Order of conversions tasks do not matter when creating filename and showname filters. If you want to create custom conversion tasks for different files/shows you can do so with the help of the Filename or Showname pattern matching filters in the Conversion Tasks Settings page, under Advanced Settings.

For e.g. if you want to create 3 tasks, one that processes all NCIS files, one that processes all Star Trek files and one that processes all other files (i.e. default). To do so you will first create 3 conversion tasks.

In the first conversion task, where you want to process NCIS, under Filename or Showname filters (depending on what you want to filter based on, the name of the file or the name of the show taken from the metadata), you will enter NCIS* . This tell the conversion task to process only those files starting with NCIS.

In the second conversion task, where you want to process Star Trek files, under the Filename orShowname filter you will enter Star Trek* .

In the third conversion task, you want to process ALL other files (ie default), then you will enter the following *;~NCIS*;~Star Trek* . The first * tells the conversion task to process ALL files, the~NCIS* tells the task NOT to process files starting with NCIS and ~Star Trek* tells the task NOT to process files starting with Star Trek, i.e. process all files except those which are being processed by the first two tasks.

Custom File Renaming Pattern (v2.1.6+)

MCEBuddy allows you to create your own custom file name and directory structure using the metadata stored in the file and downloaded from the internet.

The following commands are currently supported by MCEBuddy

%originalfilename% - Name of the source file (without the path or extension)
%showname% - Showname / Title
%episodename% - Episode Name / Subtitle
%season%## - Season No
%episode%## - Episode No
%network% - Network channel on the show was recorded (v2.1.10+)
%airyear% - Original Air Year
%airmonth% - Original Air Month
%airmonthshort% - Original Air Month Name Abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%airmonthlong% - Original Air Month Full Name (v2.3.11+)
%airday% - Original Air Day
%airdayshort% - Original Air Day of Week Abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%airdaylong% - Original Air Day of Week Full Name (v2.3.11+)
%airhour% - Hour of air date (v2.3.6+)
%airhourampm% - Air date hour in AM/PM (v2.3.12+)
%airminute% - Minute of air date (v2.3.6+)
%recordyear% - Record Year
%recordmonth% - Record Month
%recordmonthshort% - Record Month Name Abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%recordmonthlong% - Record Month Full Name (v2.3.11+)
%recordday% - Record Day
%recorddayshort% - Record Day of Week Abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%recorddaylong% - Record Day of Week Full Name (v2.3.11+)
%recordhour% - Record Hour (v2.1.10+)
%recordhourampm% - Record Hour in AM/PM (v2.1.12+)
%recordminute% - Record Minute (v2.1.10+)
%ismovie%<RenamePatternIfTrue,RenamePatternIfFalse> - If recording is a movie rename using True pattern, else rename using False pattern (v2.3.12+)
\ - Directory Separator

E.g.: TVShows\%showname%\Season %season%\%showname% - S%season%##E%episode%## - %episodename% - %airyear%_%airmonth%_%airday%

Will produce: TVShows\CSI\Season 1\CSI - S01E02 - Best of times - 2012_01_06.<ext>

E.g.: Recording\%ismovie%<Movie\%showname%,TVShows\%showname%\Season %season%\%showname% - S%season%##E%episode%##>-Converted

Will produce:

Recording\Movies\Star Wars-Converted.<ext> (for a movie) OR

Recording\TVShows\CSI\Season 1\CSI - S01E02-Converted.<ext> (for non movies)

The extension is added automatically depending upon the profile specifications.

The number of #'s at the end for Episode and Season indicates the number of digits in the written number. E.g. %season%## will give the output at 01 while %season%### will give the output at 001. #'s are optional, leaving them out will write the number without any formatting. i.e. %season% will give 1 as the output.

Audio Sync/Missing Issues

Sometimes the audio and video go out of sync due to corruption at the start of the video. To solve this problem add the parameter -ss 10 at the BEGINNING of the <encoder>-video parameter in the profile. DO NOT put this parameter in the general parameters section. (do not forget the - before the ss and make sure there is a space between ss and 10)

E.g. ffmpeg-video=-ss 10

This indicates that ffmpeg will skip the first 10 seconds of the video/audio after decoding it (if you put this in the general parameters section then the encoder will skip over first 10 which DOES NOT solve the problem, the video/audio need to be first decoded and then discarded to be put back in sync).

You can play with the number to find the right mix, it can be as low as 3 or as high as 30 depending upon the corruption. You'll be surprised how many videos are corrupted at the start and FFMPEG is very sensitive to corruption as far as audio sync goes. You often cannot see the corruption while play the video (it will look okay), these are at the frame level and often ignored by players.

Also try to play with the AudioDelay parameter (given above). Set to skip to see if that resolves the issue. If the Audio sync is still off, try setting the AudioDelay number to +ve or -ve to advance or retard the audio sync and see how it behaves. It is a trial and error process.

If you're using FFMPEG or Handbrake as the encoder with your profile AND your output extension is .MP4 or .M4V AND your audio is going out of sync ONLY when you remove commercials (i.e. the Audio is in sync without commercials removal), try to use an alternative commerical stripping by using the command CutMP4Alternative=true in your profile.

If that doesn't work try using UniversalCommercialRemover=true in your profile. See above for more details.

Sometimes the Audio gets cut out completely in between a video. Try using PreConversionCommercialRemover=true in your profile. See above for more details.

Using Custom XML Files (v2.3.12+)

MCEBuddy looks for a XML file along with the original source video (with the same source video filename). It uses this file to extract Metadata information for non WTV/DVRMS files.

Also, it MCEBuddy find a XML file created during the conversion process (e.g. from Comskip), it will copy the XML file to to the destination directory along with the converted file.

Using Custom EDL Files (v2.3.12+)

MCEBuddy looks for a EDL file along with the original source video (with the same source video filename). If it finds the EDL file with the source video it copies the EDL file to the output directory along with the converted file.

MCEBuddy gives preference to the Custom EDL file over Comskip/ShowAnalyzer generated EDL files.

Using Custom SRT Files (v2.1.8+)

MCEBuddy looks for a SRT file along with the original source video OR in the temp working directory (with the same source video filename). If it finds the SRT file in either place it copies the SRT file to the output directory along with the converted video (with preference given to a SRT file in the temp working directory).

If ExtractCC is enabled in the Conversion Task -> Advanced Settings it will trim the Custom SRT file to be in sync with the EDL file (commercial removal). MCEBuddy gives preference to the Custom SRT files over the CC generated SRT file.

Comskip can be set to generate SRT files (output_srt=1) or CCExtractor can be used using from Custom Commands (if the ExtractCC from the GUI fails to work) to generate SRT files during the conversion process. Once generated, MCEBuddy will copy them to the output directory along with the converted file.

MultiThreading Support (v2.1.2+)

MCEBuddy by default calculates how many threads are required for the programs to run optimally. However this can be overridden manually by specifying the threads in the general parameters in the profiles file for each profile and encoder type.

Advanced parameters to configure MCEBuddy

(apply to mcebuddy.conf)

HOW TO MAKE CHANGES TO MCEBUDDY.CONF

DO NOT REPLACE the file mcebuddy.conf directly with an old version, it will break MCEBuddy. Open, edit and save it. The old version is preserved for your reference only.

Custom eMail Notification Subject Lines (v2.3.13+)

The following parameters can be edited to create custom subject lines for eMail notifications for events. If there is nothing specified then MCEBuddy will use the default subject lines.

eMailSuccessSubject=<Custom subject line for a successful conversion>

eMailFailedSubject=<Custom Subject Line for a failed conversion>

eMailCancelledSubject=<Custom Subject Line for a cancelled conversion>

eMailStartSubject=<Custom Subject Line on the start of a conversion>

eMailDownloadFailedSubject=<Custom Subject Line when downloading series information fails>

Each custom subject line can contain User Custom Commands that will be replaced by MCEBuddy at runtime. Refer to the Running Custom Commands for a liist of custom commands that can be used in the subject line.

e.g. eMailSuccessSubject=Show %showname% for file %originalfilename% conversion successful using task %taskname%

NOTE: Not always will all the data be available in the custom commands, for e.g. when download information has failed or on a start event the video metadata like episode name and converted file name may not be available.

CustomComskipPath=xyz (v2.1.12+)

This parameter can be set if you want a use a custom version of Comskip, e.g. a Donator version or special/old version, that is lying in a different directory than the one that ships with MCEBuddy.

e.g. CustomComskipPath=D:\Donator MCEBuddy\comskip.exe

NOTE: The path must be to the executable comskip AND the directory should contain ALL the files necessary for Comskip to run (comskip.ini, comskip.dictionary etc). When using this parameter the default comskip.ini that ships with MCEBuddy is NOT used rather it expects the comskip.ini to be present in the same directory as the custom comskip.exe.

If a special comskip.ini has been specified in the Conversion Task advanced settings page then that special comskip.ini that WILL be used rather than the one lying in the custom comskip.exe directory.

IgnoreCopyProtection=false (v2.1.12+)

By default, this value is false. If this is set to true, then MCEBuddy will ignore the Copy Protection flag on the recording if it encounters it during conversion. It will only record an error in the conversion log and continue the conversion. If the recording is really copy protected then the final video will be look garbled. This flag can help because sometimes videos are incorrectly flagged by recording software/tuners. When this is set to false, if MCEBuddy encounters an Copy Protection flag it will stop the conversion after logging an error.

UseRecycleBin=false (v2.1.12+)

By default, this value is false. If this is set to true, then MCEBuddy will use the Recycle Bin when deleting the original video recording and related files (like EDL, XML etc).

DownloadBanner=true (v2.1.12+)

By default, this value is true. If this is set to false, then MCEBuddy will not download the Banner file (artwork) for the movie or tv series. This can be used when you want to download the series information (check Download Series Details from the Conversion Task page) but not download the artwork / banner file.

CPUAffinity=<binary mask integer> (v2.1.12+)

This parameter can be set to set the CPU affinity mask. This limits MCEBuddy to 1 or more processors only as specified in the bitmask. While this number is written as an integer, the integer represent a binary mask with each bit representing a processor. HINT: Convert the integer to a binary representation, each bit in the binary number presents a CPU processor.

E.g.:

CPUAffinity=1 will select the 1st CPU processor

CPUAffinity=2 will select the 2nd CPU processor

CPUAffinity=3 will select the 1st and 2nd CPU processor

CPUAffinity=4 will select the 3rd CPU processor

CPUAffinity=5 will select the 1st and 3rd CPU processor

CPUAffinity=6 will select the 2nd and 3rd CPU processor

CPUAffinity=7 will select the 1st, 2nd and 3rd CPU processor

TempWorkingPath=xyz (v2.1.2+)

This parameter is used to manually specific the temp working directory for MCEBuddy, i.e. xyz. By default MCEBuddy uses a directory called working within the MCEBuddy installation directory (e.g. C:\Program Files\MCEBuddy2x\working) (it will make multiple directories if using multiple simultaneous conversions with a number at the end for each parallel conversion, e.g. working0, working1 etc). This has to be a complete working path with rights to be able to create, modify and delete files/directories else the conversion might fail. This parameter should come under the section [Engine] in the conf file.

E.g. TempWorkingPath=D:\Temp\MCEBuddy

PollPeriod=xxx (v2.1.2+)

This parameter specifies how often MCEBuddy should check the Monitor Locations for new files. xxx is defined in number of seconds. This parameter should come under the section [Engine] in the conf file.

E.g. PollPeriod=150

NOTE: By default MCEBuddy uses 300 seconds as the interval to check for new files.

LocalServerPort=xxx (v2.2.16+)

This parameter specifies the TCP/IP port of the installed MCEBuddy server engine on the local machine. MCEBuddy registers this port with the any UPnP enabled routers on the network by default to enable remote connections from outside the network (NAT). This is the MCEBuddy GUI application should connect to for the local machine. The default port used by MCEBuddy is 23332. This parameter should come under the section [Engine] in the conf file.

E.g. ServerPort=23332

SubtitleSegmentOffset=x.x (v2.3.12+)

This parameter is used when the subtitles go progressively out of sync after commercials are removed from the video. This happens because when a video is cut, the video is aligned with the next GOP and I Frame sequence which can be a few seconds away from the actual cutting point. Hence each time the video is cut the subtitles get progressively out of sync with the video. This setting is used to bring the subtitles back into sync with the video. Each time the video commercial is cut out, the subtitles are time shifted by this amount (+ve or -ve in seconds), hence bringing the subtitles back into sync with the video segments.

E.g. SubtitleSegmentOffset=5.4

HangPeriod=xxx (v2.2.4+)

This parameter specifies how long MCEBuddy will wait for a console output from the application (e.g. handbrake or ffmpeg etc) before it determines that the application has hung and terminates it. xxx is defined in number of seconds. This parameter should come under the section [Engine] in the conf file. Use 0 to disable hang detection (i.e. MCEBuddy will wait forever for the process to exist normally).

E.g. HangPeriod=500

NOTE: By default MCEBuddy uses 300 seconds as the interval to determine a hung application

FFMpegBackupRemux (v2.1.12+)

This is a special section in the configuration file that stores the command parameters for the ReMux operations which are carried out using FFMPEG if the main ReMuxSupp application fails/not used to remux the video. First the CopyRemux is used, if that fails then the SlowRemux is used. CopyRemux is used first for MPEG2 video files to stream copy the video without recoding the video. If the original video is not MPEG2 or CopyRemux fails then SlowRemux parameters are used to remux the video. THESE SHOULD NOT BE CHANGED UNLESS THE BACKUP REMUX IS COMPLETELY FAILING. Each of these entries will have a number after them like CopyRemux0, CopyRemux1, SlowRemux0, SlowRemux1 etc. These numbers indicate successive remux parameters to be tried if the previous one fails, i.e. if SlowRemux0 fails then MCEBuddy will look for SlowRemux1 and if that fails then it looks for SlowRemux2 etc.

You can also specify -i <source> in the remux parameters as a placeholder for the input filename which MCEBuddy will replace at runtime. This can be useful if you want to specify parameters before the input file in the FFMPEG parameter command.

E.g. CopyRemux0 = -fflags +genpts -i <source> -map 0:a -map 0:v -vcodec copy -acodec copy

MCEBuddy automatically detects the frame rate of the video through the use of -r auto in the FFMPEG Remux parameters in CopyRemux and SlowRemux. This can be disabled by removing -r auto. It can also be overridden by manually specifying the frame rate to use (which can be useful if the average rate of dropped and/or duplicate frames is very high leading to stuttering videos).

E.g. -r auto
E.g. -r 25
E.g. -r 30*1000/1001

MCEBuddy monitors the Average Rate of Dropped frames and Average Rate of Duplicate frames, the key is average rate and not absolute value. If this exceeds a threshold then the auto detected frame rate is incorrect and needs to be corrected. These thresholds can be specified in the parameters RemuxDropThreshold and RemuxDuplicateThreshold. If that threshold is exceeded you may need to manually specify the frame rate (see above).

