Piping mkv file help

Lisa White

Hello everyone and I hope all is well during this corona pandemic. I have been messing around with tvheadend and was wondering if I can pipe my local movies to play on tvheadend. All of my movie collections are stored on the same linux computer as tvheadend. Is there a way that I can pipe the mkv file to a mux so it will play through tvheaend?

Thanks
Lisa

Lisa White

I forgot to add that this is my pipe command (pipe:///usr/bin/ffmpeg -loglevel fatal -i file://home/lisa/movie/friends.mkv -vcodec copy -acodec copy -metadata service_provider=STRING -metadata service_name=STRING -f mpegts -tune zerolatency pipe:1) I get error message of: stdin pipe 52 unexpectedly closed: No data

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Lisa

Saen Acro

Create playlist woth pipe url's.

Lisa White

Hi, and thanks for your responses saen acro but I am unclear of your answer. My video files are stored on my server. Would I make a m3u list as used for iptv and direct the pipe line to where the file is stored? Could you help and provide an example? I have been messing around trying to make this work and I keep getting the errors.

Thanks
lisa

Saen Acro

make playlist with pipe url to files
then add playlist as auto network
all movies will be as channel's.

Lisa White

Hi sean acro. Can you check my playlist to see if I am on the right track? My tvheadend is running alongside ubuntu. Thanks You

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:-1 tvg-ID="" tvg-name="FRIENDS SEASON 10" tvg-logo="file://home/lisa/friends.png" group-title="FRIENDS"
pipe:///usr/bin/ffmpeg -loglevel fatal -i file://home/lisa/FRIENDS-s10.mkv -vcodec copy -acodec copy -metadata service_provider=STRING -metadata service_name=STRING -f mpegts -tune zerolatency pipe:1

Hiro Protagonist

You can import movies etc into TVH as recordings easily.

Let me know if you want to do this & I'll post a script.

Saen Acro

Metadata is to be filled.


service_provider=Lisa's collection FRIENDS
service_name=Friends - S10E1

so to see in services relevant information.

Hiro Protagonist wrote:
> You can import movies etc into TVH as recordings easily.
>

> Let me know if you want to do this & I'll post a script.

Do it

----

Or it can be don by UPnP service of your NAS.

Lisa White

Thanks for the information but I still cannot get this thing going using the pipe command. The idea of copying the movie file into tvheadend sounds interesting. Could it be possible to map the mkv file into the channel line up? This would be a great feature to have because I have the seasons merged together as one and It would be like having a video on demand.

Thanks Guys for the Help!!
Lisa

Hiro Protagonist

Script to import files as recordings into TVHeadend.
This can be used to import arbitrary files, or to transfer recordings from one TVH to another,
in which case the log file can also be imported by using the -l option. The UUIDs are stripped from

the input logfile.

The -d option will pull just the 'channel', 'start', 'stop', 'subtitle' and 'description' fields from a supplied logfile.

Without -d or -l a default logfile will be generated.

Uses curl and ffprobe.

ffprobe used to determine duration. Could be removed if you wanted to manually input duration.

Looks in LOGPATH for logfiles if the provided file can't be found.

Looks for the title in the input file path [ /path/to/file/name/file.mkv will use "name" as the title.

You may want to change this or add manual input for the title.

One other caution - make sure start & stop times are in the past, otherwise a recording timer may be created.


#!/bin/bash
#
# Import recordings into TVHeadend
# Assumes "Make subdirectories per title" is enabled, - if this is not the
# case, the title will have to be extracted from the filename.
#
# Not tested on files containing spaces, so make sure your filenames
# don't have any!
#

# Change the following as needed for your setup
USER=username
PASS=secret
LOGPATH=~/.hts/tvheadend/dvr/log
JSONFILE="/tmp/import.json"

INFILE=$1

filetest ()
{
  if [ ! -e $1 ] ; then
    echo "$1 does not exist!"
    exit 1
  fi
}

logtest ()
{
  if [ ! -e $1 ] ; then
    echo "$1 does not exist!"
    exit 1
  fi
}

if [ $INFILE != "-h" ] ; then
  shift
  filetest $INFILE
fi

die () 
{
    echo "ERROR: Cannot specify both -l and -d: Aborting." >&2
    exit 1
}

usage ()
{
      echo "Usage:"
      echo "    $0 -h Display this help message."
      echo "    $0 file -l logfile|-d descfile"
      echo "    -l /path/to/logfile Import using logfile"
      echo "    -d /path/to/logfile Import using description from logfile"
      exit 1
}

