Moving Pictures not "seeing" new videos (2 Viewers)

[richardgiroux]

Moving Pictures isn't seeing new recorded videos for at least 24 hours or more. (i.e. they are not showing up in the import list) How to I get it to update more often?

 

[fforde]

Moving Pictures will will import a movie as soon as a file shows up and no files in the folder have a write lock on them. This generally is done to prevent files from being imported before all parts of a multipart movie have been copied over, but some torrent clients do not release the read-write file lock on files when they are only seeding. Perhaps this is your problem? If this doesnt help post debug log files and maybe I can give you some additional pointers.

 

[MeMeMe]

I've just updated to 1.1.2 and I'm seeing this behaviour too.
An old version of Moving Pictures did it, but an update fixed it.
Edit: I don't get my movies via torrents so that can't be happening here.

 

[richardgiroux]

Based on the comments I received from fforde, I found the issue and "fixed" it. For the benefit of others that is what I did:

When configuring MediaPortal initially, I left the naming convention for naming recordings as the default. I simply pointed the the recording to a drive letter where I wanted my recordings stored. With the default settings, this meant that the movies were being recorded in the root directory of the drive while the tv shows were being recorded in sub folders based on the TV channel. This caused two problems:

1. The names of the movies included not only the names of the movie but the channel name and info as well. This naming convention made it very difficult for Moving Pictures to find a match.

2. Since Moving Pictures won't import new files if any file is locked in the video folder (or any sub directory) this meant that while I was recording ANYTHING, Moving Pictures couldn't import the movie. Based on my recording schedule, I would sometimes have to wait 24 hours before the new movies would appear in the Moving Pictures list.

The Solution:

1. In my video drive, I made a directory called "movies".
2. I went in to the MediaPortal TV configuration and changed the name convention (in the Custom paths and filenames tab under Recording) format for movies to be "\\movies\%title%".

Now, each channel has its own directory and movies are placed in their own directory. Moving Pictures almost always gets the correct IMDB match and the movie is imported as soon as it is finished recording.

 

[MeMeMe]

This might explain why it works properly on my client machine*, but not on my server+client machine.
However, I don't think that fix will work for me. I'm not using mediaportal's TV server. I'm using the ForTheRecord plugin.
Any idea what I will have to do to achieve the same effect?

Also: Moving Pictures is not set up to watch my TV recordings, just dvd rips which are on a separate drive.

* (or was working last time I checked - need to check again since upgrading to 1.1.3)

Edit: just tested with a new video.
On my client machine, started up mediaportal, went to moving pictures - instantly the scanning bar appeared, and a few seconds later the new movie appeared in the recently added node.

Then started up the htpc which is also the tv server (using 4TR), and moved to moving pictures. It is now 10 minutes later, and no scanning has taken place. There are no recordings being made at the moment, though 4TR is often doing something with the tuners in the background.

 

[RoChess]

This might explain why it works properly on my client machine*, but not on my server+client machine.
However, I don't think that fix will work for me. I'm not using mediaportal's TV server. I'm using the ForTheRecord plugin.
Any idea what I will have to do to achieve the same effect?

Also: Moving Pictures is not set up to watch my TV recordings, just dvd rips which are on a separate drive.

* (or was working last time I checked - need to check again since upgrading to 1.1.3)

A filesystem lock is usually the reason, so you could simply use a tool that allows you to view those locks.

So if you do not see D:\blabla\some_movie.mkv getting imported, then fire up ProcessExplorer (procexp.exe) and use CTRL+F to look for "some_movie.mkv", "blabla" or even "D:\". You then get one or more results in the search window, afterwhich you double click the entry that you suspect. The 'Process' column should already allow you to see the offending application that is causing the lock, which could range from explorer.exe, System to some 3rd party application.

After you double clicked the entry you are taken to the actual handle, which you can then also remove via right clicking on it and selecting "Close Handle". This can lead to unexpected results, so be very aware of what you are doing.

But once you found out what process keeps putting a lock on it, then you can work on a solution. For example maybe explorer.exe is putting a lock on it, because you have some Matroska thumbnail generator plugin installed, or maybe Windows own methods are doing that (I actually unregister 'shmedia.dll' for that exact reason). If it turns out it is your 3rd party program that is causing the lock, then you need to rethink how you structure your system.

Which mainly entails as explained before that you seperate temporary folders from import folder. You do not download, rename or do other manipulations with a 3rd party program inside the MovingPictures import folder. At least not until after the movie has been imported.

You can download Process Explorer from: http://live.sysinternals.com/procexp.exe

 

[richardgiroux]

In order to get the the IMDB database approved all the time, I made a number of changes to the Moving Pictures plugin.

1. Under the Importer Settings tab, I set "Auto Approval Rate" to the highest it can go.
2. I checked Auto Approve on Alternate Matching

 

[MeMeMe]

I loaded up Process Explorer, then dropped a movie (Bound.mkv) into my watched videos path.
I loaded up mediaportal, went to the moving pictures node, and scanning did not occur.
I searched process explorer for bound.mkv (and mkv) and nothing came up.

I then looked at what services were active, and disabled three third party apps in turn: For The Record, Acronis True Image, and TeamViewer.
After each one, I loaded up mediaportal, checked the movies (and recently added screens), waited a minute or so, and no scanning bar appeared.

I then rebooted, loaded up mediaportal once more, and checked movies - and still nothing.

I'm not sure, but it doesn't look like a file lock.

Edit: i then loaded up mediaportal configuration, and loaded moving pictures plugin, and noticed the autoscannijg didn't start. So I checked the movie database list, and Bound was there!

Maybe it got scanned too quick for me to see it, but it's a puzzler.

In order to get the the IMDB database approved all the time, I made a number of changes to the Moving Pictures plugin.

1. Under the Importer Settings tab, I set "Auto Approval Rate" to the highest it can go.
2. I checked Auto Approve on Alternate Matching

I don't think this would help me, since it seems the scan isn't starting. When it does happen (inside the plugin config), it works fine.

 

[richardgiroux]

This might be a stupid suggestion but I'll throw it out there.

I would look at the filters in your categories to be sure you aren't filtering it out.

Secondly, be sure you don't have the lock for adult content turned on. When the adult content lock is on, restricted movies don't appear in the movie list at all until you unlock it.

 

[MeMeMe]

I've figured out how to repeat the problem, for me at least.

My HTPC is on most of the time (not in sleep).
My movies are stored on a NAS, with watch folders set up in moving pictures
I rip movies onto my desktop, process them, etc, then copy them to the nAS.

If Mediaportal is active on the HTPC when I transfer the movies to the NAS, moving pictures does not notice them, even if I later shut down mediaportal and restart it. I have to manually scan them in through config.

If mediaportal is off, or the HTPC is off, when I transfer the movies - then when I switch mediaportal on, it detects them correctly.

Is this how it is supposed to behave? It's a bit of a problem for my setup.