E.g. RemuxDropThreshold=3.0
E.g. RemuxDuplicateThreshold=3.0

[FFMpegBackupRemux]
CopyRemux0=<FFMPEG Remux parameters>
SlowRemux0=<FFMPEG Remux parameters>
SlowRemux1=<FFMPEG Remux parameters>
RemuxDropThreshold=<Average Rate of Dropped Frames threshold>
RemuxDuplicateThreshold=<Average Rate of Duplicate Frames threshold>

Advanced parameters to tweak the conversion

(apply to each profile in profiles.conf)

Inserting Special Commands (v2.3.12+)

You can get MCEBuddy to insert special commands in the 4 sections of the profile

<encoder>-general
<encoder>-video
<encoder>-audio
<encoder>-audioac3

The following special commands will be replaced by MCEBuddy at runtime:

<source_without_ext> - Source filename without extension
<source> - source filename
<converted_without_ext> - Output filename without extension
<converted> - Output filename

E.g. mencoder-general = -sub "<converted_without_ext>.srt" -ss 3

will be replaced at runtime with (assuming the output file is c:\temp\test file.avi):

mencoder-general = -sub "c:\temp\Test File.srt" -ss 3

NOTE: MCEBuddy does not put quotes around the replacement parameters, some command expect quotes to be sure to put quotes where required.

ForceWTVStreamsRemuxing=true (v2.3.12+)

NOTE: By default Streams remuxing is used for DVR-MS files and also as the last option for WTV files if all else fails.

AllowH264CopyRemuxing=true (v2.3.12+)

This parameter tells MCEBuddy to internally allow remuxing H264 video into a TS format without converting it to MPEG2 video first. This can be used when one wants to change the format of the video while retaining the original H264 video without recoding it. E.g. from WTV to MP4 or WTV to MKV or WTV to TS, or even WTV to WTV and remove commercials etc.

For more details on this refer to this thread http://mcebuddy2x.codeplex.com/discussions/431449

NOTE: The limitation on this is that Comskip cannot be used for commercial removal since comskip does not support H264 in TS processing, however ShowAnalyzer can be used in it's place.

UseWTVRemuxsupp=true (v2.3.11+)

This parameter tells MCEBuddy to use Remuxsupp FIRST to remux WTV files before trying other remuxers. This can help with some videos (rare) that not remuxed properly with FFMPEG or other remuxers but work with Remuxsupp. Usually Remuxsupp does not work well with many videos.
NOTE: This only helps in certain situations where files remuxed by FFMPEG are not able to be converted by MEncoder.

ForceEDL=true (v2.1.4+)

This is only effective when Comskip is enabled and Custom EDL files are not provided. When the commercial removal option is set to Comskip it tells MCEBuddy to force use the EDL file instead of the EDLP file from Comskip. EDL/EDLP files indicate the sections (timestamps) of the video to cut (commercials), however the timestamps differ slight for each video format, some use EDL and others EDLP. If your video/show is getting cut before/after commercials by a few seconds then try using this parameter.
NOTE: By default MCEBuddy uses EDL for .TS files and EDLP for all others

ForceEDLP=true (v2.1.4+)

This is only effective when Comskip is enabled and Custom EDL files are not provided. When the commercial removal option is set to Comskip it tells MCEBuddy to use the EDLP file instead of the EDL file from Comskip. EDL/EDLP files indicate the sections (timestamps) of the video to cut (commercials), however the timestamps differ slight for each video format, some use EDL and others EDLP. If your video/show is getting cut before/after commercials by a few seconds then try using this parameter.
NOTE: By default MCEBuddy uses EDL for .TS files and EDLP for all others

FixedResolution=true (v2.1.4+)

This tells MCEBUddy not to change source video resolution while converting (keep source resolution). When this paramter is set, MCEBuddy ignores the resolution slider on the conversion profile page.

SkipCropping=true (v2.1.4+)

This tells MCEBuddy not to autodetect crop information and skip cropping the video. This helps when the video edges are being cut off or if you have a video with no black bars on the sides to be removed, it will speed up the conversion process. Auto cropping can also sometimes skew the aspect ratio, so setting this will make MCEBuddy skip cropping.

<encoder>-AudioDelay=xxx/auto/skip (v2.1.2-2.2.18, 2.2.19+)

This parameter is set for each encoder type, e.g. ffmpeg, mencoder or handbrake
When xxx is set to skip then it tells MCEBuddy to skip auto correction of audio delay (sync). This is useful for some file formats such as AVI where audio gets skewed on auto correction.
If this parameter is set to a numerical value, then this parameter is used to manually specify the audio delay correction to correct audio sync, xxx is a +ve or a -ve number in seconds. If the value is equal to auto, it adds or subtracts the delay specified to the auto calculated audio delay for the video. A value of 0 means that MCEBuddy will skip any delay correction.
By default this this parameter is set to skip.

E.g. mencoder-AudioDelay=0.85

2ChannelAudio=true (v2.1.5 - v2.1.9, v2.2.13+)

When this parameter is set MCEBuddy limits the output audio to 2 channels irrespective of number of inputs channels
This can be useful to when specialized devices/software can read only 2 channels
By default MCEBuddy sets the output channels to the number of input channels
(As of 2.1.10, this can also be set in the Conversion Task GUI - profile overrides GUI)

MEncoderEDLSkip=true (v2.1.4+)

This parameter tells MCEBuddy not to use the EDL command with MEncoder to remove commercials from the video during conversion (which can save time but sometime cause the audio to go out of sync in rare cases).
If this parameter is set then MCEBuddy will remove the commercials AFTER the conversion is completed by using MP4Box to cut the commercials. Please do not set CutMP4Alternative=true when using this parameter.
This can be used to if converting with Mencoder is causing your Audio to go out of sync while removing commercials (it has no impact if commercial stripping is disabled) and none of the other parameters (-ss 30 or mencoder-audiodelay=skip ) do not work.

UniversalCommercialRemover=true (v2.3.11+)

When is parameter is set it tells MCEBuddy to use the Universal Commercial Remover after the conversion is complete (where as the default are very specific commercials remover functions for each file type, but they can sometimes fail as they are very sensitive to errors and sync issues). This helps when the standard profile is failing or causing audio issues during the commercial removal stage. While this cutter can leave some artifacts where the video is cut, however it works on ALL file types and will work successfully without any audio sync issues.

The other advantage of UniversalCommercialRemover=true is that it support files with multiple audio tracks and preserves them where as other mechanisms may or may not support depending up the file type.

(v2.3.12+) Setting UniversalCommercialRemover=true will force all commercials to be cut post conversion, unless PreConversionCommercialRemover=true is set. This can be used an option if commercial removal are failing or if a new file format is being used which is not natively supported by MCEBuddy.

PreConversionCommercialRemover=true (v2.3.12+)

When is parameter is set it tells MCEBuddy to use the Universal Commercial Remover to remove the commercials before the conversion (rather than the usual case of removing commercials after conversion). This helps when the conversion is failing during the commercial removal stage. While this cutter can leave some artifacts where the video is cut, however it works on ALL file types and will work successfully without any audio sync issues. This option is independent of UniversalCommercialRemover. If the preconversion commercial removal fails, it will automatically fall back to the post conversion commercial remover.

CutMP4Alternate=true (v2.1.4+)

When is parameter is set it tells MCEBuddy to use an alternative mechanism for remove commercials from MP4 and M4V files after the conversion is complete. By default MCEBuddy uses MP4Box to remove commercials during the last step, if this parameter is set it will use MEncoder to remove commercials. This helps sometime when the Audio Goes out of sync with the video after using Comskip/ShowAnalyzer but is in sync without Comskip. NOTE: This parameter is only effective when using using FFMPEG or Handbrake encoders. When using mEncdoder as the encoder, this parameter has NO effect as the commercial will always be stripped during the conversion itself (unlike FFMPEG and Handbrake, who's commercials are stripped out AFTER the conversion is complete).

CommercialSkipCut=true (v2.1.4+)

If this parameter is set, it tells MCEBuddy to do the Commercial Scan but NOT to cut the commercials. Instead it will copy the generated EDL file to the output directory along with the converted file.
Comskip generates 2 types of files, EDL and EDLP. Use the ForceEDL and ForceEDLP command to specify which file to use. See above for more details.
NOTE: When this parameter is set, the Closed Caption/SRT files generated will NOT be trimmed to match the EDL file.

Running Custom Commands (v2.1.8+)

MCEBuddy can provide the user with an option to run a single command at the end of the conversion process just before the file is renamed and moved to the destination directory.
To do so ALL the following 4 parameters need to be defined for the profile for which a custom command needs to be run.

CustomCommandPath=<Full Path of the executable>

CustomCommandParameters=<Optional parameters to be passed - see below for list>

CustomCommandHangPeriod=<0 or +ve number>

CustomCommandCritical=<true or false>

In the CustomCommandParameters you can use the parameter:

%convertedfile% - will be replaced with the full name and path of converted file as part of the parameters passed to the custom program.
%sourcefile% - will be replaced with the name and path of the original source video.
%remuxfile% - will be replaced with the name and path of the intermediary .TS file generated in the temp working directory if the source video is a WTV or DVR-MS file. Please note this will be blank if the source video is not a WTV or DVR-MS file. The following data is extracted from the Source Video metadata when available
%srtfile% - Full path to SRT file, if it exists, otherwise blank (v2.3.12+)
%edlfile% - Full path to EDL file, if it exists, otherwise blank (v2.3.12+)
%taskname% - Name of the task being used (v2.3.13+)
%profile% - Name of profile being used (v2.3.13+)
%workingpath% - Full path to the temp folder where the converted file is kept (v2.3.12+)
%originalfilepath% - Full path of the source file
%originalfilename% - Name of the source file (without the path or extension)
%showname% - Title of the show
%episodename% - Subtitle of the show
%episodedescription% - Description of the show
%season%## - Season no
%episode%## - Episode no
%bannerfile% - Full path to downloaded banner file
%bannerurl% - URL to banner file
%imdbmovieid% - IMDB.com Movie Id
%movieid% - MovieDB.com Movie Id
%seriesid% - TVDB.com Series Id
%genre% - Genre
%ismovie% - True or False if the video is a movie
%airyear% - Year of air date
%airmonth% - Month of air date
%airmonthshort% - Month of air date abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%airmonthlong% - Month of air date full name (v2.3.11+)
%airday% - Day of air date (v2.3.6+)
%airdayshort% - Day of air date abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%airdaylong% - Day of air date full name (v2.3.11+)
%airhour% - Hour of air date (v2.3.6+)
%airhourampm% - Hour of air date in AM/PM (v2.3.12+)
%airminute% - Minute of air date (v2.3.6+)
%recordyear% - Year of record date
%recordmonth% - Month of record date
%recordmonthshort% - Month of record date abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%recordmonthlong% - Month of record date full name (v2.3.11+)
%recordday% - Day of record date (v2.3.11+)
%recorddayshort% - Day of week from record date abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%recorddaylong% - Day of week from record date full name (v2.3.11+)
%recordhour% - Hour of record date (v2.3.12+)
%recordhourampm% - Hour of record date in AM/PM (v2.3.12+)
%recordminute% - Minute of record date
%network% - Network channel on the show was recorded

CustomCommandParameters is CASE SENSITIVE.

e.g. CustomCommandPath = C:\Test 1\test.exe

e.g. CustomCommandParameters = /i "%convertedfile%" /o "%sourcefile%" -t

In the above exampled, %convertedfile% will be replaced by the full path and filename of the converted file. The %sourcefile% will be replaced with the full path and name of the original source video.

(v2.1.4 - v2.3.12) MCEBuddy encloses the parameters in DOUBLE QUOTES.

(v2.3.12+) MCEBuddy does NOT enclose the parameters in DOUBLE QUOTES. Some applications required the parameters to be in DOUBLE QUOTES, so YOU need to ADD the DOUBLE QUOTES around the parameters in the CustomCommandParameters as shown in the example above.

The number of #'s at the end for Episode and Season indicates the number of digits in the written number. E.g. %season%## will give the output at 01 while %season%### will give the output at 001. #'s are optional, leaving them out will write the number without any formatting. i.e. %season% will give 1 as the output.

NOTE: While running a custom command, the output is redirected to the log file with a debug log status.

CustomCommandHangPeriod represents the number of SECONDS MCEBuddy will wait during which if no output is detected and logged to the log file and it determines the process to be hung and kills it. Set it to 0 to DISABLE hang detection. Please note that if hang detection is disabled, MCEBuddy will wait endlessly for the process to finish before proceeding (or the task is deleted/stopped).

CustomCommandCritical, when this is set to true, MCEBuddy will fail the entire conversion if the custom command is invalid or if the process is terminated (due to hang detection). If it is set to false then MCEBuddy will continue with the conversion processing irrespective of the custom command failure/success UNLESS the converted file has been renamed or deleted. By default the value is false.

NOTE: MCEBuddy will fail the conversion process if the custom command deletes or renames the converted file (%convertedfile%). Also note, Custom Command will fail if it cannot find the file specified (avoid using executables files on network drives since MCEBuddy uses the Windows Service account to access network drives and sometimes these are not mapped correctly due to credential issues)

Updated Wiki: MCEBuddy Advanced Commands

rboy1 — Sat, 18 May 2013 13:57:25 GMT

Advanced concepts to use MCEBuddy

MCEBuddy GUI Startup Options

MCEBuddy support the following options while starting the GUI (MCEBuddy.GUI.exe). Include these parameters by right clicking on the application short cut in the Start Menu and add them to the target path.

/startmin - Start the GUI minimized
/startengine - Force the engine to start (after connection with engine is established)

e.g. "C:\Program Files\MCEBuddy2x\MCEBuddy.GUI.exe" /startmin /startengine

Note: The parameters will come after the double quotes close and a space between each parameter

Tuning Comskip Commercial Detection

Comskip can be fine tuned to better detect and cut commercials for each country/region. There is a file names comskip.ini in the comskip directory in the MCEBuddy installation directory (by default C:\Program Files\MCEBuddy2x). The details of the tuning parameters can be found at: http://www.kaashoek.com/files/tuning.htm

If the video appears to get cut for about 3 seconds after the commerical ends (i.e. the commercial skipping cuts 3 seconds into the actual video post the end of the commerical), this could be because of the -ss settings in the <encoder>-video section of the profile. the -ss 3 command is required to get rid of corrupted video at the beginning to avoid audio sync issues. Remove the -ss 3 from the video parameters to fix this issue. Refer to the Audio Sync Issues section at the end of this document for details on the -ss command.

