Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[akira54]

Hi,

I was just wondering what would happen if I rip a film or series that is already in MC (and on the NAS) again and copy it into the same folder as the previous rip, using exactly the same filename? Will MC not notice and leave all the info about when it was last watched etc intact or will that be reset. If the latter, how do I update films and series without losing all user data?

PS. The reason for updating some material is usually because I purchased a bluray version of a DVD.

[astromo]

In my experience, MC will notice and automatically assign a sequence number.

I've not tried to do an overwrite. This doesn't appear to be the default from what I can tell.

[blgentry]

If you use the exact same file name, MC will keep everything the same.  I've done this quite a few times with both audio and video files.  My general approach, which I stole from someone else's forum posting about this same thing, goes basically like this:

1.  Use the RM&C tool to rename the file to a very simple name.  For audio files, I use the track number.  So:  1.flac, 2.flac, etc.  For video files, I usually use one or two characters of the title.  So Heat.mkv becomes h.mkv , for example.
2.  I take the new file and rename it exactly the same, like h.mkv .  Then copy it over the top of the existing file, which wipes out the existing file, replacing it with the new one.
3.  In MC, I then run Library Tools > Update library (from tags).  This grabs all of the new format information like CODECs, run time, etc.
4.  For consistency, I then rename the file back to my normal naming convention.  For movies, this is the movie title.  For audio, I have my own thing and I'm sure you do too.

In some cases, I like to keep both the DVD version and the BD version of a movie.  Why?  In some cases there is more or different footage in one version of the movie compared to the other.  In these cases, I'll just make a new file name and let MC import it.  Then, after MC imports it, and grabs the cover art and information, I edit it's name to reflect which version it is.  So Armageddon becomes Armageddon (BD) or Armageddon (1080).  That way I can distinguish one version from another.

Brian.

[akira54]

Brian,

You have been a big help again. I am not sure I understand why you do all the renaming (like h.mkv) only to rename them back to their original name. Is this so MC will actually perform an update? Am I wrong in thinking it will do that anyway? I would prefer to avoid the renaming, especially since I am doing all 176 episodes of Star Trek TNG now and renaming all of them twice is a bit of a bind.

Your idea to keep both versions is not a bad one, if only because the standard versions (compared to BD) take up so little space.

[blgentry]

I am not sure I understand why you do all the renaming (like h.mkv) only to rename them back to their original name. Is this so MC will actually perform an update? Am I wrong in thinking it will do that anyway?

MC will update the files when you highlight them and choose "update Library (from tags)".  The renaming is simply to make sure I get it right.  It's much easier to copy over a.mkv on top of a.mvk than to make sure that I spell Armageddon.mkv correctly *both* times! (original file and new file).  This is probably even more important with TV episodes that may contain the episode name, the series name, the season, etc.

I would prefer to avoid the renaming, especially since I am doing all 176 episodes of Star Trek TNG now and renaming all of them twice is a bit of a bind.

In this particular case, what I would do, is use the naming convention that your ripping software uses.  For example, say your ripping software makes files like:

STNG - S01E10.mkv
STNG - S03E12.mkv

I would go into MC and rename all of my STNG episodes with exactly this convention.  Assuming that naming structure is regular and repeatable, you should be able to use RM&C to do this all in one shot.  So it's not much effort at all.

Then, when you copy over the newly ripped files, you'll know that they have the exact same names and will be replaced file by file, exactly.

When you're totally done ripping, copying, and updating, you can then name your STNG files back to whatever convention you like.  I have a standardized template that I use for all TV shows, saved as a preset in RM&C.

As always, it's good to test your process with one or two files first, to make sure you get it right.  Then do a group (like a Season) and double check everything.  Then you can do the rest in big chunks and know that it will all just work flawlessly.

Good luck.

Brian.