Adding A Way To List Multiple Video Folders Under One Listing (1 Viewer)

[milhouse]

puppetj-
The database view is where MP has honest-to-goodness information on your movies. Instead of the default Shares view, which just lists directory contents, you can just add all your movies directories to the MP configuration, under Movie Folders, then do a scan from the Movie Database section. It'll throw each filename against imdb to get year, description, genre, actors, director, etc.

Once you've done the scan, then in MP you can change the view from Shares to Title, Actor, Year, Genre, etc. From what you've described in your various, uh, "posts", I think this is exactly what you are really looking for. For example, my movies are scattered on several file servers in the basement, but in the Title view it's completely irrelevent where they are actually at.

If you want to get really picky (like I do - I manually add every DVD rip so I control the genres) you can all go to the movie database (also in config) and manually edit information on each movie. (Especially in your case, because the genres you get from imdb are less than ideal, to be kind.) Notice genres are a one-to-many relationship so you can put the same movie in multiple genres (action, comedy, and TV show, for example). Way better than using the folder structure you've described.

If you want get even fancier, you can edit the views to having them grouped and sorted however you like, from any database field.

If your database information is correct, there's no reason to ever go to the Shares view.

For more detail, you DO need to read the wiki you were referred to in one of your numerous other threads. http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/MediaPortalSetup_Movies

I hope this helps. From your postings, you've been using MP since March and have been asking for the same thing the whole time. I think that just using MP functions as they are designed will be much more effective than fancy solutions like junction points. And as some of the flames from the other threads have pointed out - there's a lot of really helpful people on the forums. You just need to clearly explain the problem, give as much detail on your setup as possible, and ask NICELY. (Notice this post was not written in all caps, and you got useful replies?) Doing a few forum searches first to make sure the question hasn't already been answered elsewhere is also a plus.

Milhouse

 

[puppetj]

Ok, so i tried the database view and there are issues, if i switch to genres there are way to many ones, and if i choose title, i get many of the same description, like the shield, the shield the shield, the shield...so what best to use for tv shows database to get the right working ways listed, also if i go back into the cfg and choose folders..it crashes and i get this

OH ALSO... after awhile scanning in data base for my shows, it stops and gives me a list of conflicts, and i dont know what i'am suppose to do?? and it wont coroutine to scan the rest of shares...why?

 

[milhouse]

puppetj-
Yeah, the automatically downloaded information from imdb - especially the genres - needs manual cleanup, like I mentioned. I am really picky above exactly how I want my videos display, especially the Tv Shows. I think you might find my way all right.

In configuration, go to Movies->Movie Database, and go to the editor tab. For each movie in the list, go to genres sub-tab, add and remove genres to classify them how YOU want. Then back to the titles tab to save. Repeat for all the movies in the list. Yes, it is tedious. But that's the only way to get everything classified exactly as you want. On the bright side, once it's done, it's done. It takes me a couple of minutes every time I add a new movie or TV show to the list, but it's worth it to keep things tidy.

For the TV Shows, here's what I do. I'll use The Shield as an example. I've got the first 5 seasons in my collection. I add one title per season.

Title: Shield (Seas 1)

Title: Shield (Seas 2)

....
Title: Shield (Seas 5)


For each title, I go to the Files sub-tab and add every episode, in order. (That's right, multiple files per title.) Assuming they're in a format other than DVD iso.

When you use it from the My Videos screen, you'd have 5 the 5 titles above listed, instead of 60 or whatever. When you select one, you get a string of disc icons. You select the one you want. That's called "stacking" if you want to search the forum for more info. If you just select the first disc icon, it will play one, then the next, then the next without interruption, and remember which file and location you were on when you stop and play again later.

Note: Stacking does not work for ISOs. More accurately, it doesn't finish the first ISO and automatically start the second. So I re-author all my multi-disc DVDs with DVD shrink to put all the episodes of one season into one ISO. Again, I am really picky.

Hope this helps. I recommend cleaning up a few records, maybe a season or two of a TV show, and see if you like it before you do them all.

