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[redchris70]

Hi all,

I have been an XBMC user for years and while it does a good job of most things, it is a pain to configure and has many shortcomings, including an inability to function as a server. So I installed MC last night and thought I would give it a try as I had read some positive reviews and I have to say that I am extremely impressed.  Audio and video quality is improved vs XBMC, initial set up and the speed with which it uploads files is extremely quick and in short, I think it looks so promising that there is a good chance that it may actually make me open my wallet, and that is no mean feat! 

As with all such software, there is a learning curve which  seems to be quite steep in MC's case due largely from what I can see from the shear amount of possible configuration.  So I have been doing some reading and trying to get my head around the basics, but a few quick pointers would be extremely helpful.  Apologies if these questions have already been answered elsewhere - in which case please point me to the appropriate place.

I have many questions but I think I'll start with a few basics:

I have a 4 year old son and with XBMC he has his own log in which points to his media (movies and TV shows) which are stored in separate folders from my content on my Unraid server.  For obvious reasons I do not want him to have access to my media.  What is the best way to accomplish this separation?  From what I have read, the 'users' feature appears to quite new and is perhaps not yet fully realised, then there are zones, separate libraries and probably other features I haven't even spotted yet.  So how does everyone separate their media and keep inappropriate content safely away from young eyes?

At this stage I have only uploaded my music and movie collections.  My music has been carefully tagged and I am very happy with the way that MC has handled it.  With my movie collection, I notice that many titles have been classified as 'shows' which i guess means TV shows?  Where is this info tagged and what is the simplest way of changing it so that all my movies show in the movie library?

Scraping... is it done automatically? I think the answer is, yes, if you tell MC to do so.  What does MC do with the cover and fanart that it scrapes?  Is there an option to save it to the folder containing the media file as there is in XBMC?  If so, could someone kindly tell me how to do this.

I have a large collection of music videos, concerts, etc which I want to categorise separately from my movies.  Again, what's the best way to accomplish this?  I want to be able to use MC with the 10' user interface.  Is it possible to create a separate category called 'Concerts' or 'Music Videos' which shows in addition to music, movies, etc through which i can access this content?

Apologies for such a long post.  I will continue to research but would greatly appreciate any expert advice from people in the know.

Many thanks in advance.

[Arindelle]

Hi and welcome 

At this stage I have only uploaded my music and movie collections.  My music has been carefully tagged and I am very happy with the way that MC has handled it.  With my movie collection, I notice that many titles have been classified as 'shows' which i guess means TV shows?  Where is this info tagged and what is the simplest way of changing it so that all my movies show in the movie library?

First select your video file and either rightclick=>Tag or Alt+Enter and the tag window will open (you can re-size this or use the "^" to let you see more info) -- there is a small icon in the upper left hand corner of the box which allows you to choose how many tag "fields" are viewed. Most of the time I use show tags with values with an "also show" of certain fields.  You will want to play around with this to your liking (your choices will be "remembered"). 

Staying simple using the default fields, what I do is just fill in the "Media Sub Type" tag which you can then use when you create your "Views". Mine are quite simple Movies, TV Shows, Music Videos, Concert Videos, and I even have guitar lessons separated. There are other ways to do bulk tagging by setting up a Pane View where Media Sub Type would appear in a column. Then you can select multiple files click the SubType (if it exists or simply click new Media Sub Type). You will be "asked" if you want to enable pane tagging. This is very handy, especially when first importing a large collection.

As you have already found out there are a lot of different ways you can configure libraries and database fields ... tags are stored in the MC library database and can be written to the file (when possible depending on format). I personally recommend doing this with all important tags ... the option for this is found Options=>Manage Library Fields where you would then choose a tag field and check the box Save in File Tags when possible. That way just in case you screw up your library file (and backup ) you can simply rewrite these tags back to the library from the file.

Is there an option to save it to the folder containing the media file as there is in XBMC?

