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[DanielBMe]

I noticed a bunch of movies in my library that are pointing to a mapped drive rather than a url to my NAS.  I tried using the Rename, Move and Copy option but I get <file not supported> where it should indicate the new path.

The current path is
s:\TV Shows\The Walking Dead\Season 4\WALKING_DEAD_S4_D1\BDMV\PLAYLIST\00000.mpls

I simply want to rename s:\ with \\tower\disk5\

Any suggestions.

[marko]

Did you try the "find and replace" options in the rename, move and copy tool?

You would deselect the filename and path options, and only use the find/replace.

Personally, I would do this in the tag window, editing the Filename (Path) field using:

Code: [Select]

=replace([Filename (Path)],s:\, \\tower\disk5\)
It's case sensitive, so s:\ and S:\ are not the same.

Do one, if it's good, go wholesale on the lot in one go. The field in the tag window would state [Varies], you would click to edit that, paste the string above in there and press enter.

[DanielBMe]

Both your options don't work.  I did try the Find and Replace in the Rename, Move and Copy tool.  I made sure all the path names and cases were exact.  It just doesn't seem to work for this folder or file type.  I tried the same operation on a blu ray import on the same network drive and it worked fine.  These ones I'm trying to do were from creating particles from a blu ray, although I don't see why that should matter when renaming a path.

WHen I tried your =replace([Filename (Path)],s:\, \\tower\disk5\), it seems to work but then seems to want to move the files.  It prompts me to either move or skip, if I select skip it says it can't update the tag for the file.

[DanielBMe]

Odd, I decided to try it on my laptop where I had imported a backup of my library.  Your expression for the filepath worked without trying to copy or move the files.  Not sure why it does it on my HTPC.  IS there a setting somewhere that would cause that?

[marko]

OK, last thoughts on this as my experience with unc paths isn't the most extensive....

I think that you need to break the connection to the files first. If MC can resolve the path to the file, it will always attempt a move if you use it to change the path to that file.

Do the "s:\" paths point to the same files as the "\\tower\" paths? That would scare me if they both existed in MC.

The quickest way to break the internal paths MC has that I can think of would be to disconnect the network drive, s:\ (you shouldn't need to, but to be sure you're iin control, it might be an idea to turn off auto import while you do this to make sure MC doesn't clear the dead links from the library automatically.)

When MC can't resolve the file name, any find/replace will be actioned as per the instructions you give MC, and should work to reconnect the files in MC via the \\tower\ path.

[glynor]

If MC can resolve the path to the file, it will always attempt a move if you use it to change the path to that file.

Not in Update Database Only mode.

For the record, I think the issue here is that he's trying to move "raw" Blu-Ray rips, which are treated specially, because the entire set of files and folders is the "thing" (not individual files).

I think that's the cause of the "file not supported" error.

But, I don't rip movies that way, and I don't have any to test with, so I can't say for sure.

[DanielBMe]

I'm not trying to move anything, just to be clear.  Just change the path.  I was able to make the change by going into Tag, Filename (Path) and just typing in the new path.  That worked.  I still couldn't use the Rename, Copy, Move though.  It does work with every other file and path except for this one for some odd reason.  Even disconnecting the mapped drive didn't help.

[blgentry]

Aren't drive letters considered less problematic than UNC paths in the JRiver Windows OS world?

Perhaps a better question is:  Why do you want to change to UNC paths instead of drive letter S:?  If it works...

Brian.

[glynor]

Aren't drive letters considered less problematic than UNC paths in the JRiver Windows OS world?

They should not be. They are generally treated equally everywhere.

As I said above, I think this is because that particular file is a mpls file on a BluRay. The UNC path is irrelevant. If I'm right, you can't move those from C: to E: either.

Because MPLS isn't a "file" it is a "playlist", like CUE or IFO.  Without the associated VOB files, or whatever they're called on BluRay, the MPLS is useless.  If you move it, it'll break, unless you move the entire folder with it.

[glynor]

You can probably move these manually via Drives & Devices, by the way.

[marko]

"Update database mode" DOH!

Thanks glynor

[DanielBMe]

I find UNC paths far better to work with.  If I have to reinstall the OS on my HTPC or laptop, it's far easier to just restore the MC library and not having to worry about remapping all my network drives and getting them all right.

When I rip my blu rays I usually use ClownBD to rip out the main movie and HD Audio.  Problem is ClownBD only seems to work with mapped network drives and not UNC paths.  So I mapped a drive for that reason.  In this case I just copied the full blu ray to my NAS, used MC to create particles for each episode.  I then accidentally imported into MC using the mapped drive. 

Anyhow it's all fixed up now.

Thanks for the help!

[glynor]

If you're ripping out the main movie anyway, then why not just rip to MKV directly with MakeMKV?

MakeMKV, to be clear, does not recompress the video. It extracts full-quality, non-transcoded, video and it can easily extract individual titles (doing the same "auto-select the main movie" thing). But, rather than re-authoring the BD like Clown, it puts it in a nice, single-file, compatible format, which other applications can easily deal with, and which doesn't have all of the "link breaking" risks of a BDMV folder.

