MCEBuddy Still Saving Space and Cutting Commercials now in WTV
by Michael Healy @ 5:00 pm on April 5th, 2010 in commercial skip, converting files, encoding, programs with 23 Comments
The last look we had at MCEBuddy was of the still forthcoming 2.0 version which was and still is missing a user interface. While this was fairly cumbersome on the end user it did get the job done. Luckily since then WTV support has been added to the version 1.1 product allowing for doing the basics that MCEBuddy could originally accomplish only on older file types. The main benefit being that the original already has a user interface making the configuration considerably simpler. Unfortunately, the program still isn’t cutting commercials directly out of WTV files and outputting WTV files, the file will still have to be converted along the way.
To get started download MCEBuddy 1.1 (x86) or MCEBuddy 1.1 (x64) from our Hack7MC mirror or check the official MCEBuddy page for the latest version download links. Once downloaded, extract the files from the archive and run the setup .msi file. Go through the standard setup install then run the program’s configuration from Programs –> MCEBuddy –> MCEBuddy Configuration. After launching the program you can access the configuration at any time through the System Tray as long as you minimize the program instead of exiting.
The first area contains the settings to be used when converting the video file. Choose what type of video to output at the end as well as whether or not to delete the original file, cut commercials, sort by series and start the program minimized to the System Tray. For HD programming I would recommend WMV (no resize) or H.264 MP4 (no resize, 2-pass) to retain the best quality video. Standard Definition television can likely get by with lower quality settings such as MPEG2 or H.264 regular. Though there was a minor issue with one file that was processed most came out fairly good quality.
Also of note in the configuration is the Video Paths section. Here you will need to set your Recorded TV directory and another directory to use for processed videos. The program seems to strongly dislike using the same directory for both and files disappeared forever when trying to use the same directory for each.
Set to the default directories the program performed quite well. WTV files were converted and commercials were cut with a fair deal of success from the shows. You can see above that a File Log is provided giving you a full recount of processed files as well as a more detailed events log that will gladly provide you with details on each step of the process performed on every file.
Unfortunately, the program doesn’t yet support the cutting of commercials directly from a WTV file so they’ll all need to be converted. Curiously the program doesn’t seem to offer DVR-MS output either which would help to overcome the last issue being the incompatibility of Recorded TV and non Media Center file types (WTV and DVR-MS). This means you’ll either need to use the Videos section under Pictures and Videos or obtain a third-party plugin like Media Browser to look through the files.
Aside from those few issues MCEBuddy does exactly what it claims it will do, convert video files into other video files automatically and even remove commercials. Hopefully we see some further progress on version 2 and it will include support for WTV files natively. It was clear early on that the switch to WTV from DVR-MS would hinder development of programs like this (likely intentionally) and it’s a problem still lingering shortly after the official release of the operating system.