Yes. Options=>File Location=>Cover Art

I have a large collection of music videos, concerts, etc which I want to categorise separately from my movies.  Again, what's the best way to accomplish this?  I want to be able to use MC with the 10' user interface.  Is it possible to create a separate category called 'Concerts' or 'Music Videos' which shows in addition to music, movies, etc through which i can access this content?

I would separate this out in a View. You can simply exclude or include the subtypes by setting up a rule in the settings box (click the three "...").  You can further subdivide this by any criteria you would like .... genres, media formats, moods whatever. You can create a real taxonomy.

Just a note on multiple libraries .. Yes I can see having multiple libraries for certain setups - like different machines running separate server installs, or separate physical storage. Other than the, I think confusing, "Main Library" which will be created on every local install -- IMHO, for most people one should be loading only 1 Media library and let the database of MC take care of everything. I have never used the "user" functions, but if I understand it correctly, you should be able to tag your son's media using only one library. For most people I see no reason to create a separate library for Video, Audio, and Images etc. and can complicate things later especially with the powerful Zone options available.

Hope this starts you in the right direction (you'll probably change your mind a lot at first so a big recommendation -- BACKUP manually your library often when you are learning or doing a lot of custom views and smartlists.

[redchris70]

Hi Arindelle.  Thanks a lot for your informative reply.  I will test out your suggestions later.
Does MC scrape fanart as well as cover art and if so, is it treated in the same way as cover art - ie saved in the file location using the options>file location>cover art setting?
Once I have tagged my music video and concert files correctly and separated them using the view process you describe, can I create 'headings' within theatre view through which I can access this separated content?
One last question: I mistakenly checked the box to import extra files with my music collection so now i have all album and artist art appearing as images which i don't want.  Can I easily just delete my library and start again?  If so, is there anything I need to be mindful of?

[JimH]

You can clear your library (under File/Library Manager).  Or you could "soft" delete the files.  Search for a directory or something else unique, then select a file or two and press the del key, reading carefully.  Check your work.

[redchris70]

You can clear your library (under File/Library Manager).  Or you could "soft" delete the files.  Search for a directory or something else unique, then select a file or two and press the del key, reading carefully.  Check your work.

Thanks JimH.  How does a soft delete differ from a delete?

[JimH]

It leaves the file on your disk.  Read carefully when you do it.

[redchris70]

Ok. So a regular delete removes the file from where it resides, not just the entry from the MC database?

[JimH]

Please read the instructions on the screen when you press delete.  Use a test file or two if you're unsure.

[redchris70]

Got it JimH.  I have to say, just messing around with the basics, that this is some astonishing software!  And to think I struggled to configure XBMC and in the end had to settle for something that was a big compromise compared with how I wanted the finished MC to look and feel.

There'll be many more questions I'm sure, but for now I'm going to continue to whip my movie and music video collection into shape 

Thanks to all who have assisted me so far.

[redchris70]

Bear with me here - I'm coming at this from scratch!  So I've cleaned up my video files to an extent and have tagged all my music videos as such in the media sub type field. Trouble is, I can't find them anywhere now!  What am I doing wrong? Where do i find them?

[csimon]

Once I have tagged my music video and concert files correctly and separated them using the view process you describe, can I create 'headings' within theatre view through which I can access this separated content?

Yes. Theater View has its own set of, erm, views which you can set up via Options/Theater View. This is one crucial aspect to understanding how MC works and trips up a lot of people. The views/categories/browsing structure is completely flexible and user-definable however there are three independent sets of views depending on what interface you are are using:

1. Standard View, i.e. the "normal" desktop interface
2. Theater View, i.e. the 10' interface
3. DLNA, for UPnP/DLNA controllers and players

The easiest thing to do probably is to set up your views first in Standard View and get them working then in the Theater View settings you can copy them across from Standard View rather than setting them up again from scratch. It's important to remember that there is no automatic "sync" between them and you can't copy in the other direction.

[csimon]

Bear with me here - I'm coming at this from scratch!  So I've cleaned up my video files to an extent and have tagged all my music videos as such in the media sub type field. Trouble is, I can't find them anywhere now!  What am I doing wrong? Where do i find them?

