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Scan folders/file scanner confusion

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rick.ca:

--- Quote ---Tag export/import (like ID3 for mp3) has been marked as already added. This is good news if that is the case. Looking at 0.9.9.10 I can't see where it is implemented.
--- End quote ---

I marked that off because I did not interpret the feature request to necessarily be an integrated tag management system, and I thought most of the pieces were in place for this to be done on an ad hoc basis. Perhaps I'm wrong, but it doesn't seem you've actually tried to do anything with the tools that have been provided. I'm not trying to give you a hard time, but since I don't really have much interest in this, I was expecting you would give it a shot.

Is there not an template command for exporting text file beside a media file? That could be used to export a text file with the URL. I assume the Text File plugin can import that. Those two could export/import any text, but, as I understand it, the URL is your primary concern—with that, another instance of PVD would not have to search IMDb to find the movie. I believe there's also a template command for exporting posters beside media files. And there's Image by ID to reassociate them with a new database. That would work only for new databases, so I do understand your interest in Reset's plugin.


--- Quote ---The only enhancement I can think of is sometimes the enclosing directory has a better name, so being able to easily select that would be handy.
--- End quote ---

You should be able to handle that with regex as well, unless the pattern is hopelessly inconsistent. What is the source of the directory and file name?


--- Quote ---Some media files have an associated .nfo file containing a link to an internet database (most often imdb).
--- End quote ---

I don't see much point in this. Sure, it there's a reliable URL consistently available in a consistent format, then this may help, but the primary approach is supposed to be to get the filename (and maybe year) and use that to search IMDb. In normal circumstances, that works fairly well. What if the URL is wrong? In that case, a mess would have to be undone, and the normal method repeated—after removing the offending NFO. Maybe what would be more practical would be to import the entire contents of any NFO into a custom field. Then, if any of the information was needed, it would be readily accessible.

patch:

--- Quote from: rick.ca on June 14, 2009, 07:22:20 am ---
--- Quote ---The only enhancement I can think of is sometimes the enclosing directory has a better name, so being able to easily select that would be handy.
--- End quote ---

You should be able to handle that with regex as well, unless the pattern is hopelessly inconsistent. What is the source of the directory and file name?
--- End quote ---

Media file names are often very cryptic eg "vmt-agmihtf-xvid.avi" but the enclosing directory is more informative "A Good Man Is Hard to Find". Maybe others don't have this experience, but I find it is rather common. Currently I cut & paste in the "Scan results" dialogue to make the name more informative for the imdb lookup. This is a wish list suggestion to improve to the "Scan results" dialogue to make this process more efficient. Regex would not make the manual editing more efficient as the very reason it is a manual process is the naming is generated by humans so is inconsistent.


--- Quote from: rick.ca on June 14, 2009, 07:22:20 am ---
--- Quote ---Some media files have an associated .nfo file containing a link to an internet database (most often imdb).
--- End quote ---

I don't see much point in this. Sure, it there's a reliable URL consistently available in a consistent format, then this may help, but the primary approach is supposed to be to get the filename (and maybe year) and use that to search IMDb.
--- End quote ---

URL are in a consistent format (they are a valid url). If one is available it will always point to the correct imdb record with greater accuracy than a search (duplicate records in imdb, similar movie titles etc). So if it is available it is worth using, if not then falling back to file naming & database search is of course required. Currently I can "Open enclosing folder" open the .nfo file, cut & paste from there. Importing into a custom field would provide similar functionality but not address why I suggested it ie the improve scanner performance.

Note I have spent time making file names look pretty in the past, but given I now access my movies from PVD the actual file names and paths are largely irrelevant. If I need to change them to import into PVD then that indicates the efficiency of operating PVD could be improved.

.nfo are supplied with at least 50% downloaded content and most have imdb link, so I suspect I'm not the only one who would benefit from this functionality, hence it's suggestion as a scanner enhancement wish list item


--- Quote from: rick.ca on June 14, 2009, 07:22:20 am ---
--- Quote ---Tag export/import (like ID3 for mp3) has been marked as already added. This is good news if that is the case. Looking at 0.9.9.10 I can't see where it is implemented.
--- End quote ---

I marked that off because I did not interpret the feature request to necessarily be an integrated tag management system, and I thought most of the pieces were in place for this to be done on an ad hoc basis.
--- End quote ---

PVD is run on an open database with various import & export capabilities. It has always been possible to import movie information from various sources in an adhoc fashion. The aim of using tags is to further improve the file scanner performance. To do so it becomes part of the file scanner. Maybe PVD has all the tagging capability nostra wanted to implement, if so then a some what adhoc solution must be the answer.

BTW
The above suggestion are in-order of solution specificity, from most general (but least exact) to most exact / potentially automatic.

rick.ca:

--- Quote ---Note I have spent time making file names look pretty in the past, but given I now access my movies from PVD the actual file names and paths are largely irrelevant. If I need to change them to import into PVD then that indicates the efficiency of operating PVD could be improved.
--- End quote ---

Obviously, the actual file names and paths are relevant. A lot of work went into a sophisticated file scanner that can accurately extract a title and year—which in turn will very likely result in a successful IMDb search. All that is required it that there be reasonable degree of consistency in the file path names. The fact that you're unwilling to use it as designed doesn't mean it's efficiency needs to be improved.

