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[DopeyJones]

Hello to you all.

Is it somehow possible to import the media library in Windows Media Player into Jukebox? I don't like starting from scratch, especially not with a media library with 23,000 songs.

[DopeyJones]

I'm still curious on this one. Isn't it possible to import/convert the media library from WMP to Media Jukebox? I'm not off to start using MJ before than, sine I don't want to lose all my play counts, stats and original music import dates... ?

[DopeyJones]

Nobody there?

[Matt]

If WMP can export a playlist with metadata, you could import it. (ASX maybe?)

Otherwise, if play information is in your file tags, Media Jukebox / Media Center will import them.

[DopeyJones]

Really? Very interesting. I can select an option called "All playlists (*.wpl;*.asx;*.m3u)". But I wonder whether the play counts and import dates are stored in this playlist or not. Apparantly only the songs themselves are there.

Play information cannot be saved in file (ID3) tags. There's only the standard fields (artist, album, track, title, year and comment).

[DopeyJones]

Found this and this btw.

Maybe one of these could do the trick?

[DopeyJones]

Now, I've managed to export the entire library to an XML file.
Question is now, how do I import this to Media Jukebox so it will recognize the content?
"Import playlist" just imports the playlists, which doesn't even play in there.

[Alex B]

I am not sure if this can help anything, but in an old thread, starting from this reply, I explained how data can be reorganized in MS Excel & Word so that it can be exported in a compatible structure and imported to MC or MJ.

It might help if you could post a sample of the xml structure you have now.

[DopeyJones]

Thanks for replying!
I'm sure your tip will be of help, as I do have a list in XML format and only need MJ to interpret it correctly!

You can view the whole file here:
http://www.fileden.com/getfile.php?file_path=http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/4/5/957432/wmpdb.xml

[DopeyJones]

Have you found out of anything?

[Alex B]

I did the conversion for you.

I used

- Windows Notepad for opening the file and saving with UTF-8 character encoding
- Excel for the calculations, copy pasting column data and removing unnecessary fields
- Notepad++ for replacing the headers with the MC/MJ compatible style

Here's an MPL file that you can use for importing the Number Plays and Date Imported values. (I removed all other fields because they can be stored in the file tags.):
WMP_to_MJ12_mpl.zip

Assuming you have already imported the audio files to MJ12 you can simply unzip the MPL file and import it by using the Import Playlist tool in the File menu (to show the MPL file in the tool's browser select "Common playlist types" from the "Files of type"drop-down list).

If you have not yet imported the audio files to the library it is better to configure the import folders and import the files before proceeding.

MJ assumes that the Date Imported value is in the GMT +-0 time zone (Greenwich Mean Time).
I don't know if WMP uses the local time or the Greenwich time. If your locale is different (or uses Daylight Saving Time) and WMP stored the local time the field values will be off by the amount of the time difference. If that is unacceptable to you the MPL file needs to be adjusted.

Here is an intermediate Excel file that contains the Date and Time formulas I used:
WMP_to_MJ12_excel.zip

EDIT

The links were not permanent.

Here is a link to the Skydrive folder that contains both files. Maybe it works better.
http://cid-138ca589c542aeee.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Public

[DopeyJones]

Ah, thanks for your awesome help, Alex!
Now I would like to know, exactly how to convert the content to MC/MJ compatible style? I mean, what digits do I replace with what? (like you show in your post with screenshots).
It's important to know the exact method in order for us all to adopt it.

I consider it very important, that the time zone fits to the danish GMT+1. How do I adjust all the timestamps in the file?

Btw.

If you have not yet imported the audio files to the library it is better to configure the import folders and import the files before proceeding.

Are you sure the already imported files' dates and play counts will be replaced by the stored ones in the metadata?

Regards, Thomas Allan

[Alex B]

Now I would like to know, exactly how to convert the content to MC/MJ compatible style? I mean, what digits do I replace with what? (like you show in your post with screenshots).

I think it is quite obvious if you inspect and compare the values in your source file and the values in my excel and mpl files.

Because I am not exactly familiar with creating and converting xml structures with Excel or any other program I did most of the work "manually".

1. I opened your file with standard Windows Notepad and saved it in UTF-8 format (it was UTF-16).

2. I opened the saved file with Excel 2003, removed the unnecessary columns and after some experimenting I was able to convert the date & time values to the Unix format. The formula is in my Excel file. It was difficult to make Excel understand that the original source values were actually time stamps, but I found a workaround by creating a couple of new columns.