If you are going to burn them back onto discs and play them on a hardware player, then I can see re-authoring them (though I still wouldn't store them that way, I'd just re-author when needed).  But, most hardware players will take a USB device and can handle MKVs now, so... I'd just buy a better hardware player if needed for $75.

[DanielBMe]

I just recently came across MakeMKV so will probably start using that.  I already have hundreds of movies and TV's shows (almost 15TB worth) in full blu ray folder structure so don't think I'll start redoing them. 

[glynor]

Yep.  I understand.  FYI, though, if you do want to convert any of them, you don't need to re-rip from the original disc. MakeMKV can convert from your already-ripped folder structures just as easily.

[glynor]

I find UNC paths far better to work with.  If I have to reinstall the OS on my HTPC or laptop, it's far easier to just restore the MC library and not having to worry about remapping all my network drives and getting them all right.

By the way, I agree on this too. There is, however, one case where using a mapped network drive works nicely with MC, and is why I use M: on my home server instead of pointing it to UNC paths.

I have my main RAID (drive M: on the server) set to back up automatically to one of these things. So, that portable drive generally has a backup copy of my entire main Media Center media collection (less mostly kids shows that I don't care about to save space).

I take that drive with me when I travel, and plug it into my laptop and mount it as drive M (so it is both a "backup" and a "portable media drive").  But since it is still drive M, and my main Library has all of the files imported on the server's drive M, then I can just use my regular Library and access the files without any modifications to the Library or re-importing or anything.

My backup system makes a copy of the Library itself on the backup drive, so I can use that.  But, even better, because of the way the Play local files feature of MC works, I can also still access my "real" Library running on my server, but since all (or most) of the audio and video is on the backup disk, and accessible locally, it doesn't need to stream everything to my laptop, but can just play them.

If new stuff has been imported since the last backup, I can still get that too (those will stream).  But most stuff is there, and they work without all the transcoding and added network latency and all of that (pretty essential for video, if you're tethered to a cellular data plan or on cruddy hotel wifi or something).

It works awesome.

But, for all of my other Libraries that I use for work or whatever, I always import everything via UNC paths for the exact reason you stated.  Way easier for accessing from multiple machines, without doing a bunch of drive mapping nonsense (which you have to fix on perhaps multiple machines if you ever change anything).

In fact, I sometimes want to switch my main Home Library over to UNC paths, but that "portable drive" use-case is compelling enough that I've always ended up sticking with what I have.  I combat the inconvenience by ensuring that I use ONLY that M drive, and if I need more space, I expand the size of that volume (rather than using multiple volumes).

[Hendrik]

I use a mapped drive for the single reason that on the server itself I can access the media locally instead of having to loop through the network stack once. And the way my media system is setup, its only ever one media drive that needs mapping on all clients, so for me its not too bad, even if I have to change the mapping on 3 or so systems if i ever wanted to.

[blgentry]

UNC is less future proof in at least one way:  Changing or adding network servers.  If you change your server name, either because it dies, or you upgrade to something new, or simply migrate old files to a new server, UNC paths all need to be updated.  With a mapped drive, you just update the mapping on each client and it's done.

It's all a trade off.  I just have a bad taste for UNC because so many other things don't work properly with them.  If MC supports them perfectly, wonderful.  I just like to keep things somewhat standardized and not have to keep changing gears mentally:  UNC for this, drives for that, "oh wait, UNC doesn't work here..."; you get the idea.

Brian.

[glynor]

If you change your server name, either because it dies, or you upgrade to something new, or simply migrate old files to a new server, UNC paths all need to be updated.

Why would you ever change the server name for those reasons?

My server has been through probably 5 different hardware platforms in the past 12 years or so. The server's address, and share names, have never changed.

That's one of the benefits of UNC paths. Heck, you can even hide the servers behind load balancers and stuff. You can even change IPs if you map the hostnames properly with DNS or a hosts file.

[blgentry]

^ In the IT world, I've seen NAS servers come and go.  Migrations aren't always straight forward.  I suppose a home setup is far less demanding in terms of up time.  I suppose my thoughts here are probably misplaced.  Still, I retain that UNC is less supported and less flexible.  But that doesn't matter to anyone here but me, so I'll be quiet about it now. 

Now if I could only get some help on my various issues with MC on Mac....

Brian.

[glynor]

^ In the IT world, I've seen NAS servers come and go.  Migrations aren't always straight forward.

Sure. But I can't imagine why a hostname would stand in your way. Now, if you also re-organize file structures, then sure, but then your drive letter based paths would be broken too. Why wouldn't you just change the hostname? If you're using some kind of crazy device that won't even let you rename it?  I've dealt with some crappy NAS devices in my time, but I don't think I've ever seen that.

Anyway, I agree that UNC paths are not compatible with some applications, though in practice this doesn't impact me much (because I'd just browse for the files I need in Windows Explorer and open them from there).  I wasn't disputing that compatibility might be a valid reason, in certain circumstances... Just the idea that changing hardware would somehow irrevocably change the file path.

Now if I could only get some help on my various issues with MC on Mac....

I haven't seen a bunch of your posts there. Try bumping a thread or two, and making sure they're explained well.