Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[4BYE]

Hello,

Because I have so many DVD discs I want to add them to my library too. I have a great library with images, movies and music but I cannot seem to find a way to add a real disc to the library. I came up with an image of the movie poster and from there I can add tags to it again, but then they would be in the "images" part. Has anyone ideas to work with this? I made some htm files to add them into the documents part of MC but I cannot add an folder-image to it.

(I posted first in MC14 part but got no response)

Thanks for any help,


Regards,


Theo

[rick.ca]

External disks are saved in a database separate from the main library. In the Rules for file display for whatever view you would like to include them in, use the Limit database to... modifier to include the "CD" database. You could add them to your main video view or make a separate view for DVD's only. When disk is put in the drive, it will appear in the view. You can then tag it and add a poster—just like any other item in the library.

[4BYE]

Thanks for your reply!

I found what you wrote, I marked "CD" and "Main" and got several items added to the view. I deleted them being "old" DVD inserts and added a new one. That worked and I can add tags. I guess I must use the cover art that I copied into the "Covert Art" folder specified.

I want to add a new section "DVD's" into the list (along the "Audio", "Images" & "Video") and here I'm not sure because I never used this and when trying to I didn't do well. I stopped because I don't want to make my great library a mess.
I will experiment further on to see if I can make it work.

Thanks for the great help!

All the best,

Theo

[4BYE]

I have still a question: Can I make a section along with the AUDIO, DOCUMENTS, IMAGES and VIDEO called DVD's, or should I make that under the "VIDEO" section?

[Matt]

I have still a question: Can I make a section along with the AUDIO, DOCUMENTS, IMAGES and VIDEO called DVD's, or should I make that under the "VIDEO" section?

As a user, you can create any number of root or nested views.  So it doesn't matter -- just do whatever you prefer.

[4BYE]

OK, that's good to hear. I found where I can add a section "DVD's".
After trying and trying I finally got the right way to show what and how I want based on my video-scheme.

Because I've got a couple of thoussand DVD's (I quited my video-rental store) I need to know what is backed-up when I do the "Library backup". With my video-files on HD there's the small file (XML) that is added to the VIDEO_TS folder. The music tags are in the file but with the discs it's different of course.
I assume that the DVD discs library I made is save when I regurlaly backup the library!?

[rick.ca]

I assume that the DVD discs library I made is save when I regurlaly backup the library!?

Yes.  You can also export all, each or any subset of the data to MPL playlist files using File - Export playlist...

[4BYE]

I tried it and this is even better I guess. I played with it and it works great! This way I have an extra safety to work with. Thanks again, I'm learning more and more...

[rick.ca]

In a pm, 4BYE advises DVD records that have been deleted (or no longer exist—as in after restoring from earlier backup), cannot be restored from an MPL playlist. The data will be imported, but as records in the main database, not the "CD" database. Why is this so? Are we doing something wrong? It seems strange entries that represent discs and not HDD files can be added to the main database. Especially when the data seems to include a reference to a disc number...

<Field Name="Filename">(0x8F3EE2A6):\VIDEO_TS\VIDEO_TS.dvd;1</Field>

I suppose it doesn't matter—because views can be defined to include both databases and separate DVD's from HDD files using other rules—but I'm curious. And maybe there are consequences I'm not aware of—like Last played, etc. not being recorded correctly.

[4BYE]

Thanks for your help (again). Maybe someone from JRiver can help us out here. The only option at this point is making more library backups. This seems to work when problems occur. I'm not familiar with MC 15 because MC 14 works great for me, but I guess there would be the same problem as in MC 14.

I'm glad the problem came up soon. This way I'm not hundreds of discs behind.

I was thinking if the Library Backup can set things straight there must be a way to have the export mpl do the same thing.

I will start adding the lost discs again since I have too many DVD's waiting to put in the database. I hope that they come up with a solution so I have an extra option to restore data when needed.

Regards,

Theo

[Alex B]

This is an old bug. The problem exists also in MC15.

I tried to report it when MC13 was developed:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=50889.msg348217#msg348217
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=50863.msg348219#msg348219
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=51168.msg349481#msg349481

In a pm, 4BYE advises DVD records that have been deleted (or no longer exist—as in after restoring from earlier backup), cannot be restored from an MPL playlist. The data will be imported, but as records in the main database, not the "CD" database. Why is this so? Are we doing something wrong? It seems strange entries that represent discs and not HDD files can be added to the main database. Especially when the data seems to include a reference to a disc number...