3. Then I copied only the resulting values (not formulas) to yet another column and finally replaced the original time stamps with these values. I removed my additional columns and saved the file as xml.

4. With Notepad++ I did several find & replace operations for fixing the headers. Notepad++ was able to do it quickly. MS Word was hopelessly slow with the huge file.

It's important to know the exact method in order for us all to adopt it.

Not many users are interested about the import dates and times. Though I think many users are interested about the playcount values.

The steps I did are not easy to explain in detail and probably would not work for everyone. To do something similar you would really need to understand how the field values work and if necessary be able to adjust the procedure according to the existing data.

Actually, you did not provide step by step instructions for creating an xml file like yours. It isn't something that you can do with WMP only.

JRiver programs have been around a long time. My library contains statistical information starting from the year 2002 and I have always been able to transfer that data to newer versions. I'd recommend importing the MPL file I created and never looking back.

I consider it very important, that the time zone fits to the danish GMT+1. How do I adjust all the timestamps in the file?

Have you checked if the WMP time stamps are GMT or your local time zone? If they are local you could do the correction in Excel. Excel allows to do various time stamp calculations. However, you would also need to fix the differences caused by the daylight saving time. I think it is possible to create a formula that calculates them automatically, but it wouldn't be simple because each year is a bit different. Perhaps you could handle the time periods separately. For instance: winter 2003-2004, summer 2004, winter 2004-2005, and so on. But does an hour or two really matter? The sort order of your old files would be correct anyway (when set to "Date Imported"). Naturally the files you add directly to MJ in the future will have exactly correct "Date Imported" values.

Btw.Are you sure the already imported files' dates and play counts will be replaced by the stored ones in the metadata?

Assuming the filenames are correct in the MPL file it should work fine if you do exactly as I instructed. As a precaution you can create a library backup file in MJ12. (File > Library > Back Up Library)

[DopeyJones]

Thanks for the reply.

First of all, I tried saving the xml-file in UTF-8, but I'm unsure what format to save it in from that point. Notepad can't save real XML-files, it won't show up when I open it in Excel afterwards. And saving a text file results in Excel saying "The file is not completely loaded" while all the content is not sorted in columns. Hmm. Would it be better to open the XML-file with Excel and save it as a schemed file instead?

It's impossib to compare with WMP_to_MJ12 excel file, as this one is riddled with tons of strange characters when opened in either notepad programs.

Not many users are interested about the import dates and times. Though I think many users are interested about the playcount values.

I think it's good to have the method published in any case, so anybody can perform such a library import.

Have you checked if the WMP time stamps are GMT or your local time zone?

Yup, they're two hours backwards, I can see.

But does an hour or two really matter?

It does matter to me, I want the authentic times to see exactly when the given files were added. A little hard to explain actually =).

Btw. I don't think I have to go messing around with the timestamps seperately according to the different years. I just want all the dates to be listed as they were in WMP.

Excel allows to do various time stamp calculations. However, you would also need to fix the differences caused by the daylight saving time

No doubt, I just fail at having Excel calculating a whole column for me. I tried to paste a formula calculating to unix time including the zone difference in the first cell of an empty column I created, but it didn't do the thing.

Actually, you did not provide step by step instructions for creating an xml file like yours. It isn't something that you can do with WMP only.

My bad, here then:
1. I got to windows homepage, downloaded and installed the winter fun pack.

2. This winter pack enables a plug-in called "Media Info Exporter", found in Windows Media Player -> Functions -> Plug-Ins -> Media Info Exporter.

3. Then I selected a few properties and chose "Export".

The only tool allowing me to export WMP content in metadata I've found so far.

[DopeyJones]

Update:

Although, when imported into MJ, the time stamps for some files are only one hour backward, while others are correct. Maybe because Media Jukebox adjusts the time stamps of files imported during winter times, one hour forward?

[Alex B]

Sorry about the delay. I spent a few summer holidays away from the internet.

The internally stored time format in MJ is pure GMT. The displayed time depends on what you have set in Windows and it changes if you change the time zone or set Windows to show summer time. MJ always displays the correct local time. It is automatically calculated from the stored absolute time stamp.

WMP obviously just uses the currently displayed "Windows" time and does not store any indication about the user's time zone or possibly enabled summer time. The times must be corrected in a way or another in order to show them correctly inside MJ or MC.

As I said, it is a bit difficult to write more detailed instructions. I created the resulting excel table and the mpl file by experimenting. It would be quite tedious to reproduce and document the procedure exactly as I did it, especially with your huge xml file.

It might help if you could create a small example XML file (include only a couple of files) and post a link here. Perhaps I could then explain it better.

