Nokia Musings

8 Responses to “Setting up automatic torrent downloads and imports into plex”

1. vulnox // Feb 22, 2009 at 1:53 pm

   Thank you very much for writing this up. I have everything set up like you suggested and so far its working great!

   The one issue I am having is with the Applescript you wrote. I have used the exact one you have (but removed the Plex Library Update string with wget). I am just trying to get it to move the Movies from the Completed folder to my Movies folder. When Episode Linker runs, its moving TV Shows fine, and I have downloaded several -aXXo movies, so it should be seeing it. I have the script in my Folder Action Scripts and its enabled. Nothing I do seems to get it to perform any actions to move files.

   Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated. I am very new to OSX (3rd Day) so I may be overlooking something small.

   OSX v.10.5.6
   The Script is on my Mac Mini’s Hard Drive, the Completed Downloads is on my Mini1 (External Drive) drive and the Movies folder is also on Mini1.

2. kimo // Feb 25, 2009 at 5:36 pm

   Sorry I didn’t approve the comment earlier. I didn’t get a notification for some reason. Anyhow…

   Were the movies already in the Completed folder before you setup the movie script? If so, try moving one to your mac mini hard drive, wait about 30 seconds and then move it back into the Completed folder.

   This is my first attempt at AppleScript so I’m at a loss as well. Something you can try is add after:

   set the item_info to info for this_item

   Add this line:

   do shell script “logger moving ” & this_item

   Then in /var/log/system.log you should see a line like “moving blahblah-axxo”

3. vulnox // Feb 26, 2009 at 6:55 pm

   Thank you for taking the time to respond, I will give it a try!

4. vulnox // Feb 26, 2009 at 7:24 pm

   Also, yes its for new downloads/adds to the folder. I just tried re-doing everything from start to finish, making sure the script is where it should be, and then dropped Resident Evil 1-3 -aXXo folder into my Completed Videos folder. I was not able to get the logging line to run, it would say that it expected an end of line and then it would highlight aXXo in the script, not sure why. This is what the console does when I put it in there though.

   2/26/09 10:17:05 PM com.apple.launchd[83] (com.apple.FolderActions.folders) Throttling respawn: Will start in 7 seconds

   Here is what I am using:
   (*
   This script is used to move newly downloaded files (with aXXo in the name)
   to a directory where plex will scan them into the library.

   You will need to change “/Volumes/lacie/Media/Movies” to be the full POSIX
   path to where your movie library is stored.

   This script also depends on wget being installed in order to update Plex’s
   video library.
   *)

   on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving these_items
   repeat with this_item in these_items
   set the item_info to info for this_item

   – This repeat checks to make sure the file is finished being
   – copied into the directory.
   set oldSize to 0
   set newSize to size of item_info
   repeat while newSize is not equal to oldSize
   set oldSize to size of item_info
   delay 3
   set newSize to size of item_info
   end repeat

   if the name of item_info contains “aXXo” then
   try
   set PosixPath to POSIX path of this_item
   – Don’t forget to change the path.
   do shell script “mv ” & PosixPath & ” /Volumes/Mini1/Movies/”
   on error errStr number errNum
   if the errNum is greater than 0 then
   do shell script “logger ” & errNum & ” ” & errStr
   end if
   end try
   end if

   end repeat
   end adding folder items to

   This is showing when I tried to add your suggestion:
   (*
   This script is used to move newly downloaded files (with aXXo in the name)
   to a directory where plex will scan them into the library.

   You will need to change “/Volumes/lacie/Media/Movies” to be the full POSIX
   path to where your movie library is stored.

   This script also depends on wget being installed in order to update Plex’s
   video library.
   *)

   on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving these_items
   repeat with this_item in these_items
   set the item_info to info for this_item
   do shell script “logger moving ” & this_item
   – This repeat checks to make sure the file is finished being
   – copied into the directory.
   set oldSize to 0
   set newSize to size of item_info
   repeat while newSize is not equal to oldSize
   set oldSize to size of item_info
   delay 3
   set newSize to size of item_info
   end repeat

   if the name of item_info contains “aXXo” then
   try
   set PosixPath to POSIX path of this_item
   – Don’t forget to change the path.
   do shell script “mv ” & PosixPath & ” /Volumes/Mini1/Movies/”
   on error errStr number errNum
   if the errNum is greater than 0 then
   do shell script “logger ” & errNum & ” ” & errStr
   end if
   end try
   end if

   end repeat
   end adding folder items to

   When I try to compile or run, it says Expected End of Line, but found Unknown Token, and highlights the first ” in the line you had me add.

   Thanks again, I may just have to keep poking it.

   How does your Folder Actions Setup application look? Mine has my Completed Videos folder, and then when you click that it shows the Episode Linker script and then your script, both checked. Is that right?

5. kimo // Feb 27, 2009 at 10:23 am

   oh, do you have ‘&’ or ‘&’ in the “do shell script” lines? It should be ‘&’ (no quotes)

6. borisgraphix // Mar 1, 2009 at 12:04 pm

   Thanks so much for this. I am only having a minor problem recreating your setup.

   It seems that the downloaded files don’t want to make it out of the
   “BitTorrent/Torrents”

   I tried to set the seed ratio to very low but it still doesn’t seem to want to move any of them. Any hints on what could be going on here?

7. borisgraphix // Mar 1, 2009 at 2:23 pm

   Followup to my previous post. Transmission kinda seems wierd on the applying it’s settings to torrents that have already started downloading. Kinda seems to be working now.

   Now the only thing I have to figure out is that Episode Linker and I am good to go.

   One question for you. Why Plex and not Boxee? Also does your mac mini do 720p files fairly well? What kind of connection do you have to your tv (dvi to hdmi cable)?

8. kimo // Mar 1, 2009 at 11:18 pm

   I’ve never really looked into anything other than xbmc/plex. My mac seems to play 720p ok (I’ve haven’t done a comparison to 480 stuff). I’ve got a dvi -> hdmi adapter and then an hdmi cable to my tv.

   I’m also running eyetv and over-the-air hd content looks fine.