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[SOLVED] How are movies stored on Hard drive??
rick.ca:
--- Quote ---When I click "play" in PVD, that unloads (purge) playlist (asx file) in my GOM player, and now in playlist is only Thirst.
--- End quote ---
If you have a playlist loaded in your player, why would you click "play" in PVD? If you issue the command to play one movie, your player should abandon the current playlist and do so.
If you want to be able to launch multiple movie playlists from PVD, you'll have to create a "movie" record for each of them and enter the playlist in File path. Your player should play them in whatever order they occur in the playlist.
This practice is too unusual to expect any further accommodation in PVD. Surely most users are happy either using PVD to launch items one at a time (and I wonder why you're not grouping or filtering by your "playlist" field and doing that) or using a player that can use the data from PVD to make a selection of items to play.
--- Quote ---I'll still rely on IDs, because they can tell you a lot of things, by not using filters and different searches (how many of them you have, which is more recently added, on which external HDD on a shelf they are, etc...)
--- End quote ---
This seems like a lot of work for information that can/should be in the database anyway. And doesn't it make you unnecessarily dependent on PVD to browse for and find the movie on any particular HDD? You can search for it, of course, but don't you miss a simple alphabetic list by title?
buah:
--- Quote ---If you have a playlist loaded in your player, why would you click "play" in PVD?
--- End quote ---
Because in PVD I decide which one is the next from that playlist to be seen (according to genre, rating, director, cast, reviews, etc...)?
--- Quote ---If you want to be able to launch multiple movie playlists from PVD
--- End quote ---
Thanks for the tip.
--- Quote ---This practice is too unusual to expect any further accommodation in PVD. Surely most users are happy
--- End quote ---
I guess so. Ideas regarding playlists and PVD probably wouldn't occur to me, too, if I hadn't found an option about them in PVD.
--- Quote ---(and I wonder why you're not grouping or filtering by your "playlist" field and doing that)
--- End quote ---
You're right, that's exactly what I do. Except clicking on a "Play" buton.
--- Quote ---or using a player that can use the data from PVD to make a selection of items to play.
--- End quote ---
It'll probably happen one day, and I'll feel free then to ask for a suggestion. In my step-by-step "strategy" of settling with PVD as an ultimate movie collection handler, playing files is among final steps.
--- Quote ---This seems like a lot of work for information that can/should be in the database anyway.
--- End quote ---
It might looks like that, but actually it's not, at least for me. Regex compliant application for mass renaming folders and files (Rename Master) in order to assign IDs то folder names, and regex compliant movie collection software (PVD ;D) in order to automatically assign IDs to a corresponding database entries.
--- Quote ---And doesn't it make you unnecessarily dependent on PVD to browse for and find the movie on any particular HDD?
--- End quote ---
It makes me experience PVD as "all-in-one" video files handler. It's adjustable enough to accommodate to my needs and ideas, and when it's not, it's more than easy for me to accommodate to PVD. According to this, I still haven't found faster way to reach a video file on HDD, especially now I'm aware of "Open containing folder" option. Windows search is slow, I don't need another (desktop search) application installed, and now, scrolling in Windows Explorer to reach the title isn't more convenient than typing specific part of the Title in PVD's search bar, and using context menu then?
--- Quote ---You can search for it, of course, but don't you miss a simple alphabetic list by title?
--- End quote ---
I've been collecting and cataloging movies on computers for nine years now. I think I tried every possible way of grouping and storing movies. Back then, I had 15GB HDD. What to store on it and by which order? Today I have several TBs of HDDs. But, it wouldn't be convenient for me to have movies starting with "A"s on different HDDs, for instance.
That's when I decided to rely on IDs. Aren't movies, for example, just IDs on IMDb, too?
After all, we may think we're individuals, but aren't we all just some IDs in our countries databases?
Exchanging experiences is very significant, so please if any of you have some thoughts about this, post them. I'm sure it'll help us all to make PVD better for us in a ways we maybe weren't aware of.
rick.ca:
--- Quote ---Exchanging experiences is very significant, so please if any of you have some thoughts about this, post them. I'm sure it'll help us all to make PVD better for us in a ways we maybe weren't aware of.
