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[felix2]

MC audio files presentation is pretty good. MC displays audio files grouped by Album automatically. I would tag audio files (99% are Flac format) with Album info and the rest is pretty automatic and accurate. Once grouped, I would mouse over an album and the various CDs that belong to it would have their cover art shown in turn. Very nice.

But I have great difficulty doing same for video files. MC18's method of tagging video files is too complicated I suggest a rethink of its design.

I have a large collection of video files - 90% of which in .mpg, .m2t formats, the rest are .mp4 & .flv. This video library is stored in a server PC network attacked to the PC running MC18 to play them. I understand you cannot embed tags into these video file formats, so MC creates a separate .xml file to hold tag info in the folder of that video file. I organize my video on the server using folders to act as album. Under MC18 I proceed to tag the files with Album info accordingly. Here are the problems:

1) Under Theater View>Shows, the video files (hundreds of them) are shown as one big list. They are not organized according to Album 'folders' according to the Album tags. This is disappointing and makes finding a video hard. Please develop the ability to show some kind of tree view under Theater View.

2) Under Theater View>Gadgets>Explorer, I would go to the video server and the videos are properly displayed according to the Windows file system folders I organize them. This is precisely what I want. EXCEPT, since MC18 creates a .xml file (holding tags info) for each video file, I now find a large number of .xml files also displayed, 'polluting' the whole Theater View experience. I have 500 video files and I now find 500 .xml files created inside my video server without my 'approval'! This is a mess.

I suggest MC develop the ability to allow the user to specify a single location/folder to hold all these .xml files for video.

3) MC creates a 'cover art' for video by snapping an image from the first few seconds of the video. While this is better than no image and is automatic, I would like to make my own cover art for video. And I would like MC to allow me to use them from a single folder when I store them.

4) Under Standard View>Shows, the video files 'cover art' images are shown in portrait format. Well, just about all video are in landscape format. This disconnect produces an awkward presentation, where the video art is 1/3 the size of the portrait image. Surely this can be fixed.

5) Under Standard View>Shows, videos can be shown organized according to Album tag. Except one cannot specify the Album name. This is ridiculous. Surely this can be fixed.

[syndromeofadown]

Just a quick response. Won't get to specific.

I assure you MC displays videos using albums just fine.
Though it may not happen in the default views. I don't know what the default views are.
You probably have to customize your views

Album isn't typical field for video. If you think about it it doesn't really make sense to even use it.
That said, I use album for all of my videos. I started using it to make videos compatible with album thumbnails in pane view
Even though i have moved on to categories as my preferred view for videos i still keep the field.

My album art shows up correctly. Try putting folder.jpg or a [filename (name].jpg in the same folder as the video.

There are many ways to enter the album info.
I use 'tag on import' but i used to use 'fill properties from filename'
I no longer manually enter it and instead calculate it from existing fields.

This is my latest expression to do so:

Code: [Select]

IfElse(IsEqual([Media Sub Type],Movie,8),If(IsEqual([Series],- No Series,8),,[Series] -/ )[Name]If(IsEqual([Installment],Disc,8),Replace(/ [Installment],/ Disc 1,),),IsEqual([Media Sub Type],Music,8),[Artist] - [Name]If(IsEqual([Installment],Disc,8),Replace(/ [Installment],/ Disc 1,),),IsEqual([Media Sub Type],TV Show,8),[Series] - [Season]If(IsEqual([Episode],Disc,8),/ [Episode],),IsEqual([Media Sub Type],Adult,8),[Name],IsEqual([Media Sub Type],Home Video,8),[Artist] - [Name],1,Something Went Wrong With Album)
It Basically does this:
* disc # only displays a value if its disc 2, disc 3, etc ("disc 1" won't be displayed)
* series only shows up if it has a value other than "- no series"

movie album = series - name disc #
tv album  = series - season disc #
music album = artist - name - disc #
home video album = artist - name


The expression is made to work on my library specifically, buts its a good example of what you can do.
Lots of smart people here that can help you out.

The xml files can easily be deleted and there is a setting to disable them.
just make sure its not the only thing holding your video metadata before you delete them.

[felix2]

Thanks syndromeofadown. I will learn the MC language and give your approach a try.

[syndromeofadown]

Expressions look confusing at first glance but its actually pretty easy stuff.
Just look under Media Center expression language on the wiki.
Its very well written and full of examples.

Typically long expressions are usually just a bunch of small things grouped together with a bunch of "ifs"

As an alternative the the long expression i posted i could do this:

1) Select all movies
2) choose tag and click in the album field
3) paste this without quotes "=[Series] - [Name]"

1) Select all TV Shows
2) choose tag and click in the album field
3) paste this without quotes "=[Series] - [Season]"

Etc

Instead i grouped them all together and said
if its a movie do this "= [Series] - [Name]", if its a TV show do this "= [Series] - [Season]", etc

So now i can select every video in my library
Choose tag, then album
Then paste one expression that will take care of everything.