Metadata issue

[dvd_maniac]

I have just installed the latest beta(7.0.12) and it created a properties file for an imported video that seems to somewhat repeat information.
Why is this doing this and what can I do to prevent it?
Example:
Rescue Me: Sanctuary

Actor=Denis Leary -- Tommy Gavin

Actor=Denis Leary -- Tommy Gavin;Andrea Roth -- Janet Gavin

Actor=Denis Leary -- Tommy Gavin;Andrea Roth -- Janet Gavin;John Scurti -- Lt. Kenneth "Lou" Shea

Actor=Denis Leary -- Tommy Gavin;Andrea Roth -- Janet Gavin;John Scurti -- Lt. Kenneth "Lou" Shea;Daniel Sunjata -- Franco Rivera

Actor=Denis Leary -- Tommy Gavin;Andrea Roth -- Janet Gavin;John Scurti -- Lt. Kenneth "Lou" Shea;Daniel Sunjata -- Franco Rivera;Diane Farr

Actor=Denis Leary -- Tommy Gavin;Andrea Roth -- Janet Gavin;John Scurti -- Lt. Kenneth "Lou" Shea;Daniel Sunjata -- Franco Rivera;Diane Farr;Jack McGee -- Chief Jerry Reilly

Actor=Denis Leary -- Tommy Gavin;Andrea Roth -- Janet Gavin;John Scurti -- Lt. Kenneth "Lou" Shea;Daniel Sunjata -- Franco Rivera;Diane Farr;Jack McGee -- Chief Jerry Reilly;James McCaffrey -- Jimmy O'Keefe

Actor=Denis Leary -- Tommy Gavin;Andrea Roth -- Janet Gavin;John Scurti -- Lt. Kenneth "Lou" Shea;Daniel Sunjata -- Franco Rivera;Diane Farr;Jack McGee -- Chief Jerry Reilly;James McCaffrey -- Jimmy O'Keefe;Mike Lombardi -- Mike Silletti (Probie)

Actor=Denis Leary -- Tommy Gavin;Andrea Roth -- Janet Gavin;John Scurti -- Lt. Kenneth "Lou" Shea;Daniel Sunjata -- Franco Rivera;Diane Farr;Jack McGee -- Chief Jerry Reilly;James McCaffrey -- Jimmy O'Keefe;Mike Lombardi -- Mike Silletti (Probie);Steven Pasquale -- Sean Garrity

[gplasky]

This would be a plugin issue. More than likely BMT and not a SageTV 7 beta issue. Sage won't create .properties files for metadata. It will read them.

Gerry

[FidgetyRat]

Indeed that is a BMT issue. I posted something not too long ago about fanart doing the same issue in .properties. Seems some kind of limitation they are aware of, but if I remember, its not something thats a priority to fix.

[Fuzzy]

It's a limitation of the way sage writes the .properties file (it IS sage that creates the file, whenever a 3rd party changes metadata). You can actually turn off .properties file generation, if you don't need them. they aren't really required by the newer versions of .BMT, as it talks to sage directly to change the data.

[dvd_maniac]

I'd like to keep the properties files without any of the extra junk in them.
Is BMT installed by default in the new beta versions? I have never installed it manually...

[stanger89]

No, it's not installed by default, none of the plugins are.

[Narflex]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

It's a limitation of the way sage writes the .properties file (it IS sage that creates the file, whenever a 3rd party changes metadata). You can actually turn off .properties file generation, if you don't need them. they aren't really required by the newer versions of .BMT, as it talks to sage directly to change the data.

The only problem with turning off .properties file generation is that if you do a reindex then you'll lose that information (in Detailed Setup->Advanced). That's the reason the core writes them out.

[dvd_maniac]

Narflex,
So by default Sage is creating these properties files?

And if so, the repeating info problem is a known bug?

[Fuzzy]

sage, by itself, wont create them. it, by default will create them when something calls the setmediafilemetadata api call. the 'problem' is that it apparently doesn't reparse the file to check for an existing tag, but instead just appends the new info to the end. BMT, builds its list as it goes, which is why you see the redundant info.

so, what you are seeing is a combination of a few different quirks in how BMT and sage each work.

[dvd_maniac]

So is there a work around to this problem? Or should I disable the plugin?
I have the following installed:
SageTV H2 Database 1.0.7
Pheonix Core Services 2.0.6
IMDB Search 7.1.2 (This is the only plugin I have manually installed)
MBDiamond 1.6.1

What should I disable to stop Sage from appending my properties files?

[Fuzzy]

no, there's no 'workaround' currently, as it's not functionally a problem. Everything still functions just fine, even when importing files with those redundancy filled .properties files. Sage imports the files, and does the metadata replacements from the top, so the last entry for any given field will be the one that remains in sage.

[can3gxw]

Just found this thread in the Sage 7 Beta section, so I though that I would post the link here in case there is a solution or perhaps no one else has reported it.... I am guilty of the latter myself...

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50014

What they are talking about is the duplication and the constant appending that is going on when BMT (assumption here...) reads and builds the .properties file when pulling the metadata... here is what the .properties file starts to look like:

snip

This was taken directly from the above thread, but I have this on all of my latest .properties files....

* merged *

[stanger89]

The BMT search logic is now built into the Phoenix core you have installed, and I'm guessing the IMDB search calls that API too.

[Opus4]

BTW: In case it wasn't clear from other posts above, the lines people are calling duplicates are from appending the updated metadata any time the SetMediaFileMetadata() API call is used to set metadata. This is done so the changed data is kept up to date even if a reindexing import library scan is done, or else if not for the updated properties file, the metadata could be lost, the metadata could be lost.

Why append the lines instead of rewrite the metadata? That is done to preserve any manual editing changes the user might have done to the file.

- Andy