My Films 5.1 released (19.09.2011) - V5.1.0.1468 (MP 1.2.0) (1 Viewer)

[Guzzi]

AW: Re: My Films 5.1 released (19.09.2011) - V5.1.0.1468 (MP 1.2.0)

Hi Guzzi,

Yes the silent install is working if you have all dependencies installed before. However I only use MyFilms as a library and have no need for Trakt, Subcentral and Browse the Web plugins.
So it would be great to have those dependency warnings removed if running setup with silent switch. If the GUI shows progress or not doesn't matter, but with /S switch, all popups should be suppressed.

ok, I admit I didn't test with missing dependencies ;-)
So it seems to me it's a bug in installer - that either should be fixed in MPE-module - or I remove all dependency checks from MyFilms installer.
I let others comment on the latter, as I personally have no preference on it.

..ohh, and by the way - thank you for a really nice plugin!

I have a question to which I hope you can answer. I use the AMC Updater to download fanart for my movies and wonder if it would be possible from the configuration GUI to download fanart for actors/producers at the same time? As I understand you can only do that from within MePo...

Actually, if a person artworkpath is set, downloading fanart would also download person artwork from TMDB - but I disabled it, because it's causing a lot of extra traffic and makes it very slow, especially for ppl with slow internet connection.
Further, that part is not yet enough testet and I started to create person related grabbers - not yet sure, when they will be ready.
It's a feature request on google code, so you can star it, if you want...

I have a file share for all my fanart pictures which all clients point to, which makes it easier to update an manage. So if I can preload a folder with actor/producer images that would be really great!

//Ulf

If you point the personartwork path to a directory where personartwork is stored and enable it in myfilms, it will use that. However, populating that directory from MyFilms is unfortunately not yet finished...

 

[Guzzi]

AW: Re: My Films 5.1 released (19.09.2011) - V5.1.0.1468 (MP 1.2.0)

Quite some feedback ;-) - thanks a lot! I will try to add some comments - maybe Dadeo or anybody else can add some of them to wiki where useful...

Hi wouter1971 - it would be really helpful if you could describe specifically what you find hard to setup. In most cases you just use the Setup Wizard and it sets up everything with presets for you.

Guzzi has considered ways to make the Setup look/work easier but it is hard to know what is the most confusing for others. So, he wanted to get feedback from a lot of users before making major changes. Thus, your feedback would be really valuable!

My Films allows customization of almost everything imaginable and supports so many different setups and movie catalogs that you are right, it is not easy to make setup easy for everyone. But we'd like to try! So the first step is for you and other users to identify the issues, and maybe even make some suggestions, so Guzzi can work from a clear set of specs/requirements.

Thanks!

Having just installed MyFilms again, I'd like to give my input on what I found confusing (after the Wizard had finished, that bit was straightforward). Note I'm using AMC Unofficial, so some things might be different, although I don't think I'm using any Extended Fields (in fact I can't see any extra fields compared to normal AMC).

The extended fields are on an extra tab in AMC unofficial - but they would not show up in MyFilms yet anyway. Otherwise it should behave as standard AMC I assume.

On the General tab:
Item for Storage File Info: Source (now I've read the Wiki I know what this is, but perhaps it could be renamed to something clearer, like "Field containing filename".

That's not always correct, as it could also contain a playlist, a list of files (multipart), etc. I have renamed it now to "Item for movie source info"...

The Wiki suggests that URL is commonly used for this, which doesn't make much sense as AMC stores the path\filename in Source)

That comes from early days, iirc that time AMC used URL field for media source info - but wiki recommends use of "Storage" - which is imho the best choice today

Scan media on start: unticked (wouldn't most users want this ticked, so that MyFilms can show which films are and are not available to play?)

At the time I added that feature, I defaulted to "false" to make sure no bad side effects are there. Further, people that use NAS or other solutions, that do spin down the hard drives will probably not like it, that myfilms starts all drives to check availability.
So I leave that to a community discussion, what is preferred as a starting point for the wizard - of course it can be changed after anyway to what the user prefers...

