Utility: Batch Metadata Importer 3.x

[mkanet]

The problem is not just the import library only; as, I have also refreshed new media many times.

Under "Recorded TV"; with fanart selected to show on TV shows; the fanart background dont show up there as well. I have to select options under recorded TV (while highlighting a TV show) and select "Metadata Fanart", then select the fanfart for it that it files when looking it up. After doing that manually, if i hover over that TV show under "Recorded TV", the fanart is diplayed correctly for that TV show only. Maybe that clue might help you. I will get the maillog.log and sageTV._0.txt in a little bit if that clue still doesnt help..

Originally Posted by stuckless

the properties look ok... the server (sage.properties) does have the automatic plugin installed. So the test would be to add a new video file to the library, tell sage to "refresh" its library, and then check the logs (maillog.log, and maybe sagetv_0.txt)

[mkanet]

Okay, I enabled debug logging for both sageTV and BMI. I wasnt sure what I was supposed to do while logging was active so I did the following:

Rescanned import library (although, not sure how that would affect "Recorded TV" fanart). I went back to "Recorded TV" and started scrolling through the different recordings I had. The only fanart that displayed were the ones I had previously had manually selected "on demand" download to force a single download of a particular TV show's fanart and respective metadata.

Hopefully the logs will help you with whats wrong. There's nothing weird about my sageTV installation as far as I know. This is the first time a plugin just wouldnt work after following the instructions exactly.

Edit: I'm guessing that fanart for TV shows in the guide should automatically be downloaded too? The only time I see fanart are, again, when I have manually ahead of time done a forced On Demand download of that single TV show/movie. I am guessing for videos I already have in my collection, I need to do a refresh; and with Recorded TV and the Guide, they automatically get downloaded when you click on the movie/TV show. which isn't happening.

Edit: It looks like my imported videos are getting updated after a rescan of the Import folders. What throws me off is the "Recorded TV" section doesn't pull the fanart on demand automatically by clicking on the recorded TV show from the "Recorded TV" list. In the past, SageMC quietly/automatically downloaded TV show/movie cover art from IMDB.

Thanks...

[mkanet]

Just to be clear, I am getting metadata and DVD-cover for recognized movies when there's a Rescan of Import Folders under imported Videos. However, the fanart isn't downloaded unless I do a manual "Metadata/Fanart" selection by right-clicking the video. Automatic fanart download is broken for both imported videos and "Recorded TV".

When exactly is the TV show fanart supposed to be automatically downloaded under "Recorded TV"?

Attached, are debugfiles for when I simply started recording CSI Miami and going into "Recorded TV" section. Of course, still no fanart. Maybe this set of debug files might also help with finding out whats wrong with when TV Recordings needs to invoke the BMI plugin to download metadata/fanart.

Originally Posted by mkanet

Edit: I'm guessing that fanart for TV shows in the guide should automatically be downloaded too? The only time I see fanart are, again, when I have manually ahead of time done a forced On Demand download of that single TV show/movie. I am guessing for videos I already have in my collection, I need to do a refresh; and with Recorded TV and the Guide, they automatically get downloaded when you click on the movie/TV show. which isn't happening.

Edit: It looks like my imported videos are getting updated after a rescan of the Import folders. What throws me off is the "Recorded TV" section doesn't pull the fanart on demand automatically by clicking on the recorded TV show from the "Recorded TV" list. In the past, SageMC quietly/automatically downloaded TV show/movie cover art from IMDB.

Thanks...

[VikingCrown]

Stuckless,

Using 3.0 when i try nad get Metadata for DVD's, i do the search and the same 4 titles come up regardless of the DVD I di a search for.

For TV, it worked for the first title I did a search for, but each subsequent title is giving me the same 0 byte fanart.

[stuckless]

From you log, a tv show, out of time was "scanned" but nothing was found. It Think the issue is that the "tv" scanner is looking for mediafiles in the form, "SeriesName-EpisodeTitle-AiringId-#" and yours is missing the SeriesName.