Regarding to Notepad I just opened the file as plain UTF-16 text and resaved it using the UTF-8 option. When I opened it in Excel it helpfully offered to create the XML and table structure from the file. As I said, I have no previous experience of Excel's XML features.

I have Excel 2003 from the MS Office Professional Edition package. I think the older versions had less XML functionality and possibly the Professional edition has more XML features than other versions. (I don't like the new interface in Office 2007 and I am not going to upgrade anytime soon.)

[JimH]

Sorry about the delay. I spent a few summer holidays away from the internet.

I don't remember you asking if you could do that.   

[Alex B]

...away from the internet

I experienced some withdrawal symptoms.

 

[DopeyJones]

Sorry about the delay. I spent a few summer holidays away from the internet.

Hello again there. Sure, no pressure B).

The internally stored time format in MJ is pure GMT. The displayed time depends on what you have set in Windows and it changes if you change the time zone or set Windows to show summer time. MJ always displays the correct local time. It is automatically calculated from the stored absolute time stamp.

WMP obviously just uses the currently displayed "Windows" time and does not store any indication about the user's time zone or possibly enabled summer time. The times must be corrected in a way or another in order to show them correctly inside MJ or MC.

Ah, so MJ does change the timestamps for already imported files according to what changes occurs on my computers time? (For example; when my computer clock goes into summertime, the time stamps for the already stored files in the MJ library are also adjusted one hour forward?
'cause that could explain why some of the files are one hour backward according to the WMP stored files, while others are equal.
It's like MJ is "differentiating"; altering the timestamp for only one of the two half year seasons.

I.e: A song that was imported on November 18th of 2004, 21:15 becomes changed to 2004-11-18 22:15, during summer time, while songs imported in June 2005, is displayed as is?

As I said, it is a bit difficult to write more detailed instructions. I created the resulting excel table and the mpl file by experimenting. It would be quite tedious to reproduce and document the procedure exactly as I did it, especially with your huge xml file.

I understand. But I suppose you used a formular that calculated the whole column at once, not entered a formula for each single field, right?

It might help if you could create a small example XML file (include only a couple of files) and post a link here. Perhaps I could then explain it better.

Absolutely. I have just made an XML scheme for you to do an example on, right here:
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/4/5/957432/Test%20Scheme.xls

Regarding to Notepad I just opened the file as plain UTF-16 text and resaved it using the UTF-8 option. When I opened it in Excel it helpfully offered to create the XML and table structure from the file. As I said, I have no previous experience of Excel's XML features.

You mean you had overwritten it? I tried overwriting the xml-file instead of saving a new, some days ago, and it worked. So that one's done.

I have Excel 2003 from the MS Office Professional Edition package. I think the older versions had less XML functionality and possibly the Professional edition has more XML features than other versions. (I don't like the new interface in Office 2007 and I am not going to upgrade anytime soon.)

No problem with that, I'm using version 2003 too.

[DopeyJones]

Got stuck?

[Alex B]

I downloaded your new xml file, but I have been busy with other things. I'll try to find some time to play with it.

[DopeyJones]

Alright, good sire.

[DopeyJones]

All that matters is really just a little info how to convert properly.
I have just found out how to calculate a whole column at once. Just pulling down the marked cell, then Excel will calculate all in the same order.
But just now, I tried to convert the time stamp format from 01-10-2004 11:35:22 to 2004-10-01 11:35:22 by typing "=DATOVÆRDI(B2) + TIDSVÆRDI(B2)" (date & time value). The result came out as 38270,57977 instead of 2004-10-10 13:54:52. (Problem solved)

The UNIX part seem to be good though. Then the question is just, if I am to make the time stamps in the MJ imported files, equivalent to the time stamps in WMP, do I just have to add one hour (type +60*60) in the formula?

And finally, what headers were replaced with Notepad++? The two different styles (between XLS and MPL) are non-comparable and confusing, so it's impossible for me to determine what. All the different entities are completely helter-skelter to each other. Should I save it as XML again before gravedigging in np++?

[Alex B]

Then the question is just, if I am to make the time stamps in the MJ imported files, equivalent to the time stamps in WMP, do I just have to add one hour (type +60*60) in the formula?

I.e: A song that was imported on November 18th of 2004, 21:15 becomes changed to 2004-11-18 22:15, during summer time, while songs imported in June 2005, is displayed as is?

Not like that.

MJ displays it always correctly if the zored value is the correct GMT time value of the exact moment the file was imported.

You must correct the value before importing it to MJ because WMP just stored what your computer displayed when the file was originally imported.