Are you looking for them in Standard View, maybe under the Video category?  If so, check that you haven't accidentally cleared the Media Type tag in the files. Or maybe all the views that are currently there filter by Media Sub Type and there isn't one there yet for Music Videos. There should be a default view called Files which will ignore any tags and simply list all the files in the library, you should be able to find them there.

[redchris70]

Are you looking for them in Standard View, maybe under the Video category?  If so, check that you haven't accidentally cleared the Media Type tag in the files. Or maybe all the views that are currently there filter by Media Sub Type and there isn't one there yet for Music Videos. There should be a default view called Files which will ignore any tags and simply list all the files in the library, you should be able to find them there.

Yes, I'm looking in standard view under videos and they're not there.  When I look at the files in the file tree the media type is set to video and the sub type to music video.  I don't dully understand your second point about a missing music videos sub type filter.

[csimon]

If all the views under Video have a filter on the Media Sub Type then unless there is one already there for Music Videos your videos with that tag are not going to appear. It's a shot int he dark becuase I can't imagine that the default views would be set up like that, but it's worth checking. If your music videos are not appearing in any of the views under Video then they must be being excluded somehow. You can try creating a new view under Video that selects Media Sub Type of Music Video.

[redchris70]

If all the views under Video have a filter on the Media Sub Type then unless there is one already there for Music Videos your videos with that tag are not going to appear. It's a shot int he dark becuase I can't imagine that the default views would be set up like that, but it's worth checking. If your music videos are not appearing in any of the views under Video then they must be being excluded somehow. You can try creating a new view under Video that selects Media Sub Type of Music Video.

Thanks for your help csimon.  I'm too tired to get my head around it now but will have a go tomorrow.  Cheers!

[csimon]

Correction to my earlier post!  There are actually four independent sets of views:

1. Standard View, i.e. the "normal" desktop interface
2. Theater View, i.e. the 10' interface
3. DLNA, for UPnP/DLNA controllers and players
4. Gizmo, for remote apps that use the web services protocol, such as Gizmo on Android, WebGizmo for browsers, and JRemote for iOS.

[redchris70]

Correction to my earlier post!  There are actually four independent sets of views:

1. Standard View, i.e. the "normal" desktop interface
2. Theater View, i.e. the 10' interface
3. DLNA, for UPnP/DLNA controllers and players
4. Gizmo, for remote apps that use the web services protocol, such as Gizmo on Android, WebGizmo for browsers, and JRemote for iOS.

Thanks.  I've been having a play during lunch at work, just trying to get my head around setting different views in the standard view and then trying to translate them into what i will see in theatre view.  I intend to only use the standard view for the back end stuff and use theatre view for actual accessing of my media.  I will attempt to figure out why my music videos labelled as such are not displaying when i get home later.

I really am staggered at the power and wide range of options available.  I've just successfully converted some audio files, the scrapers work unbelievably well compared with XBMC scrapers....  Hats off to the developers!

[redchris70]

If all the views under Video have a filter on the Media Sub Type then unless there is one already there for Music Videos your videos with that tag are not going to appear. It's a shot int he dark becuase I can't imagine that the default views would be set up like that, but it's worth checking. If your music videos are not appearing in any of the views under Video then they must be being excluded somehow. You can try creating a new view under Video that selects Media Sub Type of Music Video.

So I've done a little more fiddling and am generally trying to get my head around how it all works.  My music videos have their tags set as media type =video, media sub type = music video and my music videos are not displayed by default in the tree view of the standard view (I can see videos>files>home videos>Movies>Shows>Connected Media).  So I have created a new library view under videos and selected media sub type from the category choice. This enables me to see my music videos, but I also see all of the other media sub types displayed.  Is it possible to create a sub folder containing just music videos under my video folder?

Perhaps I don't even need to accomplish this.  What I am ultimately trying to do is configure my set up so that I open theatre view and see a selection of sub headings under the video label which includes music videos in addition to movies, shows, hulu, etc.  At the moment I am having difficulty trying to figure out how I translate changes made in the standard view into things I can see in the theatre view (if that makes sense!).

