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First, just want to thank Mr. Noodle for this ridiculously awesome piece of software. Ill be honest, when i bought the parts to make my hackintosh, i didn't want to pay for any software. I tried to setup my process using a combination of Automator and Folder Monitoring. After spending two days trying to make it work and dealing with the flakey Folder Monitoring feature of OSX, I decided to give Hazel another shot. A few hours later, I had the perfect process created that does everything for me automatically all thanks to Hazel. Gadly forking over $22 as I have not found a lot of software worth the price charged but this software is worth every penny.
Anyway, here is my current process.
Pre-Setup
1) Download the following Programs/Scripts. Note many of these (from Batch Rip Actions and below) are used to encode DVD and HD files. If you do not plan on doing this or want to stick with TV shows, you can ignore.
Also, I am attaching an export of my Hazel rules: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?419un3ujn12udtn
Also now includes are my modified TVnamer config files (described below): http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?1d9db47h3b7lcb8
Programs
[$21.95] Hazel 2.3.10 (Working on updating to 3.0)
[Free] TVnamer 2.2: Need to use my fixed version here - http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?q9fnx1f9emjeb66 [Original Source - https://github.com/dbr/tvnamer/]
[Free / $2.99] Lingon 1.2: http://sourceforge.net/projects/lingon/files/ NOTE: New version is much easier to use and can be found on app store, yes now costs money.
[Free] Transmission 2.4.2: http://www.transmissionbt.com/
[Free] UnRarx: http://www.unrarx.com/
[$19.99] iFlicks 1.4.3: http://www.iflicksapp.com/
ENCODING ONLY
[Free] Batch Rip Actions for Automator (by Mac.Jedi): http://dl.dropbox.com/u/242398/BatchRip ... -1.0.8.dmg
[Free] Handbrake CLI (version 0.9.5) vs the GUI version: http://handbrake.fr/downloads.php
[Free] MakeMKV: http://www.makemkv.com/
[Free] MKVtoolnix (version 5.0.1): http://jonthn.free.fr/MKVtoolnix/
[Free] BDsup2Sub: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t ... up2sub+mac
2) Folder Setup: To make this easier, I am embedding a picture of my folder setup. Obviously the names can be whatever you want but for this guide I will be referring to the enclosed. To save time, i will refer to folders by their #/letter. Also, app setups will appear below within the process guide.
TV SHOW PROCESS
1) Automatic TV Episode Download - I like to download network TV shows from a particular private torrent site. In order to easily automate this process, i setup an RSS feed in safari for my torrent site. I then created a simple Automator workflow application that checks the RSS feed and downloads the direct links to the torrents in the RSS that match my criteria and dumps it into the Folder 0. In order to schedule this Automator App to run 30 minutes, i found a GREAT program called Lingon which acts as a GUI for OSX's LaunchD. LaunchD is similar to Cron and allows you to schedule certain jobs within the OS. I created a simple User Daemon that opens the RSS Downloader Automator app every 30 minutes. Link and setup guide to my Automator Workflow: http://www.mediafire.com/file/ok3v4l876 ... _Feeds.zip
HAZEL ACTIONS - Open Downloaded torrents in Transmission
NOTE: UPDATE: TVShows 2 is being continued here and is a good alternative since it allows custom RSS feeds; however still problematic for my setup. TVShows 2: http://tvshowsapp.com/ For those wondering why not TED or TVshows apps freely available its because i found TED unreliable and i loved TVshows but I only want to download the 720p versions of all my shows and TVshows for now only uses the EZTV feed which does not have many shows in HD. Hence the need to create my own app.
2) Transmission Setup - Not much customization necessary here. Under preferences, set the default download location to Folder 1.5. Check Keep incomplete files and choose the Folder 1.0. Check also: Start transfers when added, trash original torrent files, and append .part to incomplete files. Also make sure to uncheck both options under Add Window section. Lastly, make sure the auto add feature is disabled. I found enabling it gave transmission add errors when paired with the Hazel rule to open Transmission. This setup enables you to download files and not have to worry about acting on them until they are done. Its much easier to allow Transmission to manage this.
