Print

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

[steviewonders]

I've set up media centre so that tags will be saved to the video files. The tags i've set up to be saved are actors, name and keywords. The default tagging system doesn't have fields for all of these tags so i'm wondering if these will be saved to the file or not. Also, i set up one of these tags to be saved to the file after i changed the tags so will this now be updated to the file even though it wasn't set up while editing?

[4BYE]

Tags are saved in a .xml file beside your video files. (e.g. VIDEO_TS_ifo_JRSidecar.xml)
I don't no if I understand what you mean.

If you want to check you could change some tags and then check the .xml file in notepad. There you can see the changes.
I use more tags for my videos and the only thing that is not updated automatically is the "year" tag. If I've changed and/or added videos I select the new videos and right click "update tags from library". That way I'm sure everything is updated, also the "year" tag. Don't know why it isn't updated anyway, asked for that but never got an answer.

The tags I use are: "Title", "Original Title" (for titles like "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly" = "Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo") "Actors", "Director", "Genre", "Year", "Comment", "Catalog #" (for my physical discs that I've stored in cd-boxes with sleeves e.g. B 182), "duration" (auto). I also use "album" and "name" for sorting reasons and for properly naming my folder.jpg. For TV Series I use "series" and "Seasons". With these tags it's almost impossible to not find a movie I'm searching for. 

If you are just starting I would recommend using a few more tags than you do now. Hope this helps.

Theo

[kensn]

Those tag fileds you listed are some of the default tag fields for videos. In standard view select videos in the tree and click files. Now select one of your files and click the tag icon in the lower left action window. You can the right click in the action window and select Show All Tags. This should show you all the default tags used.

Ken

[steviewonders]

@Theo
Cheers. The files i'm tagging are just miscellaneous scenes and not in the vob format. Does that mean the tags aren't saved to the file? If that's the case is there any way to save the tags to the file?

@Ken
Thanks for the reply. I'm guessing you meant to click on the default tags. Unfortunately there's only 5 tags and the rating for that. If you did mean to click on all tags then will all of the 30 or so tags in that list be saved to my file? I'm having a major tagging spree and i wanna make sure it won't be lost if i change OS or have to reinstall etc.

[kensn]

The tags that you populate will be saved in a xlm "sidecar" file for that video. It is not actually saved in the file itself like an mp3 would.

Ken

[jmone]

Some video files support tagging without having to rewrite the files.....here is the word from the horses mouth on how MC tags Video Files:

.....MP4 files will be tagged directly.  Other video files only get their sidecar files updated.

[kensn]

Some video files support tagging without having to rewrite the files.....here is the word from the horses mouth on how MC tags Video Files:

Thanks for the info.. I didn't know...

[steviewonders]

Right thanks. Think i understand now. So if i was to install media centre on another computer and import the library i've already saved and also import all my video files, would all the tags be the same as they are now. The xml file hasn't been created for my video files because they're wmv and not vob.

[rick.ca]

So if i was to install media centre on another computer and import the library i've already saved and also import all my video files, would all the tags be the same as they are now.

That's right. This scenario does not require data to be saved to tags. It's unfortunate we refer to database fields and file tags as synonymous. They're not. All the data you see in MC is recorded in MC's "Library," which is a database of information about specific media files. As long as the association of those records with the files is not broken, the data is safe. The program will also (as specified in Options) save the same data in file tags, or in sidecar files if the file type does not support tags. The purpose of this is to support the portability of media files and the exchange of data with other applications. A secondary benefit is it provides a form of backup, although most data recovery needs are going to be met by restoring from MC's library backup.

[4BYE]

I forgot to say that you indeed should backup your library. I do it everytime I import and tag files.

I already mentioned this but it seems when importing files into MC or "update library (from tags)" the "name" tag doesn't import the "name" field from the .xml file. I just checked before writing this again and "Breakfast at Tiffany's" becomes "Breakfast At Tiffany's". Worse is that "1066 (BBC) Episode 01" becomes "Episode 1" propably because the folder it's in is named "1066 (BBC)/Episode 1/".
I don't know why it does not take the tag from the .xml file.

I wrote this in a topic but no answer. Maybe someone can check this to see if I'm the only one, or that there's an option I don't know of, or that it's really a bug. I find this really important since it messes up the library on other PCs when importing my library.

[rick.ca]

Maybe someone can check this to see if I'm the only one, or that there's an option I don't know of, or that it's really a bug.

I haven't tried re-importing any files (with sidecar files) into a new library, but restoring [Name] from a sidecar using Update Library (from tags) works. Have you verified [Name] is recorded in the XML file? Is your [Name] field set to be saved in file tags?

[4BYE]

When I change a "name" tag, I see it's automatically changed and I get "Done saving tag changes." "Save in file tags" is checked in options too.
When I just add "TEST" behind the text in the "name" tag, it's saved. But when I do "update library from tags" I get the text without "TEST".
It seems it's using the name of the folder but with capitalizing the first letter of each word. Is there an option that I'm not aware of? On the other hand when I "update library from tags" I assume it should give the "name" tag as in the .xml file!

