Plugin: Export VODS from .m3u - split m3u livetv, tvshows, movies (Going BETA!!)

[mickle026 650]

Thanks for the plain text output.

I can process the m3u successfully, I can split the m3u Into even parts based on how many CPUs are in the system, it's not that that is giving me the grief it's getting the extra parts out of sync, then ending up with not much to write because some of the code is asynchronous and some isn't.

I'll get there, it just needs some thoughtful approaches to replace those parts of the code.

[fbrassin 47]

On 5/13/2025 at 4:15 PM, mickle026 said:

yeah, it wont remove ENG even with remove country codes, so it must be somewhere in your config to do so.

Just so you know i've been trying to fix the m3u processing part to ensure its truly multithreaded, and I have done that but completely broken the output stage, and being an idiot i have gone and saved over my older code, so i have a big job now correcting it again.  it will takes some time.  However a big m3u with 1/2 million entries is processing in about 5 mins again.

I will fix it, it will just take a while.

I can confirm i had in config ENG to remove from the name.

I think that is a dangerous option as many things i had in it could be part of a movie name.

I removed almost everything from it.

[Apotropaic 41]

31 minutes ago, fbrassin said:

I can confirm i had in config ENG to remove from the name.

I think that is a dangerous option as many things i had in it could be part of a movie name.

I removed almost everything from it.

I use the 'Custom Strings to Remove from Titles' option to do stuff like this, luckily for me there are always spaces before or after, as well as hyphens in the string which I need removed so the chance of that matching the key media name is very small.

[diggyp 0]

Looking through the form i didn't see any mention if there was a way to add more M3u links to use for the phrasing? My provider uses multiple links (30 in total for their VOD library)  is there a way i can add more link into the config or will that not work and would require a plugin update? 

[sundevil67 28]

On 5/11/2025 at 1:34 PM, mickle026 said:

on a zx spectrum? LOL - jeez!

I know its not funny really.

I am just testing the obfuscate m3u outputs, and if they are ok i will post that

I still can't seem to get past this same point. I'm wondering if the inability to write any STRM files can be related to the fact that I am also not able to record anything. Maybe it should be a separate thread, but if anyone here (maybe @Lukeis watching?!) has any tips for the best way to go about generating a record of my actions for troubleshooting recording?

[Jekaboom 4]

Something else - on this option, would it be possible to set a flag (or add it as automatic logic) that if say there is more than 10% of the content to be deleted, it would skip? Today I had the issue that my upstream M3U provider had a temporary issue, which resulted in an empty (or near empty) M3U being downloaded. The script processed it, decided that lots of stuff was gone and proceeded with deleting all the .strm on disk (as it is instructed to do so, per this option). In this scenario, it would have been nice for the plugin to realize that maybe something is off and would have skipped it?

 

 

Clean Out/Remove Old (obsolete) entries from the output directory.

This option cleans up the output directory removing any files or folders that are not in the m3u files /
previous output files that are no longer valid / files ignored or have changed etc on this processing run.
It is useful if you want to remove any files that are no longer in the m3u files and keep the directories current.
Keeps the output directory clean and up to date with the m3u files.

Remove Obsolete Files and Folders (Warning: Deletes anything not in the m3u files)

[mickle026 650]

On 18/05/2025 at 19:31, Jekaboom said:

Something else - on this option, would it be possible to set a flag (or add it as automatic logic) that if say there is more than 10% of the content to be deleted, it would skip? Today I had the issue that my upstream M3U provider had a temporary issue, which resulted in an empty (or near empty) M3U being downloaded. The script processed it, decided that lots of stuff was gone and proceeded with deleting all the .strm on disk (as it is instructed to do so, per this option). In this scenario, it would have been nice for the plugin to realize that maybe something is off and would have skipped it?

 

 

Clean Out/Remove Old (obsolete) entries from the output directory.

This option cleans up the output directory removing any files or folders that are not in the m3u files /
previous output files that are no longer valid / files ignored or have changed etc on this processing run.
It is useful if you want to remove any files that are no longer in the m3u files and keep the directories current.
Keeps the output directory clean and up to date with the m3u files.

Remove Obsolete Files and Folders (Warning: Deletes anything not in the m3u files)

So basically switch this option off automatically if a download fails?

What if the download completes but is wrong, ire Corrupt or truncated?