Multiple Audio Tracks in Converted File (v2.3.12+)

This only works with FFMPEG based profiles and if the source file has multiple audio tracks. Handbrake and MEncoder do not support converting/copying multiple audio tracks.

Select <Default> as the Audio Language in the conversion options AND add -map 0:a -map 0:v to the ffmpeg-video section for the FFMPEG profile and it will copy/convert all audio tracks.

Show Analyzer (v2.1.2+)

MCEBuddy supports ShowAnalyzer version 1.0 and greater. Once you download and install ShowAnalyzer it will show up as an option on the conversion profile settings page under commerical detection.

Filename and Showname Pattern Matching (v2.2.3+)

MCEBuddy supports multiple wildcard name matching to match shownames and filenames using the ; operator. E.g. once can specify *.wtv;*.avi*.mpg as the name selection criteria or ncis*;house*.mpg to match all names that start with ncis and house (ending with a .mpg).

If you want to specify a name avoid list, i.e. select all/abc files EXCEPT xyz, then prefix the name selection criteria with a ~ operator. E.g. ncis*;~ncis miami* will select all files that start with ncis but NOT those starting with ncis miami. E.g. *.*;~*.mp4;~*.avi will select all files except those starting with .mp4 and .avi

Name matching is case insensitive.

To select all default video types use the expression [video] which will match the following expression *.dvr-ms;*.wtv;*.asf;*.avi;*.divx;*.dv;*.flv;*.gxf;*.m1v;*.m2v;*.m2ts;*.m4v;*.mkv;*.mov;*.mp2;*.mp4;*.mpeg;*.mpeg1;*.mpeg2;*.mpeg4;*.mpg;*.mts;*.mxf;*.ogm;*.ts;*.vob;*.wmv;*.tp

For advanced users MCEBuddy also supports REGEX expressions. To provide a regex expression prefix the regex matching pattern with regex: and then the regex pattern (this is a very advanced concept).

Multiple Conversion Tasks Customized by ShowName or FileName (v2.2.3+)

Refer to Filename and Showname Pattern Matching above to understand how to create patterns for filename and shownames.

You can create multiple conversions tasks in MCEBuddy. Each conversion task will process each file in the queue. Order of conversions tasks do not matter when creating filename and showname filters. If you want to create custom conversion tasks for different files/shows you can do so with the help of the Filename or Showname pattern matching filters in the Conversion Tasks Settings page, under Advanced Settings.

For e.g. if you want to create 3 tasks, one that processes all NCIS files, one that processes all Star Trek files and one that processes all other files (i.e. default). To do so you will first create 3 conversion tasks.

In the first conversion task, where you want to process NCIS, under Filename or Showname filters (depending on what you want to filter based on, the name of the file or the name of the show taken from the metadata), you will enter NCIS* . This tell the conversion task to process only those files starting with NCIS.

In the second conversion task, where you want to process Star Trek files, under the Filename orShowname filter you will enter Star Trek* .

In the third conversion task, you want to process ALL other files (ie default), then you will enter the following *;~NCIS*;~Star Trek* . The first * tells the conversion task to process ALL files, the~NCIS* tells the task NOT to process files starting with NCIS and ~Star Trek* tells the task NOT to process files starting with Star Trek, i.e. process all files except those which are being processed by the first two tasks.

Custom File Renaming Pattern (v2.1.6+)

MCEBuddy allows you to create your own custom file name and directory structure using the metadata stored in the file and downloaded from the internet.

The following commands are currently supported by MCEBuddy

%originalfilename% - Name of the source file (without the path or extension)
%showname% - Showname / Title
%episodename% - Episode Name / Subtitle
%season%## - Season No
%episode%## - Episode No
%network% - Network channel on the show was recorded (v2.1.10+)
%airyear% - Original Air Year
%airmonth% - Original Air Month
%airmonthshort% - Original Air Month Name Abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%airmonthlong% - Original Air Month Full Name (v2.3.11+)
%airday% - Original Air Day
%airdayshort% - Original Air Day of Week Abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%airdaylong% - Original Air Day of Week Full Name (v2.3.11+)
%airhour% - Hour of air date (v2.3.6+)
%airhourampm% - Air date hour in AM/PM (v2.3.12+)
%airminute% - Minute of air date (v2.3.6+)
%recordyear% - Record Year
%recordmonth% - Record Month
%recordmonthshort% - Record Month Name Abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%recordmonthlong% - Record Month Full Name (v2.3.11+)
%recordday% - Record Day
%recorddayshort% - Record Day of Week Abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%recorddaylong% - Record Day of Week Full Name (v2.3.11+)
%recordhour% - Record Hour (v2.1.10+)
%recordhourampm% - Record Hour in AM/PM (v2.1.12+)
%recordminute% - Record Minute (v2.1.10+)
%ismovie%<RenamePatternIfTrue,RenamePatternIfFalse> - If recording is a movie rename using True pattern, else rename using False pattern (v2.3.12+)
\ - Directory Separator

E.g.: TVShows\%showname%\Season %season%\%showname% - S%season%##E%episode%## - %episodename% - %airyear%_%airmonth%_%airday%

Will produce: TVShows\CSI\Season 1\CSI - S01E02 - Best of times - 2012_01_06.<ext>

E.g.: Recording\%ismovie%<Movie\%showname%,TVShows\%showname%\Season %season%\%showname% - S%season%##E%episode%##>-Converted

Will produce:

Recording\Movies\Star Wars-Converted.<ext> (for a movie) OR

Recording\TVShows\CSI\Season 1\CSI - S01E02-Converted.<ext> (for non movies)

The extension is added automatically depending upon the profile specifications.

The number of #'s at the end for Episode and Season indicates the number of digits in the written number. E.g. %season%## will give the output at 01 while %season%### will give the output at 001. #'s are optional, leaving them out will write the number without any formatting. i.e. %season% will give 1 as the output.

Audio Sync/Missing Issues

Sometimes the audio and video go out of sync due to corruption at the start of the video. To solve this problem add the parameter -ss 10 at the BEGINNING of the <encoder>-video parameter in the profile. DO NOT put this parameter in the general parameters section. (do not forget the - before the ss and make sure there is a space between ss and 10)

E.g. ffmpeg-video=-ss 10

This indicates that ffmpeg will skip the first 10 seconds of the video/audio after decoding it (if you put this in the general parameters section then the encoder will skip over first 10 which DOES NOT solve the problem, the video/audio need to be first decoded and then discarded to be put back in sync).

You can play with the number to find the right mix, it can be as low as 3 or as high as 30 depending upon the corruption. You'll be surprised how many videos are corrupted at the start and FFMPEG is very sensitive to corruption as far as audio sync goes. You often cannot see the corruption while play the video (it will look okay), these are at the frame level and often ignored by players.

Also try to play with the AudioDelay parameter (given above). Set to skip to see if that resolves the issue. If the Audio sync is still off, try setting the AudioDelay number to +ve or -ve to advance or retard the audio sync and see how it behaves. It is a trial and error process.

If you're using FFMPEG or Handbrake as the encoder with your profile AND your output extension is .MP4 or .M4V AND your audio is going out of sync ONLY when you remove commercials (i.e. the Audio is in sync without commercials removal), try to use an alternative commerical stripping by using the command CutMP4Alternative=true in your profile.

If that doesn't work try using UniversalCommercialRemover=true in your profile. See above for more details.

Sometimes the Audio gets cut out completely in between a video. Try using PreConversionCommercialRemover=true in your profile. See above for more details.

Using Custom XML Files (v2.3.12+)

MCEBuddy looks for a XML file along with the original source video (with the same source video filename). It uses this file to extract Metadata information for non WTV/DVRMS files.

Also, it MCEBuddy find a XML file created during the conversion process (e.g. from Comskip), it will copy the XML file to to the destination directory along with the converted file.

Using Custom EDL Files (v2.3.12+)

MCEBuddy looks for a EDL file along with the original source video (with the same source video filename). If it finds the EDL file with the source video it copies the EDL file to the output directory along with the converted file.

MCEBuddy gives preference to the Custom EDL file over Comskip/ShowAnalyzer generated EDL files.

Using Custom SRT Files (v2.1.8+)

MCEBuddy looks for a SRT file along with the original source video OR in the temp working directory (with the same source video filename). If it finds the SRT file in either place it copies the SRT file to the output directory along with the converted video (with preference given to a SRT file in the temp working directory).

If ExtractCC is enabled in the Conversion Task -> Advanced Settings it will trim the Custom SRT file to be in sync with the EDL file (commercial removal). MCEBuddy gives preference to the Custom SRT files over the CC generated SRT file.

Comskip can be set to generate SRT files (output_srt=1) or CCExtractor can be used using from Custom Commands (if the ExtractCC from the GUI fails to work) to generate SRT files during the conversion process. Once generated, MCEBuddy will copy them to the output directory along with the converted file.

MultiThreading Support (v2.1.2+)

MCEBuddy by default calculates how many threads are required for the programs to run optimally. However this can be overridden manually by specifying the threads in the general parameters in the profiles file for each profile and encoder type.

Advanced parameters to configure MCEBuddy

(apply to mcebuddy.conf)

HOW TO MAKE CHANGES TO MCEBUDDY.CONF

DO NOT REPLACE the file mcebuddy.conf directly with an old version, it will break MCEBuddy. Open, edit and save it. The old version is preserved for your reference only.

Custom eMail Notification Subject Lines (v2.3.13+)

The following parameters can be edited to create custom subject lines for eMail notifications for events. If there is nothing specified then MCEBuddy will use the default subject lines.

eMailSuccessSubject=<Custom subject line for a successful conversion>

eMailFailedSubject=<Custom Subject Line for a failed conversion>

eMailCancelledSubject=<Custom Subject Line for a cancelled conversion>

eMailStartSubject=<Custom Subject Line on the start of a conversion>

eMailDownloadFailedSubject=<Custom Subject Line when downloading series information fails>

Each custom subject line can contain User Custom Commands that will be replaced by MCEBuddy at runtime. Refer to the Running Custom Commands for a liist of custom commands that can be used in the subject line.

e.g. eMailSuccessSubject=Show %showname% for file %originalfilename% conversion successful using task %taskname%

CustomComskipPath=xyz (v2.1.12+)

This parameter can be set if you want a use a custom version of Comskip, e.g. a Donator version or special/old version, that is lying in a different directory than the one that ships with MCEBuddy.

e.g. CustomComskipPath=D:\Donator MCEBuddy\comskip.exe

NOTE: The path must be to the executable comskip AND the directory should contain ALL the files necessary for Comskip to run (comskip.ini, comskip.dictionary etc). When using this parameter the default comskip.ini that ships with MCEBuddy is NOT used rather it expects the comskip.ini to be present in the same directory as the custom comskip.exe.

If a special comskip.ini has been specified in the Conversion Task advanced settings page then that special comskip.ini that WILL be used rather than the one lying in the custom comskip.exe directory.

IgnoreCopyProtection=false (v2.1.12+)

By default, this value is false. If this is set to true, then MCEBuddy will ignore the Copy Protection flag on the recording if it encounters it during conversion. It will only record an error in the conversion log and continue the conversion. If the recording is really copy protected then the final video will be look garbled. This flag can help because sometimes videos are incorrectly flagged by recording software/tuners. When this is set to false, if MCEBuddy encounters an Copy Protection flag it will stop the conversion after logging an error.

UseRecycleBin=false (v2.1.12+)

By default, this value is false. If this is set to true, then MCEBuddy will use the Recycle Bin when deleting the original video recording and related files (like EDL, XML etc).

DownloadBanner=true (v2.1.12+)

By default, this value is true. If this is set to false, then MCEBuddy will not download the Banner file (artwork) for the movie or tv series. This can be used when you want to download the series information (check Download Series Details from the Conversion Task page) but not download the artwork / banner file.

CPUAffinity=<binary mask integer> (v2.1.12+)

This parameter can be set to set the CPU affinity mask. This limits MCEBuddy to 1 or more processors only as specified in the bitmask. While this number is written as an integer, the integer represent a binary mask with each bit representing a processor. HINT: Convert the integer to a binary representation, each bit in the binary number presents a CPU processor.

E.g.:

CPUAffinity=1 will select the 1st CPU processor

CPUAffinity=2 will select the 2nd CPU processor

CPUAffinity=3 will select the 1st and 2nd CPU processor

CPUAffinity=4 will select the 3rd CPU processor

CPUAffinity=5 will select the 1st and 3rd CPU processor

CPUAffinity=6 will select the 2nd and 3rd CPU processor

CPUAffinity=7 will select the 1st, 2nd and 3rd CPU processor

TempWorkingPath=xyz (v2.1.2+)

This parameter is used to manually specific the temp working directory for MCEBuddy, i.e. xyz. By default MCEBuddy uses a directory called working within the MCEBuddy installation directory (e.g. C:\Program Files\MCEBuddy2x\working) (it will make multiple directories if using multiple simultaneous conversions with a number at the end for each parallel conversion, e.g. working0, working1 etc). This has to be a complete working path with rights to be able to create, modify and delete files/directories else the conversion might fail. This parameter should come under the section [Engine] in the conf file.

E.g. TempWorkingPath=D:\Temp\MCEBuddy

PollPeriod=xxx (v2.1.2+)

This parameter specifies how often MCEBuddy should check the Monitor Locations for new files. xxx is defined in number of seconds. This parameter should come under the section [Engine] in the conf file.

E.g. PollPeriod=150

NOTE: By default MCEBuddy uses 300 seconds as the interval to check for new files.

LocalServerPort=xxx (v2.2.16+)

This parameter specifies the TCP/IP port of the installed MCEBuddy server engine on the local machine. MCEBuddy registers this port with the any UPnP enabled routers on the network by default to enable remote connections from outside the network (NAT). This is the MCEBuddy GUI application should connect to for the local machine. The default port used by MCEBuddy is 23332. This parameter should come under the section [Engine] in the conf file.

E.g. ServerPort=23332

SubtitleSegmentOffset=x.x (v2.3.12+)

This parameter is used when the subtitles go progressively out of sync after commercials are removed from the video. This happens because when a video is cut, the video is aligned with the next GOP and I Frame sequence which can be a few seconds away from the actual cutting point. Hence each time the video is cut the subtitles get progressively out of sync with the video. This setting is used to bring the subtitles back into sync with the video. Each time the video commercial is cut out, the subtitles are time shifted by this amount (+ve or -ve in seconds), hence bringing the subtitles back into sync with the video segments.

E.g. SubtitleSegmentOffset=5.4

HangPeriod=xxx (v2.2.4+)

This parameter specifies how long MCEBuddy will wait for a console output from the application (e.g. handbrake or ffmpeg etc) before it determines that the application has hung and terminates it. xxx is defined in number of seconds. This parameter should come under the section [Engine] in the conf file. Use 0 to disable hang detection (i.e. MCEBuddy will wait forever for the process to exist normally).

