Monitr:

Let’s be honest. Managing your Plex media can be a pain. Especially when you have a ton of new stuff you want to add all at once or if you are just constantly adding new stuff! That’s where Monitr comes in.

Downloading movies or tv shows or ripping cds/dvds/blu-rays is now the hardest part of getting new media onto your plex server. No more manually placing files or hacking together the proper metadata for your media. Monitr makes adding new media to your Plex server much easier. Just make sure you add new files to a designated “downloads” directory and that’s all! Monitr puts it exactly where Plex wants it and names it appropriately so that Plex can identify it and find it’s proper metadata match.

It works by watching a designated “Downloads” directory and whenever a new video, audio, or subtitle file is added to that directory, Monitr will automatically move it right to where it should be, then Plex takes care of the rest!

You can also configure Monitr to automatically transcode media into Plex Direct Play/Stream capable formats. This means that Plex won’t have to transcode media on-the-go and can help keep your CPU load lower when watching movies or TV shows.

It supports either Linux or macOS operating systems using Apple’s Swift language (and a tiny bit of C for some of the stuff on Linux). It also has some dependencies, like ruby (if you’re enabling the conversion capabilities).

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Features:

• Cross-system compatability
  • Linux (tested on Ubuntu 16.04) <- This is my primary development environment
  • macOS (tested on macOS Sierra 10.12)
• Monitors a downloads directory for when files are moved into it
• Supports most Plex media types
  • Movies & TV Shows
    • Including subtitles
  • Music
  • Home Videos
• Automatically converts media to Plex Direct Play/Stream capable formats
  • It uses the most common Direct Play/Stream formats by default, but you can configure the conversion settings however you’d like
  • Automatic media transcoding can be ran immediately when new media is added, or later as a scheduled task when the server will most likely not be in use

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Installation

Linux (Tested on Ubuntu 16.04)

# transcode_video dependency installation (only needed if you're going to enable automatic media conversion)
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:stebbins/handbrake-releases
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jonathonf/ffmpeg-3
sudo apt-get remove handbrake* ffmpeg && sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y ruby handbrake-cli ffmpeg mkvtoolnix mp4v2-utils libav-tools x264 x265

# transcode_video installation (only needed if you're going to enable automatic media conversion)
sudo gem install video_transcoding

# Swiftenv installation (makes installing and updating swift super easy)
git clone https://github.com/kylef/swiftenv.git ~/.swiftenv
echo 'export SWIFTENV_ROOT="$HOME/.swiftenv"' >> ~/.bash_profile
echo 'export PATH="$SWIFTENV_ROOT/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bash_profile
echo 'eval "$(swiftenv init -)"' >> ~/.bash_profile
source ~/.bash_profile

# Plex-Monitr and swift installation
git clone https://github.com/Ponyboy47/Plex-Monitr.git
cd Plex-Monitr
swiftenv install $(cat .swift-version)
swift build
swift run monitr

macOS (Tested on macOS High Sierra 10.13.2)

# Homebrew installation (To install swiftenv and also the transcode_video dependencies)
/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

# transcode_video dependencies and installation (only needed if you're going to enable automatic media conversion)
brew install handbrake ffmpeg mkvtoolnix mp4v2 && gem install video_transcoding

# Makes installing and updating swift super easy
brew install kylef/formulae/swiftenv

# Plex-Monitr and swift installation
git clone https://github.com/Ponyboy47/Plex-Monitr.git
cd Plex-Monitr
swiftenv install $(cat .swift-version)
swift build
swift run monitr

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Updating

cd ~/Plex-Monitr
rm Package.{resolved,pins}
# If config changes have been made, you will need to regenerate and save your new config
rm ~/.config/monitr/settings.json
git pull
swiftenv install $(.swift-version)
swift package update
swift build
swift run monitr

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Usage:

CLI Arguments:

There are a number of ways to configure your Monitr. Like any CLI application, any of these arguments can be used at the same time to create the exact Monitr that you need.

See the usage/help text:

-h or --help

See the current version of monitr:

-v or --version

Set the Config file to use/save to:

-f or --config

The default value for this is ~/.config/monitr/settings.json.

Set the Plex Library directory:

-p or --plex-dir

If this is not specified, then /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library is used (the default location on Ubuntu).

Set the Download directories to monitor:

-d or --download-dirs

If left unspecified, then ~/Downloads is used (Where I've kept my own downloads on Ubuntu).
NOTE: This can be a comma separated list of paths to watch.

Set the Home Video directories to monitor

--home-video-download-dirs

If left unspecified, then ~/HomeVideos is used.
NOTE: This can be a comma separated list of paths to watch.

Set the Convert flag (whether to convert media to Direct Play formats for plex):

-c or --convert

Defaults to false.

Set whether to convert media files immediately, or as a scheduled task:

-i or --convert-immediately

defaults to true
When true, files are converted before they are moved to their corresponding Plex directory

Set when scheduled media file conversion tasks should begin (uses a cron string):

-a or --convert-cron-start

default is "0 0 * * *" (midnight every day)
For information about the Cron format, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cron

Set when scheduled media file conversion tasks stops (uses a cron string):

-z --convert-cron-end

default is "0 8 * * *" (8am every day)
For information about the Cron format, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cron
NOTE: If a job is running at this time, it will run to completion, but no new conversions will be started

Set the number of simultaneous conversion threads we can have running at one time:

--convert-threads

default is 1
NOTE: Preliminary performance testing shows that using multiple threads will still convert the same number of files in the same amount of time. A single thread will convert one file very fast and multiple threads convert multiple files simultaneously, but each file is converted slower. Overall, it tends to take the same amount of time to convert a batch of files.