Only Exact Matches: unticked (this isn't explained in the Wiki. I'm guessing having it unticked means that if the filename is something like "moviename (year) [Director's cut]" it will still be able to find and grab the correct film details, but I'm not sure)

Those options in Movie Path configuration are for special use cases:
MyFilms supports to main scenarios:
a) Fully qualified info about media file(s) in the source field
b) No or missing movie source info in source field and using "search mode" based on options.

a) is straight ahead - the media files, playlists, etc. are fully qualified and will/can be played like that.
b) If info in source field is wrong or missing, MyFilms will search for corresponding / matching media files based on the options settings, that is: Search Expression (Search by movie title), onyl exact matches ("star trek" will only find "star trek" but not "star trek 2"), Pathes define where to search and "subfolders" enables subfolder search.
If there IS a setting for "Item for Movie Source Info", MyFilms will update that info, if the movie was found with those settings - making next "play" faster.

Both can be combined - you can use "a" without "b" - so if source info is wrong or missing, you can't start movie - "a" with "b" - so MyFilms will try to search your movie, if source info is wrong or missing, otr only "b" - so MyFilms will always have to search for your movies (slower, especially, if movies are on network drive).
I peronally always used the a without b - but I know, there are ppl using the other scenarios too ...

Search in Sub Folders: unticked (wouldn't most users want this ticked?)

Only, if the user wants to use the "b" option - and it can be slow on networkdrives.

Ant Identification Item: boxes empty (this isn't explained in the Wiki and I have no idea what these are for!)

This is for users with offline library, like DVDs - you can define what info should be displayed if the media is not online available, like lcoker or movie number (depending on how you organize your catalog).
Have a look at the tooltip(s) - there is a lot of info and explanations there too ;-)

On the Trailer tab:
DB Item for storing Trailer Info: Borrower (I want to use this field in AMC to keep track of who I've lent films to. I'm not sure there's another field spare to use as default instead (URL perhaps?), but currently it would seem to mess up the user's lending list, so I would like to at least be able to disable this and just do without trailers).

Of course - and you can do so by setting it to "(none)".

On the Update tab:
Field used for Watched Status: Checked (I don't see a Checked field in AMC, so I'm not sure what this refers to)

The "checked" field in AMC is not shown as a field, as it is boolean - it is shown in the filmlist as a checkbox.

Enable database deletion options after movie is watched: unticked (I don't want to be able to delete movies from the database after watching them, but what does "Update db entry and keep movie file" do?)

It would perform the update defined below, that you can freely define - e.g. setting a field to a certain value.
It is somehow obsolete, as for most users, the watched handling is enough - but for users that want something special, those can use this - maybe, because they need that info for a website or whatever. Don't know, when this was introduced and if anybody is using it... ;-)

On the Internet Grabbing tab:
Script: IMDB.xml (can the IMDB+ script be used here? It has some major benefits (short synopsis, so no spoilers, renaming series' of films and it would be nice if MyFilms and MovingPictures would both show the same details)

IMDB+ is a script for MoPi, it is not compatible to MyFilms, sorry. There will be some addons for edition support, groups (movie collections) etc. in next AMCupdater version - for ppl using AMC as base DB maintenance, it's up to scripts and features available there. Soulsnake afaik is planning import features too, so it will depend on what's coming there, we'll see ...

Don't use default script (always ask): ticked (wouldn't it be better to have this unticked? Do most users really want to choose the script each time. Is this setting per movie or per grabbing session?)

It is for updates of movies from MyFilms GUI. You'd most probably like to do those, because you're not satisfied with the result of an import or automatic update - so imho especially then you might want to select other thanb default scraper to try to get better info/artwork.