For example:

-- If your are in UK (0 time zone) only the files that were imported to WMP during the summertime period are off by one hour. If the stored value for a file that was imported during the summertime period is 18 PM, the real GMT time at that exact moment was 17 PM, so you need to reduce one hour in order to display the original 18 PM value in MJ

-- If you are in Central Europe (+1 time zone) you need to reduce one hour from the standard time values and two hours from the summer time values.

-- If you are in Eastern US (-5 time zone) you need to add five hours to the standard time values and four hours to the summertime values.

[DopeyJones]

Thanks!

-- If you are in Central Europe (+1 time zone) you need to reduce one hour from the standard time values and two hours from the summer time values.

I'm under CET, yes. You sure don't mean increase? Some of the imported files in MJ were already one hour backward, and since the CET is one hour forward to GMT I guess the time stamps shouldn't be set further back..

[Alex B]

CET is +1 hour (+2 during the summertime). You need to reduce in order to get GMT. (Assuming your computer clock and time zone have always been set correctly.)

Here's an example that might make easier to understand how the system works:

- Have a breakfast in London at 8 AM and while eating import a file to MJ using your laptop PC.
- Take a Concorde (from a museum) and fly to New York. (The flight takes three hours and 20 minutes.)
- Adjust the computer's clock and time zone to match the new locale once you have arrived.
- Five hours after the breakfast in London while having another breakfast in New York (also at 8 AM) check when the file was imported. MJ shows correctly that it was imported five hours ago at 3 AM.

WMP would show that the file was imported at the present moment (8 AM).

[DopeyJones]

You need to reduce in order to get GMT

Even if my goal is GMT+1 time?

Well roger on that one. Question now is just what formula I'm gonna use to add one hour to the timestamp. I tried typing something like =DATOVÆRDI(CELL)+TIDSVÆRDI(CELL)-2 but that didn't work.

I found out how to replace the values in Notepad++. It was because I had to resave the whole thing as XML-data again, in order to deal with the file. The XLS-file in Np++ was just a whole bunch of weird symbols messed up with media content.

[DopeyJones]

The calculated UNIX fields won't even show up in Notepad++. Only the original "Aquisition time" field. Wonder what I did wrong.

I tried saving your original WMP_to_MJ12 XLS as XML and open it in Notepad++ too.  That didn't show the UNIX fields either.  Odd, since MJ actually could import the dates from that file.

[Alex B]

Even if my goal is GMT+1 time?

Well roger on that one. Question now is just what formula I'm gonna use to add one hour to the timestamp. I tried typing something like =DATOVÆRDI(CELL)+TIDSVÆRDI(CELL)-2 but that didn't work.

Your goal is to change the previously saved CET +1 and +2 (summertime) times to pure GMT.

MJ knows your set time zone and calculates the correct displayed time on the fly so that you can always get correct answer when you ask "how many hours ago the file was imported?".  I.e. what is on the display is always correct inside the set zone.

If you move to another time zone the displayed time is different because also when the file was originally imported the local time was different in each different time zone. If you imported a file in Australia at night it was daytime in Europe at the same moment.

I found out how to replace the values in Notepad++. It was because I had to resave the whole thing as XML-data again, in order to deal with the file. The XLS-file in Np++ was just a whole bunch of weird symbols messed up with media content.

As I explained, I wasn't able to easily reassign the connection between the column headers in Excel and the headers in the automatically created invisible XML scheme. It is probably quite possible and you would only need to learn how it works. I didn't have time for XML studies so I chose another route.

A quote from my earlier reply:

3. Then I copied only the resulting values (not formulas) to yet another column and finally replaced the original time stamps with these values. I removed my additional columns and saved the file as xml.

Here is what I had in the table before I created the final table:



The Date Imported column contains only the values from the Unix Time column, not the formulas. I used the Paste Special > Values command when I copied the values. My intention was to save those values, but as I explained I couldn't find a way to create an XML file that would have included the Date Imported column.

A workaround was to copy the Date Imported values to AcquisitionTime column. I also removed all unnecessary columns (leaving only three columns):



After that I saved the Excel table as xml, opened the resulting xml file with Notepad++, and did the mass find and replace operations that fixed the header strings in order to make it MJ/MC compatible (you can check the exact format from the MPL file I linked earlier). Then I just saved it as a new xml file, changed the filename extension from xml to mpl, and imported it to MJ using the Import Playlist menu command.

[DopeyJones]

It's finally done. Now I've acquired a bunch of skills too. Thanks for all the awesome help!