--- End quote ---
And I hope you understand that's why I'm asking questions. I'm not asking to challenge you on your personal choices. I really don't care. I'm asking so I can understand your routine and it's purpose. Out of that might come some some ideas of improvements that might be made to the program or suggestions on how you (or anyone else reading this) might do things differently. But you still haven't answered my questions...
--- Quote ---You're right, that's exactly what I do. Except clicking on a "Play" buton.
--- End quote ---
Why not? Yes, we're back were we started. Clicking Play will displace the playlist in you player (I assume), and you don't want it to do that. But why do you need that if you have the playlist selected in PVD and can use that to select and play the next movie?
--- Quote ---It makes me experience PVD as "all-in-one" video files handler.
--- End quote ---
I wasn't questioning your use of PVD in this way. What you seem to mean is you don't use a file manager and therefore have no interest in using a filename better suited to that environment. But including the ID in the filename doesn't seem to contribute anything to your "all-in-one" experience—PVD would work just as well without it. So if you don't use a file manager, then there's no need for the ID in the filename. If you do use a file manager, then the ID must make movies harder to find. While it apparently doesn't matter to you, including the ID makes the files less portable (because the ID's are meaningless without your PVD database) and makes it less likely they would be compatible with other software (e.g., a media manager).
--- Quote ---After all, we may think we're individuals, but aren't we all just some IDs in our countries databases?
--- End quote ---
Yes, a good analogy...Everyone who knows me knows me by my name (like they would know a movie by it's title), and only my government (like PVD) knows my ID. My government has secure ways of associating my identity with my ID, and uses that ID to maintain records about me in various databases. It does not require me to tattoo the ID on my forehead. ;)
buah:
--- Quote ---And I hope you understand
--- End quote ---
I'm sorry if my sentence assembling mislead you to understood that way.
--- Quote ---But why do you need that if you have the playlist selected in PVD and can use that to select and play the next movie?
--- End quote ---
Because I had more than 5k movies when I started to use PVD, and a lot of them already were in some player's playlists. But, my .pvd is at the moment 1,6GB and not even close to all of them are set to corresponding playlists in PVD, and I doubt they ever will be. So, for my older movies (with lower IDs) the only way to know which one has to be seen is to load .asx to player, to see it's title, then right to PVD to decide, than go back to player and to click play there. I don't know if I was clear enough, but I'm willing to give extra details.
Once the new multiple edit concept to be unveiled, I'll see would it be worthy to assign older movies to PVD playlists. Until then, I really need .asx files not to load after every click and play from within PVD. Maybe I'm overlooking something, but please point it to me.
--- Quote ---But including the ID in the filename
--- End quote ---
I was very specific. Folders, not files have IDs in their names. File names consists of only titles, origtitles, year and/or source.
I do use file manager, of course. But, for movies, I use it after PVD, and in previous post I have described how. I'll repeat once again. If you have a 1000 movies on a HDD, for me it's faster and more convenient to type Naked Lunch in PVD, than to use context menu, then to open Explorer and to scroll over like 400 movies to get it. Not to tell that if HDD is unplugged (on a shelf) maybe it's not on "that HDD with those 'N's". How to locate it? When it's 4572, it can only be on one HDD.
--- Quote ---(because the ID's are meaningless without your PVD database)
--- End quote ---
I wouldn't agree. If you search outside PVD, that means you do search somehow:
1. By scrolling? But how do you know that Naked Lunch isn't with those Ns on a HDD on a shelf?
2. By using windows, or other search tool? Then, ID in a folder name doesn't bother you, you just type title in the search bar.
And how I make it portable? Export Id-Title-origtitle to a .txt file located on the root of a HDD. I could bet that opening txt with notepad, using ctrl+f is again more convenient, if not faster than any other search tool.
--- Quote ---and makes it less likely they would be compatible with other software (e.g., a media manager).
--- End quote ---
Will you simulate a situation, because I'm not sure what are you talking about?