Try to find best match automatically (how well does this work, as obviously it's nice to be able to have AMCUpdater/MyFilms grab the info whilst I go and do something else, but if I then have to go through the list manually changing a lot of mistakes it might be quicker just to sit there and check each one as it runs)

As long as talking about updates from MyFilms GUI for single movies, I personally prefer to select manually - see reasons above.
If we're talking about batch imports via AMCupdater (there is also such settings available) - then your question becomes of important relevance. If you use background imports, myfilms will always try to find best match automatically. If you use AMCupdater in interactive mode, this decides, if you will be asked to confirm each movie or not. Imho, AMCupdater is careful and normally you can use it - AMCupdater will not import the movie, if it cannot be matched automatically, unless you tell it to do so.
Again, all this only applies for users that use AMCupdater for imports and/or updates.

Title Search Handling: Folder Name + Internet Lookup (I mostly have genre\moviename.avi but sometimes have genre\moviename\moviename.mkv, so I'm not sure what I should use here?)

Seems, you should use Filename&internetlookup - as otherwise you will use the "genre" as search phrase for internet data lookup.

Purge Orphan Records: unticked (if this is ticked, will it delete from the database anything that's not found on the HD each time AMCUpdater/MyFilms is run?)

It will, but there are exceptions - it will only check within the scan pathes - so if you have movies in your database in e.g. "d:\movies" and do NOT have that in the scan path(es), the entries will not be removed. (e.g. for offline storage)

On the Artwork tab:
Cover Images Path: E:\Media\MediaPortal\thumbs\MyFilms (this is where I've saved my .xml file and where AMC stores the images)

Picture Prefix: AMC Unofficial_ (I've set AMC to use no prefix, so can I clear this?)

Yes, you can. It's only a preset from the wizard.

Picture Handling: Relative Path (says cannot be modifed but I can change it to Full Path, I presume Relative is correct for my situation?)

For normal AMC usage, yes (Others may comment having other use cases).

In AMC, under Preference - Picture Importation, I've set "Copy picture to catalog folder, and link it to catalog" and "Use formatted movie title" (with this set to "Keep original name" I either get filenames with only the catalog number, or something even stranger like "mv5bmtc2mdiymjc3n15bml5banbnxkftztcwnzqzodawmq@@._v1._sx327_sy475_.jpg") and unticked "Use catalog name as prefix for the picture name".

"Use formatted movie title" gives names like "Aliens ('Alien 2' - Japan (English title)).jpg" and "Alien 3 ('Alien³' - USA (original title)).jpg" which I'm not sure are compatible with AMCUpdater/MyFilms.

Well, as you can see, there is thousands of possibilities ;-) - but it doesn't matter from MyFilms perspective, as the name is stored in the catalog file - so set it as you prefer it.

Once I know how to use it properly, I will use AMCUpdater mostly, but I need to know that if I open the database in AMC, it's going to a) be able to open the images created by AMCUpdater and b) if I add a film, it will save the new image with the right filename for MyFilms.

As said above, names should not be relevant, as they are stored and AMC, AMCupdater and MyFilms all read the info from DB.
So it's more about having settings that make sure, created cover picture names "look the same" from AMC and AMCupdater.

In AMC, under Preferences - Folders I also can set the folder to use for "Load movie picture", but this doesn't seem to make any difference, so I presume AMC stores the path to the images in the database somewhere or just doesn't need this setting if the images are in the same folder as the .xml.

iirc, you can use that to store images somewhere else, using relative pathes (e.g. in a subfolder of your catalog). If you use that, make sure, to use same settings in MyFilms, otherwise AMCupdater would place new pictures in catalog folder, AMC in a subfolder.
Again, they should all work, because the part of the relative path is stored in catalog - so even mixed content should work (but might confuse yourself ;-))
Maybe Dadeo can comment on that, as afaik he uses relative pathes...

Incidentally, I don't think it's possible to share images between AMC/Myfilms and MovingPictures at the moment, as MovingPictures stores it's images in thumbs\MovingPictures\Covers\Fullsize for the covers and thumbs\MovingPictures\Backdrops\Fullsize for the fanart and uses filenames like "{Another.Earth} [-xxxxxxxx].jpg" and each film can have multiple images with different numbers for -xxxxxxxx. Whilst MyFilms could be pointed to those folders, I don't think AMC can (maybe using Junction Points, but I haven't really got the hang of those yet) and the filenames are incompatible anyway.

