Question about the flexibility of filenames. (2 Viewers)

[Lehmden]

Happy New Year.

I'm going to have to use a dash or a space instead.

You can use whatever name you like, if you add the tt number (IMDB-ID) to the file name. E.G. "2001 - A Space Odyssey (tt0062622).mkv" or "2001 (tt0062622).mkv" or similar. All this is working.

You also can use .nfo files containing all the metadata of the movie. Then the file name is completely up to you as long as the .nfo is named like the corresponding video file (2001.mkv needs 2001.nfo).

And as a third option, you can use MKV with metatags (same as ID3 tags for music). MP2 is supporting Matroska metatags since a long time already...

As long as you do at least one of the above, the movie will be matched 100%...

Will imdb (I'm assuming that's the database used for movies...)

Sorry, but we are not using IMDB as data source. IMDB is commercial, not localized (you can not load metadata in French or German or...) and also it has many movies the rest of the data is poor (e.g. fanart support). As long as you don't have .nfo files (they are preferred over online data) the metadata is grabbed from TheMovieDB. TMDB supports the "tt" numbers also it has it's own ID system...

 

[Len Lekx]

Option 1 sounds like the best for my circumstance. (Option 3 is out, because I'm converting everything to MP4 for space. )

IMDB is commercial, not localized

I was unaware of that.

the metadata is grabbed from TheMovieDB. TMDB supports the "tt" numbers also it has it's own ID system...

Works for me...

Thanks.

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.

I'm converting everything to MP4 for space.

The container has nothing to do with the file size aside of a very few bytes. And here MKV is slightly smaller than MP4.
The file size only depends on the used codecs and bitrate and the number of tracks (video, audio, subtitle, chapters,...) inside the video file but in no way on the used container (file extension).

There also is a codec named MP4 (aka DivX, XVid, h263) but this is a very old and un- efficient one. More recent are AVC (also named h264) and HEVC (aka h265). H265 is relatively new and needs lots of hardware power. Aside this it is very expensive for everyone providing hardware and content encoded in h265. So most likely h265 will not live that long... As a good compromise today you best use h264...

 

[Lehmden]

I was unaware of that.

IMDB is owned by Amazon since many years.

 

[Len Lekx]

IMDB is owned by Amazon since many years.

Didn't matter to me, so I didn't look...

As a good compromise today you best use h264...

I'm currently using Handbrake for compression of the files - it's using the h264 codec, but ending the files with .m4v or .mp4. It's taking the raw .mkv file and converting it to a file about one-quarter the size of the original. Sometime in the near future, I'll experiment with converting the raw mkv file into a compressed one and see what kind of space saving it results in...

if you add the tt number (IMDB-ID) to the file name. E.G. "2001 - A Space Odyssey (tt0062622).mkv"

I had a quick glance at the database site, but couldn't find references to the tt number. Do I have to have an account with them, granting the ability to edit data, to see it? Or am I simply overlooking something...? (I tend to do that... )

 

[Timberwolf99]

when you click on the movie the tt number will be in the URL, it’s the movies unique ID within the database.

 

[Lehmden]

Do I have to have an account with them, granting the ability to edit data, to see it?

Possible. Never tried it without being logged in, so I'm not sure. The IMDB-ID can be found under "external databases"( or similar, I'm using the page in German so I don't know the exact term in English).
By the way, MediaPortal2 didn't use their web page. TheMovieDB is providing an API (like any other database of this kind, IMDB, TVDB,...) for easy access from within programs. Websites are for human access, APIs are for software access to the database... The TMDB API knows about tt numbers and can search/filer the results for a given tt number even when not logged in...

.mp4. It's taking the raw .mkv file and converting it to a file about one-quarter the size of the original.

This only is a matter of the used bitrate. If you use exactly the same settings but choose mkv as output you will get mkv files of very similar size than the .mp4 files you now use. Same would be valid for .ts or .avi or,... as long as you choose identical bitrates for the resulting video. Higher bitrates means bigger file sizes and better picture quality. So it always is a compromise which bitrates/quality to choose. The used codec (DivX, AVC, HEVC,...) is responsible for how low you can set the bitrate without loosing too much picture quality. Better codec means lower bitrates (= smaller file sizes) without notable loss of quality.

.mp4 originally is an Apple (Mac) file format and for this it has lot's of unnecessary restrictions (as everything from Apple). .mkv is an open source format and is much more flexible than .mp4. Indeed it is the most flexible container that exists today. It can contain much more different tracks, codecs,... than any other container out there. You even can generate DVD/BD alike menu structures and attach the fanart directly to the video file (like Album cover to an mp3 music file).

I'm developing an AV converting tool named "Media-Buddy" (formerly known as "MKV-Buddy"). It's using Handbrake as the main encoding engine, opposite to most other tools of this kind that are using ffmpeg as encoding engine. When encoding videos it can generate mkv and mp4 files. Everything else (remuxxing, tagging,...) only is possible with mkv because of it's much better flexibility. If you don't know Remuxxing means transferring a video file from one container into another one without re- encoding. A very fast process (as fast as copying a file).

During development I've tested mp4 for remuxing too, but mp4 fails in about 70% of all videos I've tested where mkv was working for every test video I tried. That's why I never implemented remuxxing to mp4 at all. Tagging of mp4 files generally is possible too, but you only can tag very little data. Aside this very few video tools are supporting mp4 tags. As example MediaPortal2 only supports mkv tags. That's why tagging of .mp4 is not implemented and most likely never will be.

 

[henso]

As example MediaPortal2 only supports mkv tags

MP4 tags are also supported AFAIK, but like you say there are more mkv tags.

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.

MP4 tags are also supported

Afaik MKV tags are read by the importer with mkvextract.exe. And mkvextract.exe don't support mp4 tags, I'm sure...

 

[henso]

And mkvextract.exe don't support mp4 tags, I'm sure...

Correct, TagLib (same as used for reading MP3 tags) is used for reading the MP4 tags.