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[Fred N]

It appears MediaCenter does not support Windows Shortcut files. Is there any chance that it will? I use Shortcuts in my Windows Pictures Folder as a way to organize and categorize my images. A Shortcut is basically a pointer sitting in one sub-directory that points to an actual image in another sub-directory.

[Awesome Donkey]

Why not import the actual file from its actual location? I don't see the point of trying to do it like this when you can just point it to import the actual file(s), to be honest.

[tij]

I think he spent lots of time to create those shortcut as a way of "tagging" ... and hopes he can auto tag imported shortcuts from their path to avoid redoing all the work.

But to be honest ... its not a good way ... shortcuts can be easily broken (moving or renaming files) and there are no good way to backup your work ... creating a time bomb that will turn all your effort to waist.

I would do as Awesome Donkey suggested ... aka import actusl files ... and then properly tag them ... and save those tags with photoes.

Maybe there is way ... to somehow automate what you have done with shortcuts ... and tranalate that to tags in MC ... but likely it will take longer to devise and implement ... rather than just retag them again in MC

[Fred N]

I'm not importing files into Media Center. I have a very extensive photo library in Windows which Media Center accesses. Shortcuts are a mechanism I use to help manage and index this large photo library. As an example, I have loaded hundreds of rolls of film photos into my library. All my negatives are labelled and indexed. I have no way of knowing what has and hasn't been loaded unless the filing system on the computer reflects the filing system used for the physical media. But I also need to access the photos by subject. So I have, in parallel, organized directory structures based on the subjects of the photos. I use shortcuts so as to be able to access the same photo from 2 different pathways. Tags are no good to me because they have no structure or hierarchy. They're just a label, which isn't good enough when you're working with hundreds of thousands of photos, as I am. The hierarchical nature of the file system is very good for filing and then subsequently being able to locate photos.

[leezer3]

It sounds to me as though you need to investigate custom views & tag fields

Let me give a simplified example from my own library:
Railway photos are tagged with the subject of Railway.
I then have a subtype field (loco, wagon, structure etc)
Each subtype then has its own subset of fields, e.g. number, name etc. along with common fields such as date place etc.
I then can setup several views looking a little like this:
Railway ==> Type is LOCO or WAGON ==> Group by place ==> Group by date

Railway ==> Group by place ==> Group by Type ==> Group by date etc.

[Fred N]

Thanks for the info leezer3. I don't think this would work for me though. When you talk about custom views and tag fields I presume you're working in Media Center. My library is in Windows and is just accessed by Media Center. One of the reasons I do it this way is because the library is accessed by multiple computers. So for instance, computers all over the house can access the same library to run screen savers or whatever. I also like to navigate through the library on Windows computers using File Explorer.

[Doof]

Curious, how do you prevent one of those computers from moving or renaming one of your files and breaking all of the shortcuts that reference it?

[leezer3]

Yep, I'm talking about working in Media Center.
Working in explorer only leads to a mess

Have you considered Library Server?
https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Media_Server
This allows all PCs on the network to operate on the same library, but does require one permenatly on PC.

---

Alternatively, you might want to look into NTFS hard links / junction points as opposed to shortcuts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_links

A little more involved to create (although Google finds this explorer extension: https://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/linkshellextension.html ), but these are pure filesystem entries and allow MC to work with them properly.

[tij]

My library is in Windows and is just accessed by Media Center. One of the reasons I do it this way is because the library is accessed by multiple computers. So for instance, computers all over the house can access the same library to run screen savers or whatever. I also like to navigate through the library on Windows computers using File Explorer.

Just curious ... if you happy with the way you are organizing your images with shortcuts and accessing them with Explorer, why access it from MC?

Just trying to figure out what you trying to achieve with MC

PS. Personally i want image management that support tags ... and allow tag editing from multiple users at same time (lots of images ... so whole family can help tagging)

Last requirement is hard to find in consumer software ... and smells like DAM software

[Fred N]

Curious, how do you prevent one of those computers from moving or renaming one of your files and breaking all of the shortcuts that reference it?