[Apotropaic 41]

I think it is the scenario where the download completes but the content has been truncated/corrupted for whatever reason that the concern is for.  So the plugin proceeds and finds a mismatch and deletes the folders on disk as its instructed to. It all makes sense and is a great feature when old content is removed from providers but doesn't seem logical when the entire VOD content get removed. Seems like in perfect world we want the plugin to do conflicting things

I wonder how possible it would be to make a backup of the location where strms are saved to at plugin startup. That way if something crazy happens we can recover.

Or maybe instead of a delete action just move the folders to an archive location?

[Jekaboom 4]

10 hours ago, mickle026 said:

So basically switch this option off automatically if a download fails?

What if the download completes but is wrong, ire Corrupt or truncated?

 

I manage my own M3U playlists with iptveditor.com and feed those files into the STRM plugin. Most of the time it works perfectly. Occasionally, though, iptveditor fails to sync with my upstream IPTV provider, and the M3U it serves ends up empty or missing a large chunk of entries.

When that happens, the content still exists on the provider’s end, but because it’s no longer listed in the imported M3U, the plugin assumes the items are gone and deletes the corresponding STRM files.

I’d love a setting that tells the plugin: if more than, say, 10 % of entries suddenly disappear, treat it as a sync error and skip deletion. This way, genuine removals (usually just a few streams at a time) would still be cleaned up, but the plugin wouldn’t wipe out everything during a temporary sync glitch.

It might be an edge case, but for anyone maintaining personal M3Us through services like iptveditor, this safeguard would be helpful.

Edited May 20, 2025 by Jekaboom

[mickle026 650]

1 hour ago, Jekaboom said:

 

I manage my own M3U playlists with iptveditor.com and feed those files into the STRM plugin. Most of the time it works perfectly. Occasionally, though, iptveditor fails to sync with my upstream IPTV provider, and the M3U it serves ends up empty or missing a large chunk of entries.

When that happens, the content still exists on the provider’s end, but because it’s no longer listed in the imported M3U, the plugin assumes the items are gone and deletes the corresponding STRM files.

I’d love a setting that tells the plugin: if more than, say, 10 % of entries suddenly disappear, treat it as a sync error and skip deletion. This way, genuine removals (usually just a few streams at a time) would still be cleaned up, but the plugin wouldn’t wipe out everything during a temporary sync glitch.

It might be an edge case, but for anyone maintaining personal M3Us through services like iptveditor, this safeguard would be helpful.

This makes sense, it would require keeping filesizes of previous downloads to compare to.

[graytinc 1]

@mickle026

"I was using version  .147, and it was working perfectly. However, yesterday I realized that my TV folder's name has a space at the end, and Emby cannot recognize the path. I am currently running the latest version of Emby. Please assist.

[imnotsane 2]

Works great, is there a way to ignore movies made before a set date?

[mickle026 650]

19 hours ago, graytinc said:

@mickle026

"I was using version  .147, and it was working perfectly. However, yesterday I realized that my TV folder's name has a space at the end, and Emby cannot recognize the path. I am currently running the latest version of Emby. Please assist.

I thought I had fixed that in the last dll post?

The numbers don't increment in my compiler unless I manually do it so it's possible they say they are the same build number.

[mickle026 650]

1 hour ago, imnotsane said:

Works great, is there a way to ignore movies made before a set date?

Not specifically, but you could use for example (1973) in ignore contains..

[imnotsane 2]

 

I'm new to media streaming, so thank you for not being too hard on me.
I figured out how to limit the TV shows using IPTVboss, but that app doesn't

handle TV shows very well. I AI'd a python script to format the M3u file I use

for TV shows, but it took some time and testing. I believe I have broken the plugin, No logs are created and stays at 0%.

Is there a working directory/cache I can clear to get it back to a running state? Much appreciated,

 

[imnotsane 2]

1 hour ago, imnotsane said:

 

I'm new to media streaming, so thank you for not being too hard on me.
I figured out how to limit the TV shows using IPTVboss, but that app doesn't

handle TV shows very well. I AI'd a python script to format the M3u file I use

for TV shows, but it took some time and testing. I believe I have broken the plugin, No logs are created and stays at 0%.

Is there a working directory/cache I can clear to get it back to a running state? Much appreciated,

 

I'll do more testing, took a while to start.

[tvipoli 0]

Hi how do you install on Synology?

[Apotropaic 41]

On 05/06/2025 at 20:23, imnotsane said:

 

I'm new to media streaming, so thank you for not being too hard on me.
I figured out how to limit the TV shows using IPTVboss, but that app doesn't

handle TV shows very well. I AI'd a python script to format the M3u file I use

for TV shows, but it took some time and testing. I believe I have broken the plugin, No logs are created and stays at 0%.

