Library from different folders displaying filenames, possible? (1 Viewer)

[vbkun]

Hi!

I end up in mediaportal as a friend-indication. I'm trying to do the following:

I have a file structure like this:

<folder 1>
<folder 2>
files
</folder2>
files
</folder1>
<folder3>
files
</folder3>

I need to be able to browse all the files presented in a single list, as if they were inside a folder, like a library.
I think the content of those files is irrelevant to the topic, as I don't need (and do not want) to have any meta info or internet-scrapping for information. Any method like that fails in retrieving information for my files.

So far, from what I've checked out, it seems not possible and I guess it maybe would be with some extension (disknown to me).

Anyone can help out ?

: )

 

[vbkun]

Getitng this up a bit...

I usually never try putting topics up but this is something i'm seeking for the last 6 years : (.

 

[robbo100]

MP is designed to do this will all media types using the "Database" system: http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_...ortal_Configuration/2_Videos/2_Video_Database

 

[vbkun]

Robo100, many thanks for you reply : )

Correct me if I am wrong but, to use the database I need:

Set folders -> set database -> scan

That won't work out, because my files aren't registered in databases. I have a lot of music live performances from tv shows, music videos, and so on.

I also have a strict filename pattern I follow since 98, where i tag, in filename , organization - type - artist - date - show - channel. So even the 'regular' music videos would not be found in any db.

Examples:

[21] [LOW-DEF] イ・ジョンヒョン - Ba ggwuh ( 352x240 MPEG1 )
[20] [STD-DEF] Supla - Cenas de ciumes [5444x480 MPEG2 VH1 BRAZIL]
[19] [DVD] [Remux] Madonna - Virgin Tour 1985 [720x480 MPEG2].mkv
[04] ##HDTV-TS## L'Arc～en～Ciel - [07-10-19] - DAYBREAK'S BELL @ 音楽戦士


My files not being found in dbs isn't a problem for me, I can see its cool to have things like snapshots, descriptions, artist info and such. But I find those not necessary.

So, my conclusion right now, is that, in order to see my videos from diferent folders in one list it would be 'mandatory' to find them in any db. Or I could add each file manually (just 8.078 music videos right now ^^).

Is this correct?

-------
edited due bad english :X

 

[Pat Clark]

Robo100, many thanks for you reply : )

Correct me if I am wrong but, to use the database I need:

Set folders -> set database -> scan

OK. I will correct you.

There is no need to specify any database. The database being referred to is local, and is used to store whatever info becomes available. If no remote info is ever found, that's OK. You can still find your files in their folders as you wish.

You may also want to look into free MP3 tag editors which can build MP3 tags from your file names It takes a while for a large collection, but its a lot faster than doing it by hand. Afterwards, you'll have the best of both worlds: your file names will remain intact and you will also have MP3 tags and access to fanart-style stuff from external sources. Lyrics are especially nice in my case, and there is an MP plugin to find and display them.

What continues to astound me (as a new MP user) is that many of the plugins just work -- very little setup in many cases. The developers are not traditional commercial developers -- they develop what THEY want, not what some committee wants -- and so it's likely they want what you want.

 

[vbkun]

I agree, not only mediaportal but xbmc, they are making really easy on the end user.

But your post just reconvinced me i cant do what I do want when you said:
"If no remote info is ever found, that's OK. You can still find your files in their folders as you wish"

I got a, really really really, large music videos collection. It is spread trought 5 hard disks. Each hard disk have a "videos" folder.

So lets say i want to what hmm, a madonna video. I actually have no idea in wich of the 5 video folders it is.

So what I wanted to accomplish is to see all those files from the 5 folders, in one single lists as if it was all one big happy folder =D. ( windows' 7 libraries does exactly that, i actually switched to win7 before final release just because of those libraries )

What this topic is making me realize thou is that I fall under a really minor, almost non-existent, type of user .

 

[Pat Clark]

I believe MP will handle your file structure easily. There is an opportunity for a plugin to be developed which would search within file names -- I don't believe one exists right now, but there is one called Global Search which might be modified to do so. Win7 will search within file names, even if slowly, but I'm not sure if it will do so when and where you want.

