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[syndromeofadown]

This is my method for tagging all video files including video_ts / ifo and blu ray backups using j river 14
   -once tagged they can all be played and viewed in one view.
   -they can all use the same set of panes and all have album art.
   -video_ts/ifo need to be tagged separately from other video and
    below details the process of doing so.
   -a common folder structure is necessary to tag all files at once.
   -note that when you import a video_ts folder, what j river does is
    imports the ifo contained inside. That is all. By selecting the ifo you can
    play the dvd with menus and your choice sound and subtitles
      just like the actual disc is inserted
   -the tags for video are not embedded like in an mp3, so if you
    reinstall windows you will have to re tag everything, this is fine
    because once your videos are organized it only takes about 30 seconds to do.
-----
FOR VIDEO_TS/IFO's

      First organize media into the following folder structure
      what i have attempted to do is show the folder structure on the left side
      with notes to the right of it

[Grouping]   - i use 4 folders: "DVD", "DVD-Shrunk", "DVD-Audio", "Other-Video"
         |      -note that "Other-Video" contains avi, mpg etc where the rest contain video_ts
         |
   [Genre]   - each grouping folder contains 4 folders: "TV", "Documentary", "Music", "Movie"
         |      
         |
   [Series]   -each genre folder contains folders of series.
         |      -each series has its own folder, if a series does not apply to the video then use a folder named "-"
         |       -for music: the folder is called the band name
         |
  [Season]   - for movies, documentaries and Music: a folder called the dvd title,
         |      -for tv: a folder called the season #
         |
[Name (Album_Year)]  - the name portion is just the disc number ie "Disc 1" or "Disc 2" etc
         |            -the year is the release date, if year does not apply  use "0"
         |            -the album for movie is title + Disc number(if there's more than 1)
         |                   -the album for documentary is title + Disc number(if there's more than 1)
         |            -the album for tv is Series+Season + Disc number(if there's more than 1)
         |            -the album for Music is Band+title
         |            -***each disk should have a unique album name, ie no disks thumbnail should be fanned
         |
  [video_ts]   - is the folder containing ripped dvd content. Insert "folder.jpg" inside

   
   Second, Import into j river
   then select all ifo files to tag, right click - library tools - fill properties from filename
    then paste this:
Directories   [Grouping]\[Genre]\[Series]\[Season]\[Name] ([Album]_[Year])\VIDEO_TS
Filename   leave unchecked


examples of folder structures
Y:\Media-Y\Video\DVD\TV\How I Met Your Mother\01\Disc 1 (How I Met Your Mother 01 Disc 1_2005)\VIDEO_TS
Y:\Media-Y\Video\DVD\TV\How I Met Your Mother\01\Disc 2 (How I Met Your Mother 01 Disc 2_2005)\VIDEO_TS
Y:\Media-Y\Video\DVD\Music\Muse\Hullabaloo\Disc 1 (Muse - Hullabaloo Disc 1_2002)\VIDEO_TS
Y:\Media-Y\Video\DVD\Music\Muse\Hullabaloo\Disc 2 (Muse - Hullabaloo Disc 2_2002)\VIDEO_TS
Y:\Media-Y\Video\DVD\Movie\X-Men\X-Men 3 - The Last Stand\Disc 1 (X-Men 3 - The Last Stand_2006)\VIDEO_TS
Y:\Media-Y\Video\DVD\Movie\-\Pandorum\Disc 1 (Pandorum_2009)\VIDEO_TS
Y:\Media-Y\Video\DVD\Documentary\Zeitgeist\Zeitgeist 1\Disc 1 (Zeitgeist 1_2007)\VIDEO_TS

-----

FOR ALL OTHER VIDEO

      First organize media into the following folder structure
      what i have attempted to do is show the folder structure on the left side
      with notes to the right of it

[Grouping]   - i use 4 folders: "DVD", "DVD-Shrunk", "DVD-Audio", "Other-Video"
         |      -note that "Other-Video" contains avi, mpg etc where the rest contain video_ts
         |
   [Genre]   - each grouping folder contains 4 folders: "TV", "Documentary", "Music", "Movie"
         |      
         |
   [Series]   -each genre folder contains folders of series.
         |      -each series has its own folder, if series does not apply use a folder named "-"
         |       -for music: a folder called the band name
         |
         |      
[Season (Album_Year)]   
         |      -the season for Music, documentaries and movies is the title
         |      -Season for tv: the season #
         |       -the year is the release date, if year does not apply  use "0"
         |      -the album for movie is the title of it
         |       -the album for documentary is the title of it
         |      -the album for tv is Series+Season
         |      -the album for Music is Band+ title
         |      -***when there are multiple files in an album the thumbnail will be shown as fanned
         |
   Name_   -the name portion for tv is the episode+Episode Name(If desired) then an underscore
      -the name portion for Documentaries, Movies and Music is "Part 1" "Part 2" etc then an underscore
      -you can put whatever you want after the underscore and it wont show up in the tag    
      -the folder.jpg is along side the video files here

