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[dave_in_gva]

Hi there,

First time user. I will give JRiver MC18 a shot and expect I will keep it but wanted to ask here how best to ensure that ripped films (.mkv and .avi) are brought into the library with appropriate metadata.

I searched for posts on scrapers and see that there has been some discussion but it is not clear to me if now in MC18 this is all automatic or if I need to add in a scraper. If so, which one(s) should I get?

Also, some posts I read seemed to suggest that the filename needed to be in a certain format in order for scrapers to work correctly although again the Carnac engine in the auto-import feature seems to handle this pretty intelligently.

Basically do I need to rename all my .mkv and .avi files or will MC18 working with auto import be clever enough to work it all out and get me all the cool imagery etc. for every film I have?

Best,

Dave M

[glynor]

The filename parser (aka Carnac) is pretty darn clever.  It recognizes a wide variety of common filenaming schemes (within reason).  Basically, it is all of the common schemes that "we" (the forum jackalls) could come up with.  If you have something common that it could handle well, but does not, post an example of the filename here on the forum, and the developers will likely add it to the parser.

Plus, you can use Carnac in concert with Tag on Import rules to further customize the behavior to achieve desired results (without manually renaming files).  One thing to be aware of, however, is that these two features (Carnac and Tag On Import) only activate through the Auto-Import system.

If you manually import files by double-clicking on them from Windows Explorer, or drag-dropping them onto MC itself, these rules aren't triggered (which is handy for testing, but an important point).

[dave_in_gva]

Hugely helpful, thanks Glynor.

I am going to download the trial version and use auto-import on my mixed bag of blu-ray/dvd rips.

In case I need to rename files etc. I assume it is no problem to jettison the entire media library, do the necessary, and then recreate one.

Thanks again,

Dave M

[glynor]

In case I need to rename files etc. I assume it is no problem to jettison the entire media library, do the necessary, and then recreate one.

True, you can reset the Library easily under Playing Now in the Tree control:



That's a bit like trying to kill a mosquito with a hand grenade, but you can do it.  You can also certainly just remove individual imports from the Library and try them again.  However, if you do this, there is an important thing you need to know:

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=72593.msg491631#msg491631

This is possible precisely because MC does track the files it deletes after it deletes them, using that special "hidden" database that I just showed you how to "see".  When you import a brand new file, MC analyzes it and decides what kind of file it is and does all sorts of other work to get it imported.  But, if you delete a file, but then later re-import that same file, MC checks this deleted items database for two reasons.  First, it checks it to see if it should re-import it at all in the first place.  If you have the "Ignore previously removed" option turned on, then it doesn't at all and the file is ignored.  Second, if "Ignore previously removed" is turned off, then MC restores the information from that deleted record instead of re-importing the file from scratch (and re-doing the analysis and all of that).  This makes sure you don't lose any intentionally set metadata that wasn't (for whatever reason) explicitly written to the files' tags, and it also makes the re-import process quicker and less painful on system resources (every little bit helps).