Yes, naming is different, so unless there would be a converter, it would not work.

I currently have a junction point from C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\thumbs to E:\Media\MediaPortal\thumbs, which works fine and keeps my thumbs safe if something happens to my C: drive (or I mess up when updating/uninstalling MP!). I could only get it work if the folder on E: was named thumbs though, as it appears to insist on using the name of the destination folder (I thought I might be able to redirect C:\...\thumbs to something like E:\Media\artwork but I haven't found a way to do that yet).

Not sure, if I understand - that is independant of MyFilms, right?

 

[disaster123]

AW: My Films 5.1 released (19.09.2011) - V5.1.0.1468 (MP 1.2.0)

what's wrong with my config?

amcupdater always detects a movie named Z?!

26.11.2011 10:58:47 - Processing Files.
26.11.2011 10:59:28 - File Imported - Z:\(500) Days of Summe - tt1022603.mkv - Z: - Movie found by name match (Z(1969)) with FuzziDistance = '1' and Optionsfilter 'on'.
26.11.2011 10:59:47 - File Imported - Z:\10,000 BC - tt0443649.mkv - Z: - Movie found by name match (Z(1969)) with FuzziDistance = '1' and Optionsfilter 'on'.
26.11.2011 11:00:02 - File Imported - Z:\127 Hours - tt1542344.mkv - Z: - Movie found by name match (Z(1969)) with FuzziDistance = '1' and Optionsfilter 'on'.
26.11.2011 11:00:15 - File Imported - Z:\13 Assassins - tt1436045.mkv - Z: - Movie found by name match (Z(1969)) with FuzziDistance = '1' and Optionsfilter 'on'.
26.11.2011 11:00:34 - File Imported - Z:\2 Fast 2 Furious - tt0322259.mkv - Z: - Movie found by name match (Z(1969)) with FuzziDistance = '1' and Optionsfilter 'on'.

 

[Dadeo]

Hi doveman. - first thanks for the awesome and detailed feedback. That is really helpful and much appreciated. In addition to Guzzi's comments:

• Item for Storage File Info: if you drag and drop files into AMC (which is a common way to add them), then AMC (up to v3.51 at least) uses the URL field unfortunately. Hence the comment about that in the Wiki.
  
• Ant Identification Item: Wiki - Customizing My Flms (under Play Movie Info), plus there are two faqs about it - Custom Disc IDs and Index CDs DVDs BRDs You find all three wikii pages if you search on "Ant Identification item". Remember the Wiki supports searching much like a web search engine.
  
• 'Only Exact Matches' is also explained on the Customizing My Films Wiki page under Play Movie Info, although it is a brief explanation. Someone who really needs/uses that option needs to provide more detailed info on that page.

The Wiki has become so extensive already that you really need to use the Wiki's search features to find everything easily. We tried to use the exact names of features in GUI or settings in Setup so you could search for them easily.

Your feedback is exactly what I think is needed. Many of the options you mention are not needed in the majority of cases. So, one of the ideas Guzzi and I have discussed is to try and separate those. However, the tool tips are quite extensive, and do explain some of the things you asked about. So I wonder if they did not display for you, or were not clear enough?

Thanks again for all the thought/work you put into your feedback!

 

[Guzzi]

AW: My Films 5.1 released (19.09.2011) - V5.1.0.1468 (MP 1.2.0)

what's wrong with my config?

amcupdater always detects a movie named Z?!