3) Keep Copy of Download Files for Seeding and Also Move to be Processes/UnRar'd - Here I COPY the downloaded file to Folder 2.0 where it will be processed and I also keep a copy of of my downloaded files in Folder 1.5 (the original Transmission download folder) because if i move the file or edit it, it can no longer be seeded. This is important to me because i need to seed as well as leach in order to keep my ratio high. This is needed for the special torrent site I use.
HAZEL ACTIONS - Two rules here. Copy downloaded files to Folder 2.0. Also a rule is set to trash the Folder 1.5 contents that are older than 1 day.
4) Process Downloaded Files in Folder 2.0 - Here I do a bunch of things. MKVs and AVIs that did not come as separate RAR files are copied to Folder A for encoding to M4V. If the downloads came in multiple RAR parts, i have rules to uncompress them and then copy the resulting MKVs and AVIs to Folder A for encoding.
Note: Previously, I also copied the MKVs and AVIs to folder 3.0 for renaming and moving. The reason was because I used to keep both the MKV and AVI files as well as converting them for my AppleTV2. I was doing this knowing the ATV would get the ability to playback MKVs and other containers and I also used Plex which can playback everything so this way, I had the best of both worlds. Now with XBMC and Plex for ATV2 I have run tests and i see no benefit to keeping TV shows in other formats. I value size of file over everything else and PQ is virtually the same. Thus I am no longer using 3.0 but the rules are still included in my hazel download for those that want to still do this.
HAZEL ACTIONS - Move MKVs and AVIs to Folder A. Also run rule on subfolders. Uncompress RAR files and move resulting MKV and AVI files to Folder A. Trash all remaining contents of Folder 2.0.
5) Encode MKVs to M4V/MP4: Folder A - The credit for this goes to Mac.Jedi over at the macrumors forums who wrote some awesome scripts and automator actions for this part. I am not going to get much into the setup here other then to say that you need to have installed Handbrake CLI, MakeMKV, BDsup2Sub and MKVtoolnix into your Application folder on your mac. Handbrake does the encoding from MKV to M4v. MakeMKV is not used here. MKVtoolnix is for extracting the the video, audio and subtitle streams (which Handbrake does here; more for the movie part of the process) and BDsup2Sub is for converting Blu Ray subtitles into Handbrake friendly format that can be encoded into the M4Vs. The reason I say to put them all in your Application folder is because the Batch Rip Automator Actions contain a special workflow called Batch Encode (Finder) which we will use to do our encoding and it needs all these installed to run even if it is not using them. Installing Batch Rip Automator actions is easy as its a self installer. If you are going to do this part of the guide, you MUST READ HIS THREAD HERE http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=805573
Onto the process. This process takes MKVs and encodes them to M4V by running a special workflow called Batch Encode (Finder). You can see this workflow and my settings in the below image. Note the verbose logging as I like to see when the Encoding sessions initiate.
HAZEL ACTIONS - There are three. Originally I just ran Batch Encode (Finder) workflow everytime a new file was passed to Folder A. But I then realized that I could have 5 or 6 files downloaded very close to each other and that would create 5 instances of Handbrake. Even though I have an i7 and wanted to limit the number of instances of Handbrake (and MKVtoolnix) to 3 at any one time. Therefore, my first rule runs an embedded applescript to check the system processes for any running instances of Handbrake and MKVtoolnix (and related processes) and will only run 3 at any given time. The second rule is effectively a loop rule to keep running the script in rule 1 until all files have been converted. The last rule trashes the remaining contents when the worrkflow is complete. Included in the workflow script is a setting to output resulting M4V to Folder B.