Sorry I don't have an answer for the error below, though. Never seen that before. If I had to guess, I'd say you have a bad share listed. Network drive not available, or a removeable drive that's not connected, etc. If it continues, maybe you could manually edit MediaPortal.xml in notepad, and delete the values (examples highlighted) for each share, 1 through however many you have.

<entry name="sharename0">Saved Recordings</entry>
<entry name="sharepath0">M:\Movies\Saved Recordings</entry>

Milhouse

 

[puppetj]

Well the crash error isnt because of bad shares or the other thing, they are all connected and that would mean that are the shares are bad and how could they be? i got this error before i remember and posted and got no fix and that was also a years ago or so...so i guess i'am guess i cant use mp at all then , can anyone help??? as for the shares they seem to work as 1 listing i think as long as i run the database scan... and as for genres or and title, is listing is all messed up, btw how do i get a listing like this: TV SHOWS -all my tv shows, then MOVIES- (under MOVIES would have action- all action films , comedy - all comedy films, and so on) and another thing is before when i could access my folder cfg before its crashed and keeps on doing so..it add all my dvd drives in including my alcohol 120 drives, i deleted all them from cfg in mp but it adds them right back, why??? i dont want them in there!

ANOTHER ISSUE: WHY IF I USE THE PARENT ARROW THINGY AT TOP OF THE LISTING I get mesed of tv show tv shows and then the whole issue of what where trying to fix come back again, aahhhh!!!!

 

[milhouse]

Don't run all your thoughts together like that. It's hard to help when I have to read your post 10 times to figure out what you are talking about. Like I said before, provide details on your setup, and explain the problem very clearly.

Now....

the crash error isnt because of bad shares

As I said, I have never seen that error. You didn't have that error before - that's how you added the shares. What has changed since then? Can I assume you are at least running the latest released version 0.2.3, not a release candidate or SVN? I can't help you here.

and as for genres or and title, is listing is all messed up

Details? What the heck does messed up mean?

how do i get a listing like this: TV SHOWS -all my tv shows, then MOVIES- (under MOVIES would have action- all action films , comedy - all comedy films, and so on)

You can't. Not in this view. Maybe if you went to TV Series plugin, but I've never used that. I have TV mixed in with movies. - and I like it that way I would suggest adding a genre called "TV Shows". Then the Genre view would take care of that for you.

it add all my dvd drives in including my alcohol 120 drives

Now that's one I understand. You are right. Every time you open up config, it re-adds them. I don't like it either. But again, if you don't use the Shares view (should really need it if the database is populated correctly) then it doesn't matter.

WHY IF I USE THE PARENT ARROW THINGY AT TOP OF THE LISTING I get mesed of tv show tv shows and then the whole issue of what where trying to fix come back again

huh?????? I assume you mean in the Shares view again? Otherwise I have no idea what you are talking about. Like I've said several times, DON'T USE the Shares view, and all your problems just go away.

 

[puppetj]

Well the shares view is kinda better, and lists fine now, i i dunno why, i guess cuz i ran the database scan, but the conflicts thing doesn't help, tells me i have 20 some odd files i guess that are conflicts, i don't know why, there aren't same file names, and it wont conutine can the rest of my files until it get fixed, what would cause this.

As for the crash, i didn't change anything new, just ran the db scan... and yes have the latest version..

and using genres or title listings for genres i get listings like ...action and normal stuff, but ill also get non genres like cig smoking man, or stuff in non english as listings, as for title, ill get 5 to 10 of same flight of the concords listing and i doesnt even know what episode it is...i mean its in a folder under the name, then in the folder is a folder called season 1, in the folder has all the episodes as name s01e01, and so on that how half of my tv shows are listed, some have episode names to them, some dont...


and the "PARENT ARROW THINGY AT TOP OF THE LISTING" well if i have to use share listing then thats "PARENT ARROW THINGY AT TOP OF THE LISTING" is a issue, and what about stuff that doesnt get pickup in the database?

as for the crash i really cant do anything now if i cant get that fixed, ill see about reporting it bug wise....oh, what about the database scanning with some video or iso's that are in folders file that are in folders, will it still work?