Just to add: drmimosa states in the up and running thread that "Custom views can be exported to Gizmo, WebGizmo, and Theater View using the Add/Root Library Item function under Media Network and Theater View options". This sounds like what I'm after but I can't see where the theate view options are.

Thanks

[Arindelle]

Hold out just a bit longer for theater view ... I think it best you understand Views in Standard first ...

If I am following you,  you want to make a view that only include Music Videos (tagged as media subtype) ... , which would be directly visible in your Tree View (and later in Theater View)

It sounds like you have not established a rule or this would be easy. Open up your new  view right click on it and choose customize; in setting click on the white box with the three dots "..." Set Rules for file display

In the left drop down box choose media sub-type and in the right click only the Music Video check box. Apply and click ok.

This should give you basically what you want.  If you want to drill down to artists or video names or dates or whatever, list them here and I will do it for you and you can import it.  Might be better if you see one completed, you would better understand ... This would take me less time than writing a how-to here, btw

[redchris70]

Hold out just a bit longer for theater view ... I think it best you understand Views in Standard first ...

If I am following you,  you want to make a view that only include Music Videos (tagged as media subtype) ... , which would be directly visible in your Tree View (and later in Theater View)

It sounds like you have not established a rule or this would be easy. Open up your new  view right click on it and choose customize; in setting click on the white box with the three dots "..." Set Rules for file display

In the left drop down box choose media sub-type and in the right click only the Music Video check box. Apply and click ok.

This should give you basically what you want.  If you want to drill down to artists or video names or dates or whatever, list them here and I will do it for you and you can import it.  Might be better if you see one completed, you would better understand ... This would take me less time than writing a how-to here, btw

Thanks. Yes, you've managed to understand what I was poorly trying to explain!  I had no idea about 'rules'!  I'll play with that and see if I can achieve what I want.

So, I got myself in a bit of a mess last night when I was messing around so I cleared my library and am now re-importing everything one media type at a time.  Now I see that only 2 of approx 50 music videos I had previously tagged as such are displaying as music videos in the sub media field.  And yes, I checked the box to make sure that the option to write to the tag was checked, so what gives?!  Ah, the trials of understanding new software! I'll try again, but if anyone can think of a reason why all my media sub types have reverted to movie please let me know.

[Arindelle]

Now I see that only 2 of approx 50 music videos I had previously tagged as such are displaying as music videos in the sub media field.  And yes, I checked the box to make sure that the option to write to the tag was checked, so what gives?!  Ah, the trials of understanding new software! I'll try again, but if anyone can think of a reason why all my media sub types have reverted to movie please let me know.

If you are tagging directly on your main "server" PC, can't think of one ... if you are tagging through a client or networked NAS there might be reasons. I don't know your setup.

Regardless, make sure all the fields you want to write to the files are  checked before doing it again. Then backup your library when you are done!

Don't recommend you wasting your time importing these types individually though. Just select all the files and bulk edit them (just only change the media sub type tag of course). I would recommend checking your auto import configuration and turning it off from running in the background (Options=>Library and Folders) until you are sure this issue is cleared up. For info, I never keep autoimport as a background function, I always manually run it

[redchris70]

If you are tagging directly on your main "server" PC, can't think of one ... if you are tagging through a client or networked NAS there might be reasons. I don't know your setup.

Regardless, make sure all the fields you want to write to the files are  checked before doing it again. Then backup your library when you are done!

Don't recommend you wasting your time importing these types individually though. Just select all the files and bulk edit them (just only change the media sub type tag of course). I would recommend checking your auto import configuration and turning it off from running in the background (Options=>Library and Folders) until you are sure this issue is cleared up. For info, I never keep autoimport as a background function, I always manually run it

My server is an Unraid server, so yes, I'm tagging through a client.  I'll try again and see how I get on.  As with all these things, it's down to user error!  Thanks again for your help - it is really appreciated - as is everybody's.