LOGFILE=""
DESCFILE=""
while getopts ":hl:d:" opt; do
  case ${opt} in
    h )
      usage
      ;;
    l )
      [ $DESCFILE ] && die
      LOGFILE=${OPTARG}
      ;;
    d )
      [ $LOGFILE ] && die
      DESCFILE=${OPTARG}
      ;;
    : )
      echo 'missing argument!' >&2
      exit 1 
      ;;
    \? )
      echo "Invalid Option: -$OPTARG" 1>&2
      exit 1
      ;;
  esac
done
shift $((OPTIND -1))
if [ $LOGFILE ] ; then
  if [ ! -e $LOGFILE ] ; then
    LOGFILE=$LOGPATH/$LOGFILE
    filetest $LOGFILE
  fi
fi
    
if [ $DESCFILE ] ; then
  if [ ! -e $DESCFILE ] ; then
    DESCFILE=$LOGPATH/$DESCFILE
    filetest $DESCFILE
  fi
fi
    
echo $INFILE "Logfile: $LOGFILE Descfile: $DESCFILE"

duration ()
{
	VALUE=$(ffprobe -v error -show_entries format=duration -of default=noprint_wrappers=1:nokey=1 $1 2> /dev/null | cut -d '.' -f 1)
	if ! let $VALUE 2>/dev/null
	then
		# Duration from ffprobe wasn't valid
		VALUE=3600
	fi
	echo $VALUE
}

FILE=$(basename $INFILE)
RECPATH=$(dirname $INFILE)
START=$(stat --format=%X $INFILE)
END=$(stat --format=%Y $INFILE)
let DUR=END-START
# If duration is too short, probe the file
if [ $DUR -lt 1800 ]; then
	DUR=$(duration $INFILE)
	END=$START
	let START=END-DUR
fi
# Extract title from last level of RECPATH
TITLE=$(basename $RECPATH | sed -e 's/-/ /g'  -e 's/_/ /g')
if [ $LOGFILE ] ; then
  if [ "$LOGFILE" == "$JSONFILE" ] ; then
    mv ${LOGFILE} /tmp/import.tmp
    LOGFILE=/tmp/import.tmp
  fi
  echo -n "conf=" > "$JSONFILE"
  egrep -wv 'config_name|autorec|channel' ${LOGFILE} >> "$JSONFILE"
  sed -i "s@filename\": .*\"@filename\": \"${INFILE}\"@" "$JSONFILE"
  sed -i "s/comment\": .*\"/comment\": \"Imported\"/" "$JSONFILE"
else
  if [ "$DESCFILE" ]; then
    CHANNEL=$(grep -w channelname "$DESCFILE" | cut -d ' ' -f 2 | sed -e "s@\"@@g" -e "s@,@@g" )
    START=$(grep -w "start" $DESCFILE | head -1 | cut -d ' ' -f 2 | sed 's/,//')
    STOP=$(grep -w "stop" $DESCFILE | head -1 | cut -d ' ' -f 2 | sed 's/,//')
  else
    CHANNEL="local file"
  fi
  cat << EOF > "$JSONFILE"
conf={
    "enabled": true,
    "start": $START,
    "stop":  $END,
    "channelname": "$CHANNEL",
    "duration" : $DUR,
    "title": {
        "eng": "$TITLE" 
    },
EOF
if [ "$DESCFILE" ]; then
  grep -A 2 subtitle $DESCFILE >> "$JSONFILE"
  grep -A 2 description $DESCFILE >> "$JSONFILE"
else
cat << EOF >> "$JSONFILE"
    "subtitle": {
        "eng": "filename: $FILE" 
    },
    "description": {
        "eng": "" 
    },
EOF
fi
cat << EOF >> "$JSONFILE"
    "comment": "added by $(basename $0)",
    "files": [
        {
            "filename": "$INFILE" 
        }
    ]
}
EOF
fi
echo "Sending create command for \"$TITLE\""
if curl -q --data @"$JSONFILE" "http://$USER:$PASS@localhost:9981/api/dvr/entry/create" ; then
  echo "Imported \"$TITLE\"" >> /tmp/tvhimport.log
fi
echo
exit 0

Lisa White

Hello Mr. Hiro and thank you for the creative script. Unfortunately, I am a beginner but a fast learner. I tried to use your file but I cannot get it going and ran out of ideas. This was my error message:

