Make Sage recognize old recordings

[chrisc983]

After giving Comcast DVR a try and not being to happy with it (performance/cost) I switched back to Sage as my DVR. So far I only have my two 1600's using OTA. Since using Sage as my DVR I have switched to WHS and no longer have my very old wiz.bin for my previous recordings. I have my old recordings in the Recorded TV directory in WHS.

I have created a recording directory to a hard drive that isn't part of the pool to avoid some of the problems people were having with WHS and recording. I want to able move the recordings that I want to keep from the seperate drive to the Recorded TV directory. So, is this possible by just moving it from the drive to the pool or do I have to do some other steps.

Also I have my old recordings from my previous set up currently in the Recorded TV directory but it doesn't show up under the rest of my currently recorded shows. Any tips? Thanks.

[Fuzzy]

Not much, there's no data tied to those recordings that sage could use to repopulate the Recordings Database. Personally, I think it's one of the key shortcomings in sage's architecture, though others disagree. Regardless, there's not much you could do short of manually adding the info in the Web Interface, or BMI. Both have the capability of populating this information (with BMI it'd be easier, as all you'd have to do is supply it with show and episode name I think, and it will look up the rest from thetvdb.

[ChaOConnor]

Or you could use TVExplorer. It will list the shows like they are in a Malore style and fuse it with future records. it's a one stop shop for old recordings and new. Sorry, wish I had a better answer for you.

[Fuzzy]

TVE won't work out of the box for them. It depends on metadata eing provided for the shows from BMI, so you'd still have to go through the process of grabbing that info.

[vividweb]

BMI would be what I suggest. I have used it to bring recordings into sage and it worked very well.

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34301

[chrisc983]

I tried using the Web UI but when I started to transfer them under recordings they weren't being grouped together. I attempted to use BMT but for some reason it's erroring now when I search. Can the Web UI and BMT both be installed at the same time?

[APillowOfClouds]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Not much, there's no data tied to those recordings that sage could use to repopulate the Recordings Database. Personally, I think it's one of the key shortcomings in sage's architecture, though others disagree. Regardless, there's not much you could do short of manually adding the info in the Web Interface, or BMI. Both have the capability of populating this information (with BMI it'd be easier, as all you'd have to do is supply it with show and episode name I think, and it will look up the rest from thetvdb.

I agree, BeyondTV stunk but one nice thing about it was, if you put a bunch of shows in the recordings directory they would instantly appear in your tv recordings area. Without metadata of course but at least they were there. BTV keeps the info in .xml files per recording so also if you lose your BTV install your metadata is perfectly safe.

[Fuzzy]

Personally, I'd prefer they actually store the metadata in the files. I know MPEG2 is limited in the types of metadata it supports, and there is no real standard, but I've proposed in the past that they look at possibly switching to a container that DOES support full metadata. I REALLY like MKV's metadata systems, they are fully configurable, with a VERY complete list of pre-defined tags, along with full capability for additional proprietary tags. Changing their mux/demux filters (or adding alternate ones) would be all that would be required, and I think there are already some open source ones available that might just need a little tweaking to work well with sage.

[APillowOfClouds]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Personally, I'd prefer they actually store the metadata in the files. I know MPEG2 is limited in the types of metadata it supports, and there is no real standard, but I've proposed in the past that they look at possibly switching to a container that DOES support full metadata. I REALLY like MKV's metadata systems, they are fully configurable, with a VERY complete list of pre-defined tags, along with full capability for additional proprietary tags. Changing their mux/demux filters (or adding alternate ones) would be all that would be required, and I think there are already some open source ones available that might just need a little tweaking to work well with sage.

Speaking as a programmer, and having at least briefly looked at the Sage API, it should not be difficult at all to incorporate the ability to have the metadata in BOTH places and be able to scan for new content and put it into the wiz.bin in the same way that Windows Search does for file systems.

[Fuzzy]

well, already there are multiple plugins that will store the metadata ALONG with the file (.my files, .properties, .xml files) and these can be used to put recordings BACK into the library. What is missing is this integration BUILT INTO THE CORE sagetv product.