E.g. HangPeriod=500

NOTE: By default MCEBuddy uses 300 seconds as the interval to determine a hung application

FFMpegBackupRemux (v2.1.12+)

This is a special section in the configuration file that stores the command parameters for the ReMux operations which are carried out using FFMPEG if the main ReMuxSupp application fails/not used to remux the video. First the CopyRemux is used, if that fails then the SlowRemux is used. CopyRemux is used first for MPEG2 video files to stream copy the video without recoding the video. If the original video is not MPEG2 or CopyRemux fails then SlowRemux parameters are used to remux the video. THESE SHOULD NOT BE CHANGED UNLESS THE BACKUP REMUX IS COMPLETELY FAILING. Each of these entries will have a number after them like CopyRemux0, CopyRemux1, SlowRemux0, SlowRemux1 etc. These numbers indicate successive remux parameters to be tried if the previous one fails, i.e. if SlowRemux0 fails then MCEBuddy will look for SlowRemux1 and if that fails then it looks for SlowRemux2 etc.

You can also specify -i <source> in the remux parameters as a placeholder for the input filename which MCEBuddy will replace at runtime. This can be useful if you want to specify parameters before the input file in the FFMPEG parameter command.

E.g. CopyRemux0 = -fflags +genpts -i <source> -map 0:a -map 0:v -vcodec copy -acodec copy

MCEBuddy automatically detects the frame rate of the video through the use of -r auto in the FFMPEG Remux parameters in CopyRemux and SlowRemux. This can be disabled by removing -r auto. It can also be overridden by manually specifying the frame rate to use (which can be useful if the average rate of dropped and/or duplicate frames is very high leading to stuttering videos).

E.g. -r auto
E.g. -r 25
E.g. -r 30*1000/1001

MCEBuddy monitors the Average Rate of Dropped frames and Average Rate of Duplicate frames, the key is average rate and not absolute value. If this exceeds a threshold then the auto detected frame rate is incorrect and needs to be corrected. These thresholds can be specified in the parameters RemuxDropThreshold and RemuxDuplicateThreshold. If that threshold is exceeded you may need to manually specify the frame rate (see above).

E.g. RemuxDropThreshold=3.0
E.g. RemuxDuplicateThreshold=3.0

[FFMpegBackupRemux]
CopyRemux0=<FFMPEG Remux parameters>
SlowRemux0=<FFMPEG Remux parameters>
SlowRemux1=<FFMPEG Remux parameters>
RemuxDropThreshold=<Average Rate of Dropped Frames threshold>
RemuxDuplicateThreshold=<Average Rate of Duplicate Frames threshold>

Advanced parameters to tweak the conversion

(apply to each profile in profiles.conf)

Inserting Special Commands (v2.3.12+)

You can get MCEBuddy to insert special commands in the 4 sections of the profile

<encoder>-general
<encoder>-video
<encoder>-audio
<encoder>-audioac3

The following special commands will be replaced by MCEBuddy at runtime:

<source_without_ext> - Source filename without extension
<source> - source filename
<converted_without_ext> - Output filename without extension
<converted> - Output filename

E.g. mencoder-general = -sub "<converted_without_ext>.srt" -ss 3

will be replaced at runtime with (assuming the output file is c:\temp\test file.avi):

mencoder-general = -sub "c:\temp\Test File.srt" -ss 3

NOTE: MCEBuddy does not put quotes around the replacement parameters, some command expect quotes to be sure to put quotes where required.

ForceWTVStreamsRemuxing=true (v2.3.12+)

NOTE: By default Streams remuxing is used for DVR-MS files and also as the last option for WTV files if all else fails.

AllowH264CopyRemuxing=true (v2.3.12+)

This parameter tells MCEBuddy to internally allow remuxing H264 video into a TS format without converting it to MPEG2 video first. This can be used when one wants to change the format of the video while retaining the original H264 video without recoding it. E.g. from WTV to MP4 or WTV to MKV or WTV to TS, or even WTV to WTV and remove commercials etc.

For more details on this refer to this thread http://mcebuddy2x.codeplex.com/discussions/431449

NOTE: The limitation on this is that Comskip cannot be used for commercial removal since comskip does not support H264 in TS processing, however ShowAnalyzer can be used in it's place.

UseWTVRemuxsupp=true (v2.3.11+)

This parameter tells MCEBuddy to use Remuxsupp FIRST to remux WTV files before trying other remuxers. This can help with some videos (rare) that not remuxed properly with FFMPEG or other remuxers but work with Remuxsupp. Usually Remuxsupp does not work well with many videos.
NOTE: This only helps in certain situations where files remuxed by FFMPEG are not able to be converted by MEncoder.

ForceEDL=true (v2.1.4+)

This is only effective when Comskip is enabled and Custom EDL files are not provided. When the commercial removal option is set to Comskip it tells MCEBuddy to force use the EDL file instead of the EDLP file from Comskip. EDL/EDLP files indicate the sections (timestamps) of the video to cut (commercials), however the timestamps differ slight for each video format, some use EDL and others EDLP. If your video/show is getting cut before/after commercials by a few seconds then try using this parameter.
NOTE: By default MCEBuddy uses EDL for .TS files and EDLP for all others

ForceEDLP=true (v2.1.4+)

This is only effective when Comskip is enabled and Custom EDL files are not provided. When the commercial removal option is set to Comskip it tells MCEBuddy to use the EDLP file instead of the EDL file from Comskip. EDL/EDLP files indicate the sections (timestamps) of the video to cut (commercials), however the timestamps differ slight for each video format, some use EDL and others EDLP. If your video/show is getting cut before/after commercials by a few seconds then try using this parameter.
NOTE: By default MCEBuddy uses EDL for .TS files and EDLP for all others

FixedResolution=true (v2.1.4+)

This tells MCEBUddy not to change source video resolution while converting (keep source resolution). When this paramter is set, MCEBuddy ignores the resolution slider on the conversion profile page.

SkipCropping=true (v2.1.4+)

This tells MCEBuddy not to autodetect crop information and skip cropping the video. This helps when the video edges are being cut off or if you have a video with no black bars on the sides to be removed, it will speed up the conversion process. Auto cropping can also sometimes skew the aspect ratio, so setting this will make MCEBuddy skip cropping.

<encoder>-AudioDelay=xxx/auto/skip (v2.1.2-2.2.18, 2.2.19+)

This parameter is set for each encoder type, e.g. ffmpeg, mencoder or handbrake
When xxx is set to skip then it tells MCEBuddy to skip auto correction of audio delay (sync). This is useful for some file formats such as AVI where audio gets skewed on auto correction.
If this parameter is set to a numerical value, then this parameter is used to manually specify the audio delay correction to correct audio sync, xxx is a +ve or a -ve number in seconds. If the value is equal to auto, it adds or subtracts the delay specified to the auto calculated audio delay for the video. A value of 0 means that MCEBuddy will skip any delay correction.
By default this this parameter is set to skip.

E.g. mencoder-AudioDelay=0.85

2ChannelAudio=true (v2.1.5 - v2.1.9, v2.2.13+)

When this parameter is set MCEBuddy limits the output audio to 2 channels irrespective of number of inputs channels
This can be useful to when specialized devices/software can read only 2 channels
By default MCEBuddy sets the output channels to the number of input channels
(As of 2.1.10, this can also be set in the Conversion Task GUI - profile overrides GUI)

MEncoderEDLSkip=true (v2.1.4+)

This parameter tells MCEBuddy not to use the EDL command with MEncoder to remove commercials from the video during conversion (which can save time but sometime cause the audio to go out of sync in rare cases).
If this parameter is set then MCEBuddy will remove the commercials AFTER the conversion is completed by using MP4Box to cut the commercials. Please do not set CutMP4Alternative=true when using this parameter.
This can be used to if converting with Mencoder is causing your Audio to go out of sync while removing commercials (it has no impact if commercial stripping is disabled) and none of the other parameters (-ss 30 or mencoder-audiodelay=skip ) do not work.

UniversalCommercialRemover=true (v2.3.11+)

When is parameter is set it tells MCEBuddy to use the Universal Commercial Remover after the conversion is complete (where as the default are very specific commercials remover functions for each file type, but they can sometimes fail as they are very sensitive to errors and sync issues). This helps when the standard profile is failing or causing audio issues during the commercial removal stage. While this cutter can leave some artifacts where the video is cut, however it works on ALL file types and will work successfully without any audio sync issues.

The other advantage of UniversalCommercialRemover=true is that it support files with multiple audio tracks and preserves them where as other mechanisms may or may not support depending up the file type.

(v2.3.12+) Setting UniversalCommercialRemover=true will force all commercials to be cut post conversion, unless PreConversionCommercialRemover=true is set. This can be used an option if commercial removal are failing or if a new file format is being used which is not natively supported by MCEBuddy.

PreConversionCommercialRemover=true (v2.3.12+)

When is parameter is set it tells MCEBuddy to use the Universal Commercial Remover to remove the commercials before the conversion (rather than the usual case of removing commercials after conversion). This helps when the conversion is failing during the commercial removal stage. While this cutter can leave some artifacts where the video is cut, however it works on ALL file types and will work successfully without any audio sync issues. This option is independent of UniversalCommercialRemover. If the preconversion commercial removal fails, it will automatically fall back to the post conversion commercial remover.

CutMP4Alternate=true (v2.1.4+)

When is parameter is set it tells MCEBuddy to use an alternative mechanism for remove commercials from MP4 and M4V files after the conversion is complete. By default MCEBuddy uses MP4Box to remove commercials during the last step, if this parameter is set it will use MEncoder to remove commercials. This helps sometime when the Audio Goes out of sync with the video after using Comskip/ShowAnalyzer but is in sync without Comskip. NOTE: This parameter is only effective when using using FFMPEG or Handbrake encoders. When using mEncdoder as the encoder, this parameter has NO effect as the commercial will always be stripped during the conversion itself (unlike FFMPEG and Handbrake, who's commercials are stripped out AFTER the conversion is complete).

CommercialSkipCut=true (v2.1.4+)

If this parameter is set, it tells MCEBuddy to do the Commercial Scan but NOT to cut the commercials. Instead it will copy the generated EDL file to the output directory along with the converted file.
Comskip generates 2 types of files, EDL and EDLP. Use the ForceEDL and ForceEDLP command to specify which file to use. See above for more details.
NOTE: When this parameter is set, the Closed Caption/SRT files generated will NOT be trimmed to match the EDL file.

Running Custom Commands (v2.1.8+)

MCEBuddy can provide the user with an option to run a single command at the end of the conversion process just before the file is renamed and moved to the destination directory.
To do so ALL the following 4 parameters need to be defined for the profile for which a custom command needs to be run.

CustomCommandPath=<Full Path of the executable>

CustomCommandParameters=<Optional parameters to be passed - see below for list>

CustomCommandHangPeriod=<0 or +ve number>

CustomCommandCritical=<true or false>

In the CustomCommandParameters you can use the parameter:

%convertedfile% - will be replaced with the full name and path of converted file as part of the parameters passed to the custom program.
%sourcefile% - will be replaced with the name and path of the original source video.
%remuxfile% - will be replaced with the name and path of the intermediary .TS file generated in the temp working directory if the source video is a WTV or DVR-MS file. Please note this will be blank if the source video is not a WTV or DVR-MS file. The following data is extracted from the Source Video metadata when available
%srtfile% - Full path to SRT file, if it exists, otherwise blank (v2.3.12+)
%edlfile% - Full path to EDL file, if it exists, otherwise blank (v2.3.12+)
%taskname% - Name of the task being used (v2.3.13+)
%profile% - Name of profile being used (v2.3.13+)
%workingpath% - Full path to the temp folder where the converted file is kept (v2.3.12+)
%originalfilepath% - Full path of the source file
%originalfilename% - Name of the source file (without the path or extension)
%showname% - Title of the show
%episodename% - Subtitle of the show
%episodedescription% - Description of the show
%season%## - Season no
%episode%## - Episode no
%bannerfile% - Full path to downloaded banner file
%bannerurl% - URL to banner file
%imdbmovieid% - IMDB.com Movie Id
%movieid% - MovieDB.com Movie Id
%seriesid% - TVDB.com Series Id
%genre% - Genre
%ismovie% - True or False if the video is a movie
%airyear% - Year of air date
%airmonth% - Month of air date
%airmonthshort% - Month of air date abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%airmonthlong% - Month of air date full name (v2.3.11+)
%airday% - Day of air date (v2.3.6+)
%airdayshort% - Day of air date abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%airdaylong% - Day of air date full name (v2.3.11+)
%airhour% - Hour of air date (v2.3.6+)
%airhourampm% - Hour of air date in AM/PM (v2.3.12+)
%airminute% - Minute of air date (v2.3.6+)
%recordyear% - Year of record date
%recordmonth% - Month of record date
%recordmonthshort% - Month of record date abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%recordmonthlong% - Month of record date full name (v2.3.11+)
%recordday% - Day of record date (v2.3.11+)
%recorddayshort% - Day of week from record date abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%recorddaylong% - Day of week from record date full name (v2.3.11+)
%recordhour% - Hour of record date (v2.3.12+)
%recordhourampm% - Hour of record date in AM/PM (v2.3.12+)
%recordminute% - Minute of record date
%network% - Network channel on the show was recorded

CustomCommandParameters is CASE SENSITIVE.

e.g. CustomCommandPath = C:\Test 1\test.exe

e.g. CustomCommandParameters = /i "%convertedfile%" /o "%sourcefile%" -t

In the above exampled, %convertedfile% will be replaced by the full path and filename of the converted file. The %sourcefile% will be replaced with the full path and name of the original source video.

(v2.1.4 - v2.3.12) MCEBuddy encloses the parameters in DOUBLE QUOTES.

(v2.3.12+) MCEBuddy does NOT enclose the parameters in DOUBLE QUOTES. Some applications required the parameters to be in DOUBLE QUOTES, so YOU need to ADD the DOUBLE QUOTES around the parameters in the CustomCommandParameters as shown in the example above.

The number of #'s at the end for Episode and Season indicates the number of digits in the written number. E.g. %season%## will give the output at 01 while %season%### will give the output at 001. #'s are optional, leaving them out will write the number without any formatting. i.e. %season% will give 1 as the output.

NOTE: While running a custom command, the output is redirected to the log file with a debug log status.

CustomCommandHangPeriod represents the number of SECONDS MCEBuddy will wait during which if no output is detected and logged to the log file and it determines the process to be hung and kills it. Set it to 0 to DISABLE hang detection. Please note that if hang detection is disabled, MCEBuddy will wait endlessly for the process to finish before proceeding (or the task is deleted/stopped).

CustomCommandCritical, when this is set to true, MCEBuddy will fail the entire conversion if the custom command is invalid or if the process is terminated (due to hang detection). If it is set to false then MCEBuddy will continue with the conversion processing irrespective of the custom command failure/success UNLESS the converted file has been renamed or deleted. By default the value is false.