[Off topic]

You have encountered a classic problem in system design -- using a data-item (file name in this case) for more than one purpose. Your file names carry a lot of information that is difficult to access and modify. This has been a problem in software "forever." Whenever it is done, it will eventually become a problem. The fix is not easy. In the case of file-names, there may be no true fix without information loss, because, unfortunately, Microsoft perpetuated the problem many years ago by including the "type" of file in the suffix. This was a bad design decision. Also, many file-types do not include a facility for carrying meta-data -- this, too, is bad -- even proprietary file formats can use and should include a provision for meta-data.

Many other data-items also suffer from this effect. In the US, the Social Security Number carries information beyond just a number. Bad. Frequently, you will see other ID numbers, such as a product serial number, that are long enough to account for tremendously large numbers of items -- designers seem to include unneeded information such as a date-code, lot-number, model-number, or whatever in the ID number. Bad.

 

[vbkun]

Thanks for the contribution Clark.

I think there is a big oportunity for a plugin here. But its not for search.

So far I've came to conclude its a fact, mp can't do what I need.

This problem sorta origins in one specific type of user: people with a large collection of specific items, a really large collection. Wich doesn't fit to one or two hard discs.

I started to face the 'damn where is that video' problem around 2002, i kept looking for an answer for it up to 2008, when i found some japanese indie software that did what windows libraries does.

Then at last windows 7 and libraries came to rescue this kind of user.

Now my problem, solved at computer-use-level, was scaled to home-theater use level.

I mean, I could go to media portal, add all my video foders. I've actually done it. There was no way thou, to see my files, without the restrain to the physical location.

A turn around for that ? content info grabbers. But then it comes the fact that, to me, content grabbers are just a work around for this problem. As for me, file tagging, artist information, descriptions, and such, are all superfulous information I judge unecessary. But anyway, I tried to cope with it. (just my personal view here... but i don't understand why I need a bunch of information of stuff I already downloaded, that just makes sense in stores to me)

But as I have a very specific collection, most of my content was actually produced by me. Most of the content does not had, have or ever will have information listed in a DB.

One example of me coping with the whole 'lets get info' concept was when I tried to add my videos from Hamasaki Ayumi, a Japanese singer. From the 663 video files I have related to her, 140 are video clips, wich would, with some renaming, having info pulled with a 'music videos' plugin I found. This leaves out the rest of the videos, wich covers interviews, performances in tv shows, video clip making offs, and so on. Now picture the collection of videos complet is, right now, 9.720 items (i'm returning stuff from dvds, so i'm expecting it to be around 15k videos in 3/4months). I would spend literally the rest of my life cataloging performance dates, tv station from where video was captured and so on.


So with all this I think I can do a better definition for plugin oportunity:

A plugin to build libraries, according one single 'tag' parameter: Filename.

 

[mm1352000]

I mean, I could go to media portal, add all my video foders. I've actually done it. There was no way thou, to see my files, without the restrain to the physical location.

This is only the case when you use "shares" view. The video database is designed to allow you to get away from viewing by physical location or file system structure, which is what you want. "Title" view seems like it would do what you want except that you are not currently able to load your files into the database in the first place because you haven't got a "grabber" that only looks at the filename. So I could be wrong, but I don't think you need to create a plugin. Only a [hopefully very simple] grabber script that just looks at the file name... and nothing else.

 

[vbkun]

Yes

that is exactly it

I just didn't had in my mind that a grabber and a plugin are different concepts. But that pretty much sums up what I said previously, in order to get away from folder view you'll need to run your stuff trought a grabber. But of course there isn't a grabber for offline data, because the idea of a grabber is to grab information online. So I would need to do a nuisance, a offline grabber.

I guess we can consider this topic partially closed then, with a 'no, it can't' veridict (or a yes, it can if u create a grabber, but then any ht software will do since I'll have to do a grabber anyways).

Reading trough mp wiki's on grabbers, I suddenly noticed I was reading under "My Films Plugin".... so it seems the concept is more like:

Media portal -> Plugin -> Grabber

Actually, even the tree in the wiki kind makes me believe there is no direct interface between media portal and grabbers.

So it actually went, in reality, from "I think I need to create a plugin" to "I need to create a plugin, AND a grabber -.-"