Author Topic: Is there such a functionality/option?  (Read 5421 times)

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Offline deazo

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Is there such a functionality/option?
« on: December 03, 2009, 02:52:21 pm »

 Hi all,

 My collection is constantly changing on my hard drive, I add movies of course but I also delete some that I don't want to keep.
 Let's say I delete a movie from my hard drive, how could this be automatically reflected into PVD?
 
 I was thinking the best way would be that PVD, when not finding the movie file anymore on the HD, removes the path for the given movie.
 I understand this might cause problem for some but it would be nice to have an option to tick for this.
 
 Or maybe it is there and I missed it?
 
 If it does not exist and if I have to wait for future enhancements, what would you suggest I do, how do you manage movie removals?

 Thanks

Offline nostra

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Re: Is there such a functionality/option?
« Reply #1 on: December 04, 2009, 02:12:00 am »
Currently you can find these movie using Tools -> Find movies removed from HDD, but you will need to delete those records or clear file paths manually.

Possible way of keeping track of such movies:
1. Delete records and use advanced filter to find them if needed
2. Create a custom checkbox field and check this field for each removed movie
3. Clear file path, as you suggested
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Offline rick.ca

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Re: Is there such a functionality/option?
« Reply #2 on: December 04, 2009, 02:39:56 am »
I tend to watch and delete. It's unlikely you (or anyone?) will want to do what I do, but I'll describe it anyway...

I do want to keep a record of what I've seen, and I want the same information maintained in my media manager, J. River Media Center. The link is maintained by the MC plugin PvdImport which necessarily establishes the link between the two databases based on the media filenames. So when I delete a file, it has to be replaced with something that will maintain that link. So what I do is delete the file with a custom Directory Opus macro that creates a null [filename].log file as it deletes the file. Both the PVD and MC file scanners automatically detect and record the change, and PvdImport automatically established the new link and imports the information (MC deletes the original record, so a new one is created).

So I don't think much of the option of removing the file path. I also think that might be a risky practice for others. If files are moved and the file scanner fails to detect the new location, it will delete the path. That would be easy to recover from, but it's the kind of thing that can go unnoticed. A filter would be a better option, but another filter for this situation would be too confusing. So maybe the existing filter can be changed so it's based on the actual existence of a file, rather than the path field being populated.

In the meantime, here's a trick you can use: "Loan" the deleted movie to a borrower named "Deleted," and then use the loan filter to exclude or include deleted movies.
« Last Edit: December 28, 2009, 04:35:44 am by rick.ca »

Offline deazo

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Re: Is there such a functionality/option?
« Reply #3 on: December 04, 2009, 04:43:24 pm »

 Thanks for the "loan" trick, I never use that option so it's a good suggestion for me.