But fine. You're right, there are probably others who expected PVD to accurately process inconsistent, meaningless and misleading file path names used by many torrents. Most of the torrents that provide reliable NFOs are also more likely to use reasonable names, but let me be generous: Let's say that 50% of these torrent file names are so bad you really need a URL from an NFO. But only 50% of those have NFOs. So that means the you're still going to get an unacceptably high error rate.

I use "clean" file names, and the file scanner performs flawlessly. My file manager includes a regex file renamer. One button cleans movies, another episodes. Maybe I'll configure a third to deal with those that have a more accurate title in the containing folder. Even with some requiring manual adjustment, it still works out to seconds per file. And then the filenames are accurate and meaningful in my file system as well as in PVD. The same thing can be done with a number of excellent freeware file renamers.


--- Quote ---The aim of using tags is to further improve the file scanner performance.
--- End quote ---

Maybe now that the scanner works so well with clean filenames, we don't need tags. Maybe what would be much more useful would be the ability to rename files. Files could be renamed to Title (Year) IMDb#.ext and a variable added so regex could capture the IMDb# and add the URL.

patch:

--- Quote from: rick.ca on June 14, 2009, 12:05:42 pm ---My file manager includes a regex file renamer. One button cleans movies, another episodes. Maybe I'll configure a third to deal with those that have a more accurate title in the containing folder. Even with some requiring manual adjustment, it still works out to seconds per file. And then the filenames are accurate and meaningful in my file system as well as in PVD. The same thing can be done with a number of excellent freeware file renamers.
--- End quote ---

That sound like a good system.
I got sick of doing it by hand. The issue I found was often multi-part files were used and for replay all files names needed to match (sub-titles, multiple discs etc). As such it was easier to leave the cryptic but matching set of file names. Typically the folder names are more human readable, hence my approach.

Does the file manager you use cope with multi-part files appropriately? Which one do you use?
You do of course realise there is a certain amount of similarity between what you are doing with your file manager and what I (& I assume others) are trying to do with PVD file scanner.


--- Quote from: rick.ca on June 14, 2009, 12:05:42 pm ---But only 50% of those have NFOs
--- End quote ---

imo PVD being able to link directly to the exact imdb reference would be a very useful feature. Currently I do this by hand which is much less efficient.
True if I knew the Exact imdb title & year the text search would work well, but often I do not know this prior to looking it up on imdb.


--- Quote from: rick.ca on June 14, 2009, 12:05:42 pm ---Maybe what would be much more useful would be the ability to rename files. Files could be renamed to Title (Year) IMDb#.ext and a variable added so regex could capture the IMDb# and add the URL.
--- End quote ---

That is a neat idea.
We would need to ensure it worked with multi-part files.
I would like at least the option to append the old file name ending to the new cleaned name, maybe Title (Year) IMDb# [old descriptors].ext as I'm not sure I would really like to loose some of that information (CAM, TS, dvdrip, HDTV, BluRay)
Not sure if it would cope with graphics data but given the often reasonable image PVD can pull from imdb I still think it is a good approach.

rick.ca:

--- Quote ---Does the file manager you use cope with multi-part files appropriately? Which one do you use?
--- End quote ---

Directory Opus. It's renamer only does what the regex I specify does (it also has other modes, like find & replace, and script—where file attributes and tags could be used). I haven't run into problems with multi-part files. When I do, maybe I'll be inspired to modify the regex.


--- Quote ---You do of course realise there is a certain amount of similarity between what you are doing with your file manager and what I (& I assume others) are trying to do with PVD file scanner.
--- End quote ---

Yes, I thought about that and concluded that just because a similar function is required at two different stages of my workflow does it mean it has to be restricted to one or the other. It does mean that something has to be done at the first stage. You don't have to be very sophisticated at the file renaming stage—just change it so the essential variables (title, year, season, episode, disc#) are in a fixed pattern. Then the second stage regex can't miss—they're just pulling out those variables from a fixed pattern. Also, I should emphasize the renaming stage is not automatic, but under my supervision. So I'm also using my own judgment as to what is required. That may range from tweaking the regex and running it on 100 new files, to deciding the one file name I'm processing right now is easier to edit manually.

BTW, all this is explained in 0.9.9.x File Scanner and Regular Expressions. This post includes useful regex references and a link to a good freeware renamer.


--- Quote ---True if I knew the Exact imdb title & year the text search would work well, but often I do not know this prior to looking it up on imdb.
--- End quote ---

Torrent file names often include a year (which is easy to identify with regex). It seems to me that even if the title is inexact, including the year dramatically improves the IMDb search result.


--- Quote ---I would like at least the option to append the old file name ending to the new cleaned name, maybe Title (Year) IMDb# [old descriptors].ext as I'm not sure I would really like to loose some of that information (CAM, TS, dvdrip, HDTV, BluRay)
--- End quote ---

Just specify the regex that will do so. Instead of skipping over them (or, for example, dropping everything after finding the title and year), put those parts in variables and append them as [old descriptors].


--- Quote ---Not sure if it would cope with graphics data but given the often reasonable image PVD can pull from imdb I still think it is a good approach.
--- End quote ---

Don't forget it's now very easy to export posters to images "beside" the media file. So if a lot of effort has gone into getting better quality posters from elsewhere, this is a reasonable thing to do—to make those available to other PVD databases and/or just to be a visual reference in the file system.

A nice companion to a file renaming feature would be the option to save the poster beside the file at the same time.

Nostra, I'm warming up to the idea of starting a 1.0 wish list. It seems I now have a number of feature requests that could go with my recommendation for Scanners (1981). ;)

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