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[Anarchy]

Hello all, I am new MC having come most recently from 7MC and Mediabrowser.  I really like Mediabrowser but as most of you lot probably know JRiver MC seems to be capable of so much more.

Having read through various bits of the forum and FAQ I think I am having the same problem as many others when first trying out MC, that of getting your head round the library/sorting/file structure and to be honest I thought I was quite good with computers but this is making me feel a bit thick.  I have been at it for five or six hours now and still have not managed to separate my Movies from my TV shows in the Videos section or am I able to view Photos in albums as per my file structure.

Anyway I am sure it has been done to death but I have yet to stumble across an idiots guide for setting up the library, are there any?  I just keep reading comments like use 'fill properties from filename/folder structure' but no real explanation I have understood and had success with.

Any links from similar noobie questions or a definitve guide would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[CountryBumkin]

Basically, the Media and Media Sub Type is what's used to categorize your media. First, all of your Movies, TV Shows, and Home Video get assigned the Media Type "Video". Then you break this group down into Video Sub Types such as Movie, TV Show, etc. Usually this is done automatiically (for the most part) when you import the files. MC (latest versions) are good about figuring out what you have (and you can tell it how to assign the categories based on what folders you are importing from (Tools>Options>Library & Folders > Configure AutoImport).
If it is not done automatically you can fix things in the Standard View. For Video, open the Video>Files view and see if all the data is showing (i.e. Media Sub Type) for each file. You can edit/add what is missing. If the coulmn you need is not shown, just right click on the header and select it from the drop down list.

The "Fill Properties from File Name" is used, for example" when you import a file with a name like "Lost s1e01 Pilot.mkv" and you use that Fill feature to separate the file name into the correct data cells for Series, Season, Epoisode No., Episode name, etc. However, the current version of MC17 does this automatically (and is pretty good at it) so you really only need this if you name your files something unusual when you rip/copy them or if you already have files in the database (prior to the new feature) without correct info and now you want to go back and fix things.

Here is a screen shot of the Satnd View>Video>Files:

[Vincent Kars]

Maybe this part of my website is of use: http://thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/Players/MC14/MC14_intro.htm
It covers some aspects of JRiver

[Anarchy]

Thank you for the replies.  I really thought I had it sorted when I read through your post.  First updated to MC17 because I never realized I had installed the older version, then what I never noticed  in import the library as you said (Tools>Options>Library & Folders > Configure AutoImport) I never noticed the option before to specifically choose say a Movie type and assign a Media sub type tag, this will obviously work I thought.. . .  but no.

What I did in Configure AutoImport was:
I added for example Folder 'E:\My Videos\Movies\'
I left the mode as 'Include this folder and all child folders'
I set Apply these tags as 'Media sub type: Movie'
No movies show up?

I am starting to think I have messed with so many options and libraries I need to delete them and go back to default settings.

BUT WAIT!

Now having written it down for this reply and retracing my steps I left the box 'Ignore files previously removed from library' crossed.  So I just unchecked it and things are looking promising.

Proper NOOB!

[Anarchy]

This is really testing.

At least before, the movies that did show up had DVD cover art etc show up in Theatre view, now I have all my movies show up but the image is the first 5 second thumbnail clip of the video so all my movies look like the Universal planet logo or Walt disney castle.

Over Christmas may not be the best time of year to do this, I have had too much Gin and Tonic ?

[CountryBumkin]

I'll bet something else is wrong - unless you purposely deleted all of your stored movie data before switching to MC17. The box that says "ignore previously deleted files" would normally not have much affect - since you don't "normally" delete much.
BTW - if you install MC17 over MC16, you don't have to delete/change your old Library. MC17 will just use the existing library.

Is drive E on your HTPC computer, or on a network? If on your main (server) HTPC, don't forget to point to your files at Tools>Options>File Locations.

[CountryBumkin]

This is really testing.

At least before, the movies that did show up had DVD cover art etc show up in Theatre view, now I have all my movies show up but the image is the first 5 second thumbnail clip of the video so all my movies look like the Universal planet logo or Walt disney castle.

Over Christmas may not be the best time of year to do this, I have had too much Gin and Tonic ?

So now you need to setup the connection to the "Cover Art". Perhaps you can locate the folder where it is/was stored. If not, you can try to highlight the files where art is missing (you can select multiple files by holding down the CNTRL key) and right click and select Library>"Update Library (from tags)". MC stores the cover art in the file's tag (if you set it up this way) so you may be able to reload the art - otherwise you can use the "Get Movies and TV Info" tool and download new cover art and movie details.

[Anarchy]

OK last post for the day, I do not want to slag MC off just because I dont understand it, I appreciate anything powerful could quite rightly be more complicated but if anyone has ever tried Mediabrowser you simply point to the folder and tell it what filetype is in it, I am sure because I got used to that program and I have probably simplified it a bit.

Anyway I am not giving up yet, though I do feel like I am at work rather than at home trying to get this to do what I want.

Ill be back.

[Anarchy]

All my cover art is stored as 'folder.jpg' and on my MC16 installation the cover showed up for my movies, now on MC17 it shows the video thumbnail.  All my 'Image file' tags are blank apart from the ones I have manually retrieved metadata for in which case a new image with the same name as the video file has been downloaded and saved next to the video.

Reading another thread suggests you tell MC to look for 'folder.jpg' in the same folder as the media file but it only mentioned Audio files, can this be applied to video files?

[CountryBumkin]

Did you try "update Tags from Library files"?
If your showing the image icons/thumbnails in Standard View>Video>Files than MC has the path located. You can also add a column for "Image File" to see what the file name/location of your cover art is.

[Anarchy]

I have tried 'Library tools - update tags (from library)' had no effect.

My column for 'Image file' is generally blank apart from a few movies I have manually done 'Get movie and TV info' for in which case movie name.jpg is there, I also have one movie which simply states folder.jpg but cannot figure out how I got that there, I want to replicate this for all movies.

[CountryBumkin]

I misread your earlier post. I thought you had the Cover Art showing as a thumbnail but not in the file tags. I see now that you have no Cover Art displaying and just a thmbnail snapshot of the first couple seconds of the movie.
If I understand your problem, you still have the correct Cover Art for each movie located in the folder with the movie (E drive\My Videos\Movies). When you set this up under Configure Auto-Import, did you check the box "Build Thumbnails"? You may have to then go to Tools>Import>Run Auto Import Now. If that doesn't work - then I don't know what to tell you next.

Don't give up. There are a lot of smart people here (probably just away for the Holidays) that will get you through this.