HOW-TO: Automated TV Series Downloads Using Raspberry-PI

If you have not read the previous guides in this series, now is the time to read them first -- Install KODI to Your Raspberry Pi and Install a PVR (SickGear) on Raspberry Pi. This pieces together bits and pieces of software that when configured correctly provides very powerful automation for repetitive tasks. If you are the type who likes to "set it and forget it" then this is for you.. And if not, it is not too late to leverage this technology.

DISCLAIMER: This post does not in any way intend to promote piracy. Instead, it intends to demonstrate the power of automation implemented in cheap hardware. At the same time it demonstrates the potential of the Raspberry-PI equipped with the right operating system, software and a little knowledge of Linux. Before proceeding, it pays to know the statutes, legalities and limitations as allowed by your local laws.

To start with, a lightweight torrent client is already installed together with OSMC. All that is needed to be done is configure it properly and start the service. One particular configuration that is of interest for automation purposes is the "blackhole directory" and its related context. This was initially discussed in Transmission BlackHole Directory post.

The only difference in the above post is the location of the configuration file. On OSMC, it is located in the home directory of the user "osmc". If you are logged in via remote SSH, change directory to "/home/osmc/.config/transmission-daemon/settings.json".

The following lines should be modified, if present, or added:

"watch-dir": "/media/USBDRV/.blackhole",
"watch-dir-enabled": true,
"download-dir": "/media/USBDRV/downloaded"

Note that "USBDRV" needs to be the name of the USB drive plugged to the Raspberry-PI; ".blackhole" is set as the blackhole directory of transmission; and likewise, "downloaded" is where the downloaded files are saved. These names are arbitrary and could be changed depending on how you want to name it.

As an option, the following lines could be added:

"incomple-dir": "/media/USBDRV/.incomplete",
"incomple-dir-enabled": true

The above addition means, while the torrent is being downloaded, the files will be saved in the incomple-dir. When the torrent is done downloading, the files will be moved to the download-dir configured. Take note of the settings above as they are important to SickGear configuration later.

Speaking of SickGear, open a browser and browse this URL: "http://RASPBERY-PI_IPADDRESS:8081/". Go to Gears -> Search Settings.. and under "Torrent Search" tab, tick "Search Torrents" and set the "BlackHole folder location" to the "watch-dir" setting above.

What this does is when SickGear finds a torrent of interest from the internet, it will save it to the transmission blackhole directory. Transmission periodically scans this directory for .torrent files and loads it automatically for downloading.

Next, configure SickGear for automatic post-processing of downloaded files. Under "Post-Processing", set the "TV Download Dir" to the same setting as "download-dir" of transmission.

SickGear periodically scans (and processes) files in this directory. And as you have probably guessed, SickGear will rename the files in this directory, index it, and copy/move it to the multimedia directory of your choosing. It could notify KODI of the presence of new episodes of your favorite TV series as well. And if you are into social media, a twitter account could be set to make SickGear automatically post updates of successful snatches and downloads.

RELATED: Queuing with Transmission BitTorrent Client

All you need to do is "Add Shows" to SickGear to complete the configuration and make it search for your favorite TV series from the internet.

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HOW-TO: Install a PVR (SickGear) on Raspberry Pi

In the previous guide, we successfully installed OSMC on the Raspberry Pi. This is a very straight forward procedure to install a working operating system and media center. Adding more functionality to the Raspberry Pi is more complex than the initial operating system install.

OSMC works out of the box. Its wired network is set to DHCP from the previous steps we executed (if you ticked "configure network manually", this would not be the case). This allows the Raspberry Pi to be remotely configured, and even connect to the internet. However, this guide will require some knowledge of Linux and its filesystems.

Let's connect via SSH to the Raspberry Pi. If you dont have an SSH client, download PuTTY or any of its derivatives. The default username and password is: "osmc" and "osmc" respectively. Once a successful connection is made, you will have a screen similar to below.

First thing to do is update the apt repository. This is done using the "apt-get update" command. WARNING: this command and others that follow, will fail if the OSMC has no internet connectivity.

I placed the bare command on the screenshot above to demonstrate that using it without "sudo" will result in permission errors. See the successful command execute when prefixed with a "sudo".

Next, install git. On the same terminal, execute "sudo apt-get install git".

