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[andrewberg]

At least try upgrading to the latest available v25 version.

I had explained a bit earlier today why I'm sticking to that perticular version: The next build had introduced some 'auto update' function for network views which messed up my random sorting for movies. (A feature I use extensively, can provide more details if you like.. ;-)
The second reason is that I'm not using MC for television or streaming; and don't see why anyone would, because one is available with the player/recorder software you get with most any TV card or stick, and the other by your preferred browser... That's just toys to attract a larger audience... ;-)

[zybex]

AH, this goes to show you we're all idiots in some area 
Yep, I don't use DLNA at all. Last time I tried it was 5 or 10 years ago (not with MC) and it sucked. I just use an HTPC connected to the TV.

Anyway, sounds like there are plenty of options to control what you get on the TV. You just need to explore them and find out what works.

The Paste tags command... it's just there, enabled, and it works. I don't know why it's not active for you on v25 - could be a bug, or maybe it's not detecting what it expects on the Clipboard. Check immediately after you Copy the tags - is it active then?

There may be a number of bugs affecting this that have already been fixed in the 300 or so builds after the one you have. Even if you're not willing to upgrade to v27, you should really update to v25.0.115. Maybe try a separate install just to test things, and then revert back to your current version if you find it still doesn't work for you.

[andrewberg]

No problem, I'm just as ignorant about stuff like streaming, HTPC (for 'Home Theatre' isn't it?) and many more... ;-)

Great idea to test the feature right after copying from MC -- 'Paste tags' was right there! So it must be related to the clipboard and/or data format... I have used MS Office Excel version 2003 (with macros disabled), what would that tell you?

[zybex]

It should work...but you could try a more recent version of MSOffice or LibreOffice - maybe the clipboard object format is different.

Try copying with and without column headers; try copying just 1 column, with and without header; make sure you're just copying the exact same number of movies that are selected in MC; try copying all columns (as many as are on MC's view); Try copying just 1 cell or 1 row, and select just 1 movie in MC;

For each test, check if the Paste Tags option is now available.

[wer]

https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,128796.msg894028.html#msg894028

[andrewberg]

Try copying with and without column headers; try copying just 1 column, with and without header; make sure you're just copying the exact same number of movies that are selected in MC; try copying all columns (as many as are on MC's view); Try copying just 1 cell or 1 row, and select just 1 movie in MC; (...)

All options tested one by one, but no pasting tags function available...

Will start all over again, make a new view, then come back with screenshots... maybe that helps to visualize what I'm doing... ;-) Thank you guys!

[andrewberg]

OK, here we are...

-- The first screenshot shows my Excel cells selected and copied for testing: 10 rows / 3 columns; the dotted outline ('marching ants') indicates the cells are in the clipboard.

-- The second screenshot, taken a few seconds later, shows the MC main window (UI language in English) with the open context menu on the same selection of files -- 10 rows / 3 columns:
#1 for 'Title', #2 for 'Darsteller/in' (= Actors), and #3 for 'Darsteller (red.)'; col. #3 is meant for the 'reduced' list, once it's been edited by VBA in Excel... As you can see, the 'Paste Tags' command is there, but still inactive...

 - The 'action' pane on top has some movie specific columns, including my German custom 'Actor' fields that are also visible in the file pane.
 - The navigation tree shows the current view called 'Actor' sitting directly (by level) under the 'Video' branch.
 - The view scheme is "[Media Sub Type]=[Movie] -[Darsteller/in]=[] ~sort=[Date (year)]"

What do you make of it? Please advise what could be wrong, or else to try...

(Note @ zybex -- a peek at your profile told me you're located in Frankfurt, Germany -- nice surprise, which language do you speak natively? ;-)

[zybex]

Try it on a Playlist instead of a View. If it still doesn't work, try Office 2019 or LibreOffice. It's likely the issue is the clipboard format. The command in MC27 is almost always available, regardless of what's on clipboard (unless it's an image)... so there was probably a fix at some point.

I'm Portuguese, and my German still sucks. I can understand it, but speaking/writing is a whole different matter. I can order an Hefeweizen though

[marko]

You're going to make wer cross again...

Pasting from Excel into MC works fine, but you can only paste one tag at a time.

So you'd have to select the cells (in a column) that comprise your Actors field (don't select the header row), and when you do a paste tags, check only the Actors field.

The number of cells in the clipboard must exactly match the number of files selected in MC.