<Field Name="Filename">(0x8F3EE2A6):\VIDEO_TS\VIDEO_TS.dvd;1</Field>

I suppose it doesn't matter—because views can be defined to include both databases and separate DVD's from HDD files using other rules—but I'm curious. And maybe there are consequences I'm not aware of—like Last played, etc. not being recorded correctly.

I matters more than you think. The resulting filenames are useless. (The paths will start with "Unnamed Disc\... " without any valid pointer to the drive.)

In addition there is really no way to make the discs from an MPL import to appear in the actual CD database together with the other disc entries.


The problem is not limited to DVD video discs. Audio CDs and data CD/DVD discs have the same problem.

[4BYE]

OK, that leaves me with 2 things:

A. I guess I'm OK when making backups all the time? (I now do it every 20 discs)
B. JRiver should take a look at this problem because after the DVD discs I might put in all my CD's too.

Thanks,


Theo

[Alex B]

I think B is the correct answer. This shouldn't be difficult for JRiver. MC could either check if the Filename field starts with a (xxxxxxxxxx): string or add a flag that would indicate a CD/DVD to the MPL code.

MPL import would be especially useful with removable optical media. I have now a big library of optical discs that cannot be imported to a new MC library. In order to recreate my CD/DVD library I would need to insert thousands of discs and retag them.

[4BYE]

You're right. Same here. If you see how much hours is involved with this, I can't imagine doing it over again. I hope they read this too and make it work. I would upgrade to MC 15 just for this feature.

[rick.ca]

I matters more than you think. The resulting filenames are useless. (The paths will start with "Unnamed Disc\... " without any valid pointer to the drive.)

Thanks, Alex. I did wonder about this, but didn't take the time to investigate further. It seems the disc code is replaced with the disc label, which becomes "Unnamed Disc" if there isn't one. If I cut & paste a file path from the MPL file to File path, the same thing happens. So that much seems by design, but the fact remains they're not being added to the CD database.

My very limited testing suggests that if one of these discs is subsequently played, that will be associated with the record (i.e., Last played is recorded)—but only if there's a disc label. If the match is being made by disc label and not some kind of finger print, it doesn't seem this would be very effective. Many discs are not going to have a label, or will have a generic one like "DVD Video."

[4BYE]

You're are right about the DVD label. Some have a name, some have the movie title, but many have not, or indeed something like "DVD Video". I have a couple of discs that appear to be the same disc although they are different movies. If I put in such a disc it shows no new DVD but MC "thinks" it's another one already in the database. I can tell after putting about 400 disc in the library.

[Matt]

I think B is the correct answer. This shouldn't be difficult for JRiver. MC could either check if the Filename field starts with a (xxxxxxxxxx): string or add a flag that would indicate a CD/DVD to the MPL code.

I'm not sure what to do about this one.

An MPL file is not meant to be a full library backup.  For example, volume names are stored in a part of the database that is not used when doing MPL import / export.

Why not use a library backup as a library backup?

[Alex B]

Why not use a library backup as a library backup?

I have done that for as couple of times when I have wanted to merge my existing CD/DVD data with another library:

1. Restore a backup file (from the library that contains the CD/DVD data)
2. Remove the files that are not a part of the CD/DVD section.
3. Import the other files from the other library by MPL.
4. Import the playlists from the other library (exported manually)
5. Recreate the smartlists (copy the rules from the other library)

It kind of works, but only if the optical discs were previously inserted and tagged or burned on a single PC/MC library instance. We have several PCs and from time to time I would like to merge the CD/DVD data from two or more PC/MC instances. I can't think of any workaround for that.

Some of the data for Audio CDs can be found from the online database (but only the basic fields, no extended tags, cover art links or statistics) and, most importantly, that does not make possible to browse the disc archive before the discs are inserted. Naturally the DVD Video discs and our various burned data discs (home video, recorded TV series, images, old audio files, etc) don't even get the basic library data automatically. (The Wikipedia lookup might help a bit with some popular DVD Videos, but the discs must be inserted and the lookup must done for each individual disc manually.)

[4BYE]

Why not use a library backup as a library backup?

That's fine with me if I'm safe with that. Can I have the same library, later when needed, in MC 15? I mean won't there be problems keeping my ripped DVD's from the CD/DVD discs?