Having git, the command above will upgrade the version already installed. Otherwise, it will simply install.

Change directory to /opt (RUN: "cd /opt"). Then, use git to fetch the PVR files from the internet. Execute "git clone https://github.com/SickGear/SickGear.git sickgear".

Change the owner of the sickgear directory and its contents to user osmc, and group osmc (RUN: "chmod -R osmc:osmc sickgear"). This is important for the application not to run as the root user, but as another less-privileged user.

To finalize the configuration, create the file "/etc/default/sickgear". Add the following lines:

# COPY THIS FILE TO /etc/default/sickgear
SG_HOME=/opt/sickgear
SG_DATA=/opt/sickgear
SG_USER=osmc
SG_GROUP=osmc

To make the application automatically start on boot, [1] copy the file "/opt/sickgear/init-scripts/init.ubuntu" as "/etc/init.d/sickgear"; and [2] execute "sudo update-rc.d defaults sickgear".

Start sickgear with "sudo systemctl start sickgear". If there are no issues, sickgear should start. Should there be issues in starting, logs are located in the directory /opt/sickgear/Logs. Another way to view issues is "sudo journalctl -xn". The output will contain clue(s) as to why it did not start normally.

Related: Migrate Sickbeard to its Bricky Fork

Sickgear can automatically download, index and catalog files for your viewing pleasure. In the next article, we will tackle the configuration, and more advanced configuration of sickgear handshaking with transmission for automating downloads and post-processing of those downloaded files.

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HOW-TO: Migrate Sickbeard to its Bricky Fork

The demise and take down of most Usenet premium providers left most of its followers with lesser and lesser options by the day. Not only its followers feel the grunt as a result, but its service dependent software as well. One of the end services I use myself is Sickbeard.

Sickbeard is my choice in automated download of TV series that I follow and watch. The best feature is the automatic download of episodes that you program it to automatigically download for you. Another neat feature is it notifies you of this download through your PC, phone or twitter (and other social media) services. But Sickbeard relies heavily on Usenet as it has limited torrent support.

Due to the above limitation, it forked to its bricky counterpart -- Sickbeard with better torrent support. The screenshot below is for the original version of Sickbeard.

I have a Popcorn Hour C-200 (touted as one of the best media players out in the market during its time). The outstanding feature of this media player is it could run Sickbeard -- meaning not only could it play the TV series, it could download and manage them automatically as well. This part was discussed in detail on our previous article on "Install Sickbeard on Popcorn Hour C-200".

The above link is used to install the original main Sickbeard version, the one with limited torrent support. To install the bricky fork, the above "HOW-TO" still applies. Just choose not to start Sickbeard after the install.

It is important (or should I say very important) to have a shell to the C-200 for the next steps to work. This could be done via BusyBox or LTU (Linux Terminal Utilities). Checkout the links on how that is done then follow the procedure below:

[1] Open a terminal connection via PuTTY or another utility. Browse the directory /share/Apps/sickbeard. All the other steps below will discuss about changes to files and directories relative to this path.

[2] Remove the directory .git. Do this so the bricky fork will not conflict with the original midgetspy version of sickbeard. I also removed the file .gitignore but this seems irrelevant. You may opt to remove it in this step.

[3] On the same directory /share/Apps/sickbeard, is the file setup.sh. Look for the line:

git clone git://github.com/midgetspy/Sick-Beard.git SB

.. change it to this line:

git clone git://github.com/bricky/Sick-Beard.git SB

[4] Remove the directory autoProcessTV under /share/Apps/sickbeard. If you don't want to remove it, you may choose to rename it instead. Any arbitrary name aside from the original name will do.

[5] Execute setup.sh on the command line. Either of these commands will work:

/share/Apps/sickbeard/setup.sh install

.. or

cd /share/Apps/sickbeard; ./setup.sh install

[6] Once the git clone is complete, run this:

/share/Apps/AppInit/appinit.cgi start sickbeard

The obvious difference between the two versions is the availability of more torrent search engines for the bricky fork. If you browse to the "Search Providers" portion of the configuration you will see more options for bricky fork than the original.

As seen from the above screenshot, there are more providers available for this fork of Sickbeard. I hope this post helps you get more from Sickbeard.

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