FAQ:
(Thanks to Rick.ca for cooperating on most of these answers)
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Q: I've installed the required applications according to the instructions, what now?
A:
Play around with Personal Video Database, test PvdImport according to the manual (see above).
For questions directly related to Personal Video database,
you can post in the PVD forums.A possible workflow for PVD would be:
(i) in PVD: tools\preferences , select "use silent mode for all plugins"
(ii) then, tools\"scan folders for new movies [...]" . In the dialog which then pops up, select the topmost folder(s) of your media collection(s)
PVD should now start searching through those folders. This probably will take a long time if you have many movies.
Afterwards, you'll have to quality control the silence option in (i) by checking your movies...
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Q: How can I see if Firebird server is running properly?
A:
In taskmanager under processes, check if fbguard.exe and fbserver.exe are running. That's a place to start.
For some OSes (Vista, Win7?) these do not appear in processes, they appear as running in the "services" tab
In general, you must get PVD and the server up and running for the PvdImport plugin to work...
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Q: Where's the PVD database located?
A:
The database is named movies.pvd by default and is located under C:\Documents and Settings\[your user name]\My Documents\Personal Video Database.
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Q: PVD doesn't accept my .avi, .mkv, or ABC files? Why?
A:
PVD "accepts" any file type. It doesn't play the files, so it really doesn't care what file type is associated with a record. The file scanner, however, needs to be restricted to valid video files. The list of permitted file types is maintained at Preferences\File Scanner\File Types. The default includes AVI, MKV and most other common video file types. ABC, however, would have to be added to the list.
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Q: What's the best way of handling files that are spread over several network drives
A:
What follows is just a suggestion on how to organize and map your media if your files are spread over several network drives. One positive aspect with this method is that you effectively isolate the network drive assignments from the path stored in MC and PVD.
(i) Share your media folder on your LAN. The Music folder can be accessed from both PCs via \\[Computer Name]\[Share Name]
(ii) In PVD, rescan with \\[Computer Name]\[Share Name] as base address.
(iii) In MC, move files to \\[Computer Name]\[Share Name] .
(iv) Put the MC database in the shared folder. Access it from the HTPC as read only. Access it from the office PC as usual.
I just tested this at home: I shared the folder c:\test\movies and named the share "Movies". In MC i imported a single folder (tools\import\"import single folder") and entered \\Dionysus\Movies as the import folder. Dionysus is my computer's name. After the import, the [Filename] of "Dr. Strangelove" was "\\Dionysus\Movies\Dr. Strangelove.iso"
Similarly, in PVD I i selected tools\"Scan folders ..." and selected \\Dionysus\Movies by navigating to the share in my local network, *not* the local file system! The file imported into PVD with the same filename as in MC.
Don't share the drive if your media files are located on a drive! Rather, share a folder on that drive!
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Q: The plugin doesn't work, what do I do?
A:
The log view in the PvdImport page (Services&Plugins\PvdImport) which is located in the bottom of the page reports various errors and statuses.
In general PvdImport uses the [Filename] tag to look up the files in PVD. [Filename] must be *exactly* equal to one of the files listed in PVD. There is one exception here, and that exception is wrt. DVDs. I'll elaborate further down. You can find the list of filenames per movie in the lowermost pane on the right in PVD, "File Path:". When a movie consists of several files, each fie is separated by the pipe symbol, |
For DVDs, PVD stores the VIDEO_TS.IFO name with the full path. However, in MC the corresponding [Filename] tag has the name VIDEO_TS.DVD;1 with the full path.
[A couple of users have reported that the "File path" item doesn't show in PVD. If it doesn't show, please check that "File Path" is selected in the PVD menu "tools\preferences\movies\visible items"?]
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Q: The PvdImport log reports "Could not find the file in MC. Exiting...", why?
A:
Your file probably hasn't been imported into the MC database. Is it in the MC Autoimport path?
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Q: The PvdImport Plugin reports "Could not find the file in PVD", why?
A:
Your file probably hasn't been imported in the PVD database. You should check if the file is within PVD's scan path.
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Q: I've used Application XYZ, can I use the PvdImport plugin?
A:
PvdImport is exclusively written for interfacing to Personal Video Database. However:
There's a plugin for Ant Movie Catalog and a program for All My Movies. The most flexible and common technique is that discussed in the
Movie Collector topic in the PVD forums That's using Excel (or equivalent) to prepare data exported from the other application, and then importing that into PVD. Most applications offer some means of exporting data to XLS or CSV format. Those that don't will still likely output some kind of report that can be used for the same purpose. So I think it's fair to say just about anything can be imported into PVD.
It's helpful to consider all that might be needed is identification of the movie (title and year) plus any user information associated with each movie (date acquired, viewed, rating, comments, etc). Even if it already exists in the other application, PVD can download all the other information. Doing this will ensure it's consistent and up-to-date.
Images can't be transferred via Excel. PVD can find and download posters, but this won't satisfy someone who has put a lot of effort into collecting quality posters. J
ust migrated from Movie Collector, how to transfer 1000 covers?describes how posters can be imported with the help of a special utility. Note that if posters are to be maintained in the PVD database (what most users should do), then this must be done at the time of conversion, not afterwards.
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Topic: PvdImport status and FAQ (Read 6701 times)