Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[mfu]

Hi to all,
I am a new member here and also a brand new user of MC20, I am trying it out and will evaluate if its worth the $50.
For years now, I was using MovieCollectorz for managing movies/tv episodes, along with MPC-HC for playing them, and MediaMonkey for managing/playing my music.

I like the idea of one "does-it-all" program, but I already have 2 issues and wonders if they are deal breakers

1) I have over 200 tv series for about 3000 episodes in all. I have done a quick test run in a single series/season folder and noticed MC20 displaying the episodes only as 101, 102, 103 and so on. My folders structure goes like this: "TV Series/Blacklist, The/Season 1/101.mp4, 102.mp4, 103.mp4....."

I know there is a standard way to name tv episodes, but it would imply folder/file name redundancy, not to mention months of work for me to rename each of those 3000 tv episodes  to get to something like:  "TV Series/Blacklist, The/Season 1/The Blacklist s01e01.mp4, The Blacklist s01e02.mp4, The Blacklist s01e03.mp4....."

Any chance MC can work with folder names/structure for tagging purpose or is it limited to looking at file name?


2) I have a HTPC in the living room that I use mainly for listening/viewing, and wife and I each have our own pc's to access, add/remove, edit media 
Does the $50 fee covers my need for my 3 personal home pc, or is it $50 per computers?

    Thanks in advance for your input
MfU
 

[JimH]

You can use your license for all your PC's.  Mac and PC are separate licenses.

[astromo]

Regarding your 1st enquiry, I strongly recommend you spending some time acquainting yourself with the Wiki.

MC has something called "Carnac" (look for it on the Wiki) that will do its best to infer meta-data from an untagged file on import. If that doesn't work, you can do this manually via F12 (Fill Properties from Filename) and then you can manually set up an import template.

Personally, I name individual TV files with the following syntax:
    [Series] S[Season]E[Episode] [Name]
and Carnac works with that without drama and populates the meta-data tags without needing further manipulation.

So, at my place your files would be something like:
    The Blacklist S01E01 Pilot.mp4

Note that MC scrapes thetvdb.com when getting metadata for synopsis info and the rest, so [Season], [Series] and [Episode] need to match up if you want that level of sophistication in your library.

You may be a little lost by now. So, if that's the case, go to the Wiki and read up on:

• TV Shows - Series, Seasons & Episodes
• Library Tools
• Import
• Carnac
• Tags

If you still have difficulties after absorbing all that, then come back and seek further help.

[Arindelle]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I don't have anywhere near the TV shows you do, but I use Advanced Renamer freeware to do this. I never really learned the sotware, ijust used the New Name method described here in their user guide http://www.advancedrenamer.com/user_guide/method_newname

as long as you have the folder setup show/season it will auto increment each file for you. I haven't tried it on multiple seasons at once, just season by season, but it just might work to do all seasons of the same show in one go. Works pretty well with mkv files, so it should work with anything. And what is nice is that you can undo the renaming even if the program is closed -- first time I tried it I royally screwed up and the pc crashed It retained the last action.

Its a bit over kill, but the tagging is seamless afterwards and you can even have it add the name of the episode once its tagged if you are OCD

[BartMan01]

Any chance MC can work with folder names/structure for tagging purpose or is it limited to looking at file name?

It does look at both, and there is a 'fill properties from filename' that is useful when things don't go as expected.  There are also pretty powerful ways to automate fixing your tag values from other tags that might help here. For a couple of your shows can you post up the following:

• Full path and file name (you can remove the drive letter/server name if you want).
• 'Media Type' tag value.
• 'Media Sub Type' tag value.
• 'Series' tag value.
• 'Season' tag value.
• 'Episode' tag value.
• 'Name' tag value.

[user38]

It doesn't have to take months to rename the files.  I use a freeware program called Bulk Renaming Utility http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Main_Intro.php.  It will take you several hours to master, but if you persevere with it you can rename your 200 TV series in an afternoon.  I don't know anything about Advanced Renamer freeware but I imagine it does something similar.

[BartMan01]

It doesn't have to take months to rename the files.  I use a freeware program called Bulk Renaming Utility http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Main_Intro.php.  It will take you several hours to master, but if you persevere with it you can rename your 200 TV series in an afternoon.  I don't know anything about Advanced Renamer freeware but I imagine it does something similar.

But if the tags or the filenames/paths already have everything you need to do the renaming - it can be done directly in MC without having to learn/install/buy new software.

[MikeO]

If MC cannot decipher the name there is a magic little program called TheRenamer , http://www.therenamer.com/

It has a choice of 4 db (theTVDb being one of them) to lookup , basically if it can it looks up and allows you to rename files like much as astromo suggests Absolutely Fabulous.S01E01.Fasion (etc) . Its a simple drag & drop exercise. Not much I have found fools it but it needs series and episode no to work

I tend to prep my files on my working PC before I copy them to the main server so its a great help , it puts the name into a format that MC can work with .

Sometimes you may have to play around renaming files until it can find the match.

Mike

[astromo]

MikeO, I used to use TheRenamer until I figured out the power of MC for this kind of work.

Great to have options but even better when MC can deliver the solution.

Ultimately, what ever works for the individual is all good.