Plex PostProcessing Script for DVR(Beta) on Ubuntu 14.04 Server

If you're like me, you probably just want a no-frills/no-fuss script to convert your recorded content from Plex DVR, down to a much smaller file size. Personally, I wanted to downsize more significantly, so I convert to 720p as well. Your mileage may vary and you can play with handbrake's settings to get just the right config for you.

I was getting frustrated trying to get FFMpeg and Comskip working / built / installed so I basically went the easy route and just installed handbrake CLI (for headless operation) and a very, very simple script to do the conversion. All seems to be working fine in its current state so I'm happy to share with the world.

UPDATE: I've added an FFMPEG branch which support FFMPEG instead of HandBrake CLI. I'll probably only be working in this branch for a while since I was having issues with audio synch with HandBrake. If you want to grab the FFMPEG version, make sure you clone the right branch, ex.

git clone -b FFMPEG-Branch https://github.com/nebhead/PlexPostProc

Handbrake CLI

If you already have handbrake installed from the default repository, you'll want to remove it first. Last I checked, the default version dropped support for h264 natively.

sudo apt-get purge handbrake

Now install this repository and the handbrake-cli (command line interface) software.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:stebbins/handbrake-releases
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install handbrake-cli

First you will need to get the script onto your machine. You can do this by cloning my git repository or simply downloading and placing in a directory of your choice.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install git
git clone https://github.com/nebhead/PlexPostProc
cd PlexPostProc
sudo chmod 777 PlexPostProc.sh

Now go to Plex's webui and go to server settings > DVR (Beta) > DVR Settings

From there you should be able to enter the path to the post processing script and you should be done.

For example:

\home\[your-username]\PlexPostProc\PlexPostProc.sh

Where [your-username] is replaced with your username.

That's it.

Happy Post-Processing!