Second select all video files other than ifo's to tag (ie avi, mpg, wmv etc), right click - library tools - fill properties from filename
 then paste this:
Directories   [Grouping]\[Genre]\[Series]\[Season] ([Album]_[Year])
Filename   [Name]_

examples of folder structures
Y:\Media-Y\Video\Other-Video\TV\Curb Your Enthusiasm\02 (Curb Your Enthusiasm 02_2001)\01 - The Car Salesman_.avi
Y:\Media-Y\Video\Other-Video\Music\Pearl Jam\Unplugged (Pearl Jam - Unplugged_1992)\Part 1_Pearl Jam – Unplugged.divx
Y:\Media-Y\Video\Other-Video\Movie\Bourne\Bourne 1 - Identity (Bourne 1 - Identity_2002)\Part 1_Bourne Identity.avi
Y:\Media-Y\Video\Other-Video\Movie\-\Borat (Borat_2006)\Part 1_Borat.avi
Y:\Media-Y\Video\Other-Video\Documentary\-\Religulous (Religulous_2008)\Part 1_Religulous.avi


Additional Notes:
-----
the panes i use to view video are ordered as follows:
grouping  year  genre  series  season  name
and album thumbnails are displayed below or above
works well
a screen shot would be nice
-----
for movies and documentaries that have a value for the “series” field other than the "-",
i like to also contain the series info in the season field. and example is:
Y:\Media-Y\Video\Other-Video\Movie\Hellboy\Hellboy 2 - The Golden Army (Hellboy 2 - The Golden Army_2008)\Part 1_Hellboy 2
with this done, when im browsing the season pane i dont just see a movie called the golden army
instead i see  Hellboy 2 - The Golden Army
-----
for album art i prefer movie posters to dvd covers
they can be obtained at movieposterdb.com among other places
movieposterdb.com also shows the release date. Makes things quick
-----
You can use an external program to open video_ts by the following:
1)go to [options]/[filetypes]
2)set dvd video to open with external program (custom)
3)select the program you want to use
4)paste this, quotes included, in the arguments box:   "[Filename (path)]VIDEO_TS.IFO"   
i have only done this with arcsoft total media theatre, so im unsure what other software besides it, and j river will play the ifo
-----
To select all ifo's easily you can create a custom view that only shows ifos then highlight them all for tagging.
The same can be done with all other video by creating a video view that excludes ifo's
-----
Problems showing cover art correctly?
The setting i found work the best for audio and video are here:
1)[options]/[tree and view] -thumbnails    1)uncheck create thumbnails for videos

2)[options]/[libraries and folders]   1)uncheck build thumbnails
               2)uncheck get cover art   
                  