I've only recently started using shortcuts but I concede this could be a problem.

[newsposter]

file-system focused shortcuts vs tag 'keywords' that are embedded in the image?

Just asking for understanding, not criticism.....

[Doof]

I've only recently started using shortcuts but I concede this could be a problem.

This is the sort of situation applications like MC were built for. It allows you to manage your media in ways completely independent of the file system. Files can reside literally anywhere that MC has access to, and can be named anything, whether that name is meaningful to a human or not doesn't matter. Because MC will find all of your files and display them using the tags and views that you set up in MC in whatever layout suits you, and avoids the limitations and risks involved with using a pure filesystem-based approach. You won't be able to move a file or rename it even once without having to manually hunt down every shortcut that references it and updating them.

File needs to exist in multiple albums/series/buckets/what-have-you? Just add the appropriate tags and it now shows up in the appropriate view. Need to move a file somewhere else? No problem, MC will move the file for you and update its internal database so every reference to that file is intact. Need to share all of your organization efforts with other members of the household? Media Server allows you to tag files and set up your views one time and then share that out to every other PC on your network. User moves/renames a file? No worries, Media Server will keep the database in sync and all of your clients will still be able to find that file.

The reason you're getting so much push-back on your shortcut idea is that it's severely limiting, error-prone, and fragile.
Many of us went down multiple blind alleys trying to hack together solutions before latching onto MC because of its incredible organizational capabilities.

[Fred N]

The other thing I forgot to mention is that my library is accessed by 2 Android TVs in order to run screen savers. If I did move my library to MC as you're suggesting, would I be able to access it from an Android TV?

[Doof]

Yep! You're not really moving the library anywhere, just organizing it and accessing it via Media Center. Other devices can access your files the same way they do now, through network shares or whatever.

For example, I have all of my music, images, movies, and TV shows all organized using MC running on my main PC. The files themselves are in a mix of places, but most are on a NAS device, and I have two NVIDIA Shield TVs (they run a version of android) that have Plex running on them for streaming content. One of the two is actually the Plex server.

As far as using labels or keywords instead of the shortcut-based structure you're using now, MC has some built-in tags that allow for creating a type of hierarchy like you mentioned. I think the primary ones are People, Places, and Events. Ordinarily you'd just assign a single value, but if you can use the \ character to nest them so you can set up any structure you like.

For instance:

Mary
Family\Mom
Friends\School\Doug
US\Wyoming\Yellowstone National Park
US\Parks\Yellowstone National Park
Birthdays\Mine\30
Christmas

etc.

And if these fields don't meet your needs, you can create new ones that will. You can set up any kind of hierarchy you like, then set up views that include these tags and have instant access to whichever category you want. You can easily search on them too!

[tij]

To be honest ... i have not jump on MC for my place to go for photoes.

You should make a list of features of what you want software to do for your photoes ... then shop around.

If access from multiple devices is not a feature you need ... then Lightroom or ACDSee are good ... they have Machine Learning algos for detecting faces, which simplifies tagging a lot.

Otherwise this is a good place to start https://www.google.com/amp/s/arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/06/the-big-alternatives-to-google-photos-showdown/%3famp=1

[Fred N]

Yep! You're not really moving the library anywhere, just organizing it and accessing it via Media Center. Other devices can access your files the same way they do now, through network shares or whatever.

For example, I have all of my music, images, movies, and TV shows all organized using MC running on my main PC. The files themselves are in a mix of places, but most are on a NAS device, and I have two NVIDIA Shield TVs (they run a version of android) that have Plex running on them for streaming content. One of the two is actually the Plex server.

As far as using labels or keywords instead of the shortcut-based structure you're using now, MC has some built-in tags that allow for creating a type of hierarchy like you mentioned. I think the primary ones are People, Places, and Events. Ordinarily you'd just assign a single value, but if you can use the \ character to nest them so you can set up any structure you like.