--- Quote ---Everyone who knows me knows me by my name
--- End quote ---
No one, other than those who know you, care. Let's say you're my guest. I'm out. I know the title, you know the title, I know on which hdd it is ("on that shelf the second one starting with NA, not the first one starting with NA"), and you? But, if it's 3219 it can only be on one HDD
I mean, what is on Earth cataloged with letters?
And finally:
1. It's not about knowing the title, but about locating the title (speaking of knowing you by your name)
2. You're the "government" of your PVD, and movies are "citizens" of your "PVD country", that's why you have to know their IDs, to manipulate (sic!) and do whatever you want with them ;)
rick.ca:
--- Quote ---Maybe I'm overlooking something, but please point it to me.
--- End quote ---
If I understand you correctly, the names of your .asx files are playlists, and their contents are the pathnames of the files belonging to that playlist. Without much difficulty, those .asx files can be joined together into a list of playlist names and file pathnames. That can be parsed into a Excel worksheet of Title, Year and Playlist. As you know, that is easily imported into PVD to add Playlist to the movies in your database.
--- Quote ---Folders, not files have IDs in their names.
--- End quote ---
Yes, okay, that means there won't be some of the problems I suggested. But it doesn't change my main point—it's not necessary to record the ID in the file system. At least not in a way that makes it more difficult to deal with files by movie title. And in using a file manager, I'm obviously talking about managing the files on a HDD that's attached to the system, not those that aren't. I agree—you have to use PVD to determine which disk a movie is on. But once you've done that, you don't need the ID—the movie can just as easily be identified and located by a Title (Year) filename. And using the IDs as folder names, rather than part of the filename, makes some file management operations (especially those involving multiple files) even more difficult. In a hierarchical file system, a folder is intended for classification, not unique values.
--- Quote ---(because the ID's are meaningless without your PVD database)
--- End quote ---
That was a statement of fact, not opinion. If I, or anyone else, were to look at one of your HDDs, we would find your ID folder names completely meaningless. Some would find the ID folder names a royal PITA because they would obscure the meaningful filenames. I wouldn't mind, because my file manager can "flatten" folders. But that illustrates the point too—because I would need to do that to get the meaningless ID's out of the way.
--- Quote ---Let's say you're my guest. I'm out. I know the title, you know the title, I know on which hdd it is ("on that shelf the second one starting with NA, not the first one starting with NA"), and you? But, if it's 3219 it can only be on one HDD
--- End quote ---
I'm sure I'd go mad as a guest in your home, but if you insist on role playing... I tell you a title I'd like to watch. You use PVD to determine what disk it's on. Wouldn't it be easier to refer to that by disk number or name? Why a thousand different IDs to identify one disk? Once the disk is identified, there's no more need for the reference, regardless of what it is. So why bother cluttering the file pathnames with an ID?
Another scenario: I have my own notebook computer, and would like to attach one of your disks, browse what's on it, and select something to play. I would have a difficult time doing so because all I can see (all at once) are a bunch of meaningless ID folder names. I suppose I might be able to search filter to show the movie files, but that's not very convenient.
--- Quote ---I mean, what is on Earth cataloged with letters?
--- End quote ---
Using current technology, just about anything that's easier to use when catalogued that way. Movies in PVD, for example, are catalogued very effectively (if a little care is taken to distinguish duplicates) by Title. It's commonplace for any record commonly identified by a unique name to be indexed by that name rather than a number. Most modern accounting systems, for another example, will refer to customers, vendors and employees by name. Accounts are usually referred to by a number from a "chart of accounts" because those numbers have a very specific structure and meaning (like a library catalogue number). Inventory items are usually handled both ways because the either might be preferred in different circumstances. I'm going to assume you're sorry you asked, and stop now. ;D
--- Quote ---And finally: 1. It's not about knowing the title, but about locating the title.
--- End quote ---
I'm not sure what this sentence means. If it's about locating the title, you must know the title you want to locate. I suppose you just mean, "It's about locating the title"—which I've understood from the beginning. It seems to me the most efficient way to do that is to record the Media Label in PVD. And isn't that done automatically when a disk is scanned? If not, it's not difficult to import from a directory listing of the disk. Surely locating a disk by it's label and a movie by it's title is much easier than using IDs to do the same thing.
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