Sun 6/14 23:26:44.776 BMT: BatchMetadataTools 2.3.1; Handling File: E:\TV Recordings\OutofTime-4437364-0.mpg; arg: 

Sun 6/14 23:26:44.826 BMT: Could not automatically update: file:/E:/TV%20Recordings/OutofTime-4437364-0.mpg

Sun 6/14 23:26:44.828 BMT: Failed to Fetch Metadata for Media: E:\TV Recordings\OutofTime-4437364-0.mpg

And to recap how/when the Automatic Plugin works....

1. Sage Records/Imports File
2. Sage Checks to see if there are any Metadata plugins installed, and if so, it calls it to get metadata for the imported/recorded item.
3. Since BMT is registered as a Metadata Plugin, bmt "attempts" to fetch metadata for a given item.
4. If metadata can't be fetched, then it returns nothing
5. If it fetches the metadata, then it will also fetch fanart and return a Map of metadata information to SageTV
6. SageTV updates the mediafile/airing/show objects related to the item.

So, the Automatic Plugin is invoked by SageTV. The Automatic Plugin will not download entries in the EPG automatically, since it is only "automatic" in the sense that it will automatically try to download metadata/fanart for media items as they are added to the library.

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by stuckless

And to recap how/when the Automatic Plugin works....

1. Sage Records/Imports File
2. Sage Checks to see if there are any Metadata plugins installed, and if so, it calls it to get metadata for the imported/recorded item.
3. Since BMT is registered as a Metadata Plugin, bmt "attempts" to fetch metadata for a given item.
4. If metadata can't be fetched, then it returns nothing
5. If it fetches the metadata, then it will also fetch fanart and return a Map of metadata information to SageTV
6. SageTV updates the mediafile/airing/show objects related to the item.

What would be awesome is if #4 (or any failure for that matter) be reported to the new system messaging system... then we would know when stuff isn't working and can go investigating )

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by razrsharpe

What would be awesome is if #4 (or any failure for that matter) be reported to the new system messaging system... then we would know when stuff isn't working and can go investigating )

It's funny you should mention that... in the 3.0 release there will an option to notify via the Sage message system for failed imports

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by VikingCrown

Stuckless,

Using 3.0 when i try nad get Metadata for DVD's, i do the search and the same 4 titles come up regardless of the DVD I di a search for.

For TV, it worked for the first title I did a search for, but each subsequent title is giving me the same 0 byte fanart.

DVD support is currently broken in the 3.0 beta. I'm going to try and get another beta build out tonight that fixes the dvd issues.

[TBacker]

Sorry if this has been brought up but my searches didn't turn up anything.

This works great with DVD folders, but I have a bunch of old movies saved as AVI's and MKV's. I've been placing them in a subfolder under movies named with the movie name, and made sure the actual file is named correctly. I just never have any success getting posters or fanart to work with these files. The vidcap thumbnails come up in iMovies, but no art, even if I edit the video details and download IMDB and Metadata/Fanart manually. I end up manually creating a folder.jpg image for the poster.

It also seems Sage thinks everything not in a VIDEO_TS folder is a TV show, and my gut tells me that's the problem.

What am I doing wrong?

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by stuckless

It's funny you should mention that... in the 3.0 release there will an option to notify via the Sage message system for failed imports

YAY!

Congrats btw, i haven't had a chance yet to try the 3.0 beta stuff but the web ui configuration looks awesome and intuitive

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by TBacker

Sorry if this has been brought up but my searches didn't turn up anything.

This works great with DVD folders, but I have a bunch of old movies saved as AVI's and MKV's. I've been placing them in a subfolder under movies named with the movie name, and made sure the actual file is named correctly. I just never have any success getting posters or fanart to work with these files. The vidcap thumbnails come up in iMovies, but no art, even if I edit the video details and download IMDB and Metadata/Fanart manually. I end up manually creating a folder.jpg image for the poster.

It also seems Sage thinks everything not in a VIDEO_TS folder is a TV show, and my gut tells me that's the problem.

What am I doing wrong?

While I have a many DVDs, the bulk of my videos are in avi and mkv format. Some are TV shows, and others are Movies. I have not experienced the issues that you are describing. Does iMovies support the new phoenix fanart layout?