./recording: line 35: [: !=: unary operator expected
Logfile: Descfile:
basename: missing operand
Try 'basename --help' for more information.
dirname: missing operand
Try 'dirname --help' for more information.
stat: missing operand
Try 'stat --help' for more information.
stat: missing operand
Try 'stat --help' for more information.
basename: missing operand
Try 'basename --help' for more information.
Sending create command for ""
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<TITLE>400 Bad Request</TITLE>
</HEAD><BODY>
<H1>400 Bad Request</H1>

</BODY></HTML>

I am confused on how to use this script. This is what I did to gave me this error:

1. Copied and pasted your script to text and saved it as recording within directory (~home/me)
2. Chmod of file to execute
3. Copied friends s-10.mkv file to same directory as script

4. Using terminal, I executed file (./recording) and received error above

Can you please explain to me what I did wrong and how I should proceed to accomplish these goals on transferring my video file into tvheadend?

Thanks a bunch for all your help,
Lisa

Hiro Protagonist

Hi,

Thanks for testing my script. One of the things that happens when you write something like this is you tend not to use it incorrectly, & thus don't test the error handling as well as one should.

The script is called tvhimport.sh, but you can call it whatever you like.

At least one argument is required, being the full path to the file being imported, e.g.

tvhimport.sh /full/path/to/file.mkv

If the file is in the directory you're currently in, you can just use the filename without the path.
You would normally first copy or move the file into the pvr directory, this script doesn't copy the file,

it just tells TVH that it exists.

So, if you have Lewis-s01e05.mkv, you'd first put it in an appropriate pvr directory, creating the directory if it doesn't exist. Naturally, you should use the pvr directory appropriate for your system.

The script expects that the directory the file resides in is the name of the program, as it would be for something you've recorded.

mkdir /var/spool/pvr/Lewis/ mv Lewis.mkv /var/spool/pvr/Lewis/

The you'd import it:

tvhimport.sh /var/spool/pvr/Lewis/Lewis-s01e05.mkv

Here's an updated copy with better error handling.


#!/bin/bash
#
# Import recordings into TVHeadend
# Assumes "Make subdirectories per title" is enabled, - if this is not the
# case, the title will have to be extracted from the filename.
#
# Not tested on files containing spaces, so make sure your filenames
# don't have any!
#

# Change the following as needed for your setup
USER=admin
PASS=admin
LOGPATH=~/.hts/tvheadend/dvr/log
JSONFILE="/tmp/import.json"

INFILE=$1

filetest ()
{
  if [ ! -e $1 ] ; then
    echo "$1 does not exist!"
    exit 1
  fi
}

logtest ()
{
  if [ ! -e $1 ] ; then
    echo "$1 does not exist!"
    exit 1
  fi
}

die () 
{
    echo "ERROR: Cannot specify both -l and -d: Aborting." >&2
    exit 1
}

usage ()
{
      echo "Usage:"
      echo "    $0 -h Display this help message."
      echo "    $0 /path/to/file -l logfile|-d descfile"
      echo "    -l /path/to/logfile Import using logfile"
      echo "    -d /path/to/logfile Import using description from logfile"
      exit 1
}

if [ $# -lt 1 ];then
  usage
  exit 1
fi

if [ "$INFILE" != "-h" ] ; then
  shift
  filetest $INFILE
fi

LOGFILE=""
DESCFILE=""
while getopts ":hl:d:" opt; do
  case ${opt} in
    h )
      usage
      ;;
    l )
      [ $DESCFILE ] && die
      LOGFILE=${OPTARG}
      ;;
    d )
      [ $LOGFILE ] && die
      DESCFILE=${OPTARG}
      ;;
    : )
      echo 'missing argument!' >&2
      exit 1 
      ;;
    \? )
      echo "Invalid Option: -$OPTARG" 1>&2
      exit 1
      ;;
  esac
done
shift $((OPTIND -1))
if [ $LOGFILE ] ; then
  if [ ! -e $LOGFILE ] ; then
    LOGFILE=$LOGPATH/$LOGFILE
    filetest $LOGFILE
  fi
fi
    
if [ $DESCFILE ] ; then
  if [ ! -e $DESCFILE ] ; then
    DESCFILE=$LOGPATH/$DESCFILE
    filetest $DESCFILE
  fi
fi
    
echo $INFILE "Logfile: $LOGFILE Descfile: $DESCFILE"

duration ()
{
	VALUE=$(ffprobe -v error -show_entries format=duration -of default=noprint_wrappers=1:nokey=1 $1 2> /dev/null | cut -d '.' -f 1)
	if ! let $VALUE 2>/dev/null
	then
		# Duration from ffprobe wasn't valid
		VALUE=3600
	fi
	echo $VALUE
}