NOTE: MCEBuddy will fail the conversion process if the custom command deletes or renames the converted file (%convertedfile%). Also note, Custom Command will fail if it cannot find the file specified (avoid using executables files on network drives since MCEBuddy uses the Windows Service account to access network drives and sometimes these are not mapped correctly due to credential issues)

Updated Wiki: MCEBuddy Common Issues

rboy1 — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 20:53:04 GMT

I've setup MCEBuddy to monitor folders but it won't add files/not all files show up in the queue

Cause

The monitor path is invalid/incorrect
The file search pattern for the Monitoring folder does not match the files in the directory
The filters on the Conversion Task Settings page don't match the file metadata
The files are marked readonly or are locked by another process. MCEbuddy needs exclusive access to convert files.

Resolution

Check the monitor location directory configured in the monitor locations tasks
Check the file search pattern (e.g. *.wtv) for the monitoring location task. It may not be setup to accept all video/video files types in the directory being monitored.
Remove the readonly option on the files, right click on the file and select properties. Uncheckthe ReadOnly box.
If the file is locked by another process, you'll have to find out which process and then close the process/release the file.

Check the Filename, Showname and Network name Filters on the Conversion Task Settings page

Refer to the MCEBuddy Advanced Commands page for more details on filename and showname pattern matching.

I'm adding files to MCEBuddy but it won't show up in the queue

Cause

The files are marked readonly or are locked by another process. MCEbuddy needs exclusive access to convert files.

The filters in the Conversion Task Settings do not match the Metadata on the file

Resolution

Remove the readonly option on the files, right click on the file and select properties. Uncheckthe ReadOnly box. If the file is locked by another process, you'll have to find out which process and then close the process/release the file.

Check the Filename, Showname and Network name filters in the Conversion Task Settings page. If the filters don't match the metadata on the file, the files will not be added to the queue.

I keep getting MCEBuddy Service is unavailable. Please start from windows control panel or check engine connection.

Cause

Either the service has not been started

OR there is a conflict with another port

OR ShowAnalyzer is causing MCEBuddy to hang

Resolution

Check that the service has been started. Click Start -> Control Panel -> Windows Services -> Select MCEBuddy 2.x -> Right click and click Start

If there is a conflict with another port, MCEBuddy will fail to start, check the Windows Event logs for more information and see the Installation Issues for more details.

Uninstallation, rebooting the computer and reinstalling Showanalyzer usually solves the problem. If it persists, try to uninstall ShowAnalyzer and use Comskip instead.

I am unable to access files created by MCEBuddy from a remote computer on my shared drive

Cause

Permissions or owner are set incorrectly on the parent folder which causes the files created by MCEBuddy to inherit permission that don't match the shared folder permissions.

Resolution

I am unable to play back WTV files created by MCEBuddy in Windows Media Play or Media Center

Cause

The correct filters are not setup to decode MPEG2 video in a WTV file.

Resolution

Open FFDShow Video Configuration from the Start Menu -> ffdshow (assuming you let MCEBuddy install FFDShow, if not install it).

Under MPEG-2 and MPEG2 in AVI, set the codec to libavcodec.

Reboot the computer.

MCEBuddy sometimes creates video with no audio

Cause: Some recording have multiple audio tracks, sometimes these audio tracks are earing/visual impaired tracks and often they do no contain any audio. MCEBuddy by default chooses the first audio track, so if the first audio track is an impaired audio track there will be no audio in the converted file.

Resolution: When the file is added to the queue, right click on the file and select MediaInfo. This will show all the available audio tracks in the file. If the file contains impaired audio tracks then note the language of the audio track which NOT impaired. Open Settings -> Change Conversion Task Settings -> Advanced Settings -> Audio Language. Select the audio language of the non-impaired audio track as determined from MediaInfo earlier. Do not worry if more than one audio tracks (impaired and non-impaired) have the same language. MCEBuddy will choose the non-impaired audio track when an Audio Language has been selected.

How do I prevent MCEBuddy from reconverting my videos

There are multiple options to prevent MCEBuddy from reconverting video files:

If you're upgrading from a version before 2.1.7 please save the history file manually (C:\Program Files\MCEBuddy2x\config\history) and restore it after upgrading. (2.1.7 and above save the history file during uninstallation and restore it on installation)
If you're using 2.1.5 or greater you can use this option to manually add the files not to be converted to the history file in the following manner. In Windows Explorer select all the files you want to add to the history file. Drag and Drop them into MCEBuddy window (MCEBuddy should be started and it should start converting them). Now select all the files in the conversion queue (Click on the 1st file and press Shift + End) and then click Delete. It will stop converting all the files and add them to the History file and they will not be reconverted unless you add them manually.
Create a folder called MCEBuddyArchive. Put all files you don't want converted into this folder, MCEBuddy will not convert any files inside this folder. Please note, when the Archive Files option is selected in the advanced settings page, MCEBuddy does this automatically.
Open the Conversion Task you're created. In the Advanced Settings is a File Name Match (read the documentation MCEBuddy Advanced Commands). You can specify a negative filter (with ~) to specify which files NOT to convert OR a regular filter to specify which files to convert.
If you're using the Monitor Locations option to automatically convert videos by monitoring a folder for new videos AND the Monitor Folder and Destination Folder are the same, change the Monitor Location Search Pattern. E.g. all source videos are WTV files, all destination videos are MP4. Open the Monitor Location task and set the Search Pattern to *.wtv, so now MCEBuddy will only pick up WTV files to convert. Or you can use a -ve filter again like [videos];~*.mp4 or *.*;~*.mp4 to convert all files except .mp4 (the [videos] or *.* is important to specify since there must be atleast one +ve filter to select files)

My audio is out of sync with my video

Cause

There are many reasons for the Audio to be out of sync with Video. It can vary from corrupted frames to country format differences.

Resolution

There are many things can do to resync the Audio with the Video.

If you're using a FFMPEG profile, trying setting the -ss parameter to -ss 30 to see if that solves the problem.
Try setting the <encoder>-audiodelay=skip for the profile you're using.
If point 2 does not work, then you can use the same parameter and replace skip with a +ve or a -ve number. This will advance or retard the audio by that many seconds. This can help bring the Audio back into sync with the Video through trial and error. Make sure you replace <encoder> with the profile encoder you're using. e.g. ffmpeg-audiodelay=1.25
If you're using MEncoder in your profile and your audio is going out of sync ONLY when commercial removal is enabled then try to use the mencoderedlskip=true option to use the MP4Box fallback method to strip out commercials. (again this will only help if commercials removal is causing the desync in audio while using MEncoder).
If you're using FFMPEG or Handbrake and .mp4 or .m4v outputs then try playing with CutMP4Alternative=true
Try setting UniversalCommercialRemover=true if the above doesn't work.

Refer to the MCEBuddy Advanced Commands for more details on the above.

The video I'm converting succeeds but has garbled video and audio

Cause

The video is copy protected.

Resolution

Record a non-copy protected video. There is no way to convert copy protected videos. To check for Copy Protection, right click on the video -> click properties. Check the Video properties page and look for the copy protection field.

When I use the MKV profile, I am unable to play it back with Windows Media Player

Cause

There is no MKV Media Splitter for Windows Media Player

Resolution

Download and install a MKV Media Splitter, e.g. Haali Media Splitter

When I use the NoRecode profile, I am unable to play it back with Windows Media Player

Cause

Windows does not have a MPEG-2 video splitter installed

Resolution

Download and install a MPEG-2 video splitter. e.g. FFDSHOW

My video is stuttering/broken after conversion

Cause

Source video is corrupted or broken
Check the log files, if the average rate of dropped and/or duplicate frames are high, MCEBuddy is unable to detect the correct video frame rate which leads to stuttering video.

Resolution

For corrupted original video, check the quality of the recording signal. A low quality signal can lead to corrupted recordings.

For incorrect frame rate issues, open mcebuddy.conf. Under the section [FFMpegBackupRemux], replace auto in -r auto with the correct frame rate of the video. (this can be done via trial and error or with the help of 3rd party software)

e.g. -r 25
e.g. -r 30*1000/1001

Refer to MCEBuddy Advanced Commands for more details.

My original video has 6 channel/multichannel audio but my converted file only has stereo/2 channel audio

Cause

MCEBuddy by default limits all the output audio to 2 channel audio (stereo) to preserve compatibility with many 3rd party players and Windows Media Player (which doesn't support multichannel audio)

Resolution

In MCEBuddy, in the Conversion Tasks page, under Advanced Settings, enable Multichannel Audio. This will tell MCEBuddy to output multichannel audio if the source video has multichannel audio.

System does not wake up from standy/suspend even though I've enabled the Wake option in the settings page

Cause

Windows (Vista and 7) sometimes by default sets the Operating System to disable Wake Up timers. this is especially true for portable systems and laptops. When the System Wakeup timers are disabled no application can wake up the system from standy/suspend mode.

Resolution

Make sure Wake Timers are enabled in the system. Follow the steps below to enable Wake Timers.
1. Open the Control Panel (start -> Control Panel)
2. Look for Power Options and open it
3. For the active plan (the plan with the dot next to it), click on Change Plan Settings
4. Click on Change Advanced Power Settings
5. Click on the + next to the Sleep option
6. Click on the + next to Allow Wake Timers
7. Set the option to Enable for On Battery and Plugged In
8. Click OK

MCEBuddy does not start and stop at the time entered in the Settings page

Cause

The wake and start time are accidentally set in a 12 hour mode

Resolution

Set the start and stop time in a 24 hour mode. i.e. 01:30 PM should be set as 13:30

All my conversions keeps failing OR files are immediately removed from the queue after starting the conversion OR random files keep failing at random points OR my conversion never finishes (it just hangs)

Cause

MCEBuddy is running out of diskspace and the conversions fail in between at random points when it runs out of disk space. This is aggrevated when multiple conversions are being used.
Antivirus software is interfering with the conversion

Resolution

a) Sometimes Antivirus software such as AVAST are known to interfere with MCEBuddy. These software lock down the file when it is accessed by MCEBuddy and this causes the conversion not to start, hang or randomly fail. Try to disable the Antivirus and see if that solves the problem.

b) MCEBuddy needs 3 TIMES the size of the file being converted as free space on the INSTALLATION DRIVE. i.e. If MCEBuddy is installed on C drive and you're converting a 4GB file then you need 12GB of free space on C drive.

NOTE: MCEBuddy needs 1.5X free space for EACH file being converted simultaneously. i.e. if you have 3 simultaneous conversions and each file is 4GB in size, you need 1.5x3x4 = 18GB of free space on the installation directory!

If you do not have enough space in the installation drive, you have 2 options
1. Reduce the number of simultaneous conversions
2. Set the temp directory to point to a different drive where there is more space. Refer to MCEBuddy Advanced Commands for more details.

I pressed Start, I can see the files in the queue but Conversion task is showing Idle or Paused

Cause

The Start/Stop conversion time scheduler has been set on the settings page and the current time is not within the specified conversion period

The Pause button has been pressed

Resolution

There are the following options:
1. Wait for the conversion time period specified in the settings page and MCEBuddy will start automatically
2. Click settings and change/disable the Start/Stop time period in the settings page
3. Click on the Resume button on the GUI page

I'm not able to use a network path for Monitor Path or Destination Path. It gives an error or nothing happens

Cause

Network path is password protected
Network path is already mapped by Windows
Network path is offline

Resolution

a) Make sure you enter the username and password in the MCEBuddy Credential box next to the Monitor Path or Destination Path text box by clicking on the button.

b) Check if the path has already been mapped by Windows, this can create a conflict.
To check the mappings, open a command prompt (Start -> Run -> cmd). Type net use and it should show you the mapped drives. You'll have to disconnect the necessary paths (net /delete <pathname>).
Alternatively, map your path to a drive in window (explorer -> tools -> map network drive) and then don't enter any username and password in mcebuddy instead use the mapped drive.

c) Make sure the network drive is connected and accessible.

Windows is VERY FINICKY. You cannot MAP the same COMPUTER 2 times with different logins.

If you've connected to the remote computer using Windows Explorer or the Run command, then you've already logged in with one set of credentials. If MCEBuddy now tries to connect with the configured credentials it will FAIL since Windows will reject it.

1. Either use your own credentials and MAP the remote computer folder using Windows explorer and DO NOT enter any credentials in the Monitor Task or Conversion task pages for that remote computer. In this case MCEBuddy will use the Windows Explorer credentials.

OR

2. Enter the credentials in the MCEBuddy Monitor Task and Conversion Task page and let MCEBuddy connect to the remote computer.

Remember you CANNOT DO BOTH of the above, otherwise MCEBuddy will not be able to access the remote computer.

When I extract Closed Captions (CC) as SubTitles, the subtitles are out of sync from the start by a few seconds

Cause

By default all conversion profiles have a -ss 3 in the video conversion parameters. While this is necessary for a smooth conversion, the -ss 3 causes the conversion to skip the first 3 seconds of the video. This causes the subtitles generated to be out of sync by 3 seconds from the video

Resolution

In the Conversion Task settings page, next to the checkbox labled Extract CC, in the box labled Offset, enter -3. This will cause MCEBuddy to timeshift all the Subtitles back by 3 seconds which will compensate for the -ss 3 shift caused by the profile settings.

How do I use my custom EDL and Closed Caption/Subtitles files while converting the videos

Resolution

Place the .EDL and/or .SRT files along with the source video. MCEBuddy will automatically pick up these files (make sure Remove Ads is set to Comskip or Showanalyzer and/or Extract CC is enabled in the Conversion Task - MCEBuddy will use the custom EDL/SRT files before generating new ones). Also make sure they have the same name as the source video.

e.g. Source video -> MySerial.wtv
EDL File -> MySerial.edl
SRT File -> MySerial.srt

Refer to the MCEBuddy Advanced Commands for more details on Custom EDL/SRT Files.

I'm trying to convert my video but after a few minutes the converted file has no audio

Cause

TV shows sometimes change the audio formats between shows/advertisements which causes FFMPEG, Mencoder to fail.

Resolution

Calculate (in seconds) the amount of time the previous show/advertisements are recorded before the start of the main show, add a few seconds to it for safety and put that value in the Start Trim box under Conversion Tasks -> Advanced Settings.

E.g. There is 2 minutes and 30 seconds of video before the main show starts, put 155 in the Start Trim box.

Similarly calcuate the number of seconds after the show ends of video that is recorded (next show/advertisements) and put that value in the End Trim box.

This will make MCEBuddy trim the start and end of the video and leave just the show for conversions which should solve the problem of changing audio formats.