Set whether of not to delete the original media file after converting it:

--delete-original

defaults to false
NOTE: If false, unconverted media files will be placed in the plex location along with the converted media file. The original file will have ' - original' appended to the end of the filename, but before the file's extension.

Set the transcode-video command to use the Contrained Average Bitrate ratecontrol system:

--abr or --average-bitrate-rcs
defaults to false
NOTE: To determine if you should use this option, run transcode-video --help and read the information about the –abr option.

Use the h265 encoder instead of the default handbrake encoder (h264):

--x265
defaults to false
NOTE: To determine if you should use this option, you may want to check out this link if you’re trying to dramatically reduce file sizes when converting and can use the h265 converter.
If you need me to expose additional options to the transcode-video command, create a new issue and I can do that pretty easily.

The targets to use in the transcode-video command:

-t or --target
May be used multiple times
NOTE: To determine if/how to use this option, run transcode-video --help and read the information about the –target options.

The transcode speed to use:

--speed or --transcode-speed

defaults to medium
NOTE: The valid options are default, quick, or veryquick. The faster the speed, the larger the file and potentially lower the quality.
The quick option generally will result in 70-80% faster transcodes, with barely perceptible changes in quality.
The veryquick option generally has a 100-120% faster transcode, with slightly noticeable quality differences and a noticeably larger file.

The x264 speed preset:

--x264-preset

defaults to medium
NOTE: The valid options are veryslow, slower, slow, default, fast, faster, veryfast.
The faster the preset, the lower the quality and larger the file size.

Set the container to use when converting video files:

--convert-video-container

defaults to mp4 since that is the most commonly supported container for DirectPlay across the various Plex devices

Set the codec to use when converting video streams:

--convert-video-codec

default is h264 since that is the most commonly supported codec for DirectPlay in Plex

Set the container to use when converting audio files:

--convert-audio-container

defaults to aac (for now)
NOTE: I don't have plans for a lot of audio file conversion support. I know Plex generally supports streaming aac, which is why I use aac, but I haven't looked into the Plex audio streaming stuff as much as I have it's video streaming requirements.

Set the codec to use when converting audio streams:

--convert-audio-codec

default is aac since that is the most commonly supported codec for DirectPlay in Plex

Set whether to scan for foreign audio subtitles and burn them into a video stream:

--convert-video-subtitle-scan
defaults to false
NOTE: This is an experimental feature in the transcode_video tool. If it screws up, you could end up with the wrong subtitle track burned into your video. See @donmelton’s own documentation on this feature in his transcode_video. If you are going to use this, it is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that you do not use the --delete-original flag, just to be safe.

Set the preferred language to use when converting media:

--convert-language

defaults to eng
NOTE: Uses the ISO 639-2 language codes, and I only included a handful in this project. If you need one added then file an issue

Set the maximum framerate to use when converting video streams:

--convert-video-max-framerate

defaults to 30.0

Set the directory to use for conversion jobs when deleteOriginal is false:

--convert-temp-dir

default is /tmp/monitrConversions

Set whether or not subtitle files should be deleted or preserved for video media:

--delete-subtitles

default is false

Set whether or not to save these config settings to the config file:

-s or --save-settings
defaults to false
The current settings are saved at the --config-file path (defaults to ~/.config/monitr/settings.json)
NOTE: If true, subsequent monitr instances will load the settings file from the --config-file option and use its config values instead of the usual defaults.

Set the default logging level to use:

--level or --log-level

default value is error
NOTE: Valid options are error, warn, warning, info, debug, verbose.

Set the log file to use:

-o or --log-file

Default is nil, which means logs are only written to stdout.
NOTE: If set, and logging level is debug or verbose, logs are written both to the file specified and also to stdout.

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TODO:

• Make a graphic
• Logging
• The CLI boolean flags with a default value of true cannot be set to false. Fix it.
• Do something with files that failed to be moved
• Don’t register downloads with x264 as a TV show of Season 2 Episode 64 (Downpour)
• Better subtitle file support
• Make an option for deleting subtitle files upon import
• Get show name/season from parent directory? (Useful when there is an organized directory structure, but file names do not contain all the relevant info)
• Convert media to Plex Direct Play/Stream formats with Handbrake CLI or ffmpeg
• Preserve TV show episode titles
• Support multi-part TV show episodes
• Create a command to display the statistics
• Support monitoring multiple directories
• Watch a specific directory for Home Videos
• Make the entire program more asynchronous
  • Continue execution while converting media (Just add new stuff to a queue)
  • Finishing conversion automatically continues to moveMedia()
    • Set up Operations for moving & converting
    • Set up Operation dependency chains for automatic asynchronous behaviors
• Improve the stability with large amounts of conversion jobs
• Swift 4
• Dynamically add paths to watch lists (such as an auto-generated directory inside users’ home directories)
• Remove configurable items that aren’t actually configurable (if no CLI option, then no configuration)
• Unit tests
• Only allow one running instance of monitr
• Moving batches of files at a time into the downloads directories causes issues