More then 2 episodes inside file/ISO not recognized (1 Viewer)

[Lococo]

Damn.. the problem is. I have DVD-Series Rips. I only want that the 3 Series in one DVD are shown in MPTVSeries. Everyone should start the same DVD. I don't want to copy a 5gb file 3 times to show all 3 series in the Plugin.. I need a code which copys the Seriesname and show it as a new Serie when the name of the file is: S<staffel> E1-X

Has no one any Idea?

and for the answer

 

[RoChess]

Re: AW: Expressions/Rules requests

Damn.. the problem is. I have DVD-Series Rips. I only want that the 3 Series in one DVD are shown in MPTVSeries. Everyone should start the same DVD. I don't want to copy a 5gb file 3 times to show all 3 series in the Plugin.. I need a code which copys the Seriesname and show it as a new Serie when the name of the file is: S<staffel> E1-X

Has no one any Idea?

and for the answer

Use hardlinks then, they allow you to create a 0-byte reference to the same file, but with a different name. The only requirement is that you have the NTFS filesystem, but most people do, and you can otherwise convert your FAT based drive over via Microsoft tool into NTFS without loosing any data.

Example (same works on any show you actually plan to do this with): You have DVD ISOs on "24".

Create a folder that is not monitored by MP-TVSeries, for example "D:\DVD-ISOs\24" in which you place your ISO files, such as: "24 - S01E01-06.iso", "24 - S01E07-12.iso", "24 - S01E13-18.iso" and "24 - S01E19-24.iso"

Now in the folder that MP-TVSeries monitors, create the hardlinks, for example: "D:\TV Shows\24\24 - Season 1". In this folder you need to create hardlinks for all 24 episodes, and you can name them "24 - S01E01 (Hardlink).iso", "24 - S01E02 (Hardlink).iso", ..... "24 - S01E24 (Hardlink).iso". You might want to create the hardlinks with MediaPortal not running, so you can take your time creating the hardlink structure first.

MP-TVSeries will import your show correctly with all episodes shown. The only problem you have is that you still have to jump to the right episode after playback starts. This is why you might want to look into an alternative, such as remuxing the ISO into individual files, splitting up the episodes without re-encoding the video+audio streams. The remuxed split files take up the same amount of space, and are the same quality, but spare you all these problems.

There are many ways to create hardlinks, but the easiest way for you might be to use: Link Shell Extension (read entire website first to not make a mistake you will regret later)

WARNING: When you delete a hardlink the wrong way, you will loose the original file as well. So be careful once you start using them. Windows 7 uses a lot of hardlinks, most famously in the WinSxS folder, so eventhough Windows Explorer says that folder uses a lot of storage space, in reality it doesn't.

Eventually MP-TVSeries will have a better solution for this problem, but until then hardlinks will work and might offer a temporary solution to many users.

 

[Lococo]

AW: More then 2 episodes inside file/ISO not recognized

I haven't .iso files, these are all Vob Files... Works it the Same with Vob files as with .iso?

 

[RoChess]

Yes, works for any filetype that MovingPictures can play.

It also works on folders (VIDEO_TS) with their content, but you might want to use symbolic links then.

 

[CypherMK]

I always split the dvd image with dvdshrink into mutiple episodes. Easiest way imo.

 

[BuUrMaN]

It might be me, but if its possible to recognize 2 episodes in one file, like Smallville.S01E01E02.ISO like it is now...

Why not make it so that is scans more than only those two, Smallville.S01E01E02E03E04E05.ISO ??

Should be easy to adjust in the plugin, or is that easyer sayd than done?

It would be extreamly handy!

 

[Lococo]

AW: More then 2 episodes inside file/ISO not recognized

Thx for all the Answers and i tryed all without the one from Buurman but i'll test it the next days.
BUT i'll solve my problem with the Shrink idea!
Divx, Avi etc. Videos i could Split with AVS Video Converter.
Vobs etc. with Shrink.
So i never will have the Problem with Series from 1-3 Again.
And thx for all the Answers! <3 this forum

Mfg Andreas

 

[ben666]

The solution is still total shit though. Sure you can use dvd shrink but it breaks subtitles. Wouldnt be so bad if the subtitle download actually worked but it doesnt so you are left with no subs not to mention all the extra work. A htpc is ment to make your life easier, not spend a whole day to get things right everytime you download something. I don't understand why .iso and .vob support isnt there. Its the most basic function imo. Except for running series everything you download/buy comes in one of those formats so it would make sense to have some kind of support for it. Even if it just was a launcher for the dvd itself and not seperate eps.

