I have an HD-PVR capture device on my system that I use to record TV shows, movies, etc. The device records as .ts files. In an earlier thread I mentioned that MC13 does not convert these files ti iPod video very well. In fact, the playback is too choppy to watch. As a workaround I convert the files outside of MC and then import both files (.ts and .mp4). I record all files to a default recording directory and the PVR software creates an XML file with episode information. I have a program that check for the presence of the .ts, .mp4 and .xml files in the recording folder. If they all exist the .ts and .mp4 files are moved to the folder named for the recorded show. the program also prases the .xml file for episode data such as name, description, original air date, recorded dat, etc. I use this data to automatically build a .MPL file in MC13 format. Once I run the MC auto-import for all moved files I import the .MPL file and all of my library data is updated automatically. I'm happy to say that this whole process has been working great with MC13.
As an extra feature I like to attach movie or TV show posters as the thumbnail image for each file. For example, if i'm Recordning Law and Order and will use the generic Law and Order poster .jpg as the image. I'm able to accomplish this by first manually downloading a .jpg file to the file's folder. For example I will have a 'Law and Order.jpg' file in the \Recorded Shows\Law and Order folder. During the move and rename process my utility will move the file from the default recording folder to the \Recorded Shows\Law and Order folder and name it something like 'Law and Order - Some Great Episode Name'. I figured out that I can then copy the 'Law ad Order.jpg' file to a new file named 'Video -'Law and Order - Some Great Episode Name.jpg' and add that same information to the .MPL file to be imported. Because the playback of .TS files in MC13 tears quite a bit I set it as a Media Type of 'data' and have MC play it in PowerDVD. This too is done in the .MPL import file. That formces me to also have another .jpg image file named 'Data -'Law and Order - Some Great Episode Name.jpg'.
Sorry for the long explaination above but now to the problem. When I import the .MPL file the .ts file with a media type of data automatically gets the thumbnail attached as I would expect. However, the .mp4 file gets shows the imagefile as 'inside file' and actually deletes the 'Video -'Law and Order - Some Great Episode Name.jpg' from the folder. I wanted to confirm that this was indeed an MC issue and not related to my .MPA file so I manually attached a thumbnail file to the .mp4 file and verified that the image file tag contained the correct information. I then exportedthe playlist from MC to a .MPL file. Next I re-imported the .MPL file just created from MC. Once again the image file tag returned to 'inside file' and the image file was deleted.
Am I doing something wrong or is this a bug?
One additional question. Since I have to convert the.ts to a .mp4 file externally and import both files is there any way that I can manually force MC to treat them as a stack? I've been searching for days.