The only thing I always do is taking my saved library into the new installed program. I took my MC14 library and imported it in MC16. Maybe it has something to do with that?

It seems MC fills in the "name" tag before any tagging has done when I import a new file. In "album" I get the date of today. Hope this helps.

Thanks for looking at this problem, it bugs me for a longer period and since my sorting and naming of the folder.jpg depends on it I must fix it.
I assume since I couldn't find posts of this I'm having a weird problem here.

Theo

[steviewonders]

Thanks very much rick.ca. That's put my mind at ease.

[rick.ca]

It seems MC fills in the "name" tag before any tagging has done when I import a new file. In "album" I get the date of today.

Yes, it does do that when files are imported. That's why I said I haven't tried re-importing files. I'm not sure if it will automatically import meta data from a sidecar when a file is imported, or if it would be necessary to Update Library (from tags). But that doesn't seem relevant to your issue. You're saying you're saving a change to [Name], and that change is not being restored by an Update Library (from tags). That works fine for me.

Have you verified [Name] is recorded in the XML file?

It's unclear from your reply if your sidecar file includes [Name]. Have you examined the sidecar file?

Have you selected the "Update tags when file info changes" option?

[4BYE]

I have selected the "Update tags when file info changes" option.

This is the .xml file for "Cocoon":

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<MPL Version="2.0" Title="JRSidecar">
<Item>
<Field Name="Filename">\\Bk-hb6b8bea\video_06(k1)\Cocoon\VIDEO_TS\VIDEO_TS.IFO</Field>
<Field Name="DVD Video Info">&lt;XMLPH version="1.0"&gt;&lt;Item Name="RipMode"&gt;1&lt;/Item&gt;
&lt;Item Name="AllowDecss"&gt;1&lt;/Item&gt;
&lt;Item Name="Name"&gt;DVD Rip&lt;/Item&gt;
&lt;Item Name="TotalBytes00"&gt;4394797056&lt;/Item&gt;
&lt;Item Name="ClipSeconds"&gt;0&lt;/Item&gt;
&lt;Item Name="Duration00"&gt;6364&lt;/Item&gt;
&lt;Item Name="Name00"/&gt;
&lt;Item Name="RegionCode"&gt;1&lt;/Item&gt;
&lt;Item Name="NumTitles"&gt;1&lt;/Item&gt;
&lt;Item Name="Number00"&gt;1&lt;/Item&gt;
&lt;Item Name="SelectedAudioStream00"&gt;0&lt;/Item&gt;
&lt;Item Name="AudioStreamList00"&gt;(16:AC3 5-ch English)&lt;/Item&gt;
&lt;Item Name="StripStreams"&gt;1&lt;/Item&gt;
&lt;Item Name="SelectedForRip00"&gt;1&lt;/Item&gt;
&lt;Item Name="Text"&gt;Title 1 (AC3 5-ch English) 1:46:04&lt;/Item&gt;
&lt;/XMLPH&gt;</Field>
<Field Name="Genre">Humor/Komedie</Field>
<Field Name="Actors">Don Ameche; Wilford Brimley; Hume Cronyn; Brian Dennehy; Steve Guttenberg; Jessica Tandy</Field>
<Field Name="Director">Ron Howard</Field>
<Field Name="Stack Top">-1</Field>
<Field Name="Title">Cocoon</Field>
<Field Name="Stack View">0</Field>
<Field Name="Media Sub Type">Movie</Field>
<Field Name="Album">Cocoon</Field>
<Field Name="Date">31335,8482291666659876</Field>
<Field Name="Name">Cocoon TEST</Field>
<Field Name="Duration">6364</Field>
</Item>
</MPL>

I added "TEST" to the "name" input and it was added in the .xml too. When I "update library from tags" it's changed to just "Cocoon". The .xml file still has "Cocoon TEST" in the "name" tag.
I understand that you don't have this problem with ripped dvd's. So there's a problem somewhere in my setup. The biggest problem I have is that if I don't use my library backup all my info of the physical DVD's isn't imported since there's no file that is saved when making tags for a physical DVD.
This week I'll try to install a clean version of MC16 without any previous library input. And I'll test to see this behaviour.

[rjm]

.....MP4 files will be tagged directly.  Other video files only get their sidecar files updated.

I have more than 2500 mp4 videos in my library and I've never seen MC modify the tags.

[4BYE]

I completely uninstalled MC16 but that didn't change anything. With no item in my library I imported 3 movies from a BBC serie. I got the same thing as mentioned above.
The name tag was not imported from the .xml file, not even with "update library from tags".

I'm out of options now, what else could be different compared to you guys?

I restored my library again so i can use MC16.

Please help!!