6) Rename Files and Tag w/ MetaData: Folder B - Once the handbrake encodes are completed, they are placed into Folder B. The resulting M4V is then renamed with an amazing program called TVnamer. This is the golden part of the process. Coming from the PC, there are many programs that will tag, rename and move TV episodes for you automatically. On the Mac side, very hard to find an all encompassing one. There are a few tutorials written about how to use Hazel to rename TV episodes but using this slick little program i found called TVnamer, the process is made infinitely easier for you. TVrenamer in a command line tool you install that you can set to automatically parse through TV torrent downloads (any format ie Fringe.2x5.x264 or Fringe.S2E5.x264, etc) and rename them with the format you specify and also include the episode name and also then automatically move and place these files into their respective folders (Fringe Folder/Season 2/). Its a beautiful program and highly customizable. After the rename the file is passed to iFlicks for MetaData tagging.
iFlicks is a great program for doing this and much more but this tagging is all I need it for. It unfortunately is not free but there is a 30 day trial and I explain below why i think I need it. First, the iFlicks setup. Open iFlicks and go into the Preferences menu under iFlicks menu. On General tab, check Queue. On the Quicktime tab check flatten to QT Movie. On the iTunes tab I have it set to not add Video to iTunes (this is because Hazel handles that later for good reason, in my case). The Save Videos in Folder is important but we will handle this via an iFlicks rule so its irrelevant for my process but should be obvious what it does. Now click ok. Then click the Rule icon on the top right of the iFlicks screen. Click Add rule. Interface will look familiar like Hazels. Create a rule named Tag and Move TV Shows. Condition is Video Kind is TV Shows. Do the Following should be Set Destination to folder: Folder C. Thats it. Setup complete. Now when Hazel passes the M4Vs to iFlicks, it is tagged and then moved Folder C for the final move.
HAZEL ACTIONS - First I run the TVnamer shell script with my modified configuration file. Throughout I am using color labels to kick off the next process and in this rule I set the file to purple. Then I run another rule which opens iFlicks. Lastly the files are trashed.
7) Move to the NAS for iTunes import: Folder C - This part is simple. I run the TVnamer script again, but with a modified configuration file that is set to utilize TVnamers move and sort capabilities. File is moved to the NAS.
HAZEL ACTIONS - Rule to run the modified TVnamer script. Rule to trash file in case TVnamer does not properly trash the file.
8) Add to iTunes Library and Send Notification: Folder Shows - The last part of the process. When the competed and tagged M4Vs are moved onto the NAS into a folder called Shows and into their respective proper Season and Show folders, only then do I add them to iTunes. All the metadata shows up in iTunes as well as ATV2. Finally a growl notification is sent to let me know which show and at what time it was added. As I previously mentioned above, i do not have iFlicks add the show to iTunes because all my media files reside on a NAS. The iTunes library which acts as the Home Share for Movies and TV shows is my hackintosh (I have another iMac which holds my music and is a separate library). When files are added to iTunes from the NAS, my settings are such that files added to iTunes are not copied to that computers library but instead a reference link is created to the actual file on the NAS. This way, my media files can all reside on the NAS for easy access and redundancy.
HAZEL ACTIONS - 2 Rules. Run on subfolders. Also, Import into iTunes all newly added TV shows and send a custom Growl notification alerting me to the show added and the time added. NOTE: There is a separate Growl Hazel action since I no longer use the Import into iTunes on the main computer.
NOTE: There is a very nice app for your iPhone/iPad called Boxcar. Boxcar forwards growl notifications to your iDevice so you can easily be kept apprise of what is going on in your automated process. I have this setup and it works well.
And there you go. Entire process automated. Now when i go into my ATV2 all my tagged TV shows are there under their respective seasons. Or when I go into Plex, (my other front end of choice), t immediately finds any new shows added (the MKVs) and supplies all the proper metadata.
Again, this would all not be possible without Hazel. Thanks a million. If you are interested in doing this, the hardest part is probably getting the TVnamer config file set to your specs. Read the Github site. Its very informative. EDITED: Actually, if you are as crazy as me hardest part is just setting it all up!!!