Updated Wiki: Latest Version

rboy1 — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:43:36 GMT

This page is used to communicate the latest version (between the BEGIN and END lines)

It is also used to communicate any critical announcements. Make sure it is only 1 line between the announcement tags (the : signifies the start and end of the tag, the text should come between the :'s).
With each announcement, one Link can be associated. (the annoucement and link should be put between the :'s on each line respectively). The link must be hyperlinked (i.e. must have a html link code associated with it).

FORMAT for communication latest version
Latest Version:<platform x86 or x64>:<version string major.minor.build>:<release or beta>:EOV

BEGIN VERSION COMMUNICATION
Latest Version:x86:2.3.12:Release:EOV
Latest Version:x64:2.3.12:Release:EOV
END VERSION COMMUNICATION

BEGIN ANNOUNCEMENT
Announcement:Donate to mcebuddy@yahoo.com:Announcement
Link:https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/send-money-online:Link
DonationLink:https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/send-money-online:DonationLink
END ANNOUNCEMENT

Updated Wiki: Latest Version

rboy1 — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:43:20 GMT

This page is used to communicate the latest version (between the BEGIN and END lines)

FORMAT for communication latest version
Latest Version:<platform x86 or x64>:<version string major.minor.build>:<release or beta>:EOV

BEGIN VERSION COMMUNICATION
Latest Version:x86:2.3.12:Release:EOV
Latest Version:x64:2.3.12:Release:EOV
END VERSION COMMUNICATION

BEGIN ANNOUNCEMENT
Announcement:Loveit? Donate to mcebuddy@yahoo.com:Announcement
Link:https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/send-money-online:Link
DonationLink:https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/send-money-online:DonationLink
END ANNOUNCEMENT

Updated Wiki: Documentation

rboy1 — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:36:48 GMT

Love it? Click here to donate to mcebuddy@yahoo.com

This Wiki contains the FAQ's and User Guide to using MCEBuddy 2.x

In this Wiki you can find basic usage guides, advanced conversion parameters and FAQ's. These will updated from time to time to keep up with feedback and changes.

See the Table of Contents at the bottom of this page to get a list of all the help pages/guides

The getting started basic MCEBuddy User Guide is availiable at MCEBuddy User Guide

To understand the basics or advanced features of MCEBuddy, use the Documentation link and browse the pages.
If you have any questions, please use the Discussion page to ask questions and get answers
If you have found any bugs, please use the Issue Tracker link to submit them with as many details as possible to allow us to replicate.If possible upload a directly there or to an FTP server below and provide the filename in the ticket.
If you have any enhancements, suggestions or feature requests, please use the Dicussions page to submit them with details/scenarios
If you want the latest version of MCEBuddy, goto the Downloads link. Each release has it's own directory and the 32bit and 64bit versions for each release are in each directory. Remote Client Installation is OPTIONAL. You can extract the files from the zip archive into a local folder and run MCEBuddy.GUI directly from there (helps when there is no administrative rights).

Hope you enjoy this program.

Ramit & Derek

PS - Thanks to Suma for help with getting the User Guide done.

Table of Contents

Updated Wiki: Home

rboy1 — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:36:20 GMT

Love it? Click here to donate to mcebuddy@yahoo.com

Click here to like MCEBuddy on FaceBook

MCEBuddy 2.x

Convert and Remove Commercials from your Videos and TV recordings.

Description

Convert and Remove Commercials from your Videos and TV recordings.

MCEBuddy takes your video recordings and REMOVES COMMERCIALS and Advertisements while converting your recordings into formats that are usable on other systems and portable devices. It does all of this automatically in the background with a minimum of fuss and little technical knowledge required.

Converts from WTV, DVR-MS, TS, MPEG and many other formats. Converts to WTV, MP4 , AVI, MKV, portable devices and others. Removes Commercials. Converts in the background at scheduled times.

Very easy simple user interface for basic users and an advanced options interface for power users to tweak the quality, volume, trim videos, extract subtitles, schedules, custom file renaming, eMail notifications, downloading show information from the internet, selecting audio language and many more features.

Check out the Getting Started User Guide here. More documentation here.

Features

Remove Commercials & Advertisements
Convert TV (HD/SD) Recordings and Videos
Shrink TV Recordings & Videos
Schedule Conversions
Multiple Simultaneous Conversions
Monitor Folders (runs in the background even without user logon)
Multi-channel Audio Support (AC3, DTS, AAC)
Multilingual Audio Language Selection
Multiple Audio Tracks
Simple Controls to Skip Cropping, Limit Video Width, Volume Adjustment, Quality Adjustment and more
Extract and Embed Closed Captions as Subtitles
Trim Videos
Custom File and Folder Renaming
eMail Notifications
Creating Chapters as Commercial Markers instead of Cutting Commercials
Archiving, Syncing Folders and Conversions
International/Regional Languages Support (39+ languages)
Supports WTV, DVR-MS, TS, MPG, MKV, MP4, AVI, WMV, TiVO (with MAK) and more
Support for Accessibility (Large Fonts / DPI Scaling)
Supports iTunes Style Metadata
Supports IMDB, MovieDB, TVDB, TV.com and advanced Metadata processing
Support metadata extraction from Windows Media Center, nPVR, MediaPortal, SageTV, ArgusTV and more
Supports FFMPEG, Handbrake and MEncoder
Supports Comskip and ShowAnalyzer
Supports Custom Commands/Programs
Support for Mobile/Portable devices (iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Zune, iRiver, Nokia, Meizu, PSP, PS3, XBox, Zen etc)
UPnP / NAT and Remote connections (control multiple engines from a mobile/desktop client remotely)
Power Management Support (Allow Sleep / Prevent Sleep / Wake Up)
Support for Windows XP (SP3), Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003/2008, Windows 7 and Windows 8
Windows Media Center Plugin (separate installation)

Download MCEBuddy 2.x here

Download the Media Center Plugin here

Updated Wiki: Latest Version

rboy1 — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:35:45 GMT

This page is used to communicate the latest version (between the BEGIN and END lines)

FORMAT for communication latest version
Latest Version:<platform x86 or x64>:<version string major.minor.build>:<release or beta>:EOV

BEGIN VERSION COMMUNICATION
Latest Version:x86:2.3.12:Release:EOV
Latest Version:x64:2.3.12:Release:EOV
END VERSION COMMUNICATION

BEGIN ANNOUNCEMENT
Announcement:Love it? Donate to mcebuddy@yahoo.com:Announcement
Link:https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/send-money-online:Link
DonationLink:https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/send-money-online:DonationLink
END ANNOUNCEMENT

Updated Wiki: Latest Version

rboy1 — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 23:12:17 GMT

This page is used to communicate the latest version (between the BEGIN and END lines)

FORMAT for communication latest version
Latest Version:<platform x86 or x64>:<version string major.minor.build>:<release or beta>:EOV

BEGIN VERSION COMMUNICATION
Latest Version:x86:2.3.12:Release:EOV
Latest Version:x64:2.3.12:Release:EOV
END VERSION COMMUNICATION

BEGIN ANNOUNCEMENT
Announcement:MCEBuddy needs your support, click here:Announcement
Link:https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_xclick&business=mcebuddy%40yahoo%2ecom&lc=US&item_name=Help%20MCEBuddy&no_shipping=1&tax=0:Link
DonationLink:https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_xclick&business=mcebuddy%40yahoo%2ecom&lc=US&item_name=Help%20MCEBuddy&no_shipping=1&tax=0:DonationLink
END ANNOUNCEMENT

Updated Wiki: Home

rboy1 — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 14:57:25 GMT

Love it? Click here to donate to MCEBuddy

Click here to like MCEBuddy on FaceBook

MCEBuddy 2.x

Convert and Remove Commercials from your Videos and TV recordings.

Description

Check out the Getting Started User Guide here. More documentation here.

Features

Remove Commercials & Advertisements
Convert TV (HD/SD) Recordings and Videos
Shrink TV Recordings & Videos
Schedule Conversions
Multiple Simultaneous Conversions
Monitor Folders (runs in the background even without user logon)
Multi-channel Audio Support (AC3, DTS, AAC)
Multilingual Audio Language Selection
Multiple Audio Tracks
Simple Controls to Skip Cropping, Limit Video Width, Volume Adjustment, Quality Adjustment and more
Extract and Embed Closed Captions as Subtitles
Trim Videos
Custom File and Folder Renaming
eMail Notifications
Creating Chapters as Commercial Markers instead of Cutting Commercials
Archiving, Syncing Folders and Conversions
International/Regional Languages Support (39+ languages)
Supports WTV, DVR-MS, TS, MPG, MKV, MP4, AVI, WMV, TiVO (with MAK) and more
Support for Accessibility (Large Fonts / DPI Scaling)
Supports iTunes Style Metadata
Supports IMDB, MovieDB, TVDB, TV.com and advanced Metadata processing
Support metadata extraction from Windows Media Center, nPVR, MediaPortal, SageTV, ArgusTV and more
Supports FFMPEG, Handbrake and MEncoder
Supports Comskip and ShowAnalyzer
Supports Custom Commands/Programs
Support for Mobile/Portable devices (iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Zune, iRiver, Nokia, Meizu, PSP, PS3, XBox, Zen etc)
UPnP / NAT and Remote connections (control multiple engines from a mobile/desktop client remotely)
Power Management Support (Allow Sleep / Prevent Sleep / Wake Up)
Support for Windows XP (SP3), Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003/2008, Windows 7 and Windows 8
Windows Media Center Plugin (separate installation)

Download MCEBuddy 2.x here

Download the Media Center Plugin here

New Comment on "Getting Started with MCEBuddy - User Guides"

Not_a_programer — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 03:09:02 GMT

You need a TV tuner that plugs into your computer that takes the video signal via the coax cable from the cable box, and allows your PC to see, play and record in windows media center. The files WMC creates are in a folder on our PC's harddrive and you configure MCEBuddy to go to that folder and convert them; removing commercials and saving in MPEG4... I suggest using MPEG4 as it's least likely to produce conversion and playback problems; and it's a format that allows them to play on just about anything by converting further MPEG4 to whatever you want for the device/player you need to satisfy for playback on that device (i.e. convert to smaller display device like a handheld player).

Updated Wiki: Latest Version

rboy1 — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 21:42:54 GMT

This page is used to communicate the latest version (between the BEGIN and END lines)

FORMAT for communication latest version
Latest Version:<platform x86 or x64>:<version string major.minor.build>:<release or beta>:EOV

BEGIN VERSION COMMUNICATION
Latest Version:x86:2.3.12:Release:EOV
Latest Version:x64:2.3.12:Release:EOV
END VERSION COMMUNICATION

BEGIN ANNOUNCEMENT
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Updated Wiki: Documentation

rboy1 — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 21:42:11 GMT

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This Wiki contains the FAQ's and User Guide to using MCEBuddy 2.x

In this Wiki you can find basic usage guides, advanced conversion parameters and FAQ's. These will updated from time to time to keep up with feedback and changes.

See the Table of Contents at the bottom of this page to get a list of all the help pages/guides

The getting started basic MCEBuddy User Guide is availiable at MCEBuddy User Guide

To understand the basics or advanced features of MCEBuddy, use the Documentation link and browse the pages.
If you have any questions, please use the Discussion page to ask questions and get answers
If you have found any bugs, please use the Issue Tracker link to submit them with as many details as possible to allow us to replicate.If possible upload a directly there or to an FTP server below and provide the filename in the ticket.
If you have any enhancements, suggestions or feature requests, please use the Dicussions page to submit them with details/scenarios
If you want the latest version of MCEBuddy, goto the Downloads link. Each release has it's own directory and the 32bit and 64bit versions for each release are in each directory. Remote Client Installation is OPTIONAL. You can extract the files from the zip archive into a local folder and run MCEBuddy.GUI directly from there (helps when there is no administrative rights).

Hope you enjoy this program.

Ramit & Derek

PS - Thanks to Suma for help with getting the User Guide done.

Table of Contents

Updated Wiki: Home

rboy1 — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 21:41:57 GMT

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MCEBuddy 2.x

Convert and Remove Commercials from your Videos and TV recordings.

Description

Check out the Getting Started User Guide here. More documentation here.

Features

Remove Commercials & Advertisements
Convert TV (HD/SD) Recordings and Videos
Shrink TV Recordings & Videos
Schedule Conversions
Multiple Simultaneous Conversions
Monitor Folders (runs in the background even without user logon)
Multi-channel Audio Support (AC3, DTS, AAC)
Multilingual Audio Language Selection
Multiple Audio Tracks
Simple Controls to Skip Cropping, Limit Video Width, Volume Adjustment, Quality Adjustment and more
Extract and Embed Closed Captions as Subtitles
Trim Videos
Custom File and Folder Renaming
eMail Notifications
Creating Chapters as Commercial Markers instead of Cutting Commercials
Archiving, Syncing Folders and Conversions
International/Regional Languages Support (39+ languages)
Supports WTV, DVR-MS, TS, MPG, MKV, MP4, AVI, WMV and more
Support for Accessibility (Large Fonts / DPI Scaling)
Supports iTunes Style Metadata
Supports IMDB, MovieDB, TVDB, TV.com and advanced Metadata processing
Support metadata extraction from Windows Media Center, nPVR, MediaPortal, SageTV, ArgusTV and more
Supports FFMPEG, Handbrake and MEncoder
Supports Comskip and ShowAnalyzer
Supports Custom Commands/Programs
Support for Mobile/Portable devices (iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Zune, iRiver, Nokia, Meizu, PSP, PS3, XBox, Zen etc)
UPnP / NAT and Remote connections (control multiple engines from a mobile/desktop client remotely)
Power Management Support (Allow Sleep / Prevent Sleep / Wake Up)
Support for Windows XP (SP3), Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003/2008, Windows 7 and Windows 8
Windows Media Center Plugin (separate installation)

Download MCEBuddy 2.x here

Download the Media Center Plugin here

Updated Wiki: MCEBuddy Advanced Commands

rboy1 — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 02:28:12 GMT

Advanced concepts to use MCEBuddy

MCEBuddy GUI Startup Options

MCEBuddy support the following options while starting the GUI (MCEBuddy.GUI.exe). Include these parameters by right clicking on the application short cut in the Start Menu and add them to the target path.

/startmin - Start the GUI minimized
/startengine - Force the engine to start (after connection with engine is established)

e.g. "C:\Program Files\MCEBuddy2x\MCEBuddy.GUI.exe" /startmin /startengine

Note: The parameters will come after the double quotes close and a space between each parameter

Tuning Comskip Commercial Detection

Comskip can be fine tuned to better detect and cut commercials for each country/region. There is a file names comskip.ini in the comskip directory in the MCEBuddy installation directory (by default C:\Program Files\MCEBuddy2x). The details of the tuning parameters can be found at: http://www.kaashoek.com/files/tuning.htm

If the video appears to get cut for about 3 seconds after the commerical ends (i.e. the commercial skipping cuts 3 seconds into the actual video post the end of the commerical), this could be because of the -ss settings in the <encoder>-video section of the profile. the -ss 3 command is required to get rid of corrupted video at the beginning to avoid audio sync issues. Remove the -ss 3 from the video parameters to fix this issue. Refer to the Audio Sync Issues section at the end of this document for details on the -ss command.