So, if I understand that correctly, you should only be copying one column of data (without the header) from excel?

Other than that, maybe it's a language thing... If the "one tag at a time" instruction still says "No", try switching your language in MC to English and see if it works then...

-marko

[andrewberg]

What else to say -- I have tried every way possible to paste tags from Excel:

On smartlists, on the top level 'Video' view, selecting, copy & pasting multiple and/or single cells and/or columns at a time (note @ wer...!), both with and without heading cells -- all options tested in views containing both MC default fields ('Year', 'Title') and/or custom fields ('Darsteller/in'), just in case tag pasting should work on default fields only... still no success! :-(

@ Zybex -- I would rule out the cause of a 'fix made at some point'... What fix would it be when the feature stopped working afterwards? OK, not completely impossible, just unlikely...

@ Marko (who hasn't looked at my beautiful screenshots... ;-) -- I even changed my UI to English... However, would MC be able to detect the language of contents in the clipboard, and block the pasting command (before execution!) if German was detected? Seriously, I don't think so, rule that out.

Nor do I believe Excel 2003 cells are different from other spreadsheet charts; at least their clipboard format should be widely compatible... And yet, since MC's own tags can be copy & pasted in any view (tested), the cells' format seems the most likely cause. (By the way, if it was related to the new Windows 10 clipboard feature for copying / restoring multiple items by 'Win key + V', then MC's own tags wouldn't work either...)

To improve compatibility, I will try saving my Excel sheet in *.CSV format and repeat... Or would any of you know other tag editing software to use?

[zybex]

Andrew... you make it hard by not following the suggestions above. All of them have some reasoning behind them.

Fix made at some point: I meant (obviously) a fix added AFTER your version, since that command works fine on the current versions. Since you're unwilling to try new versions, we can't even tell if the problem is MC or Excel.

Changing UI to english is because we are aware of some other weird problems in the past where MC internals was expecting some english string and would not work with other languages. There were a number of fixes for this over time (as the issues were discovered), so maybe this was the case here. Hence Marko's suggestion.

Clipboard object format: no, it's not the same. Data/text/objects in clipboard have a number of different formats; over time, new formats are added to support new features (by Microsoft and others). Also, MSOffice changed its file format since version 2007, and you have an older version which still uses the old formats - so YES, it's extremely likely that Excel 2003 is putting data on the Clipboard using a data format which is no longer common. Since MC was developed after 2007, it's likely that it is expecting the new format. Clipboard is not magic, apps need to speak the same object language to actually transfer between each other (unless it's simple text without formatting, which is not the case here - a table is not text).

Not sure if MC accepts CSV format from the clipboard. Try it. But you'll have to open the CSV in notepad and CTRL+C from there... if you CTRL+C from Excel it's still the same object format.

[andrewberg]

Thank you Zybex, all making good sense...! However, when I copied no headings like 'Title', 'Actors' etc, where could be a language specific issue for MC? I have also tried copy & pasting from .csv (created in Excel), and from Notepad (using the exact same lines from CSV) -- the Paste Tags command remains unavailable.

I would agree with you that MC can detect incompatible clipboard contents, and block it from pasting, but what's incompatible in semicolon delimited text (not comma, as the name 'CSV' suggests for 'Comma Separated Values'... ;-)? Anyway, it gets frustrating to see no success after any option we thought of has been tried...

Let's focus on the second approach instead -- if we get that working right, there is no more need for editing my actors database! ;-) So, in order to use the original string "ListLimit([Actors],2)", avoiding any language conflicts, I have transferred all actors from my custom field to MC's default 'Actors' field.
Now my custom field ('Darsteller (red.)', meaning 'reduced') can use the calculated data from original 'Actors'... However, this returned very odd results, as it simply replaced the string [Actors] with all actors it found in the first matching title, so for example:

"ListLimit[Charles Chaplin; Jackie Coogan; Albert Austin,2)"

Was there a mistake in the syntax? I also noticed the "ListLimit" function is not available under 'Manage Library Fields > Calculated Data > Expressions' in my MC version... Has it been added in a later version only?

[zybex]

Added around 25.0.69:
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=121209.0
https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Release_Notes_MC25

Have you upgraded MC yet?
Have yo upgraded Excel yet?

[andrewberg]

Added around 25.0.69:
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=121209.0
https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Release_Notes_MC25

Have you upgraded MC yet?
Have yo upgraded Excel yet?