 

[milhouse]

Can I ask how many files you have to add to the database? I think that if it is marginally reasonable, you might find it easy to add them all manually through the movie editor. I've got about 350 movies, mostly isos, and the majority of them I have manually added to the database. Manually adding them all 1) avoids the conflicts problem you've been having (never seen it - try searching the forums for "movie scan conflict" for resolution), 2) fixes the genres problem, because you put only the genres you want on each movie (this I've mentioned several times now - imdb genres suck, so you NEED to add them manually), and 3) avoids the episodes problem of multiple identical listings, because you add them yourself and stack the files (so file naming doesn't matter).

I think you need to concentrate on getting the database manually updated according to your liking. The shares view is just never going to give you what you want. So let's worry about that first.

Actually, I think I may know the conflicts problem with the scan. There is an option on the Movie Database Settings tab that says "automatically select the nearest match". I bet it finds "Shield s01e01" and "Shield s01e02" both match the Shield. So it tries to add the same record twice. To avoid this, maybe DON'T scan the TV Shows folder. Scan the movies, and manually add all the TV series. Or like I suggested above, manually add everything.

As for the crash on entering configuration - perhaps re-install MP and have a clean start? I am pretty much out of suggestions there.

Your last question I am not clear on. Are you asking if the database scan will look into sub folders? I honestly don't know for sure. But I would certainly expect it to.

 

[piranha]

Don't use the Videos for TV Shows. It won't work for you.
Use the My Tv Series, which is designated for it.
Divide TV shows into separate folder, and exclude it from Videos scan.

 

[puppetj]

Can I ask how many files you have to add to the database? I think that if it is marginally reasonable, you might find it easy to add them all manually through the movie editor. I've got about 350 movies, mostly isos, and the majority of them I have manually added to the database. Manually adding them all 1) avoids the conflicts problem you've been having (never seen it - try searching the forums for "movie scan conflict" for resolution), 2) fixes the genres problem, because you put only the genres you want on each movie (this I've mentioned several times now - imdb genres suck, so you NEED to add them manually), and 3) avoids the episodes problem of multiple identical listings, because you add them yourself and stack the files (so file naming doesn't matter).

I think you need to concentrate on getting the database manually updated according to your liking. The shares view is just never going to give you what you want. So let's worry about that first.

Actually, I think I may know the conflicts problem with the scan. There is an option on the Movie Database Settings tab that says "automatically select the nearest match". I bet it finds "Shield s01e01" and "Shield s01e02" both match the Shield. So it tries to add the same record twice. To avoid this, maybe DON'T scan the TV Shows folder. Scan the movies, and manually add all the TV series. Or like I suggested above, manually add everything.

As for the crash on entering configuration - perhaps re-install MP and have a clean start? I am pretty much out of suggestions there.

Your last question I am not clear on. Are you asking if the database scan will look into sub folders? I honestly don't know for sure. But I would certainly expect it to.

how do i add manauly? and like said shares listing works better after i run database scan, bt i'am getting conflicts on movies now to, i still dont know what it wants me to do! what is it asking me, i just realized after it was done scanning it only added 16 of my 900 movies, why?

 

[milhouse]

Thought I answered this over the weekend - must have not hit Submit or something.

Configuration->Movies->Movie Database. Settings tab. Make sure the checkbox for "don't check files already in database is not checked. Then in the Scan tab, uncheck the folder(s) that has your TV shows. I suspect these two items are the problem with the conflicts. (You could always delete movies.db3 to start from scratch, and not scan the TV Shows folder.)

For manually adding stuff to the movie database:
-configuration
-Movies->Movie Database->Editor tab
-in the dropdown, New is the last item in the list. Select New, type the title and click "lookup" to get the rest of the information from imdb
-go to the Files subtab, and browse out to the movie file
-go to the genres sub-tab and edit the genres to your liking
-go back to the titles sub-tab and click Save


What do you mean the Shares view works better after the scan? Shares is just browsing the directories, so it CAN'T be any better from the scan. As I keep saying give me DETAILS. What did you see before? What do did you see after that makes you think the Shares view is better than it was before? A screen shot, maybe, to get the point across where words don't help.