Preserving metadata when moving/re-encoding

[slwildwood]

Hey all, is there any way to preserve the metadata that is captured when recording from broadcast TV when converting the file to another format or moving it? I want to compress my MPEG2 into HEVC or H264, but every time I do it and move the files, I lose the original channel and some metadata.

[tmm1]

You could replace the original file.

[jtkhdhr]

Ah, so even if the file encoding is now HEVC or H.264, and named XYZ.mpg, Channels will be happy to serve it up?

I have been wondering about a scripted workflow I could use to re-encode MPEG-2 recordings from ATSC 1.0 stations. Anybody have shell scripts that would save me the trouble of writing my own?

[slwildwood]

Does this work if you move the file to a different folder? So you retain the exact name, but it's now in Folder B instead of Folder A.

[maddox]

No, that would appear as a new file.

[chDVRuser]

That will only work if you move it to an additional storage path you define.
Has to have the same directory structure that it was originally recorded to.

[slwildwood]

I don't think that'll work with my scenario. I have two movie folders that I store additional files outside of Channels and want to encode the MPEG2 files recorded from OTA into H264, then move them to those folders. They would not retain the directory structure.

Thanks anyways!

[chDVRuser]

In my example above, movies have to be in one of these directories.
/volume1/chDVRsynotest/Movies/
/shares/dvr/Movies/

Movies being the original Channels DVR directory they were recorded to

Sounds like you just want to export the Channels DVR Metadata.
There is one, but it's very basic.

Export .json file next to each recording for MCEBuddy processing
Settings > Advanced > Integrations > MCEBuddy Metadata
The .json file looks like this

{
    "Description": "Goals spur two Britons (Ian Charleson, Ben Cross) to run in the 1924 Olympics.",
    "Episode": 0,
    "Genres": ["Drama"],
    "IsMovie": true,
    "IsNews": false,
    "IsSports": false,
    "MetadataGenerator": "Channels DVR",
    "OriginalBroadcastDateTime": "1981-09-26T00:00:00Z",
    "Rating": "PG",
    "RecordedDateTime": "2024-01-02T01:00:00Z",
    "Season": 0,
    "SubTitle": "",
    "Title": "Chariots of Fire (1981)"
}