3)[options]/[file location] -cover art   1)set to "in the same folder as folder.jpg
               2)uncheck "also store image in files tag
you can right click videos then choose cover art-"quick find in file to update art" if it wasn't automatic
i found when i imported video without having a folder.jpg, j river added art from star trek and
Americas funniest home videos. Not sure why. But the above settings fixed this
-----
if you use theatre view you have to add tag menu fields by:
1)go to options - theatre view – advanced – tag menu fields (video)
2)add "grouping" and whatever other fields are needed
now in theatre view, you will be able to browse media by
the fields you are using instead of being limited to the default ones
-----
some DVD audio contains multiple ifo files inside audio_ts folders, this screws thing up. to fix this:
in you video view setting - Set rules for file display...   then enter:
   filename (path)         does not contain       AUDIO_TS
the above will make dvd audio only show up once instead of 4 time
-----
you can use external sidecars to store tag info for the video
i dont
-----
Some video files have tags embedded in them.
I have noticed that wmv, mp4 and rarely avi have existing tags
this is a problem because, in general, the tags they have are useless
usually they are copyright, artist, and access rating.
There are 2 ways to deal with these
1)   select all the video files in j river, then select tag(bottom left), then erase all the useless fields
   this is just a quick fix, they are still embedded but you just wont notice them until you re-import the media
   these tags also stop album thumbnails from being fanned properly. If files in the same album have
   different embedded tags they wont be grouped in the album thumbnails.
or
2)   remove the tags permanently using tagging software
   using tag&rename i select the root folder of my video then
   go to view and choose flat file list, i then see all mp4 and wmv
   I then right click and choose remove tag.
   For the rare occasion of avi's i use a program called abcavi
-----
Playing and tagging blu ray backup in folder form(not iso's or any other disc image)
blu ray backups have a file similar to an ifo called "index.bdmv" at this point in time(14.0.140) J river cannot import or play these.
As a work around do the following:
1)in your bluray backup folder create a text file.  Call it anything for now
   it will sit beside BDMV folder and CERTIFICATE folder
   this is also where folder.jpg will sit
2)Change the text file's name to "Disc #_" (put the actual number not the symbol # and dont use the quotes)
3)change the extension from txt to swf
4)organize the swf like you would any other video as explained above
   and leave the foder.jpg, BDMV folder, and CERTIFICATE folder sitting beside it
   here is an example:
   Y:\Media-Y\Video\Blu-Ray\Movie\-\Big Hit (Big Hit_1998)\Disc 1_big hit.swf
5)import the swf into j river and tag it just like any other video as explained above
then
You can use an external program to open index.bdmv by the following:
1)go to [options]/[filetypes]
2)set  swf(shockwave) video to open with external program (custom)
3)select the program you want to use
4)paste this, quotes included, in the arguments box:   "[Filename (path)]BDMV\index.bdmv"
   it should play just as if you had the disc inserted
note that you can substitute swf for any unused video format you want.
i have only done this with arcsoft total media theatre, so im unsure if other blu ray software can play blu ray backups.
Also, im not sure if all blu ray folders are structured the same, so far all of mine are
if some are different this will have to be modified/expanded
-----
if you have dvd iso's or img's you can convert them to video_ts folders by unzipping them with archiving software
i have only tried winrar but others probably work too
-----
With the exception of removing the year tag, i believe this method cannot be simplified without
compromising the functionality/usability of your video library. It can however be expanded upon.

[rjm]

Welcome. You put a lot of work into this guide. Thanks for sharing your tagging methods. I'm sure many users will appreciate your ideas.

[struct]

very helpful post. thanks

but wouldn't it just be easier to use pvd and pvdimport?

[not sure what it does for blue-ray]

craig

[roopertd]

Awesome post. I have been using File Paths to view all my videos for the longest time which worked fine, but i always figured there should be a way to view it like i do my music.
Using syndromes techniques was pretty easy since my folders were already set up in a very similar way. Now all my videos have thumbnails and all the tags i need without a bunch of useless ones.
Personally i dont care who directed a movie or what company owns the copyright. I added to syndromes method by putting the vertical resolution of all my videos in the name tag.
In brackets before the underscore i added one of the following to each video: LowRes, 256p, 256+, 480p, 480+, 720p, 720+, 1080p. 1080+. Now i can view all the high Res video in my
library by typing 1080 into the search. Note that its pointless to enter the resolution for dvds and blu ray because they are all 480 and 1080.
I found the resolution by using the program MediaInfo, and while doing so i also discovered that a lot of my videos had 6 channels of sound.
So i added “6ch” to those name as well so that i know to enable surround sound on all of my equipment when playing them. I installed  “AC3 Filter” to enable surround in j river and it works great.

[syndromeofadown]

This is an attempt at showing screenshots of my videoview after tagging all my videos

Below shows a season of avi's chosen from the album thumbnail.
Once the season is selected you can choose an episode from the playing now.
Notice that the avi's are fanned but the dvd's are not.


Below shows an episode selected from the panes instead of using the album thumbnail.


Below shows Disc 1 of a season selected using the panes


Below shows the input boxes where you can paste the tagging info
the first one is for avi's, mpg's etc
the second is for ifo's

[syndromeofadown]

I left out one important detail when i explained my bluray playback method earlier.
When creating the .swf file from the text file, there needs to be something in the text file.
Just one letter will due. This will change the file size from 0kb to 1kb.
J river doesn't seam to import them when they are zero.

I still haven't come up with a better way to manage blurays.
Not a big deal though because my way works well.

Why not configure j river to auto import the bdmv?
blu rays contain multiple bdmv's and multiple index.bdmv's so each movie would have 5 or so.
In order to isolate the one you want, view rules would have to be made.
In order to tag using fill properties from file name, they
would have to be done separately from other videos due to all the sub folders blurays have.

So using swf just seems more simple.
With swf, tagging is simple, album art shows up, media type is video, and auto import works.