Proposal/Discussion: How to add many movies which are on dvds? (1 Viewer)

[fforde]

The problem with this idea is that movies loaded in via this method would not be tied to a physical disk in any way. This is not a big deal for playback, the GUI could just prompt you to insert the appropriate disk when you hit play, no fuss. But as of the next release, you will be able to insert a DVD into the drive, it will be auto detected, and based on some web services, correct movie details will be automatically retrieved. A unique serial number on the disk is used to make sure we don't import the same disk multiple times. If your offline media was loaded via a CSV file or something like that, then that serial number would not be in the system, so the importer would add the disk as a new movie, even though you already preloaded it with your CSV file. See the problem?

So basically I am not sure that there is a way to have both batch loading and auto detected disk based content. The two issues kind of fly in the face of each other. We could work around this with some additional prompting in the importer maybe, but this further complicates an already complicated system. The goal of the plug-in is ease of use, and in general I am very hesitant to add this sort of complication. So I guess I am saying if we are going to implement some sort of batch loading system like you guys are asking for, we would have to figure out a way to have it play nice with disk detection...

 

[ddlooping]

Thanks fforde, I'd be happy either way as long as it works with HD-DVDs and Blu-Ray Discs.

 

[armandp]

I still need need to figure out blu-ray and hddvd identificaton (generally if windows media player can figure out the disc, we can too - only better ). Support for blu-ray detection is already in. HDDVD will be considered (with it being a dead format i am not sure.. but if the change is small enough don't see why not).

 

[mzemina]

This solution/thread is GREAT. I have been waiting for an approach like this for quite sometime. I have over 300 DVD movies and only a very small portion ripped to hard disk. Once I am able to grow my NS, that will increase, but I doubt I will ever get to 100%, but maybe I could be wrong. Not any time soon, that is for certain.

 

[ddlooping]

HDDVD will be considered (with it being a dead format i am not sure.. )

Please don't let my 70+ HD-DVDs know about it, they would freak out!!

 

[chefkoch]

At first: Thx for all your replies, this helps to find out, what we want and we don't need/want.

The problem with this idea is that movies loaded in via this method would not be tied to a physical disk in any way. This is not a big deal for playback, the GUI could just prompt you to insert the appropriate disk when you hit play, no fuss. But as of the next release, you will be able to insert a DVD into the drive, it will be auto detected, and based on some web services, correct movie details will be automatically retrieved. A unique serial number on the disk is used to make sure we don't import the same disk multiple times. If your offline media was loaded via a CSV file or something like that, then that serial number would not be in the system, so the importer would add the disk as a new movie, even though you already preloaded it with your CSV file. See the problem?

I understand the problem how you described it, but I have a few questions:

• The unique serial number is used to identify each disc, so it doesn't matter which content is on that disc?
  What happens if you have a movie as DVD and one as HD-DVD? Will both disc IDs attached to that movie or will it be imported twice?
• When the disc id is identified, i assume the online resource will return a imdb id, or it's own db id. Would it be possible to check whether that id does already exist in the list of "batch imported movies"/"Movies without discs"?
  If so that entry can be used, the disc id attached, and it will be removed from the "batch imported movies"-list.

So basically I am not sure that there is a way to have both batch loading and auto detected disk based content. The two issues kind of fly in the face of each other. We could work around this with some additional prompting in the importer maybe, but this further complicates an already complicated system. The goal of the plug-in is ease of use, and in general I am very hesitant to add this sort of complication. So I guess I am saying if we are going to implement some sort of batch loading system like you guys are asking for, we would have to figure out a way to have it play nice with disk detection...

Yep, it would increase the complexity on the code side. Maybe this could kept as small as possible.
But for the user interface, this feature could be almost invisible.
The definition file can be placed in one of the import paths and the importer keeps an eye on it like on the other video files. For the user each entry of the file is visible as an entry.

 

[mojo_lo]

fforde, just to clarify:

1) Does the unique serial number you refer to only apply to professionally produced DVD's, Blu-rays, HD-DVD's? or does it also apply to DVD+/-R back-up discs containing MKV's, WMV's, AVI's, etc?

2) If it only applies to professionally produced discs is that serial # unique to each specific disc or for the film in general? ie, if you had two identical Universal Studios DVD's of 'Scarface', would they each have the same serial number?

thanks

 

[armandp]

HDDVD will be considered (with it being a dead format i am not sure.. )

Please don't let my 70+ HD-DVDs know about it, they would freak out!!

HD-DVD is supported in current SVN Still looking into proper indentification for these discs.

 

[armandp]

fforde, just to clarify:

1) Does the unique serial number you refer to only apply to professionally produced DVD's, Blu-rays, HD-DVD's? or does it also apply to DVD+/-R back-up discs containing MKV's, WMV's, AVI's, etc?

there are two kind of serials on a dvd disc

a) The disc id which will identify the movie for retail discs / 1:1 copies - custom dvd have a disc id also but there's no way to match the latter with a movie. Multiple disc id's can point to one movie (different releases of the feature: collectors edition etc.. ). Only applies to DVD video file structure (video_ts etc..)

b) The volume serial number identifies the disk volume itself . This applies not only to opticals but to every logical disk .This is what we are using now to figure out if your import path is there or not and if it's new to the system.

So a discs with MKV, WMV's will be properly identified as individual discs and the movies will be identified as normal. The volume label will be used as user input identification when you are asked to put the disc in. You can set this label also manually in the movie manager (note: applies to the current SVN revision)

2) If it only applies to professionally produced discs is that serial # unique to each specific disc or for the film in general? ie, if you had two identical Universal Studios DVD's of 'Scarface', would they each have the same serial number?

thanks

Both discs will be identical (same as the master copy)

 

[fforde]

As far as the upcoming DVD functionality Armand is describing in relation to a bulk import method of offline media, I think the conflict will be not as great as we thought. Disk identification thus far with our test builds has been 100%, so it should not be a problem to check previously imported movies not currently tied to a disk, before importing something in the traditional way. So I guess I am saying that the enhancement you are requesting should not be a problem.

I have created an issue in the tracker for this enhancement. If you have a Google account and star the issue you will receive email updates as progress is made. I have liked to this thread in the issue, so as we start development, all ideas posted here will be reviewed, however comments in the tracker itself will have greater visibility to the developers.