26.11.2011 10:58:47 - Processing Files.
26.11.2011 10:59:28 - File Imported - Z:\(500) Days of Summe - tt1022603.mkv - Z: - Movie found by name match (Z(1969)) with FuzziDistance = '1' and Optionsfilter 'on'.
26.11.2011 10:59:47 - File Imported - Z:\10,000 BC - tt0443649.mkv - Z: - Movie found by name match (Z(1969)) with FuzziDistance = '1' and Optionsfilter 'on'.
26.11.2011 11:00:02 - File Imported - Z:\127 Hours - tt1542344.mkv - Z: - Movie found by name match (Z(1969)) with FuzziDistance = '1' and Optionsfilter 'on'.
26.11.2011 11:00:15 - File Imported - Z:\13 Assassins - tt1436045.mkv - Z: - Movie found by name match (Z(1969)) with FuzziDistance = '1' and Optionsfilter 'on'.
26.11.2011 11:00:34 - File Imported - Z:\2 Fast 2 Furious - tt0322259.mkv - Z: - Movie found by name match (Z(1969)) with FuzziDistance = '1' and Optionsfilter 'on'.

Looks like you have chosen to use directory to identify movie (iirc, that's the default) - for this usecase, you would have to choose filename for identification

 

[disaster123]

AW: My Films 5.1 released (19.09.2011) - V5.1.0.1468 (MP 1.2.0)

done

 

[Dadeo]

Hi disaster123 - yes the default in AMC is to store the covers in the same folder as the XML database .

However, you don't have to store them there. I store my covers in a 'pictures' sub folder, but you can store them wherever you wish and set the path in AMC Preferences - Folders - Load Movie Picture (so that AMC finds them).

Whatever you choose, My Films can find them - just make sure the folder is set correctly in My Films setup:

1. If you select a sub folder, then choose Picture handling=relative path and Picture prefix = subfolder name (e.g. Pictures\ in my case)
2. If you select a completely different folder/path, then just select it for Cover Images path and use Picture handling=Full path

Double check that AMC Updater uses the same methods if you want all imported films to store covers the same way (see the Database Fields tab > Picture/Image Handling in AMCU setup.

If you use full path you can still choose to add a prefix to the picture name if you wish. My Films adds one by default, mainly so you can see what the option does. However, I think it is mainly useful when you have multiple configs for the same AMC XML db and want to keep track of which pictures AMCUpdater added via which config. Of course, I change the prefix to 'Pictures\' so all my covers are added automatically to the sub folder.

EDIT: Oops, guess you already figured out the answer since you edited it out of your post before I finished my answer LOL

 

[disaster123]

AW: My Films 5.1 released (19.09.2011) - V5.1.0.1468 (MP 1.2.0)

Sorry yes found it out. Still trying to find out why my movies are not sorted the same way as the title i'm seeing..

Whats wrong when i see this error message:
"26-Nov-2011 22:38:26,834 Debug [ MyFilmsDetail]: MyFilmsDetails (Search_All_Files) - try filename MyFilms.r[select_item][MyFilms.conf.StrStorage]: '\\10.8.0.1\full\2012 - tt1190080.mkv' - ConfStorage: 'Source'
26-Nov-2011 22:38:28,585 Debug [ MyFilmsDetail]: Error updating MyVideos DB! - System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: Der Index und die Länge müssen sich auf eine Position in der Zeichenfolge beziehen.
Parametername: length
bei System.String.InternalSubStringWithChecks(Int32 startIndex, Int32 length, Boolean fAlwaysCopy)
bei MyFilmsPlugin.MyFilms.MyFilmsGUI.MyFilmsDetail.update_database(String filename, Int32 select_item, Int32 idMovie)"

 

[disaster123]

AW: My Films 5.1 released (19.09.2011) - V5.1.0.1468 (MP 1.2.0)

I've used the IMDB.de-OFDB.de Scraper and i'm missing the covers for nearly 60% of my movies

And another error:

27.11.2011 09:05:01 - ERROR : Error importing Beavis and Butt-Head - tt0105950.mkv : '//AntMovieCatalog/Catalog/Contents/Movie[@OriginalTitle=""Beavis and Butt-Head""]' ist ein ungültiger Token., bei MS.Internal.Xml.XPath.XPathParser.CheckToken(LexKind t)
bei MS.Internal.Xml.XPath.XPathParser.ParsePredicate(AstNode qyInput)
bei MS.Internal.Xml.XPath.XPathParser.ParseStep(AstNode qyInput)
bei MS.Internal.Xml.XPath.XPathParser.ParseRelativeLocationPath(AstNode qyInput)
bei MS.Internal.Xml.XPath.XPathParser.ParseRelativeLocationPath(AstNode qyInput)
bei MS.Internal.Xml.XPath.XPathParser.ParseRelativeLocationPath(AstNode qyInput)
bei MS.Internal.Xml.XPath.XPathParser.ParseRelativeLocationPath(AstNode qyInput)
bei MS.Internal.Xml.XPath.XPathParser.ParseLocationPath(AstNode qyInput)
bei MS.Internal.Xml.XPath.XPathParser.ParsePathExpr(AstNode qyInput)
bei MS.Internal.Xml.XPath.XPathParser.ParseUnionExpr(AstNode qyInput)
bei MS.Internal.Xml.XPath.XPathParser.ParseUnaryExpr(AstNode qyInput)
bei MS.Internal.Xml.XPath.XPathParser.ParseMultiplicativeExpr(AstNode qyInput)
bei MS.Internal.Xml.XPath.XPathParser.ParseAdditiveExpr(AstNode qyInput)
bei MS.Internal.Xml.XPath.XPathParser.ParseRelationalExpr(AstNode qyInput)
bei MS.Internal.Xml.XPath.XPathParser.ParseEqualityExpr(AstNode qyInput)
bei MS.Internal.Xml.XPath.XPathParser.ParseAndExpr(AstNode qyInput)
bei MS.Internal.Xml.XPath.XPathParser.ParseOrExpr(AstNode qyInput)
bei MS.Internal.Xml.XPath.XPathParser.ParseXPathExpresion(String xpathExpresion)
bei MS.Internal.Xml.XPath.QueryBuilder.Build(String query, Boolean allowVar, Boolean allowKey)
bei MS.Internal.Xml.XPath.QueryBuilder.Build(String query, Boolean& needContext)
bei System.Xml.XPath.XPathExpression.Compile(String xpath, IXmlNamespaceResolver nsResolver)
bei System.Xml.XPath.XPathNavigator.Select(String xpath)
bei System.Xml.XmlNode.SelectNodes(String xpath)
bei System.Xml.XmlNode.SelectSingleNode(String xpath)
bei AMCUpdater.AntRecord.VerifyElement(String otitle, XmlNode currentNode)
bei AMCUpdater.AntRecord.ProcessFile(Process_Mode_Names ProcessMode)

 

[Guzzi]

AW: My Films 5.1 released (19.09.2011) - V5.1.0.1468 (MP 1.2.0)

Sorry yes found it out. Still trying to find out why my movies are not sorted the same way as the title i'm seeing..

Probably because you use formatted title as sorttitle? THat one will have some "optimizations", if populated woith AMCupdater, like putting a/the/der/die/das etc to the end.

Whats wrong when i see this error message:
"26-Nov-2011 22:38:26,834 Debug [ MyFilmsDetail]: MyFilmsDetails (Search_All_Files) - try filename MyFilms.r[select_item][MyFilms.conf.StrStorage]: '\\10.8.0.1\full\2012 - tt1190080.mkv' - ConfStorage: 'Source'
26-Nov-2011 22:38:28,585 Debug [ MyFilmsDetail]: Error updating MyVideos DB! - System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: Der Index und die Länge müssen sich auf eine Position in der Zeichenfolge beziehen.
Parametername: length
bei System.String.InternalSubStringWithChecks(Int32 startIndex, Int32 length, Boolean fAlwaysCopy)
bei MyFilmsPlugin.MyFilms.MyFilmsGUI.MyFilmsDetail.update_database(String filename, Int32 select_item, Int32 idMovie)"

I need the DB or at least the record to reproduce (and fix) it - sounds like a "indexof" a char that i s not found...