another way (non dvd profiler) to view offline media?

[zeltak]

Hi guys!

I was wondering if anyone knew of a way to show my offline dvd's (not on hard drive) show up in the video library? i donw want to use dvd profiler (no support for tv shows) becasue it dosent really work (ive tried alot with the sagemc dvd profiler importer. has anyone heard of a way to do this?

best wishes

Zeltak

[banmj]

I have a small mpeg file that has a recording of my kids saying to put in the DVD. I created a folder called DVD. I rename the mpeg to the name of the DVD.
I use SageMC IMDB search to get the movie info and jpeg file. I added the DVD folder to the imported videos. When I am browsing through the videos and choose an offline DVD, the 10 second mpeg plays telling me to put in the DVD.

[zeltak]

Hi

after thinking a few days about it i think i will do what you said and use mpg files as a "avatar" for mt offline dvds. one think though, i have 1000 movies. its to painful to manually edit the mpg file one by one with the movie name. i can however produce (through the use of my dvd collection manager-xmm) produce a txt file with the movie name as file name for each movie. does anyone know of a way to automate a filename transfer from a txt file to mpg file? for example i have satrwars.txt file and a 1.mpg file. i would like to transfer the filename so it would give me starwars.mpg. i would like to do it for all movies

thx alot in advance

Zeltak

[vuego]

Great idea

I've made a simple VBScript that creates the folder structure from a text file or database source, and then copies a dummy video file into every folder and optional cover art renamed to folder.jpg. This way I made my offline DVDs and media browsable in Sage without the use of any STV.

I'll attach the script if anyone is interested.
To get the associated cover file I use MeD's Movie Manager http://xmm.sourceforge.net/. Very small and simple program. It won't even have to be installed. Just download, unzip and execute.

This is the procedure:
1. Create a new folder in one of Sage's Media Center Import Directories.
2. Create a source file for the script - either a text file containing all folders to be made or/and an MS Access database file using MeD's Movie Manager.
3. Optional - include a csv file which the script will use to name the dummy video file.
4. Run script.

I'll explain every step in more detail below.

1. Create a new folder
To not mess with my other imported video files create a folder called Offline in a Media Center Import Directory. Copy the VBScript and the mpg file to this folder. The attached mpg file is the smallest possible I could create with Nero Vision Express but any mpg or avi file will do. If you want to use another video file as dummy, simply put it in this new folder together with the script file. Be sure to name it .mpg or .avi. The script will use the last one it finds in its own folder.

2. Create a source file
Option A. The script will read a csv (comma separated values) file and create folders from that list. Backslashes are supported to create subfolders. This list can be created in Notepad. Give the file any name and put it in the same directory as the script file but be sure to use .csv extension. Since this is a comma separated value file beware of commas (,) and double quotes ("). If you have MS Excel or OpenOffice Calc, you can created a real csv file by putting the movie title list in column A and then save as Text CSV (.csv). This way commas and double quotes can be used and a correctly formatted csv file will be created.

Two examples of valid csv files:

Return of the Killer Tomatoes!
South Park\4. Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride
20000 Leagues Under the Sea

"Return of the “Killer” Tomatoes!"
"South Park\4. Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride"
"20,000 Leagues Under the Sea"

Option B.
The script will read a .mdb file created by MeD's Movie Manager and create folders from it. This gives the advantage that it will also use the cover art, downloaded by MeD, to place in the respective folder named folder.jpg.

To create the database follow these steps:
1. Unzip and run MeD's Movie Manager.
2. Create a new database (File/New Database). Choose the MS Access Database tab and browse to the folder where the script file is and create the database here.
3. Import the movie list (File/Import). Select Enable IMDB info and use any of MeD's import options (Textfile, Excel Spreadsheet or Extreme Movie Manager database). Alternately add your movies one by one if that makes you feel better.

If both option A and B is used the script will use both to create the folders.

3. Optional - name the dummy
The name of the dummy video file will be visible in Sage. I used this to display the location of the offline media for easy retrieval. For example Return of the Killer Tomatoes is my DVD #111. If I rename the dummy video file I'll get the following result in Sage when viewing details: Offline\Return of the Killer Tomatoes\Disc #111.mpg.
For the script to know which dummy file to rename include a second column in the csv file used in step 2. Using either option A or B in step 2, the script will name the respective dummy file after the csv file. Give the file any name and put it in the same directory (already there if using Option A in step 2) as the script file but be sure to use .csv extension.

A valid csv file with dummy video file name added:

"Return of the Killer Tomatoes!","Disc #111"
"South Park\4. Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride","CD7"
"20,000 Leagues Under the Sea","Frank borrowed this one"

4. Run script
Execute SageOfflineFolderStructure.vbs. The script will look for a .csv and/or .mdb file and a .mpg or .avi file in its own folder. It will display which files it will use and you get the option to abort here. Hit OK and the script will start creating folders in the current directory.

The second time the script is run it will leave folders that already exists alone. If you wish to update a folder it will have to be deleted before running the script.

When done the following files may be removed:
.csv file
.mdb file, Covers and Queries folders
NVEExport.mpg
SageOfflineFolderStructure.vbs


The result of all this can be seen here:

Enjoy!

Edit:
v0.2
Fixed a problem where the script would crash on empty lines in the csv file
Fixed crash on single quotes in movie titles
Fixed crash on titles ending with period(s)

[vuego]

OK looks like the script wasn't perfect <g>

Turns out that Windows lets you name a file or folder with a dot at the end but will silently rename it. This caused the script to try to copy the cover and dummy video to a folder that don't exist.

Anyway, that and more is now fixed.