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[vairulez]

I updated my main htpc to mc17 yesterday, and I must admit i'm not very impressed by carnac ... it just didn't fill any tag.
I guess it's because it only relies on filenames to get informations when in my case everything is in the filepath.
For example my tv-shows have this structure on disk :
d:\series\castle\s03e01.mkv

I used tag on import on series folder to add a media-subtype:tv-show, is there anyway to show carnac the file structure so it can tag [series] at import ?

[glynor]

It would be nice if Carnac could be enhanced to do this in a semi-automated fashion.  For example, say you have a bunch of files all in one folder.  It "thinks" they're probably TV Shows (based on length and whatnot).  They all have the same season number, but have different episode numbers (Carnac can already get that from the filenames), but there is no [Series] available in the filename?  Well, then, with all those "clues" it would make sense to look at the parent folder's name, and assign it to [Series].  It doesn't do that now, but I suspect we will continue to see this logic improve.

A lot of my older files have a very similar file/folder naming structure.  I'd guess it is very common for TV Shows if people have them organized at all, much like \music\[Artist]\[Album]\[Track #] - [Name] (or some similar variant) is certainly common for music files.  It would make sense to try to handle these in Carnac where possible.

However... For your problem now:

For any files you already have in a rigid folder structure, you can use the Fill Properties from Filename tool to easily get them all tagged.  That won't help you for new, incoming files.  But, in my experience, this isn't always a serious limitation.  You can easily parse the big, existing folder structure that you have now.  Then, all you need to worry about is new stuff.  I have auto-import monitor my M:\incoming and T:\recordings folders, where those new files arrive.  Those files, as they are recorded or downloaded, usually have what Carnac needs as part of the filename (and if not, it is usually easily tweaked by the existing Tag On Import capabilities).  So, I import them there in those "incoming" folders, Carnac figures it out, I get the metadata from thetvdb.com, and then move them into their folder structure using the Rename, Move, and Copy tool.

It would still occasionally be very useful to be able to do a similar operation with the Tag on Import rules that you can using the existing Fill Properties from Filename tool, though, for times when you need these directory structures (and filenames) "custom parsed" on an ongoing basis.  I'm working on a way to do that now in a limited fashion, with MrC's help hopefully. Keep an eye on the How To: Tag on Import thread for more (though maybe not until after the holidays).

[vairulez]

thanks for your answer glynor. I really hope tag on import will use Fill Properties from Filename at some point (I really thought they would start by that instead of guessing on filenames ...) because as I need subtitles for every show i watch the tv-show/sub filenames have to match if I want the subs to be used. That's mainly why I use short filenames.

[struct]

Would it not make sense for jriver to expose the regex expressions used by carnac, then users could simply tweak these to suit their needs.  Granted, not a task that I would want to do often but with the excellent help around here, we could quickly add what is required without having to wait for JRiver.  I would not have thought that these were such important intellectual property to hide them.  Certainly don't want to expose them by default for most users, but an extra little dialog to see under the hood would be helpful.  perhaps this can be done from the existing rules based import with a complex regex expression?  perhaps we should be starting thread with useful expressions for those with ordered directories???

Craig

[Daydream]

Would it not make sense for jriver to expose the regex expressions used by carnac

If you do (today) a search on the MC17 board open to the big public, for "Regex", and check to see how many "Carnac" references are in those posts, there is only a faint mention that Carnac uses regex (and it's not from JRiver).

I am surprised at how this was handled. JRiver expects me to use a feature that was never explained to the public how it works (and I've asked once already), that it has no configurable options, and that you can't turn it off. But that it will affect tagging by far and large.

Not only that it tags files but it tries to guess the media type. Which is a thing I'm totally against, but I can't turn the feature off. "But you can specify rules at import that supersede that" some will say. Well, I hope so - even Glynor wrote a bit cloudy about it in his (well written otherwise) tag on import advise-post.
But here's the outcome: you will effectively ask me to put rules in place, to prevent Carnac from guessing. You ask me to do something to prevent a thing you put in place. How does that work?

It doesn't stop there. And JRiver not explaining obviously doesn't help. Who on Earth needs Carnac? Advises about how to 1) generically build a good media collection and 2) rules on import - should be the norm, not "throw your files together and we'll guess from the mess". But there is a case where files get thrown together at random and you can't indicate "that's a movie, that's a series, etc". When you record TV.

Did you build Carnac primarily to take over the Sage fan base?

[vairulez]

Glynor, I had a better look a the post you linked.
do you think it is possible to build a regex on the filename(path) to fill the [series] tag ?
I tried to do it but I must be too dumb I can't get anywhere with regex expressions ...

edit : I found the expression (ps : you could write somewhere that spaces are mandatory !!!!!)
so for my file structure here is the regex to have series autotagged :
Series:Regex([Filename (path)], /#\\(.+)\\(.+)\\#/, 2)

[Matt]

http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Carnac

[glynor]

edit : I found the expression (ps : you could write somewhere that spaces are mandatory !!!!!)
so for my file structure here is the regex to have series autotagged :
Series:Regex([Filename (path)], /#\\(.+)\\(.+)\\#/, 2)

Thanks!  Great job.

By the way, which space was manditory?  Was it the one after "[Filename (path)]," and before the "2" at the end?  I've had mixed experience with this, and have never thoroughly tested it, which is why I didn't mention it.  I almost always use at least one space or return after every "separator comma" in an expression, and I think that's good practice.  But, I know for certain that they do often work without them.  I can't say for sure if I've seen instances where they don't work without the space, but if you hit that problem it would be good to note it in the other thread.

[glynor]

http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Carnac

It would be good if that page had some more details on exactly what is handled versus not handled, but I think this is something we might have to figure out on our own by playing with it.

JRiver's opinion is that if there is something it isn't handling that is common and can be parsed, it should be added to Carnac.  That's why I don't think they want to be locked into a documentation-cycle, because it would be difficult to keep it perfectly up-to-date without hindering development.

But, it would still be good to have some more details around the fiddly bits.

[JimH]

Would be nice, but probably won't happen.

[CountryBumkin]

http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Carnac

I belive you have a typo in the Wiki. It spells Carnac as "Carnace" under the subject " When Carnace runs" (unless this spelling is a plural of Carnac).

[JimH]

I belive you have a typo in the Wiki. It spells Carnac as "Carnace" under the subject " When Carnace runs" (unless this spelling is a plural of Carnac).

Fixed.  Thanks.

[rick.ca]

For example my tv-shows have this structure on disk :
d:\series\castle\s03e01.mkv

This is a perfectly sensible pattern that should be recognized by Carnac. It's a variant of a series-in-folder, episode-in-filename pattern that would be included in a Regex system. Perhaps Carnac development is considered complete, but Matt has asked a number of times for examples of where it's failing. I suppose this one wasn't mentioned.

Aside from the issue of whether Carnac "should" do something, there is a facility for a user-provided rules. As you've found, the practical approach is to determine what Carnac does, and then add rules to do whatever it misses or does incorrectly.

In a situation like this—episodes all named with a common pattern—all data can be extracted by one regex. It would be helpful if rules system would accommodate the multi-variable Regex() so it wouldn't be necessary to enter an expression for each field—as mentioned in How To: Use Tag on Import rules In Auto-Import For Fun and Profit.