FILE=$(basename $INFILE)
RECPATH=$(dirname $INFILE)
START=$(stat --format=%X $INFILE)
END=$(stat --format=%Y $INFILE)
let DUR=END-START
# If duration is too short, probe the file
if [ $DUR -lt 1800 ]; then
	DUR=$(duration $INFILE)
	END=$START
	let START=END-DUR
fi
# Extract title from last level of RECPATH
TITLE=$(basename $RECPATH | sed -e 's/-/ /g'  -e 's/_/ /g')
if [ $LOGFILE ] ; then
  if [ "$LOGFILE" == "$JSONFILE" ] ; then
    mv ${LOGFILE} /tmp/import.tmp
    LOGFILE=/tmp/import.tmp
  fi
  echo -n "conf=" > "$JSONFILE"
  egrep -wv 'config_name|autorec|channel' ${LOGFILE} >> "$JSONFILE"
  sed -i "s@filename\": .*\"@filename\": \"${INFILE}\"@" "$JSONFILE"
  sed -i "s/comment\": .*\"/comment\": \"Imported\"/" "$JSONFILE"
else
  if [ "$DESCFILE" ]; then
    CHANNEL=$(grep -w channelname "$DESCFILE" | cut -d ' ' -f 2 | sed -e "s@\"@@g" -e "s@,@@g" )
    START=$(grep -w "start" $DESCFILE | head -1 | cut -d ' ' -f 2 | sed 's/,//')
    STOP=$(grep -w "stop" $DESCFILE | head -1 | cut -d ' ' -f 2 | sed 's/,//')
  else
    CHANNEL="local file"
  fi
  cat << EOF > "$JSONFILE"
conf={
    "enabled": true,
    "start": $START,
    "stop":  $END,
    "channelname": "$CHANNEL",
    "duration" : $DUR,
    "title": {
        "eng": "$TITLE" 
    },
EOF
if [ "$DESCFILE" ]; then
  grep -A 2 subtitle $DESCFILE >> "$JSONFILE"
  grep -A 2 description $DESCFILE >> "$JSONFILE"
else
cat << EOF >> "$JSONFILE"
    "subtitle": {
        "eng": "filename: $FILE" 
    },
    "description": {
        "eng": "" 
    },
EOF
fi
cat << EOF >> "$JSONFILE"
    "comment": "added by $(basename $0)",
    "files": [
        {
            "filename": "$INFILE" 
        }
    ]
}
EOF
fi
echo "Sending create command for \"$TITLE\""
if curl -q --data @"$JSONFILE" "http://$USER:$PASS@localhost:9981/api/dvr/entry/create" ; then
  echo "Imported \"$TITLE\"" >> /tmp/tvhimport.log
fi
echo
exit 0

m10r

Hiro Protagonist
Dear Hiro Protagonist

I stumbled over this thread from 2020 :-)
I'm just giving my TvHeadend Server a fresh restart and trying to import my old recordings..

I was able to achieve that using your script (thanks for your work)
Since this is an older post I was wondering if you ever looked into importing recordings with spaces in there Folder/Filenames ??
or if there is any other solution for batch importing old TvHeadend recordings :-)
Unfortunatly I only have kept the recording folder (no logs available)

Thanks in advance for any information
M

m10r

Dear Forum

I'm just giving my TvHeadend Server a fresh restart and trying to import old recordings..
Unfortunatly I only have kept the recording folder (no logs available)

I stumbled over this thread from 2020 :-) Hiro Protagonist
I was able to import a few recordings using Protagonists script (thanks for his work).

Since this is an older post I was wondering if there is an updated version dealing with importing recordings with spaces in there Folder/Filenames ??
or if there is any other solution for batch importing old TvHeadend recordings :-)

Thanks in advance for any information
M

Lisa White

Thanks for your reply. I still cannot get the script going. I am determined and excited but need some more input. I followed the direction and I tried modifying the script by changing the username and password that I assigned to the ip login. My results were the same.

