English > Support
Scan folders/file scanner confusion
patch:
--- Quote from: rick.ca on June 20, 2008, 02:14:35 pm ---
--- Quote ---I do not think movie file tagging is widely used or standardised yet...
--- End quote ---
That seems to be the case. I just spent hours trying to get image tag information into MC—it seems hopeless. I recall abcAVI Tag Editor saves IMDb information in AVI's,
--- End quote ---
To get MC to use tag information it both needs to be written to the movie file, and MC needs the code to recognise it. I suspect you would have problems with both steps ATM.
--- Quote ---
--- Quote ---Master databases worry me...
--- End quote ---
I was assuming this would be a one-time thing—just for getting started. I meant "master" only in the sense it would include all movies on the server, and users would start their own database using a copy of it.
--- End quote ---
I had assumed that it was proposed a server version on PVD would need to be run on the file server and client versions run on other computers or accounts. For this to work I need
1) Server implementation of VDB (Master database implementation)
2) Computers sharing movie files to be switched on
3) Server VDB to be running once somewhere
4) Client version of VDB to be run by users
My preferred set-up is to just reliably re-scan my movie collection from each computer / account. For this to work I need
1) Version of VDB with 100% accuracy on re-scanning files (after it has been done once manually & results exported)
2) Computers sharing files switched on (running operating system file sharing)
3) Stand alone version of VDB on client computer (& intermittently rescanning shared file directories)
--- Quote ---
--- Quote ---Yes the files would need to be copied together if movie files were moved, but I already do that with subtitled movies.
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I have no doubt you can do it—you're the one running an industrial network in your home! Other users don't where or how there files are stored. For them, separate files increases the risk of things going wrong.
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You over estimate what I'm doing.
"File server" is a windows XP machine the "share folder" enabled the the directories containing my movies.
I find some movies have more than one file (trailer, subtitles). So for consistency I put each movie in it's own directory, so adding another file to that directory would be a trivial change. For those that have multiple movies in one folder they could either move the whole directory also or sort by file name and move the movie file & associated tag file. If not manual re-scan would be require. Either way I believe it is workable until tags within movie file are better supported.
In summary
What I'm really trying to achieve is 100% rescan accuracy without human intervention. Independent of path to the movie, user account I'm scanning from or computer I'm using. This ability can then be used for many applications including a multi-user network environment, movie storage updates, holiday set up etc.
The only way I can see this being achieved is if the manual selections made during the initial scan are stored with the movie file. The simplest implementation being a file containing the URL to the movie description (eg imdb) and cover image (eg Amazon).
The rest of the discussion is really just trying to predict what direction the industry is likely to go in the future by comparing how it is done with music files (a more mature technology).
rick.ca:
--- Quote ---I had assumed that it was proposed a server version on PVD would need to be run...
--- End quote ---
No, no, no! I know it's confusing, but this is a three-way conversation. My recommendations are never the same as nostra's. ;D
I understand why you would prefer not to run a server version of PVD. I was agreeing with you in recommending each user run PVD stand-alone, using their own separate database. I was merely pointing out it would not be as much work to create those separate databases as you seemed to think it would be.
--- Quote ---The only way I can see this being achieved is if the manual selections made during the initial scan are stored with the movie file.
--- End quote ---
Again, I'm not questioning the means, I'm questioning the objective. Your scheme is only necessary in the event one needs to rebuild a database starting with nothing but the movie files. This is not necessary if you are just changing the location of files—the rescan function works with 100% accuracy (I tested it since my last post). It is not necessary if you are creating a new database that is a subset of an existing one (your vacation scenario).
I understand you want any user to be able to build a database by selecting files and letting PVD do the rest. I've already suggested your request may be easy to implement. Please don't think I'm arguing this because I don't think you should have the feature you want. Nostra is perfectly capable of weighing the pros and cons and the amount of effort required. I'm countering your implication there is something fundamentally wrong with PVD when it's actually performing extremely well—according to its intended purpose. If any further effort is required in this area, I have to wonder if it should not be directed to making the initial scan more accurate. Everyone would benefit from that.
patch:
While I still think (in the short term) a separate file containing tag information is an efficient way of supporting all video formats and avoiding player compatibility issues.
It is interesting several programs support writing tags within movie files such as
IMDB Movie DB http://www.dancemammal.com/moviedb.htm
abcAVI Tag Editor http://www.exefind.com/abcavi-tag-editor-P21011.html
I note the movie file reader PVD uses supports reading some movie data, pity it didn't support writing as well
http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en
seabass:
--- Quote ---Master databases worry me...
--- End quote ---
First of all sorry for my bad english..
I don’t know if I my suggestion is to primitive, but wouldn’t it be the easiest way to solve all the problems if you would create a simple importfilter which can access a normal pvd databasefile then you just have to include somewhere in the preferences the option to enter a filepath to the central pvd file on the server and choose this plugin for standard import and you would always have 100% accuracy.
..or if a pvd file cant be accessed on a server because of the restrictions of firebird just put an exported csv file and a folder with the pictures there.
rick.ca:
I'm not sure I understand your idea, but it gives me one... The ability to export to, and import from another PVD database might be a useful "utility" feature. It would provide a convenient means for creating a database that is a subset of another, and to share records with other databases. I'm assuming the export of all movie information, including all images and associated people. It probably should include the option to exclude "personal" information like date seen, rating, comments, etc. The advantage of this over a CSV/XLS export/import is the resulting movie records would not need to be updated.
Neither idea satisfies patch's need. If I understand correctly, he has multiple users running independent versions of PVD, but sharing a common movie collection. Your feature or mine could be used to establish a new database for a new user, but won't help on an ongoing basis. A problem remains with updating new movies (i.e., downloading information). Some movies cannot be identified by scripts without some intervention by the user. Once this has been done by one user, it would be helpful if the identifying information (e.g., IMDb record number, suitable poster URL, etc.) was automatically available to the other users—so their updates would be fully automatic.
Nice ideas, but I think the priority should be the improvement of the program's ability to correctly identify movies from file names. If were successful 99% of the time, there may be no point in adding more features to deal with the 1%.
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