Multiple Audio Tracks in Converted File (v2.3.12+)

This only works with FFMPEG based profiles and if the source file has multiple audio tracks. Handbrake and MEncoder do not support converting/copying multiple audio tracks.

Select <Default> as the Audio Language in the conversion options AND add -map 0:a -map 0:v to the ffmpeg-video section for the FFMPEG profile and it will copy/convert all audio tracks.

Show Analyzer (v2.1.2+)

MCEBuddy supports ShowAnalyzer version 1.0 and greater. Once you download and install ShowAnalyzer it will show up as an option on the conversion profile settings page under commerical detection.

Filename and Showname Pattern Matching (v2.2.3+)

MCEBuddy supports multiple wildcard name matching to match shownames and filenames using the ; operator. E.g. once can specify *.wtv;*.avi*.mpg as the name selection criteria or ncis*;house*.mpg to match all names that start with ncis and house (ending with a .mpg).

If you want to specify a name avoid list, i.e. select all/abc files EXCEPT xyz, then prefix the name selection criteria with a ~ operator. E.g. ncis*;~ncis miami* will select all files that start with ncis but NOT those starting with ncis miami. E.g. *.*;~*.mp4;~*.avi will select all files except those starting with .mp4 and .avi

Name matching is case insensitive.

To select all default video types use the expression [video] which will match the following expression *.dvr-ms;*.wtv;*.asf;*.avi;*.divx;*.dv;*.flv;*.gxf;*.m1v;*.m2v;*.m2ts;*.m4v;*.mkv;*.mov;*.mp2;*.mp4;*.mpeg;*.mpeg1;*.mpeg2;*.mpeg4;*.mpg;*.mts;*.mxf;*.ogm;*.ts;*.vob;*.wmv;*.tp

For advanced users MCEBuddy also supports REGEX expressions. To provide a regex expression prefix the regex matching pattern with regex: and then the regex pattern (this is a very advanced concept).

Multiple Conversion Tasks Customized by ShowName or FileName (v2.2.3+)

Refer to Filename and Showname Pattern Matching above to understand how to create patterns for filename and shownames.

You can create multiple conversions tasks in MCEBuddy. Each conversion task will process each file in the queue. Order of conversions tasks do not matter when creating filename and showname filters. If you want to create custom conversion tasks for different files/shows you can do so with the help of the Filename or Showname pattern matching filters in the Conversion Tasks Settings page, under Advanced Settings.

For e.g. if you want to create 3 tasks, one that processes all NCIS files, one that processes all Star Trek files and one that processes all other files (i.e. default). To do so you will first create 3 conversion tasks.

In the first conversion task, where you want to process NCIS, under Filename or Showname filters (depending on what you want to filter based on, the name of the file or the name of the show taken from the metadata), you will enter NCIS* . This tell the conversion task to process only those files starting with NCIS.

In the second conversion task, where you want to process Star Trek files, under the Filename orShowname filter you will enter Star Trek* .

In the third conversion task, you want to process ALL other files (ie default), then you will enter the following *;~NCIS*;~Star Trek* . The first * tells the conversion task to process ALL files, the~NCIS* tells the task NOT to process files starting with NCIS and ~Star Trek* tells the task NOT to process files starting with Star Trek, i.e. process all files except those which are being processed by the first two tasks.

Custom File Renaming Pattern (v2.1.6+)

MCEBuddy allows you to create your own custom file name and directory structure using the metadata stored in the file and downloaded from the internet.

The following commands are currently supported by MCEBuddy

%originalfilename% - Name of the source file (without the path or extension)
%showname% - Showname / Title
%episodename% - Episode Name / Subtitle
%season%## - Season No
%episode%## - Episode No
%network% - Network channel on the show was recorded (v2.1.10+)
%airyear% - Original Air Year
%airmonth% - Original Air Month
%airmonthshort% - Original Air Month Name Abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%airmonthlong% - Original Air Month Full Name (v2.3.11+)
%airday% - Original Air Day
%airdayshort% - Original Air Day of Week Abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%airdaylong% - Original Air Day of Week Full Name (v2.3.11+)
%airhour% - Hour of air date (v2.3.6+)
%airhourampm% - Air date hour in AM/PM (v2.3.12+)
%airminute% - Minute of air date (v2.3.6+)
%recordyear% - Record Year
%recordmonth% - Record Month
%recordmonthshort% - Record Month Name Abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%recordmonthlong% - Record Month Full Name (v2.3.11+)
%recordday% - Record Day
%recorddayshort% - Record Day of Week Abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%recorddaylong% - Record Day of Week Full Name (v2.3.11+)
%recordhour% - Record Hour (v2.1.10+)
%recordhourampm% - Record Hour in AM/PM (v2.1.12+)
%recordminute% - Record Minute (v2.1.10+)
%ismovie%<RenamePatternIfTrue,RenamePatternIfFalse> - If recording is a movie rename using True pattern, else rename using False pattern (v2.3.12+)
\ - Directory Separator

E.g.: TVShows\%showname%\Season %season%\%showname% - S%season%##E%episode%## - %episodename% - %airyear%_%airmonth%_%airday%

Will produce: TVShows\CSI\Season 1\CSI - S01E02 - Best of times - 2012_01_06.<ext>

E.g.: Recording\%ismovie%<Movie\%showname%,TVShows\%showname%\Season %season%\%showname% - S%season%##E%episode%##>-Converted

Will produce:

Recording\Movies\Star Wars-Converted.<ext> (for a movie) OR

Recording\TVShows\CSI\Season 1\CSI - S01E02-Converted.<ext> (for non movies)

The extension is added automatically depending upon the profile specifications.

The number of #'s at the end for Episode and Season indicates the number of digits in the written number. E.g. %season%## will give the output at 01 while %season%### will give the output at 001. #'s are optional, leaving them out will write the number without any formatting. i.e. %season% will give 1 as the output.

Audio Sync/Missing Issues

Sometimes the audio and video go out of sync due to corruption at the start of the video. To solve this problem add the parameter -ss 10 at the BEGINNING of the <encoder>-video parameter in the profile. DO NOT put this parameter in the general parameters section. (do not forget the - before the ss and make sure there is a space between ss and 10)

E.g. ffmpeg-video=-ss 10

This indicates that ffmpeg will skip the first 10 seconds of the video/audio after decoding it (if you put this in the general parameters section then the encoder will skip over first 10 which DOES NOT solve the problem, the video/audio need to be first decoded and then discarded to be put back in sync).

You can play with the number to find the right mix, it can be as low as 3 or as high as 30 depending upon the corruption. You'll be surprised how many videos are corrupted at the start and FFMPEG is very sensitive to corruption as far as audio sync goes. You often cannot see the corruption while play the video (it will look okay), these are at the frame level and often ignored by players.

Also try to play with the AudioDelay parameter (given above). Set to skip to see if that resolves the issue. If the Audio sync is still off, try setting the AudioDelay number to +ve or -ve to advance or retard the audio sync and see how it behaves. It is a trial and error process.

If you're using FFMPEG or Handbrake as the encoder with your profile AND your output extension is .MP4 or .M4V AND your audio is going out of sync ONLY when you remove commercials (i.e. the Audio is in sync without commercials removal), try to use an alternative commerical stripping by using the command CutMP4Alternative=true in your profile.

If that doesn't work try using UniversalCommercialRemover=true in your profile. See above for more details.

Sometimes the Audio gets cut out completely in between a video. Try using PreConversionCommercialRemover=true in your profile. See above for more details.

Using Custom XML Files (v2.3.12+)

MCEBuddy looks for a XML file along with the original source video (with the same source video filename). It uses this file to extract Metadata information for non WTV/DVRMS files.

Also, it MCEBuddy find a XML file created during the conversion process (e.g. from Comskip), it will copy the XML file to to the destination directory along with the converted file.

Using Custom EDL Files (v2.3.12+)

MCEBuddy looks for a EDL file along with the original source video (with the same source video filename). If it finds the EDL file with the source video it copies the EDL file to the output directory along with the converted file.

MCEBuddy gives preference to the Custom EDL file over Comskip/ShowAnalyzer generated EDL files.

Using Custom SRT Files (v2.1.8+)

MCEBuddy looks for a SRT file along with the original source video OR in the temp working directory (with the same source video filename). If it finds the SRT file in either place it copies the SRT file to the output directory along with the converted video (with preference given to a SRT file in the temp working directory).

If ExtractCC is enabled in the Conversion Task -> Advanced Settings it will trim the Custom SRT file to be in sync with the EDL file (commercial removal). MCEBuddy gives preference to the Custom SRT files over the CC generated SRT file.

Comskip can be set to generate SRT files (output_srt=1) or CCExtractor can be used using from Custom Commands (if the ExtractCC from the GUI fails to work) to generate SRT files during the conversion process. Once generated, MCEBuddy will copy them to the output directory along with the converted file.

MultiThreading Support (v2.1.2+)

MCEBuddy by default calculates how many threads are required for the programs to run optimally. However this can be overridden manually by specifying the threads in the general parameters in the profiles file for each profile and encoder type.

Advanced parameters to configure MCEBuddy

(apply to mcebuddy.conf)

HOW TO MAKE CHANGES TO MCEBUDDY.CONF

DO NOT REPLACE the file mcebuddy.conf directly with an old version, it will break MCEBuddy. Open, edit and save it. The old version is preserved for your reference only.

CustomComskipPath=xyz (v2.1.12+)

This parameter can be set if you want a use a custom version of Comskip, e.g. a Donator version or special/old version, that is lying in a different directory than the one that ships with MCEBuddy.

e.g. CustomComskipPath=D:\Donator MCEBuddy\comskip.exe

NOTE: The path must be to the executable comskip AND the directory should contain ALL the files necessary for Comskip to run (comskip.ini, comskip.dictionary etc). When using this parameter the default comskip.ini that ships with MCEBuddy is NOT used rather it expects the comskip.ini to be present in the same directory as the custom comskip.exe.

If a special comskip.ini has been specified in the Conversion Task advanced settings page then that special comskip.ini that WILL be used rather than the one lying in the custom comskip.exe directory.

IgnoreCopyProtection=false (v2.1.12+)

By default, this value is false. If this is set to true, then MCEBuddy will ignore the Copy Protection flag on the recording if it encounters it during conversion. It will only record an error in the conversion log and continue the conversion. If the recording is really copy protected then the final video will be look garbled. This flag can help because sometimes videos are incorrectly flagged by recording software/tuners. When this is set to false, if MCEBuddy encounters an Copy Protection flag it will stop the conversion after logging an error.

UseRecycleBin=false (v2.1.12+)

By default, this value is false. If this is set to true, then MCEBuddy will use the Recycle Bin when deleting the original video recording and related files (like EDL, XML etc).

DownloadBanner=true (v2.1.12+)

By default, this value is true. If this is set to false, then MCEBuddy will not download the Banner file (artwork) for the movie or tv series. This can be used when you want to download the series information (check Download Series Details from the Conversion Task page) but not download the artwork / banner file.

CPUAffinity=<binary mask integer> (v2.1.12+)

This parameter can be set to set the CPU affinity mask. This limits MCEBuddy to 1 or more processors only as specified in the bitmask. While this number is written as an integer, the integer represent a binary mask with each bit representing a processor. HINT: Convert the integer to a binary representation, each bit in the binary number presents a CPU processor.

E.g.:

CPUAffinity=1 will select the 1st CPU processor

CPUAffinity=2 will select the 2nd CPU processor

CPUAffinity=3 will select the 1st and 2nd CPU processor

CPUAffinity=4 will select the 3rd CPU processor

CPUAffinity=5 will select the 1st and 3rd CPU processor

CPUAffinity=6 will select the 2nd and 3rd CPU processor

CPUAffinity=7 will select the 1st, 2nd and 3rd CPU processor

TempWorkingPath=xyz (v2.1.2+)

This parameter is used to manually specific the temp working directory for MCEBuddy, i.e. xyz. By default MCEBuddy uses a directory called working within the MCEBuddy installation directory (e.g. C:\Program Files\MCEBuddy2x\working) (it will make multiple directories if using multiple simultaneous conversions with a number at the end for each parallel conversion, e.g. working0, working1 etc). This has to be a complete working path with rights to be able to create, modify and delete files/directories else the conversion might fail. This parameter should come under the section [Engine] in the conf file.

E.g. TempWorkingPath=D:\Temp\MCEBuddy

PollPeriod=xxx (v2.1.2+)

This parameter specifies how often MCEBuddy should check the Monitor Locations for new files. xxx is defined in number of seconds. This parameter should come under the section [Engine] in the conf file.

E.g. PollPeriod=150

NOTE: By default MCEBuddy uses 300 seconds as the interval to check for new files.

LocalServerPort=xxx (v2.2.16+)

This parameter specifies the TCP/IP port of the installed MCEBuddy server engine on the local machine. MCEBuddy registers this port with the any UPnP enabled routers on the network by default to enable remote connections from outside the network (NAT). This is the MCEBuddy GUI application should connect to for the local machine. The default port used by MCEBuddy is 23332. This parameter should come under the section [Engine] in the conf file.

E.g. ServerPort=23332

SubtitleSegmentOffset=x.x (v2.3.12+)

This parameter is used when the subtitles go progressively out of sync after commercials are removed from the video. This happens because when a video is cut, the video is aligned with the next GOP and I Frame sequence which can be a few seconds away from the actual cutting point. Hence each time the video is cut the subtitles get progressively out of sync with the video. This setting is used to bring the subtitles back into sync with the video. Each time the video commercial is cut out, the subtitles are time shifted by this amount (+ve or -ve in seconds), hence bringing the subtitles back into sync with the video segments.

E.g. SubtitleSegmentOffset=5.4

HangPeriod=xxx (v2.2.4+)

This parameter specifies how long MCEBuddy will wait for a console output from the application (e.g. handbrake or ffmpeg etc) before it determines that the application has hung and terminates it. xxx is defined in number of seconds. This parameter should come under the section [Engine] in the conf file. Use 0 to disable hang detection (i.e. MCEBuddy will wait forever for the process to exist normally).