Wow, that's interesting -- especially as the function was customized for [Actors] -- and might give me a first reason to upgrade, to answer both questions (Excel upgrade, rather not... ;-)

But before, I would like to reduce my actors-based network views, to only create lists that my TV can handle (1,008 items on 63 pages)... I tried to limit the view to 4+ ratings, but that still returns too many, because it includes all actors for any 4+ rated film, and creates a result for each ;-) There are so many expressions & functions, maybe another will do the trick?

>> If you don't mind have another look at my previous post, edited heavily afterwards... ;-) Thank you!

[zybex]

LibreOffice is free and fully compatible with Office 2019. You don't even have to uninstall 2003.
I have no idea what functions work on v25. You can play around with Zelda to test and find something that works for you.

[andrewberg]

You can play around with Zelda to test and find something that works for you.

Very impressive, so you're a professional developer, not just 'advanced user'... ;-) For my part, to be honest I don't mean to get into MC's expression language too much, but rather use the options available... Knowing what I want, feel free to come up with any idea... ;-)

What I've tried so far: Create a (DLNA) view with my custom field 'Darsteller/in' as category #1, then Edit > Grouping this by '1' to return one result per letter ('A, B, C, etc'). Next I added the same category once more, in order to reduce the total amount of results per category (where each represents one navigation level, displayed on one or more pages on the DLNA browser, depending on length of the result). Thus, the final goal is to shrink that number to a maximum of 63 pages that list all results there are.

The screenshot below shows these configs, and how to get there in MC's options window, just for illustration...

[andrewberg]

I tried to limit the view to 4+ ratings, but that still returns too many, because it includes all actors for any 4+ rated film, and creates a result for each ;-)

Edit: Just tested this again, and the 4+ rating limits results to an acceptable number (I hadn't browsed to the bottom level earlier ;-) -- so that works for the time being... It won't allow me to browse actors with lower ratings via DLNA -- but then again, when would I ever do that... ;-)

[zybex]

Knowing what I want, feel free to come up with any idea... ;-)

No, this has gone on long enough. You're not willing to do what it takes anyway, why even ask for ideas? Full stop from me.

[andrewberg]

No, this has gone on long enough. You're not willing to do what it takes anyway,  (...)

Sorry to hear that, and for spoiling your Sunday, so thanks again. You should not feel obliged to answer on weekends (unless you're paid for it... ;-)

Anyway, I enjoyed this discussion, and am quite content with a simple solution -- which is what I expected to find in this forum, not on my own. (I'm on a customer's view in that point, regardless of when I upgrade... ;-)

Edit: Just tested this again, and the 4+ rating limits [Actors] results to an acceptable number (...) -- so that works for the time being...  ;-)

Sometimes "what it takes" is what you already know... ;-) Apologies for not testing enough beforehand...

[andrewberg]

Shouldn't have asked for 'database experts' to start with, that moved things to a wrong direction...

All while the solution was THAT simple -- once found out, it only took 3 steps:

 1.) In a column view, filtered to include all files with actors (e.g. by "-[Actors]=[]"), add your [Actors] column, or whatever called in your language, and sort it by 'Number of files' (or click column header > Edit > Sorting).

 2.) Next, scroll the column down to the first actor who has only one film displayed in the file panel below; then continue selecting all entries further down ('Shift + End', or 'Page/Arrow Down' to select individually, Ctrl+Click works too).

 3.) Now press 'F2' on your keyboard to open the first selected entry for renaming, then press 'Delete' or 'Backspace'. This will transfer the new 'empty' value to all items in your selection, thus clear them in this case (quite like renaming in Windows Explorer really ;-).

 Et voila, all one-film-only actors have been removed from your library! (In my case of ~10,000 actors, it took a few moments of background activity to complete... ;-) Note: Should you wish to keep a complete list for backup, create a new field, e.g. [Actors (complete)] or whatever, and copy them all in there before doing the steps above.

I wonder why nobody here, however helpful and interesting some comments were, had thought of this simplest way... Perhaps we're all too obsessed with more new stuff, new versions, new technologies etc to outwit the others to remember the very basics...

(BTW, for entertainment's sake, just been watching 'Rogue Cop' (1954) while writing this -- good old dressman, Robert Taylor is sure to stay in my library, most other crooks are not! ;-)

(Edit: topic subject changed accordingly)