Is there a working directory/cache I can clear to get it back to a running state? Much appreciated,

 

Have you tried just removing the plugin and re-installing after rebooting?

Not sure how you could have broken the plugin, maybe you have updated it - I would go back to the version that was working if you have.

[Apotropaic 41]

On 07/06/2025 at 08:28, tvipoli said:

Hi how do you install on Synology?

You need root access to your synology filesystem, as you will need to move the plugin .dll file to wherever emby is installed (something like volume1/@appdata/EmbyServer/plugins).

I don't have a synology anymore so this is just from what I've googled.

[imnotsane 2]

On 6/9/2025 at 11:18 AM, Apotropaic said:

Have you tried just removing the plugin and re-installing after rebooting?

Not sure how you could have broken the plugin, maybe you have updated it - I would go back to the version that was working if you have.

Going back one worked, but was still having issues and ended up using AI.

made a couple python scripts to convert movies and another for series to strm.

Not 100% perfect but worked for me, you have rename the file to input in the same directory and run the script.

they will output to a new directory, create a log of the conversion and another for errors.

Movies_m3u_to_strm.py Series_m3u_to_strm.py

Edited June 11, 2025 by imnotsane
spelling

[thomaspapin 0]

Hello,

Sorry if this question has already been answered but, I installed a first version (putting the .dll into plugins folder), worked well, then I uninstalled it to install a newer version but I can’t find in my pluggins in Emby. Do anyone know how can I proceed please ?

Many thanks,

Thomas

[Apotropaic 41]

4 hours ago, thomaspapin said:

Hello,

Sorry if this question has already been answered but, I installed a first version (putting the .dll into plugins folder), worked well, then I uninstalled it to install a newer version but I can’t find in my pluggins in Emby. Do anyone know how can I proceed please ?

Many thanks,

Thomas

I usually just overwrite the old version with the new one and then reboot the server.

[sundevil67 28]

Is anyone else getting something like this when running the plugin?

The root directory of the library looks like this screenshot - identified as this random Norwegian show, "Flåklypa Grand Prix", which must have been the most successful show ever, with 2356 seasons and 3911 episodes! For some reason, this is how Emby is reading what I've determined to be the correct directory structure and STRM files (copying it all to a new folder & creating a new library caused Emby to identify all as it should).

I did try to exclude Flåklypa as a "Custom Strings to Remove from Titles" as a hail mary to see if it would have any effect, but it did not.

My log shows a ton of: "11.Jun.2025 - 14:21:49 Item does not exist in Emby library: tt14728854" entries; surely that means something - though I wouldn't know what. Also, one other potentially relevant detail - the provider suggested I connect my VPN to a Norwegian server when I had some trouble streaming.

[imnotsane 2]

23 hours ago, sundevil67 said:

Is anyone else getting something like this when running the plugin?

The root directory of the library looks like this screenshot - identified as this random Norwegian show, "Flåklypa Grand Prix", which must have been the most successful show ever, with 2356 seasons and 3911 episodes! For some reason, this is how Emby is reading what I've determined to be the correct directory structure and STRM files (copying it all to a new folder & creating a new library caused Emby to identify all as it should).

I did try to exclude Flåklypa as a "Custom Strings to Remove from Titles" as a hail mary to see if it would have any effect, but it did not.

My log shows a ton of: "11.Jun.2025 - 14:21:49 Item does not exist in Emby library: tt14728854" entries; surely that means something - though I wouldn't know what. Also, one other potentially relevant detail - the provider suggested I connect my VPN to a Norwegian server when I had some trouble streaming.

I had this happen as well, but not due to the plugin, its best to put all the TV shows in one folder and not sub folders.
Main Folder being added to Emby
                                                           |
                                                            Show 1,Show2,show3

Its detecting one of the entries as an episode and turning the main folder into 1 show. do the above for the least troubleshooting.

You can also remove and add them back in groups till you find the folder name being identified as an episode, then change the name.

Also heard you can add the root folder and change the metadata to not update, then add the shows back in.

[thomaspapin 0]

On 12/06/2025 at 00:20, Apotropaic said:

En général, j'écrase simplement l'ancienne version par la nouvelle, puis je redémarre le serveur.

Thanks for your answer, I probably should not have uninstalled it...