What is BMT?

[Pelicanjoe]

It seems everyone is on board with the BMT. What is it? How do I install it? What will it do? How do I configure it?

I've looked in this forum, but it seems everyone already knows this but I can't find it anywhere. I'm sure it is right under my nose.

Btw, I'm on SageTV v7 on Intel Quad 2.5 ghz running Windows 7.

[Brent]

Metadata Tools (aka BMT) is a collection of tools for managing and fetching metadata from places like www.imdb.com, www.themoviedb.com, www.tvdb.com DVDProfiler & MyMovies


BMT also provides a Web UI interface for configuration and managing metadata. With SageTV 7 you can install it right from the SageTV 7 plugin manager. It's an awesome tool, but documentation for the new version does seem to be a bit scattered unless I'm missing it.

I need to write up a little demo blog post to show off BMT. Many people don't realize how great it is - some don't even know it exists...

[tmar89]

I also have no idea how to use BMT after installing it and I hear it is one of the most powerful and useful tools for Sage 7. So I would really like to see a detailed review on how to install and use it properly.

[Brent]

I'm going to start it off with baby steps:

1. What is BMT - what does it do, why is it good, why do you want/need it
2. How to install from the SageTV 7 plugin manager - how to configure basic settings in the SageTV UI
3. The BMT Web UI - basic setup, how to use the basics of the web UI
4. Getting metadata using BMT

What else? Are there questions I need to address here beyond the above? Do I have the right order?

[wrems]

Originally Posted by Brent

I'm going to start it off with baby steps:

1. What is BMT - what does it do, why is it good, why do you want/need it
2. How to install from the SageTV 7 plugin manager - how to configure basic settings in the SageTV UI
3. The BMT Web UI - basic setup, how to use the basics of the web UI
4. Getting metadata using BMT

What else? Are there questions I need to address here beyond the above? Do I have the right order?

I think somewhere in there you need to help people with naming conventions for their filenames. Best practices to ensure best results. For example, using SxxExx in the filename, adding the year etc.

[wrems]

Originally Posted by tmar89

I also have no idea how to use BMT after installing it and I hear it is one of the most powerful and useful tools for Sage 7. So I would really like to see a detailed review on how to install and use it properly.

Installing BMT is really easy in v7 and the plugin manager. Once installed all you have to do is navigate to:

http://localhost:8080/bmt
username - password
sage - frey

That will get you up and running in no time. Just remember to backup your wiz.bin file as BMT is manipulating it.

[mbowling]

Originally Posted by Brent

I'm going to start it off with baby steps:

1. What is BMT - what does it do, why is it good, why do you want/need it
2. How to install from the SageTV 7 plugin manager - how to configure basic settings in the SageTV UI
3. The BMT Web UI - basic setup, how to use the basics of the web UI
4. Getting metadata using BMT

What else? Are there questions I need to address here beyond the above? Do I have the right order?

This would be a great start Brent. I'm another SageTV user who has never understood BMT. Maybe it's because I only use Sage to record TV. I don't have imported DVD's or other movies. Is it only used for imported movies? Is there any reason to use it with recorded TV shows?

I did try to use BMT with the Hulu importer plugin but the TV show descriptions were not the full episode descriptions that are displayed from Hulu. It was a simple generic description that was the same for each episode. I gave up and uninstalled BMT and the Hulu importer.

[tmar89]

Originally Posted by wrems

Installing BMT is really easy in v7 and the plugin manager. Once installed all you have to do is navigate to:

http://localhost:8080/bmt
username - password
sage - frey

That will get you up and running in no time. Just remember to backup your wiz.bin file as BMT is manipulating it.

I'm at this point and now have no idea how to proceed.

[gtfreymann]

Originally Posted by tmar89

I'm at this point and now have no idea how to proceed.

I just poked around and figured things out.

One item I was interested in was the Fan Art, so I clicked on Configure -> Phoenix (in the left column) and then Fan Art. I clicked the Check Box to Enable Fan Art and set a network path to the Fanart folder.

