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Author Topic: Tagging video files  (Read 8128 times)

Grundgütigster

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Tagging video files
« on: June 10, 2016, 02:11:26 am »


Can't say if this is different to the Windows version, nor if it was mentioned before. To me it is a typical "problem" that appeared when porting Windows features into the Mac world (I still don't believe that MediaCenter was natively written for Mac):

As I understand the video tagging feature, everything is written in xml files, which really is a good idea. The whole tagging and film information system brings up different windows with fields wher one can add something. For example the "Get Movie & TV info..." part. Opening this window puts the file name into the upper field. This helps to find information. MC here does not understand any other character than "native" English ones. Foreign characters like those with dots and strokes above them are not recognised, although they are part of the file name and thus are part of a commen name system and nothing unusual.

Also: It is not possible to write typical French letters into the tagging fields that become the xml file. Letters like à, é, ê, etc are just ignored, but can be added manually to the xml file. Yet they will be ignored by Media Center if they are in the xml file.

Maybe this has been repaired with a newer MC version.
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JimH

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Re: Tagging video files
« Reply #1 on: June 10, 2016, 06:22:48 am »

Can't say if this is different to the Windows version, nor if it was mentioned before. To me it is a typical "problem" that appeared when porting Windows features into the Mac world (I still don't believe that MediaCenter was natively written for Mac):
It is true that the Mac version was ported from Windows, but it is a native Mac application.  What you may not like is some of the interface choices we made.  It's a compromise between being consistent with the Windows version and being consistent with the Mac way of doing things.

MC21 made a few small changes that might help you.
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blgentry

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Re: Tagging video files
« Reply #2 on: June 10, 2016, 07:38:00 am »

The ability to enter "special characters" was added some time late in the development of MC20 I believe.  I'm too lazy to look it up.  But it's really easy to test:

Click on any field where you can enter text and make sure you can type.  Now press <Command>k .  In the box that pops up, you can enter special characters.  Not super elegant, but it works. 

Brian.
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Grundgütigster

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Re: Tagging video files
« Reply #3 on: June 13, 2016, 02:54:47 am »

Again, thanks for your help!

I think we have different ideas about what "native" means, which is ok. I don't really care about how a software is coded but wish the usage and the GUI of MC would be a bit more Mac-like.

I now stopped using MC for my videos, because of the tagging problems, the poor mkv support and a few other (minor) issues I have with it. I don't see the point of an upgrade with costs at the moment, as other video players I found have everything I need. Also I'm sure, there will be other issues I'll have with a newer version of MC with recommendations to the next version...

I really appreciate your help though, thanks again!
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blgentry

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Re: Tagging video files
« Reply #4 on: June 13, 2016, 08:11:43 am »

I now stopped using MC for my videos, because of the tagging problems, the poor mkv support and a few other (minor) issues I have with it.

Tagging problems?  Because you can't type in special characters directly?

What MKV problems?  I've played hundreds of MKVs and never had any issue playing any of them.

Brian.
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Grundgütigster

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Re: Tagging video files
« Reply #5 on: June 13, 2016, 08:56:14 am »

Tagging problems?  Because you can't type in special characters directly?

What MKV problems?  I've played hundreds of MKVs and never had any issue playing any of them.

Brian.

Yes, and most of my mkv-files have subtitles, that won't show, plus some minor issues.

No big deal. I like MC for my audio files and never really had the idea of using it for my videos, as I don't need a computer as a library tool. It was a second test (the first one was about a year ago). I am a film historian and most of my videos are non-American films. The file names of the videos are the names of the films and are correct. Media Center not only is unable to read them correctly but also shows their US-American names, when I look up the additional information with MC's library tools. I don't want this. For me it is just too much work to manually correct all the entries for all the films I have.

 :-*
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blgentry

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Re: Tagging video files
« Reply #6 on: June 13, 2016, 09:01:38 am »

You seem to have made up your mind, which is fine.

It seems a tiny bit unfair that you are essentially writing off MC as a "bad video solution" without evaluating the current product.  But that's up to you.  I wish you luck with your audio use of MC and your video use with some other platform.

Brian.
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Grundgütigster

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Re: Tagging video files
« Reply #7 on: June 13, 2016, 10:05:25 am »


I'm not saying MC is a "bad video solution". It just doesn't fit my "needs" or wishes or expectations to an enhanced video player solution. I knew that before I decided to use MC, so I'm not disappointed.

I sometimes wish others would see things my way, especially those who code those programmes, but already learned by using a lot of apps that they don't.

Anyway. Of course I'll again try MC as a video player, maybe with version 22, as I like the sidecar idea. Maybe then the GUI is a bit more intuitive, etc.

And now, back to football!  :D
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