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[nihilobstat]

I use "Media Center Master" to tag my video files.

I always get them sorted, and with an automatically generated JRiver 'sidecar' file, as soon as I put them on the drive that JRiver searches.

However, I often find that JRiver will tag from the file tags (not easy to read or change), and download it's own information. I like to use the RottenTomatoes rating, which can be forced in MCM but not in JRiver.

I would like to be able to sort out the tags myself (with MCM) and just have JRiver read those straight in. Is this possible now, or can it be implemented in a future release?

Peter

[MrC]

In your Auto-Import configuration, disable look-up of external metadata by disabling Get movie & TV info.

[nihilobstat]

Thanks MrC.
That should stop looking JR looking up online.
Is there any setting to refer the library to the sidecar rather than the file's internal tags?
It seems to me that if there is a dodgy tag (like a pirate using his name in the name tag) JRiver will always find that instead of reading the sidecar

[MrC]

MC always uses its internal tags for use in views, etc.  External tags, whether they reside within the media file, or externally in a sidecar file for files that don't support tagging are written or read depending upon various MC settings, such as upon auto-import or when files change external to MC and MC notices time stamp differences), or manually when you run Library Tools > Update Library (from tags) or vice versa, Library Tools > Update Tags (from library).

MC doesn't use two sources for tags at the same time (i.e. within a file and within a sidecar), and the form of tagging is not user-configurable.

[nihilobstat]

MC always uses its internal tags for use in views, etc.

When you say 'internal tags', do you mean the JR library? If so, I understand that, but am having trouble working out where that library gets its information from.
I guess if I want to completely refresh the library I have to delete the path to my movie files, then reinstate it. Or else 'Update Library (from tags)' for all files, or the ones I want to change. Or wait for MC to notice the timestamp change.

Surely JR does use the sidecar files for tagging, if the relevant tags are not in the video file. I suspect the first port of call for information (if you have disabled 'Get Movie and TV info') are the file tags, and then the sidecar.
However video files are notoriously difficult to tag, especially formats such as Matroska, and editing incorrect tags can be very time-consuming.

OK, I accept that you cannot force MC to read the sidecar only. And from reading the forums, it seems some people see the sidecar as an ugly and inelegant method of tagging.
But this would be of benefit to people such as myself, who use an external app (from the ergonomic comfort of my computer desk) to tag files and create sidecars.
So just puttin' it out there that the option of using the sidecar exclusively would be useful for some punters.

[MrC]

The "Library" contains many things, including all the file properties (which you think of as Tags).

MC has internally configured for each file type where it will retrieve/store these properties (tags).  For most audio types, tag storage is intra-file.  For other types, tag storage is external (for file formats that don't support tags, or where it doesn't make sense to store tags, such as for very large video files where a change of a few bytes requires immediate or future re-rewriting of gigabytes of data).

There's no need to remove items from the library just to re-import them to get fresh tag data.  Use Update Library (from tags) if you want external updates.

MC will only notice time stamp changes for auto-import folders, and for file-server based storage, the server must correctly support this.

The statement "you cannot force MC to read the sidecar only" is not quite accurate.  If MC uses sidecars for that file type, it will *only* read/write the sidecar (and not intra-file tags - in other-words, its one or the other), and this happens as I mentioned above. 

[nihilobstat]

Nice link MrC. I've always found the Wiki a bit light on for information, but that section on metadata is quite comprehensive.

External tags, whether they reside within the media file, or externally in a sidecar file for files that don't support tagging ...

Can you tell me which video files do / don't support tagging?

thanks, Peter

[MrC]

Sorry, I don't know the list of video file types that support tagging.

[Hendrik]

At this point, no tags are being written into any video files - they are only read if present - and even those are rather limited. It should only read things like "Name" if available, nothing too fancy.
Files with tags primarily include MP4 and MKV, possibly AVI. I'm not certain right now which files have tags otherwise.

[nihilobstat]

OK, I've got what I wanted - a consistent rating system through all the video files.
I got Media Center Master to refetch all the movies, taking the score from Rotten Tomatoes if available, or manually entering the IMDB score if not.
Some confusion about the "Rating" tag and the "Critic Rating" tag. If I got a score from Rotten Tomatoes, that was recorded as a "Critic Rating", out of a maximum of 100. That score was then apparently recalculated to a "Rating" score, out of a maximum of 5. If there wasn't a Rotten Tomatoes score (quite common, if there are less than 5 reviews they can access) then there was no "Critic Rating" score, and the IMDB score (out of 10) was recorded as a "Rating" score (out of 5).
Got that?
Refreshed the MC Movie Library from tags.
Then added a menu item under Movies (theatre view) called "Rating" (using the "Rating" tag) which shows five groups with a Rating score of 1 to 5. And a few unassigned files where there was no rating on RT or IMDB.
All in all a lot of work, but then life is too short to watch s**t movies.