This is what I received when I run the script:

m@m:/home/hts/recordings$ ./tv.sh friends.mkv
friends.mkv Logfile: Descfile:
Sending create command for "."
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<TITLE>401 Unauthorized</TITLE>
</HEAD><BODY>
<H1>401 Unauthorized</H1>

<P STYLE="text-align: center; margin: 2em"><A HREF="/" STYLE="border: 1px solid; border-radius: 4px; padding: .6em">Default login</A></P><P STYLE="text-align: center; margin: 2em"><A HREF="/login" STYLE="border: 1px solid; border-radius: 4px; padding: .6em">New login</A></P></BODY></HTML>

Can you explain what I am missing to execute the file? This is very interesting and educational for me.

Thanks again,
Lisa

Lisa White

This is what I received when I run the script:

Can you explain what I am missing to execute the file? This is very interesting and educational for me.

Thanks again,
Lisa

Ron L

Hi, haven't really looked at the script to see what it's trying to do. To add a movie file as a channel in TVH I've done this....

Create a new mux and use something like this as the URL....

pipe:///usr/bin/ffmpeg -loglevel fatal -re -i /media/ron/external/Movies/garfield.mp4 -vcodec copy -acodec copy -metadata service_provider=FIFO -metadata service_name=Garfield -f mpegts -tune zerolatency pipe:1

Let the new mux scan and it will create a new service. Map that service to a channel.

Lisa White

Thank you for that information Ron. I accomplished that method a few days ago and noticed that the pause, fast forward and rewind buttons were missing from the Kodi interface when piped. There is only a play and stop button. When stopped, the video would revert back to the beginning of the movie and there was no way to continue watching where I left off.

Is there a way through the pipe command that I can make all of these feature work as I explained?

Thanks for your help,
Lisa

Ron L

I believe the nature of pipes would preclude any of that sort of functionality. To have these one would have to have to access the videos through Kodi rather than as a TvHeadend channel.

Hiro Protagonist

Lisa White wrote:
> Thanks for your reply. I still cannot get the script going. I am determined and excited but need some more input. I followed the direction and I tried modifying the script by changing the username and password that I assigned to the ip login. My results were the same.
>
> This is what I received when I run the script:
>
> m@m:/home/hts/recordings$ ./tv.sh friends.mkv
> friends.mkv Logfile: Descfile:

> Sending create command for "."

As I mentioned, the script uses the directory that the file resides in to figure out the title.

I could change this if you like, but to get this to work, create a directory in your recordings directory called friends, move friends.mkv to there, and then use the directory in the argument to the script:

tv.sh /home/hts/recordings/friends/friends.mkv

However, see below:

> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
> <HTML><HEAD>

> <TITLE>401 Unauthorized</TITLE>

You've either got the user/password wrong, or the user you've selected doesn't have permission to do this - check the permissions for that user via the web interface to TVH.

Lisa White

Hello Hiro and sorry for the delayed response. I am in the process of updating my system with a new hard drive and a clean install of tvheadend. I ran into 2 snags today and one is with your script. I am the only superuser of my system and I am stilling get the unauthorized error as follows:

me@me:/home/hts/tv/casino$ ./tvimport.sh casino.mkv
casino.mkv Logfile: Descfile:
Sending create command for "."
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<TITLE>401 Unauthorized</TITLE>
</HEAD><BODY>
<H1>401 Unauthorized</H1>

The import.json file is being sent to the tmp file. This is the text of the file:

conf={
"enabled": true,
"start": 1587228326,
"stop": 1587239026,
"channelname": "local file",
"duration" : 10700,
"title": {
"eng": "."
},
"subtitle": {
"eng": "filename: casino.mkv"
},
"description": {
"eng": ""
},
"comment": "added by tvimport.sh",
"files": [
{
"filename": "casino.mkv"

}

I assume that this is the creation for the log that is needed for the file to be played but it will not import into tvheadend. Something is blocking my access and I cannot figure out why. I changed the superuser password and user name to admin as you have within your posted sample. Changing the login information did not solve my problem and I still getting the 401 unauthorized error.

Just for fun, I tried just using the address: http://admin:admin@localhost:9981 without the script and I could log in fine.

Any Ideas?

Thanks Lisa

Lisa White

Hiro, I got your script to execute with tvheadend 4.29 vers. It must not work with 4.3 vrs.

The created log displays under the "removed recordings, file missing." I did execute your file like you instructed in the recording directory where the other recording files are. My movie file is not showing up with the other recordings or is it visible. Is the log file supposed to be in that group category and is there other steps that I am missing?

Any suggestions?