[Arindelle]

My server is an Unraid server, so yes, I'm tagging through a client.  I'll try again and see how I get on.  As with all these things, it's down to user error!  Thanks again for your help - it is really appreciated - as is everybody's.

Aha !! Could change somethings. If you are tagging from a client, this is something that happened to me a lot before I understood how this worked!!

==> Please force the sync every ten minutes or so at first to be sure (there is a lag depending on network speed and other variables)

Go File=>Library=>Sync Changes with Library Server.

Under options, normally autosync with server is checked (Options=>MediaNetwork=>Client Options). When I am spending a long time tagging an opera for example I actually uncheck this temporarily and manually sync; when I'm done I check the box back) Remember a sync goes both ways

[redchris70]

Aha !! Could change somethings. If you are tagging from a client, this is something that happened to me a lot before I understood how this worked!!

==> Please force the sync every ten minutes or so at first to be sure (there is a lag depending on network speed and other variables)

Go File=>Library=>Sync Changes with Library Server.

Under options, normally autosync with server is checked (Options=>MediaNetwork=>Client Options). When I am spending a long time tagging an opera for example I actually uncheck this temporarily and manually sync; when I'm done I check the box back) Remember a sync goes both ways

Fantastic - could save me a lot (more) headaches.  I thought it odd as it's been inconsistent - most of the tagging I've done thus far with MC has saved correctly, but some hasn't.

[redchris70]

Aha !! Could change somethings. If you are tagging from a client, this is something that happened to me a lot before I understood how this worked!!

==> Please force the sync every ten minutes or so at first to be sure (there is a lag depending on network speed and other variables)

Go File=>Library=>Sync Changes with Library Server.

Under options, normally autosync with server is checked (Options=>MediaNetwork=>Client Options). When I am spending a long time tagging an opera for example I actually uncheck this temporarily and manually sync; when I'm done I check the box back) Remember a sync goes both ways

Ok, so I'm really starting to feel inept now! I go File=>library=>Sync Library (this is what shows on MC19) and it brings up the sync library dialogue box. Under file locations it shows the default windows locations for music, pictures, movies, rather than the mapped drives I've imported from.  Should I be changing the file paths here to my mapped drives?

[Arindelle]

Ok, so I'm really starting to feel inept now! I go File=>library=>Sync Library (this is what shows on MC19) and it brings up the sync library dialogue box.

No you are not inept! If you are seeing that box you are not tagging from a client you are tagging from a jriver server. A little semantic confusion, sorry.  I thought you meant that you had an HTPC running jrviver mediaserver  but you were tagging from a client PC to the main library -- in other words two separate installs of jriver on two PCs networked. Your NAS is just a file server, not THE media server. I know that's pretty confusing. I should have been more precise and not assume so much.

Under file locations it shows the default windows locations for music, pictures, movies, rather than the mapped drives I've imported from.  Should I be changing the file paths here to my mapped drives?

That's normal don't worry about it. DO NOT remap your drives.

Sorry about scaring you like that

[redchris70]

No you are not inept! If you are seeing that box you are not tagging from a client you are tagging from a jriver server. A little semantic confusion, sorry.  I thought you meant that you had an HTPC running jrviver mediaserver  but you were tagging from a client PC to the main library -- in other words two separate installs of jriver on two PCs networked. Your NAS is just a file server, not THE media server. I know that's pretty confusing. I should have been more precise and not assume so much.
 That's normal don't worry about it. DO NOT remap your drives.

Sorry about scaring you like that

All makes sense now!  Successfully used the rules function to create a separate music video folder too.  

Now to figure out that theatre view....

Thanks Arindelle  

[redchris70]

I've still got this strange situation going on where some but not all metadata is being saved in each file.  I don't think it's a permissions issue because some info seems to be successfully tagged and my set up is the exact same on I've been running XBMC on for years and I've never had an issue saving metadata using XBMC before. 

I'm only checking the tags from within MC.  I would like to verifying the info using a third party tool.  I use Tagscanner for audio files and used to use Ember for video but that doesn't work any more.  Can anyone recommend a tool for viewing metadata of video files?