Anyone have thoughts on using the bundled ffmpeg binaries for other tasks on the server? (My server runs macOS.)
Channels devs keep it relatively current, and symlinking to it would be more convenient than installing/updating myself.
I do, have to. It the only compiled ffmpeg that support AC4 audio. Use it to convert my ATSC3.0 recordings AC4 audio to AC3.
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You said you use EMBY why not import the files to emby and convert them ? Emby will also keep the Captions.
I used to use Emby but they suck on Apple TV, so moved to Plex for my media server some time ago. But use Infuse player on Apple TV instead of the Plex app. I can also point Infuse to the CDVR folder to play back recordings if i wanted.
I dont care about captions.
I do convert if i want to save the dvr recording, or to clip a segment out of it.
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Emby conversion is great uses Hardware Transcoding you can set a Show to transcode anytime a new show is detected. Makes MKV or MP4 you choose.
I don't want transcode, i just need remux. (for video track).
It only take a min or so with ffmpeg to convert the audio. I also need it to do a 5db boost for ABC and FOX since the audio is so low.
Not wanting to turn this post into Emby vs Plex vs Channels... i'll just say that when i was on PC/Android ecosystem for Media consumption, Emby was awesome. Their full PC Software client, and near identical web UI also was very usefull. I really liked it back when i was able to use custom setting(forget what it was) but was able to use madvr renderer and really made things look nice. But, they disabled that, and things went downhill for me as time went on.
Had tons of issue with its metadata system, and some other issues, and when i moved over to using Apple TV and APple devices, the main dev was very rude and dismissive with my issue/suggestions, and made it clear they had zero interest working on their Apple support... so i dumped Emby.
Plex been much better for me overall. Metadata system much eaiser and accurate. Minimal issues.
I use Channels DVR for TV/DVR use. It my "cable box" replacement and it is king at that. Only 2 things annoy me about CDVR, the Purple theme, and that they use .mpg container extension for their recordings, instead of .ts or something more modern. Have had a few issues in the past of .mpg files, but it takes little effort to remux to .mkv if/when i need to.
ATSC 3.0 support in CDVR is "experimental" so... only so much they will do at this time. I am just glad they finaly fixed the very slow tune issue. Now I can actual stand to use those stations. But not sure as to how they could fix the low volume issue.
I’ve also tried all 3 and find it hard to choose just 1 to suit all my needs.
Channels video player is amazing and their tv/dvr seems the most reliable to me. Though I agree I wish they would look at some sort of theme change. Even if they keep the purple, give me a classic options (current) and a modern look (Apple style rounded corners, like plex/Emby web ui)
Plex has every feature you can think of, half implemented or broken. I mainly have it going for family members to use my media without affecting my watch states. Love the look of the Apple TV app despite all its bugs. Wish the TV/dvr was more complete.
Emby seems like a nice middle ground and I love the iPhone app, but unfortunately the Apple TV app has been left behind. It looks as though they would like to bring it up to speed, but may take a while with a small team.
Curious to know why you’d prefer ts over mpg? I’ve always found the channels mpg recordings more friendly than plex ts?
.mpg is antiquated. .ts i figure is what it should be since it is raw from the HDHR tuner, while .mp4 may be best for tve recordings. Ultimately, it just container format. But ffmpeg errors when i try to do a direct remux video/convert audio from .mpg to .mpg.. have to use .mkv as output format. Then, can just change .mkv to .mpg, no remux or anything, and Channels has no issue with it. Other players do not either. But, i only change it to .mpg if i want to Play it back in Channels as the same Recently Recorded thing.
You are confusing filename extensions (.ts, .mpg, .mp4, .mkv) with container types (mpeg transport stream, mpeg program stream, MPEG-4 Part 14, Matroska).
Contributing to the confusion is the fact that Channels DVR uses the .mpg file extension for recorded files.
Channels DVR actually records to an mpeg transport stream container, and technically it should have a .ts file extension.
When you remux with ffmpeg and use the .ts file extension for the remuxed output file, that tells ffmpeg to remux to a mpeg transport stream container.
So to remux the Channels DVR recording cdvr_recording.mpg (which is really in an mpeg transport stream container) without changing the container (fix timestamps) can be done like this.
ffmpeg -i cdvr_recording.mpg -c copy cdvr_recording.ts
To use that remuxed file in Channels DVR, just change the filename extension from .ts to .mpg.
To remux to a different container you would tell ffmpeg which one to use for output.
Not all container types support all codecs (video, audio, subtitles, etc.), so when remuxing to a different container you need to make sure that container supports the codecs, or you need to transcode.
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That is very Smart never thought about doing it that way. Thanks for sharing.
Depending on the version of ffmpeg being used, it may not copy all streams.
This works using ffmpeg v5.1.1 for me
ffmpeg -i cdvr_recording.mpg -map 0 -acodec copy -vcodec copy -scodec copy -dcodec copy cdvr_recording.ts
That will copy all Audio, Video, Subtitle and Data streams from the source file.
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What the problem with compiling ffmpeg yourself witch AC4 support? If you don't have compiler I do this for you