A postprocessing script for the Plex DVR. Removes commercials, adds chapter markers, extracts captions as subtitles, and converts to mkv. Requires comskip, comcut, ccextractor, ffmpeg, and HandbrakeCLI.
npm install plex-dvrplex-dvr
========
This script accepts a transport stream as an argument [FILE] and does
the following:
1. Copies the original ts to a subdirectory within the system tmpdir
2. Runs comskip to find commercial boundaries*. If found, it
1. Deletes them using comcut
2. Generates chapter boundaries at commercial breaks
3. Extracts closed captions as subtitles
4. Remuxes to mp4 to add chapter markers
5. Transcodes to mkv to compress and add subtitles
6. Cleans up after itself
1. Deletes original ts
2. Deletes temporary files
3. Moves mkv to source directory (presumably .grab/)
It does all of this while respecting quiet hours and ensuring only one file is being processed at a time. It also produces detailed logs on its own and adds begin/end lines to the PMS logs.
- ffmpeg: https://ffmpeg.org/
- comskip: https://github.com/erikkaashoek/Comskip
- comcut: https://github.com/BrettSheleski/comchap
- ccextractor: https://github.com/CCExtractor/ccextractor
- HandbrakeCLI: https://handbrake.fr/downloads.php
You can likely get some or all of these programs from your package manager.
As of Plex Media Server v1.19.3, the postprocessing script _must_ be called from the Scripts directory inside the application data directory.
``shell script`
$ plex-dvr [options] [FILE]
| option | type | description |
| :-: |:-: | --- |
| --help, -h | | show CLI help |--verbose
| , -v | | Verbose logging to the console. |--debug
| , -d | | Include stdout and stderr from all tools in logs (overrides verbose flag) |--encoder
| , -e | string | Video encoder string to pass to Handbrake. Run HandbrakeCLI --help to see available encoders. |--encoder-preset
| | string | Video encoder preset to pass to Handbrake. Run HandbrakeCLI --encoder-preset-list to see available presets. |--quiet-time
| , -q | string | Quiet time, in the format of NN-NN where NN is an hour on the 24-hour clock (0 being midnight, 23 being 11pm). Default value 03-12 because I am a night owl. |--ignore-quiet-time
| | | Process file immediately without checking against quiet time hours. |--ccextractor-location
| | string | [default: ccextractor] CCExtractor binary location |--comcut-location
| | string | [default: comcut] Comcut binary location |--comskip-location
| | string | [default: comskip] Comskip binary location |--ffmpeg-location
| | string | [default: ffmpeg] ffmpeg binary location |--handbrake-location
| | string | [default: HandBrakeCLI] Handbrake binary location |--handbrake-presets-import
| | string | Load Handbrake presets file. Defaults to whatever presets are available in the gui, or barring that, nothing. |--handbrake-preset-name
| | string | Name of preset to select from gui or supplied preset file |--[no-]keep-original
| | | Prevent original .ts file produced by Plex's DVR from being deleted. Default behavior is to delete. |--[no-]keep-temp
| | | Prevent temporary working directory from being deleted. Default behavior is to delete. |--sample-config
| | | Print default config values & config directory location and exit. |
`shell script``
plex-dvr /path/to/video
plex-dvr -q 22-06 -e vt_h264 /path/to/video
plex-dvr looks for your comskip.ini file at $HOME/.config/plex-dvr/comskip.ini
You can also save yourself some hassle and set any of the above options as
default in $HOME/.config/plex-dvr/config.json. They will be overwritten by CLI
options.