New system for importing music/video/weather... data (1 Viewer)

[JulianBuss]

MP can add different types of metadata to it's database: music (from mp3 tags), video (manually or via IDMB) and weather.

Everytime I add some media I have to go to setup and do a manual rescan. Since I add new media at least once a week, this is not satisfactory.
And when going to the weather module, I have to hit "refresh" manually. As a user, I want that "this thing just works", and I don't want to bother with manual metadata import stuff.

We need a new, general kind of importing system for this data. I suggest to implement a general importing system which consists of importer plugins, each importer is resposible for importing one type of data to the MP database.

So currently we would have:

- a importer for music
- a importer for movies
- a importer for pictures
- a importer for weather

A specialized importer inherits methods and properties from a general importer:

- a schedule plan (when to run this importer automatically)
- a file mask (which files shall this importer work on)
- one or many directories to work on
- rules for generating a name for an imported item out of the file path (if no further meta data like id tags are present).

With this we could have one consistent and logical importing technique for every kind of data. Plugin authors could create their own importers on top of the general importer. And the import of music and movies could be done scheduled finally.

Thanks for listening.

 

[DjStiky]

Imports should be done Meedio style.

You guys should really install it and check it out. If media portal did imports like meedio, it would be THE ULTIMATE htpc software.

 

[auralsix]

Several of us are transitioning from Meedio to MediaPortal, with a bit of difficulty. I'd say the biggest issue is definitely the video importing capabilities. When it's not crashing on certain titles, it's mismatching results, and is generally a pain to work with.

Meedio movie imports worked off of standalone text property (.my) files which would be placed in a corresponding movie's directory. These .my files contained information regarding which files were associated with that movie entry, standard IMDB values, along with any extended info you wished to store. The importer would scan through movie directories, looking for these files, and adding their entries to the Meedio database as necessary. A full import of 400 or so movies, from scratch, would take a matter of minutes, and required no user interaction.

I know that a lot of work has been put into IMDB importing, and it's certainly appreciated. However, many of us are looking for a more portable solution for our content, so that we can add or drop media into our collections quickly. Additionally, any person who's taken pride in their HTPC project, probably wants to retain control over the details displayed on that info screen, and leaving final control up to IMDB is sort of a crapshoot.

A new video import methodology, one based off a portable text format, such as XML, might be more viable for MediaPortal in the long-term. Perhaps the IMDB import code could even be used for initial creation of these XML files, for users who don't necessarily micromanage their collections, or are just initially lacking that detailed metadata. No use letting that code go to waste.

Thoughts?

In the meantime, I guess I'll be looking into writing a .my file importer =]

 

[balance07]

auralsix

cheers to that, brother. you read my mind.

 

[chefkoch]

I think to make a generel importer is not the right way.
If an importer is designed for a special kind of media, it would be more efficient, faster and stable.

But they should be better.
The devs are working on it. The tag-reader for the music-module is rewritten by SteveV: look here

auralsix
I agree full with your post.
The movie importer should also get it's information from other sources.
I also wrote my thoughts in this thread: look here

Greetings
chefkoch

 

[mbuzina]

And when going to the weather module, I have to hit "refresh" manually. As a user, I want that "this thing just works", and I don't want to bother with manual metadata import stuff.

You do not have to hit refresh. The weather module has a refresh counter (default 30 minutes). So if you prefer fresher data just change that setting.

By the way: I would not consider weather as being similar data as media it is just too different. I am looking at setting up a new db environment for mp (https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/viewtopic.php?t=17206&highlight=), which is more generic. Together with the already existing File System Watcher and the new proposed FE / BE Solution, you would be on your way.

 

[zag2me]

The Movie importer in Meedio worked very very well.