And that is without all the other pain tv series plugin releases on you. For example my series keep randomly appearing and dissapearing with no reason. A MP reboot is all that is needed.

And dont expect to find help for your problems either. Everytime I look for help I end up having to figure it out myself because the forum isnt much use.

Yes I sound like a ranting bitch but if you ask me the plugin is just fundementally broken. They are at v2.5.x and stuff like showing series is still borked. Like WTF...

I will probably go back to the video plugin. Doesnt look pretty but atleast it works right away. Now I'm already spending more than a week on tv series plugin and it still works like shit. Its not fun anymore. I'm spending more time trying to get it to work than watching media. Maybe i'll come back when we are at version 20... Maybe than I wont have to worry about series randomly dissapearing and not getting recognized anymore...

 

[RoChess]

The solution is still total shit though. Sure you can use dvd shrink but it breaks subtitles. Wouldnt be so bad if the subtitle download actually worked but it doesnt so you are left with no subs not to mention all the extra work. A htpc is ment to make your life easier, not spend a whole day to get things right everytime you download something. I don't understand why .iso and .vob support isnt there. Its the most basic function imo. Except for running series everything you download/buy comes in one of those formats so it would make sense to have some kind of support for it. Even if it just was a launcher for the dvd itself and not seperate eps.

And that is without all the other pain tv series plugin releases on you. For example my series keep randomly appearing and dissapearing with no reason. A MP reboot is all that is needed.

And dont expect to find help for your problems either. Everytime I look for help I end up having to figure it out myself because the forum isnt much use.

Yes I sound like a ranting bitch but if you ask me the plugin is just fundementally broken. They are at v2.5.x and stuff like showing series is still borked. Like WTF...

I will probably go back to the video plugin. Doesnt look pretty but atleast it works right away. Now I'm already spending more than a week on tv series plugin and it still works like shit. Its not fun anymore. I'm spending more time trying to get it to work than watching media. Maybe i'll come back when we are at version 20... Maybe than I wont have to worry about series randomly dissapearing and not getting recognized anymore...

I've got 130+ series, countless episodes, and all recognized without a problem, and I'm not the only one as there are many users without any problems. I could format my HTPC, reinstall MediaPortal and MP-TVSeries, restore the string replacements and custom parsing expressions (you can back those up easy from within configuration), and within 5 minutes of running a new import scan everything would be back (restoring watched status and custom cover/backdrops take a little longer).

This was a different story before, but that's when I took the time to make my file naming scheme compatible with what works, and never a problem since then. My problems also kept recurring, but that's when I found out I had a database corruption and the only solution was the physically delete the database (emptying it wasn't enough).

It seems you do not want to take the time to do the same, or provide log files to show anybody a proper insight into why you are having problems. For example your series/episodes dissapearing, there is a single checkbox solution for that.

And nothing is perfect, so there are definatly bugs that still remain, but rants without proper feedback isn't going to get that resolved.

As to answer the thread topic, TheTVdB website is targetted towards single TV episodes, as they are recorded from TV. A DVD ISO containing multiple episodes is an exception to how the system works. It requires a lot of extra code to account for this, whereas as a workaround there is countless amount of software available that will split your single ISO into individual files, retaining video, audio quality as well as subtitles. And playback of media isn't handled by MP-TVSeries, but by MediaPortal, which has no problem with that (assuming you configured it properly, as codec hell to some extend is still possible).

 

[ben666]

But where can I find the proper info on what works and what doesnt?

The way I have things set up is:
Main folder is Serie name. In that folder I got folders named: season 1, season 2 etc. Episodes/iso's are in those folders named like episode 1 etc. But my main problem is that things keep getting not recognized or just dissapear even when I manually added them and they were visable before. Thats just weird.

As for subs, yes that is a MP problem. However I can't find solutions for those problems either. I doubt a real codec problem as all media plays and and everything works but only on a very select few files subs or audiostreams wont appear. This happens with .ogm and .mpg files ripped from .vobs with dvdshrink. Subs are however available in external players so that makes me wonder what is wrong.

As for .iso files, why would so much extra code be needed? I understand how tvdb works but the problem could already be solved if the plugin would just see the .vob files so you can link a episode to it. This would mean it works the same as woth single eps. Or if you could link multiple eps to a .iso. That wont be the prettiest solution but it would atleast mean its possible to have everything in tvseries and I dont see how adding multiple eps to 1 file would be such a big problem. As said, not pretty but much better than having to spend much more time extracting all eps from .iso's.