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[felix2]

I use Theater View Explorer to find and present files in my video library. [This way all video files are presented without the need to create tag files for them, thus avoid polluting my video library with tons of XML tag files.]

But there area few relatively minor problems:
1) As soon as Theater View Explorer finds a folder with files, it lists the files by filename. But many of the names are chopped off, usually at point containing characters such as ", -, (, [, and number. I use a year number to end most file names and they are always chopped off. More annoyingly, if I organize a series of video in a folder by episode, such as:

Olympics, Event A, Part 1, date 1
Olympics, Event A, Part 2, date 2
Olympics, Event B, Part 3, date 3

Theater View Explorer will present the folder files as:
Olympics, Event A
Olympics, Event A
Olympics, Event B

Chopping off the remainder of the file name making it a hassle to find the video without clicking each file to see the full name.

2) Navigating Back from various points in Theater View, it suddenly hops a few steps back to Home when a network drive is involved. One has to try it to appreciate this strange behavior. It's just a nuisance.

3) Finally (hope I am not complaining too much), Theater View Explorer is kinda slow especially when searching network drives. Maybe this is a Windows issue. It appears not dependent on how fast the hardware is. Likely just a lot of fancy software processing.

Theater View Explorer is the principal tool I use MC as my home theater video player. It can be improved but it is the best darn Theater screen in the world. Thanks you J River!!

[Arindelle]

1 -You might try scrolling to "More" and toggling the list style -- different views allow more characters to be visible -- certainly enough for your Olympics example. You could also resize theater view in options, but this might not be best if you are looking at your screen from far away

2) I can't reproduce this -- try to see if this disappears using the back button of the mouse ... maybe its your remote?

3) I actually find this very fast, if a cumbersome way to find things in a large library. I think its a little hardware dependant and certainly dependant on network speed. An media server running on an i5 compared to a NAS. Or hardwired 1Gb network compared to wifi.

I use Theater View Explorer to find and present files in my video library. [This way all video files are presented without the need to create tag files for them, thus avoid polluting my video library with tons of XML tag files.]

I'm not sure what you mean here. An xml file is going to take up a couple of kilobytes of disk space(most of mine are only 2 or 3). Not using metadata means you are missing out on most of what MC can do for you.

If the tags are set up correctly you never have to look at your files again. Of course if you like doing it this way and enjoy your collection great  But, you know a friend of mine set up jriver with about 10k cds and 3000 videos/clips and such. And he expanded his tree views (in standard view) and literally scrolls down to find his stuff in manually separated folders by letters of the alphabet. I finally convinced him that he is using JR (and his computer for that matter) like he uses pendaflex hanging folders to sort his bills and tax returns. He's retagged and simplified his hard drive directories and is now a happy camper.

Anyways, just something to consider 

[felix2]

Thanks Arindelle.

1) I toggled various list style and selected the one where files are listed by a full line. [With a tiny picture at the beginning, and I only wish I can make the icon size pictures bigger.] Anyway this is the style that is supposed to list the entire file name. But it doesn't. I'd say half of the names are chopped off in the manner described. This basic fault is very frustrating - it is after all a file explorer at work.

3) My Theater View Explorer finds video files via a gigabit LAN to a server using an i3@2.5GHz. It is a pure server with no apps. If I use Windows Explorer it finds the network files in about 10 sec first time. TV Explorer takes about 45-60 min. But this is not a show stopper. I just want to let off some steam.

Regarding using tags, I DO use tags for my entire music library. I standardize to FLAC format because it holds tags. MC take advantage of this and manage, organize and present my entire library and cover art with to my high satisfaction. The key tags used in audio is Album and Artist Name - enable the best organization.

But video is a different matter. There is no standardized way the many video file formats to use tag, many of the most important formats do not support tags. And MP4 tags are way too messy. So MC invents its own way to tag video. This proprietary method works, but it creates a tag file for each video file. Meaning the 1493 video files in my library, painstakingly organized by name and folders, suddenly find another 1493 tag files along side. And when I edit a video file and save it back with the same name, ANOTHER tag file is created. It's not the size of the tag file I am complaining about. I just don'[t like to see thousands of tag files that I can't control populating my library.

Now IF all video tag files can be directed to be stored in a single folder than that will be a lot better, enough for me to consider using video tags.

[connersw]

You can turn off the creation the XML Sidecar files:  Tools -> Options -> General -> Importing&Tagging -> Store tags in external sidecar (uncheck Video).  Your tag changes will still be saved in the MC library.  The Sidecar files are created to keep the tag changes with the files that don't support tags only if you were to move to another program, loose your Library, rebuild a new Library, etc.   

Doesn't solve your original problem, but just some insight into what MC is doing.  I agree that the XML files can be very distracting.  Saving them in a separate location causes a variety of other problems though (just one explanation:  http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=78349.0  Search and you'll probably find 10 other threads discussing it).  My proposal is to have an option to make them hidden system files so they don't make a visible mess, but that suggestion seems to have lost steam. 

As for your original problems, I cannot recreate #1.  There is a character limit, but it is plenty to display Olympics, Event A, Part 1, date 1.  It also does not terminate on special characters.  Did you use any funky ASCI codes for these characters?

For 2 and 3, I have similar issues when navigating with a remote.  Not so much with a mouse.  I've chalked it up to the IR receiver. 

[Arindelle]

Just one thing Felix

I just tested something. I used "explorer" via the Gadget menu; this really does behave like Windows Explorer and is as fast (actually faster on a remote client in my network). Were you using the "explorer" under Video or TV called "Disk" I think? I tried this and it does not work the same way and is slower over my network than the "different" explorer under Gadgets.

If this works for you, you can add it to your video menu and hide "Disk".

What CSimon recommends is fine too, but remember to backup your library often. Nothing will be written to disk, so you could not rebuild it from the video files without the sidecars from Library Tools. This might be of no concern to you as you are not using metadata to organize your Videos anyway.

[felix2]

Thank you all.

The Theater View Explorer I use is the one under Gadget. This is my entry to find, list and play my video library, which sits in a server with 4 big hard drives under Windows 7. On first exploration, navigating to find the first drive to list all files takes about 30-50 second. Using Windows Explorer, it find them just about immediately.

As to chopping off file names (under Theater View Explorer), do this quick test: End each file name with a date, such is 2014. The format may be:

filename 2014.mp4
filename, 2014.mp4
filename (2014).mp4
filename - [produced in 2014].mp4
filename - episode 1.mp4

In all cases, only the 'filename' is listed on one line, the section with number chopped off. Thus making various episodes of a series a hassle. Bad file explorer. My feeling is this is a 'feature' of the Windows programming tool used to develop Theater View, not JRiver programmer per se.