For instance:

Mary
Family\Mom
Friends\School\Doug
US\Wyoming\Yellowstone National Park
US\Parks\Yellowstone National Park
Birthdays\Mine\30
Christmas

etc.

And if these fields don't meet your needs, you can create new ones that will. You can set up any kind of hierarchy you like, then set up views that include these tags and have instant access to whichever category you want. You can easily search on them too!

Thanks for all the info. Looks interesting. I'll dig a bit deeper into MC as you suggest and let you know how I go.

[JimH]

To be honest ... i have not jump on MC for my place to go for photoes.

If you're going to give advice on managing photos, you ought to try doing it with MC.  It's top notch at photos.

[Fred N]

Yep, I'm talking about working in Media Center.
Working in explorer only leads to a mess

Have you considered Library Server?
https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Media_Server
This allows all PCs on the network to operate on the same library, but does require one permenatly on PC.

---

Alternatively, you might want to look into NTFS hard links / junction points as opposed to shortcuts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_links

A little more involved to create (although Google finds this explorer extension: https://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/linkshellextension.html ), but these are pure filesystem entries and allow MC to work with them properly.

Thanks, I'll check out library server. I have a permanently on computer so that's no problem. The only proviso is that I can still have the main data stored in Windows and have the library server access and index the data from there. I need this as I have other devices (Android TVs) accessing the media library and it also fits in well with my backup regime.

Thanks for the info on NTFS hard links. I had a bit of a look at that and it does look pretty complex and cumbersome.

[Fred N]

Just curious ... if you happy with the way you are organizing your images with shortcuts and accessing them with Explorer, why access it from MC?

Just trying to figure out what you trying to achieve with MC

PS. Personally i want image management that support tags ... and allow tag editing from multiple users at same time (lots of images ... so whole family can help tagging)

Last requirement is hard to find in consumer software ... and smells like DAM software

The main reason I got into MC was because one of my computers is a media center PC sitting in the lounge room and I need something with a 10ft user interface running on that PC. When you refer to last requirement I presume you mean "computers all over the house can access the same library to run screen savers or whatever". I have solved this issue. I have 3 PCs and 2 TVs all accessing my media library using file shares. This works well for me.

[Fred N]

file-system focused shortcuts vs tag 'keywords' that are embedded in the image?

Just asking for understanding, not criticism.....

The limitations of the file system shortcuts has been pointed out to me. I guess I like working with the hierarchical structure of the file system. It has been pointed out to me that I should be able to achieve hierarchy within MC so I'll play around with that a bit.

[leezer3]

Thanks, I'll check out library server. I have a permanently on computer so that's no problem. The only proviso is that I can still have the main data stored in Windows and have the library server access and index the data from there. I need this as I have other devices (Android TVs) accessing the media library and it also fits in well with my backup regime.

Thanks for the info on NTFS hard links. I had a bit of a look at that and it does look pretty complex and cumbersome.

With the Android TVs, I'd probably investigate the DLNA server in Media Center along with a suitable client.
This would allow you to serve your desired views from the library metadata, as opposed to the current direct disk access.

What are you using for a client in this case?

(There are several JRiver clients for Android, but IIRC Android TV support isn't the best)

[Fred N]

The client software I'm using is a screen saver called Fotoo. As far as I'm aware it doesn't support DLNA.

In terms of desired views from library metadata, I always assumed I couldn't do that on Android TV. That's why I set up a Windows PC running JRiver and connected it to the TV. So the only software I currently run on the TV that accesses my media library is a screen saver.

I wasn't aware of JRiver clients for Android TV. I'll investigate this when I get time. Thanks for the info.

[rolf_eigenheer]

If you're going to give advice on managing photos, you ought to try doing it with MC.  It's top notch at photos.

MC is great for organizing photos. But the playback functions are very sparse compared to video playback. For example, there is no crop to achieve full-screen display of other aspect ratios.