[mkanet]

Thanks for the reply back Stuckess. So is BMI started when a TV recording starts or after the record is finished? I'm not sure at what point the TV recording gets added to the library; or if the TV recording is even added to the library or not if the TV recordings folder is not also a Video import folder.

My primary concern is this: How do I get the 500+ TV shows and TV movies that are in my TV Recordings folder update its metadata and fanart? When I try a refresh of imported videos, that doesnt do anything for my TV shows. Do I also need to add my TV recordings folder as an Imported Videos folder?

Also, as far as I know, almost all (if not all) people's sageTV TV recordings have the same file name convention. How did you even manage to get your recorded TV show filenames (recorded by sageTV) different than the rest of us? It appears pretty much nobody will be able to take advantage of the TV recordings being automatic file names for most of us are "FamilyGuy-PetersProgress-4423709-0.mpg". That file name format obviously doesnt work automatically; but for some mysterious way, it works perfectly when I do a manual right-click of the show under Recorded TV and select Metadata/Fanart... which then it finds the TV show name; and I have to manually select it every time.

Lastly, I just noticed that my Recorded TV folder now has a bunch of BMI files mixed in with the recording files (which is NOT where my Fanart is defined... its really a big mess with files like (FamilyGuy-NoMealsonWheels-4432622-0.mpg.properties, FamilyGuy-NoMealsonWheels-4432622-0_background.jpg, FamilyGuy-NoMealsonWheels-4432622-0_banner.jpg) mixed in my Recorded TV folder now; in addition to the Fanart folders also being updated. It seems when I manually select to force an On Demand fanart for a TV show, BMI puts backgrounds and banners in both my fanart folders AND TV Recordings folder. I just need the files saved neatly in where the Fanart folder is defined.

Originally Posted by stuckless

From you log, a tv show, out of time was "scanned" but nothing was found. It Think the issue is that the "tv" scanner is looking for mediafiles in the form, "SeriesName-EpisodeTitle-AiringId-#" and yours is missing the SeriesName.

Sun 6/14 23:26:44.776 BMT: BatchMetadataTools 2.3.1; Handling File: E:\TV Recordings\OutofTime-4437364-0.mpg; arg: 

Sun 6/14 23:26:44.826 BMT: Could not automatically update: file:/E:/TV%20Recordings/OutofTime-4437364-0.mpg

Sun 6/14 23:26:44.828 BMT: Failed to Fetch Metadata for Media: E:\TV Recordings\OutofTime-4437364-0.mpg

And to recap how/when the Automatic Plugin works....

1. Sage Records/Imports File
2. Sage Checks to see if there are any Metadata plugins installed, and if so, it calls it to get metadata for the imported/recorded item.
3. Since BMT is registered as a Metadata Plugin, bmt "attempts" to fetch metadata for a given item.
4. If metadata can't be fetched, then it returns nothing
5. If it fetches the metadata, then it will also fetch fanart and return a Map of metadata information to SageTV
6. SageTV updates the mediafile/airing/show objects related to the item.

So, the Automatic Plugin is invoked by SageTV. The Automatic Plugin will not download entries in the EPG automatically, since it is only "automatic" in the sense that it will automatically try to download metadata/fanart for media items as they are added to the library.

[TBacker]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Does iMovies support the new phoenix fanart layout?

Well, I have to double check on that, but it's working perfectly for any movie folder that has a VIDEO_TS folder in it (direct DVD rip).

I'm running a client / server system with one PC client and one HD200. I have BMT installed on the server and my one PC client. The STVi's are installed on everything.

The server, PC client, and extender are all pointing to the fanart folder (which is on the server) with a UNC path, using the IP address rather than server name / DNS lookup.

I'm working on a bunch of stuff, so I have to start taking notes when I run into this, but there have also been times when a background folder gets created and filled, but no poster folder. Sage loves to use the vidcap thumbnails even after IMDB lookups & saves, so I end up having to manually go to the IMDB site, look at the page source, and manually scrape a poster image.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by mkanet

My primary concern is this: How do I get the 500+ TV shows and TV movies that are in my TV Recordings folder update its metadata and fanart? When I try a refresh of imported videos, that doesnt do anything for my TV shows. Do I also need to add my TV recordings folder as an Imported Videos folder?

