Comments regarding The Complete Guide: XBMC / WMC / ServerWMC
#1
Wow, some nice guides you've included here

I hope you don't mind if I throw a couple critiques in with the kudos . . .

-If you could spread the major portions across multiple posts per portion it would be easier for me to follow (probably poor reading comprehension on my part, but sections are just easier to digest - you get the added benefit of being able to create a hyperlink for each post which you can use in a table of contents)

(2014-04-23, 06:32)advocate99 Wrote: MCEBuddy can be configured to convert the files from .wtv to .mp4 (which are about ¼ the size of a wtv file)
This is wildly incorrect, but I believe you are passing this info along from somewhere else perhaps? I wonder where this info is spread from, because there are many who believe that a WTV file is hugely bloated compared to mkv and mp4 containers. The difference in the containers is less than 3%, but there used to be a default setting in MCEBuddy which would process your wtv files from a width of 1920 down to a width of 720. I honestly think this was purposefully making people think they were saving tons of space and ending up with 720p files without realizing they were ending up with 720 x 405 mp4 files rather than 1280 x 720. Obviously shrinking the size by that much will lower the overall size of any video file. Cutting portions of the video out (comskip) will also lower the file size. The conversion from wtv is really more of a convenience for multiple devices, not for file size

(2014-04-23, 06:32)advocate99 Wrote: Folders: Click “Use Credentials for non-windows XBMC clients” and then enter the username/password you created in step 6. Click Save
This is not necessary if you disable password protected sharing in windows control panel. I prefer to share files without passwords since it makes short work of accessing those files on my lan, and I have no problem accessing those shares from android, osx, or linux




PS - Also, krusty or other mods, is there no way for forum users like advocate99 to reserve posts when creating a guide like this? I realize multiple posts in our XBMC forums are truncated, but surely that behavior can be overridden somehow?

Also, does anyone know why I can't delete my original post in advocate99's thread?

Checking the "delete" box the clicking the "Delete Now" button results with the following . . .


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#2
May not be clear, but this was supposed to be the result of me deleting my post in advocate99's guide from the top of this sub forum

Still can't successfully delete my post (see last 7 lines of my above post for the result)


To carryover though
(2014-04-24, 08:15)advocate99 Wrote: But, for now, I'll say that I disagree with your position about the relative file sizes of an MPEG2 file (wtv) and an MPEG4 file. Dish Network and the other satellite providers spent a ton of money switching to MPEG4 because it uses far less bandwidth. On the sharing issue, I'm security conscious and would never recommend opening a windows share without security. When you do that, a virus can easily spread from one computer in your LAN to every computer in your LAN via that shared folder.

Ah grasshopper, wtv and mp4 are containers

While the end result of mcebuddy is typically wtv(mpeg2)->mp4(x264) the file size "shrinkage" never comes out to 1/4 the original size if you keep the original frame size. Comskip by itself can get you to 85%, but with x264 you don't get something for nothing. You will give mcebuddy a mpeg2 video at about 10-13 Mbps and receive an x264 video of a much lower bitrate in order to lower file sizes

(when it actually arrives for sale) The HDHR Prime Plus isn't transcoding mpeg2 to h264 to give some magical increased bandwidth . . . it's doing so because nearly every stinking thin client, tv box, arm device, roku, ATV, fire TV, sony TV, samsung TV, etc has an h264 decoder. There are a small handful of devices with an MPEG2 decoder, so it is more prudent for their DLNA tuner to deliver h264 video

Like I said, this "WTV is a huge bloated container" stuff is a long-standing myth, and it may never stop being perpetuated.

However, that's not to say MCEBuddy isn't a great tool. Comskip and auto-archiving is nothing to snuff at, and it helps free up that Recorded TV drive (even more beneficial if you actually want to keep your recordings on a server and don't like moving them by hand). Just know that you aren't going to put a wtv file in and get an identical frame-size/frame-rate x264 mp4 out that's 1/4 the original size
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#3
I am moderator of just this sub forum only, I do not have the ability to grant user permissions to do things like delete their own posts or to give certain users (like a advocate in this case) the ability to edit his own locked thread. Also as moderator I can delete posts, but the xbmc forum in general frowns on post deleting, I am only to use it in special cases. Having said that, I deleted the post from advocates guide.
Windows Media Center PVR addon (pvr.wmc) and server backend (ServerWMC)
http://bit.ly/serverwmc
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#4
Thanks krusty
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#5
You are technically correct. It is not the .wtv and .mp4 containers that cause the difference in file size, but rather the encoding used in each (MPEG2 vs. MPEG4). However, for the purpose of the guide, the .wtv files recorded by the TV Tuner that I recommend (and by most TV files on the market) are MPEG2 .wtv files, so what I said is correct, at least in the vernacular. If I revise the guide again, I'll try to address that issue to reflect your concerns...

I've actually tried out one of the MPEG4 HD HomeRun tuners. I didn't like it because it requires a cooling fan which is quite noisy, and when it breaks, the unit will overheat and fry itself...

(2014-04-24, 14:22)Dark_Slayer Wrote: Ah grasshopper, wtv and mp4 are containers

While the end result of mcebuddy is typically wtv(mpeg2)->mp4(x264) the file size "shrinkage" never comes out to 1/4 the original size if you keep the original frame size. Comskip by itself can get you to 85%, but with x264 you don't get something for nothing. You will give mcebuddy a mpeg2 video at about 10-13 Mbps and receive an x264 video of a much lower bitrate in order to lower file sizes

(when it actually arrives for sale) The HDHR Prime Plus isn't transcoding mpeg2 to h264 to give some magical increased bandwidth . . . it's doing so because nearly every stinking thin client, tv box, arm device, roku, ATV, fire TV, sony TV, samsung TV, etc has an h264 decoder. There are a small handful of devices with an MPEG2 decoder, so it is more prudent for their DLNA tuner to deliver h264 video
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Comments regarding The Complete Guide: XBMC / WMC / ServerWMC0