E.g. HangPeriod=500

NOTE: By default MCEBuddy uses 300 seconds as the interval to determine a hung application

FFMpegBackupRemux (v2.1.12+)

This is a special section in the configuration file that stores the command parameters for the ReMux operations which are carried out using FFMPEG if the main ReMuxSupp application fails/not used to remux the video. First the CopyRemux is used, if that fails then the SlowRemux is used. CopyRemux is used first for MPEG2 video files to stream copy the video without recoding the video. If the original video is not MPEG2 or CopyRemux fails then SlowRemux parameters are used to remux the video. THESE SHOULD NOT BE CHANGED UNLESS THE BACKUP REMUX IS COMPLETELY FAILING. Each of these entries will have a number after them like CopyRemux0, CopyRemux1, SlowRemux0, SlowRemux1 etc. These numbers indicate successive remux parameters to be tried if the previous one fails, i.e. if SlowRemux0 fails then MCEBuddy will look for SlowRemux1 and if that fails then it looks for SlowRemux2 etc.

You can also specify -i <source> in the remux parameters as a placeholder for the input filename which MCEBuddy will replace at runtime. This can be useful if you want to specify parameters before the input file in the FFMPEG parameter command.

E.g. CopyRemux0 = -fflags +genpts -i <source> -map 0:a -map 0:v -vcodec copy -acodec copy

MCEBuddy automatically detects the frame rate of the video through the use of -r auto in the FFMPEG Remux parameters in CopyRemux and SlowRemux. This can be disabled by removing -r auto. It can also be overridden by manually specifying the frame rate to use (which can be useful if the average rate of dropped and/or duplicate frames is very high leading to stuttering videos).

E.g. -r auto
E.g. -r 25
E.g. -r 30*1000/1001

MCEBuddy monitors the Average Rate of Dropped frames and Average Rate of Duplicate frames, the key is average rate and not absolute value. If this exceeds a threshold then the auto detected frame rate is incorrect and needs to be corrected. These thresholds can be specified in the parameters RemuxDropThreshold and RemuxDuplicateThreshold. If that threshold is exceeded you may need to manually specify the frame rate (see above).

E.g. RemuxDropThreshold=3.0
E.g. RemuxDuplicateThreshold=3.0

[FFMpegBackupRemux]
CopyRemux0=<FFMPEG Remux parameters>
SlowRemux0=<FFMPEG Remux parameters>
SlowRemux1=<FFMPEG Remux parameters>
RemuxDropThreshold=<Average Rate of Dropped Frames threshold>
RemuxDuplicateThreshold=<Average Rate of Duplicate Frames threshold>

Advanced parameters to tweak the conversion

(apply to each profile in profiles.conf)

Inserting Special Commands (v2.3.12+)

You can get MCEBuddy to insert special commands in the 4 sections of the profile

<encoder>-general
<encoder>-video
<encoder>-audio
<encoder>-audioac3

The following special commands will be replaced by MCEBuddy at runtime:

<source_without_ext> - Source filename without extension
<source> - source filename
<converted_without_ext> - Output filename without extension
<converted> - Output filename

E.g. mencoder-general = -sub "<converted_without_ext>.srt" -ss 3

will be replaced at runtime with (assuming the output file is c:\temp\test file.avi):

mencoder-general = -sub "c:\temp\Test File.srt" -ss 3

NOTE: MCEBuddy does not put quotes around the replacement parameters, some command expect quotes to be sure to put quotes where required.

ForceWTVStreamsRemuxing=true (v2.3.12+)

NOTE: By default Streams remuxing is used for DVR-MS files and also as the last option for WTV files if all else fails.

AllowH264CopyRemuxing=true (v2.3.12+)

This parameter tells MCEBuddy to internally allow remuxing H264 video into a TS format without converting it to MPEG2 video first. This can be used when one wants to change the format of the video while retaining the original H264 video without recoding it. E.g. from WTV to MP4 or WTV to MKV or WTV to TS, or even WTV to WTV and remove commercials etc.

For more details on this refer to this thread http://mcebuddy2x.codeplex.com/discussions/431449

NOTE: The limitation on this is that Comskip cannot be used for commercial removal since comskip does not support H264 in TS processing, however ShowAnalyzer can be used in it's place.

UseWTVRemuxsupp=true (v2.3.11+)

This parameter tells MCEBuddy to use Remuxsupp FIRST to remux WTV files before trying other remuxers. This can help with some videos (rare) that not remuxed properly with FFMPEG or other remuxers but work with Remuxsupp. Usually Remuxsupp does not work well with many videos.
NOTE: This only helps in certain situations where files remuxed by FFMPEG are not able to be converted by MEncoder.

ForceEDL=true (v2.1.4+)

This is only effective when Comskip is enabled and Custom EDL files are not provided. When the commercial removal option is set to Comskip it tells MCEBuddy to force use the EDL file instead of the EDLP file from Comskip. EDL/EDLP files indicate the sections (timestamps) of the video to cut (commercials), however the timestamps differ slight for each video format, some use EDL and others EDLP. If your video/show is getting cut before/after commercials by a few seconds then try using this parameter.
NOTE: By default MCEBuddy uses EDL for .TS files and EDLP for all others

ForceEDLP=true (v2.1.4+)

This is only effective when Comskip is enabled and Custom EDL files are not provided. When the commercial removal option is set to Comskip it tells MCEBuddy to use the EDLP file instead of the EDL file from Comskip. EDL/EDLP files indicate the sections (timestamps) of the video to cut (commercials), however the timestamps differ slight for each video format, some use EDL and others EDLP. If your video/show is getting cut before/after commercials by a few seconds then try using this parameter.
NOTE: By default MCEBuddy uses EDL for .TS files and EDLP for all others

FixedResolution=true (v2.1.4+)

This tells MCEBUddy not to change source video resolution while converting (keep source resolution). When this paramter is set, MCEBuddy ignores the resolution slider on the conversion profile page.

SkipCropping=true (v2.1.4+)

This tells MCEBuddy not to autodetect crop information and skip cropping the video. This helps when the video edges are being cut off or if you have a video with no black bars on the sides to be removed, it will speed up the conversion process. Auto cropping can also sometimes skew the aspect ratio, so setting this will make MCEBuddy skip cropping.

<encoder>-AudioDelay=xxx/auto/skip (v2.1.2-2.2.18, 2.2.19+)

This parameter is set for each encoder type, e.g. ffmpeg, mencoder or handbrake
When xxx is set to skip then it tells MCEBuddy to skip auto correction of audio delay (sync). This is useful for some file formats such as AVI where audio gets skewed on auto correction.
If this parameter is set to a numerical value, then this parameter is used to manually specify the audio delay correction to correct audio sync, xxx is a +ve or a -ve number in seconds. If the value is equal to auto, it adds or subtracts the delay specified to the auto calculated audio delay for the video. A value of 0 means that MCEBuddy will skip any delay correction.
By default this this parameter is set to skip.

E.g. mencoder-AudioDelay=0.85

2ChannelAudio=true (v2.1.5 - v2.1.9, v2.2.13+)

When this parameter is set MCEBuddy limits the output audio to 2 channels irrespective of number of inputs channels
This can be useful to when specialized devices/software can read only 2 channels
By default MCEBuddy sets the output channels to the number of input channels
(As of 2.1.10, this can also be set in the Conversion Task GUI - profile overrides GUI)

MEncoderEDLSkip=true (v2.1.4+)

This parameter tells MCEBuddy not to use the EDL command with MEncoder to remove commercials from the video during conversion (which can save time but sometime cause the audio to go out of sync in rare cases).
If this parameter is set then MCEBuddy will remove the commercials AFTER the conversion is completed by using MP4Box to cut the commercials. Please do not set CutMP4Alternative=true when using this parameter.
This can be used to if converting with Mencoder is causing your Audio to go out of sync while removing commercials (it has no impact if commercial stripping is disabled) and none of the other parameters (-ss 30 or mencoder-audiodelay=skip ) do not work.

UniversalCommercialRemover=true (v2.3.11+)

When is parameter is set it tells MCEBuddy to use the Universal Commercial Remover after the conversion is complete (where as the default are very specific commercials remover functions for each file type, but they can sometimes fail as they are very sensitive to errors and sync issues). This helps when the standard profile is failing or causing audio issues during the commercial removal stage. While this cutter can leave some artifacts where the video is cut, however it works on ALL file types and will work successfully without any audio sync issues.

The other advantage of UniversalCommercialRemover=true is that it support files with multiple audio tracks and preserves them where as other mechanisms may or may not support depending up the file type.

(v2.3.12+) Setting UniversalCommercialRemover=true will force all commercials to be cut post conversion, unless PreConversionCommercialRemover=true is set. This can be used an option if commercial removal are failing or if a new file format is being used which is not natively supported by MCEBuddy.

PreConversionCommercialRemover=true (v2.3.12+)

When is parameter is set it tells MCEBuddy to use the Universal Commercial Remover to remove the commercials before the conversion (rather than the usual case of removing commercials after conversion). This helps when the conversion is failing during the commercial removal stage. While this cutter can leave some artifacts where the video is cut, however it works on ALL file types and will work successfully without any audio sync issues. This option is independent of UniversalCommercialRemover. If the preconversion commercial removal fails, it will automatically fall back to the post conversion commercial remover.

CutMP4Alternate=true (v2.1.4+)

When is parameter is set it tells MCEBuddy to use an alternative mechanism for remove commercials from MP4 and M4V files after the conversion is complete. By default MCEBuddy uses MP4Box to remove commercials during the last step, if this parameter is set it will use MEncoder to remove commercials. This helps sometime when the Audio Goes out of sync with the video after using Comskip/ShowAnalyzer but is in sync without Comskip. NOTE: This parameter is only effective when using using FFMPEG or Handbrake encoders. When using mEncdoder as the encoder, this parameter has NO effect as the commercial will always be stripped during the conversion itself (unlike FFMPEG and Handbrake, who's commercials are stripped out AFTER the conversion is complete).

CommercialSkipCut=true (v2.1.4+)

If this parameter is set, it tells MCEBuddy to do the Commercial Scan but NOT to cut the commercials. Instead it will copy the generated EDL file to the output directory along with the converted file.
Comskip generates 2 types of files, EDL and EDLP. Use the ForceEDL and ForceEDLP command to specify which file to use. See above for more details.
NOTE: When this parameter is set, the Closed Caption/SRT files generated will NOT be trimmed to match the EDL file.

Running Custom Commands (v2.1.8+)

MCEBuddy can provide the user with an option to run a single command at the end of the conversion process just before the file is renamed and moved to the destination directory.
To do so ALL the following 4 parameters need to be defined for the profile for which a custom command needs to be run.

CustomCommandPath=<Full Path of the executable>

CustomCommandParameters=<Optional parameters to be passed - see below for list>

CustomCommandHangPeriod=<0 or +ve number>

CustomCommandCritical=<true or false>

In the CustomCommandParameters you can use the parameter:

%convertedfile% - will be replaced with the full name and path of converted file as part of the parameters passed to the custom program.
%sourcefile% - will be replaced with the name and path of the original source video.
%remuxfile% - will be replaced with the name and path of the intermediary .TS file generated in the temp working directory if the source video is a WTV or DVR-MS file. Please note this will be blank if the source video is not a WTV or DVR-MS file. The following data is extracted from the Source Video metadata when available
%srtfile% - Full path to SRT file, if it exists, otherwise blank (v.2.3.12+)
%edlfile% - Full path to EDL file, if it exists, otherwise blank (v.2.3.12+)
%workingpath% - Full path to the temp folder where the converted file is kept (v.2.3.12+)
%originalfilepath% - Full path of the source file
%originalfilename% - Name of the source file (without the path or extension)
%showname% - Title of the show
%episodename% - Subtitle of the show
%episodedescription% - Description of the show
%season%## - Season no
%episode%## - Episode no
%bannerfile% - Full path to downloaded banner file
%bannerurl% - URL to banner file
%imdbmovieid% - IMDB.com Movie Id
%movieid% - MovieDB.com Movie Id
%seriesid% - TVDB.com Series Id
%genre% - Genre
%ismovie% - True or False if the video is a movie
%airyear% - Year of air date
%airmonth% - Month of air date
%airmonthshort% - Month of air date abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%airmonthlong% - Month of air date full name (v2.3.11+)
%airday% - Day of air date (v2.3.6+)
%airdayshort% - Day of air date abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%airdaylong% - Day of air date full name (v2.3.11+)
%airhour% - Hour of air date (v2.3.6+)
%airhourampm% - Hour of air date in AM/PM (v2.3.12+)
%airminute% - Minute of air date (v2.3.6+)
%recordyear% - Year of record date
%recordmonth% - Month of record date
%recordmonthshort% - Month of record date abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%recordmonthlong% - Month of record date full name (v2.3.11+)
%recordday% - Day of record date (v2.3.11+)
%recorddayshort% - Day of week from record date abbreviation (v2.3.11+)
%recorddaylong% - Day of week from record date full name (v2.3.11+)
%recordhour% - Hour of record date (v2.3.12+)
%recordhourampm% - Hour of record date in AM/PM (v.2.3.12+)
%recordminute% - Minute of record date
%network% - Network channel on the show was recorded

CustomCommandParameters is CASE SENSITIVE.

e.g. CustomCommandPath = C:\Test 1\test.exe

e.g. CustomCommandParameters = /i "%convertedfile%" /o "%sourcefile%" -t

In the above exampled, %convertedfile% will be replaced by the full path and filename of the converted file. The %sourcefile% will be replaced with the full path and name of the original source video.

(v2.1.4 - v2.3.12) MCEBuddy encloses the parameters in DOUBLE QUOTES.

(v2.3.12+) MCEBuddy does NOT enclose the parameters in DOUBLE QUOTES. Some applications required the parameters to be in DOUBLE QUOTES, so YOU need to ADD the DOUBLE QUOTES around the parameters in the CustomCommandParameters as shown in the example above.

The number of #'s at the end for Episode and Season indicates the number of digits in the written number. E.g. %season%## will give the output at 01 while %season%### will give the output at 001. #'s are optional, leaving them out will write the number without any formatting. i.e. %season% will give 1 as the output.

NOTE: While running a custom command, the output is redirected to the log file with a debug log status.

CustomCommandHangPeriod represents the number of SECONDS MCEBuddy will wait during which if no output is detected and logged to the log file and it determines the process to be hung and kills it. Set it to 0 to DISABLE hang detection. Please note that if hang detection is disabled, MCEBuddy will wait endlessly for the process to finish before proceeding (or the task is deleted/stopped).

CustomCommandCritical, when this is set to true, MCEBuddy will fail the entire conversion if the custom command is invalid or if the process is terminated (due to hang detection). If it is set to false then MCEBuddy will continue with the conversion processing irrespective of the custom command failure/success UNLESS the converted file has been renamed or deleted. By default the value is false.

NOTE: MCEBuddy will fail the conversion process if the custom command deletes or renames the converted file (%convertedfile%). Also note, Custom Command will fail if it cannot find the file specified (avoid using executables files on network drives since MCEBuddy uses the Windows Service account to access network drives and sometimes these are not mapped correctly due to credential issues)

Updated Wiki: Latest Version

rboy1 — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 15:55:20 GMT

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