Most people just use the reindex option in the sage.properties... and in 6.5.17, I think that you can "force" a full reindex from the default stv ui rescan media options screen.

Also, as far as I know, almost all (if not all) people's sageTV TV recordings have the same file name convention. How did you even manage to get your recorded TV show filenames (recorded by sageTV) different than the rest of us? It appears pretty much nobody will be able to take advantage of the TV recordings being automatic file names for most of us are "FamilyGuy-PetersProgress-4423709-0.mpg". [U]That file name format obviously doesnt work automatically;

SeriesName-EpisodeTitle-AiringId-# is the format that I support. And it does work.

but for some mysterious way, it works perfectly when I do a manual right-click of the show under Recorded TV and select Metadata/Fanart...

While it may be mysterious to you... it's not mysterious to me On demand searching and the "automatic" searching are different systems. They both rely on the same code to do the work, but they get their inputs and responses from different sources.

Lastly, I just noticed that my Recorded TV folder now has a bunch of BMI files mixed in with the recording files (which is NOT where my Fanart is defined... its really a big mess with files like (FamilyGuy-NoMealsonWheels-4432622-0.mpg.properties, FamilyGuy-NoMealsonWheels-4432622-0_background.jpg, FamilyGuy-NoMealsonWheels-4432622-0_banner.jpg) mixed in my Recorded TV folder now; in addition to the Fanart folders also being updated. It seems when I manually select to force an On Demand fanart for a TV show, BMI puts backgrounds and banners in both my fanart folders AND TV Recordings folder. I just need the files saved neatly in where the Fanart folder is defined.

The good news is that your recent post/rant has probably shown the root of your issue... If you are seeing .jpg files in the same directory as your recorded tv shows, then bmt is configured for fanart, BUT the fanart folder is not configured. The fanart folder should be configured in the metadata.properties on each client and server. While configuring the Fanart Folder from the UI "should" do this for you... it would appear that is not the case.

As for the .properties.... there is very little you can do about that. All of the .properties and .jpgs are created by bmt, so we know that bmt is being invoked. When fanart is configured correctly, you'll still end up with a .properties in the same dir as the video.

[rmccoy]

Originally Posted by stuckless

@rmccoy - The web ui will keep a status of the last 5 movies/shows that it has failed to scan in the status page. if you hover over the title, I think it will give an error message as well. Also the status page will tell you if the plugin is enabled, and it will give the last date/time of the last media item scanned. So I guess the first step is to see if the status panel is showing that items are being scanned, but not sucessfully.

My status page isn't showing me any names of things it's failed to scan... it says "Items scanned: 0"... which is weird though, because the plugin does run when I add new media and refresh my library (the "Last Scan Date" changes to that time.) any ideas? Here is what my status page looks like at the moment.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3209/...d0337be1_b.jpg

[mkanet]

Okay, we've clarified that I do have a file name format that is supposed to be recognized by BMI. I have already tried "force_full_content_reindex=true" in my properties. It doesnt seem to do anything as far as getting the metadata and fanart for my existing TV recordings automatically. I still have to do a right-click for options and manually get it for each individual TV show under "Recorded TV".

Actually after deleting the extra jpg and properties files from my TV recordings folder, they no longer show up there. I guess initially, while attempting to get this to work, the fanart folder might not have been defined. However, worth nothing, Currently... when I manually force an on demand download of metadata/fanart under Recorded TV (or My Videos), the files get downloaded into their proper places (where I defined the location of the centeral fanart folder to be... on the server's local drive E: ). Does that mean that the fanart location is still not working and needs to be defined in metadata.properties? If so, what specifically should I put in metadata.properties to use "E:\Fanart"? BTW, I already configured the fanart folder under SageMC/Extras/BMI Options.

Anyway, sorry for being such a PITA and sounding like I'm ranting. It's just that this is going on the 3rd day of not getting fanart to download automatically; ...just not used to encountering so much difficultly with a sageTV plugin on my setup...

Originally Posted by stuckless

Most people just use the reindex option in the sage.properties... and in 6.5.17, I think that you can "force" a full reindex from the default stv ui rescan media options screen.


SeriesName-EpisodeTitle-AiringId-# is the format that I support. And it does work.


While it may be mysterious to you... it's not mysterious to me On demand searching and the "automatic" searching are different systems. They both rely on the same code to do the work, but they get their inputs and responses from different sources.



The good news is that your recent post/rant has probably shown the root of your issue... If you are seeing .jpg files in the same directory as your recorded tv shows, then bmt is configured for fanart, BUT the fanart folder is not configured. The fanart folder should be configured in the metadata.properties on each client and server. While configuring the Fanart Folder from the UI "should" do this for you... it would appear that is not the case.

As for the .properties.... there is very little you can do about that. All of the .properties and .jpgs are created by bmt, so we know that bmt is being invoked. When fanart is configured correctly, you'll still end up with a .properties in the same dir as the video.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by rmccoy

My status page isn't showing me any names of things it's failed to scan... it says "Items scanned: 0"... which is weird though, because the plugin does run when I add new media and refresh my library (the "Last Scan Date" changes to that time.) any ideas? Here is what my status page looks like at the moment.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3209/...d0337be1_b.jpg

Actually, i've since found a couple of bugs in the "status" monitor since this initial 3.0 beta release Perhaps, the issue will be fixed in the next build.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by mkanet

However, worth nothing, Currently... when I manually force an on demand download of metadata/fanart under Recorded TV (or My Videos), the files get downloaded into their proper places (where I defined the location of the centeral fanart folder to be... on the server's local drive E: ). Does that mean that the fanart location is still not working and needs to be defined in metadata.properties? If so, what specifically should I put in metadata.properties to use "E:\Fanart"? BTW, I already configured the fanart folder under SageMC/Extras/BMI Options.

If the fanart folder appears to be working for on demand searches, then the fanart dir is probably setup correctly.

Anyway, sorry for being such a PITA and sounding like I'm ranting. It's just that this is going on the 3rd day of not getting fanart to download automatically; ...just not used to encountering so much difficultly with a sageTV plugin on my setup...

I think that the automatic plugin is probably the most complex part of bmt, and I don't think it's for everyone. My suggestion is to try it, and if works, then great, if not, then forget about it. I've tried to make it as easy as I can but given the there is no interactive UI, then troubleshooting something the automatic plugin can be painful, for you... and me. Version 3.x will at least have a more userfriendly way of seeing the status of the plugin, but again, it won't help, if it's simply not working (as it appears for you).

[mkanet]

Right. But it seems there are more people who have the same issue. So, its probably not a good idea to write it off as a very unique case for one person. This has been going on since right when ver 2.3 was released when looking back at other posts; including for people like tmiranda from this thread and also here, ehfortin talking about the same thing here as well. There are probably more people that I missed which also have this problem. Most people just end up having to use the command-line when dealing with batch importing of fanart (which defeats the purpose of using BMI's "batch" capability; so they wont see this problem when using command-line. It's probably worth investigating since it appears to be a reproducible issue (something that the people having this issue have in common).

Originally Posted by stuckless

If the fanart folder appears to be working for on demand searches, then the fanart dir is probably setup correctly.



I think that the automatic plugin is probably the most complex part of bmt, and I don't think it's for everyone. My suggestion is to try it, and if works, then great, if not, then forget about it. I've tried to make it as easy as I can but given the there is no interactive UI, then troubleshooting something the automatic plugin can be painful, for you... and me. Version 3.x will at least have a more userfriendly way of seeing the status of the plugin, but again, it won't help, if it's simply not working (as it appears for you).

[gplasky]

Quick question. Another thing I noticed with 3.0 is when I manually ran the Metadata/Fanart option on a single SageTV recording (Example: The Listener)in SageMC it changed the title from The Listener to The Listener-S01E01-I am an Adult, The Listener-S01E02-Emotional Rescue, etc. Is it suppose to do that? Is there an option to change that behavior? It messes up my recordings listing because I group them by program. Now they show up individually.

Gerry