Then I clicked on "Browse" and from there you zip around your media collection. I went to Sage Video Imports where it brought up my Video folders.

Click on a folder to see what's inside.

Once inside, click on an item.

Click on it again and you'll see the metadata attached to the item (if any). It might be all empty or it may already be populated for you.

If Empty--

Click on the Find Metadata button. Click search. See if you get any results. If not, tinker with the title, year, etc. and search through the various meta data providers (imdb, etc).

When you get a match, don't forget to click on the SAVE button before you go looking at other stuff.

That's how I've been using it, seems to work great!

You can also try to scour an entire folder's contents... just click the find metadata button at the top when in a folder with many folders and it'll work its way through everything.

Watch the lower left column for results.

That should get you started. There's plenty of other things it can do but tinker with that stuff and you most likely will figure out the rest on your own.

[wrems]

I'd just dive in. That's what I did, I'm slowly getting it figured out.

IIR, on fresh install, and before first use it's best to restart the entire server. Then log into BMT and start to browse your media. Missing metadata view is good place to start...

I'm not the person to ask about BMT, I'm a complete noob with it. I only just started getting it to behave well for me. I mostly have been using it to add imported media/tv dvd's into my recordings so that I have complete seasons with metadata/fanart.

Good luck!

[graywolf]

Originally Posted by Brent

I'm going to start it off with baby steps:

1. What is BMT - what does it do, why is it good, why do you want/need it
2. How to install from the SageTV 7 plugin manager - how to configure basic settings in the SageTV UI
3. The BMT Web UI - basic setup, how to use the basics of the web UI
4. Getting metadata using BMT

What else? Are there questions I need to address here beyond the above? Do I have the right order?

How to Manually import 1 or 2 Imports into Recordings.
How to Automatically import a directory into Recordings

[stuckless]

It's sad really, how out of touch I am with the struggles that people have with BMT. I've never written a guide for bmt, because, in my mind, I felt it was already too easy to use Whenever I think about writing a guide, I can't write it because it ends up sounding silly to me.

I think that the best people to write documentation for bmt are the users, since I really can't do it justice.

I realize, after seeing so many comments, that bmt really is hard to use, but i can't see any way to make it easier, than it already is. I read a comment on the forums today about a user that installed it but couldn't figure out how to use it to edit a title, so they uninstalled it how can that be. How could I possibly document how to edit metadata? My documentation always ends up the same way... "Click browse, click a view, click a video, and edit away, then save".

Maybe Brent can make sense of this complicated mess.

[ptaylor]

And here I thought everyone just really liked that sandwich from Subway?

Just kidding...

Graywolf,

1. I think the first "Baby Steps" item is a great one. What is it good for, what can you do with BMT? From the perspective of a real-world use, I mean. I installed it months ago, and tried to use it for a specific purpose (can't remember what now), but if my memory serves me right, I couldn't get it to do what I intended, so I've just left it there...

2. A screenshot or three should be all that's needed for an install guide.

Anything after this I can't comment much on, as I couldn't get BMT to do very much...

[Brent]

Originally Posted by stuckless

It's sad really, how out of touch I am with the struggles that people have with BMT. I've never written a guide for bmt, because, in my mind, I felt it was already too easy to use Whenever I think about writing a guide, I can't write it because it ends up sounding silly to me.

don't worry Sean, I'm an expert in "silly"

Maybe Brent can make sense of this complicated mess.

its not really that complicated. I think it's just that some don't realize what it can do and how.

[mbowling]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I realize, after seeing so many comments, that bmt really is hard to use, but i can't see any way to make it easier, than it already is.

BMT may not be hard to use, I'm not really sure. This is my personal experience with BMT. I tried the Hulu importer to add Hulu shows directly within Sage. I think they were imported in the "Video" menu. This worked, but I didn't have any descriptions for the imported episodes. I couldn't tell one episode from another. Someone said that I needed to use BMT in order to see the episode descriptions. I installed BMT and a generic description was added for each imported episode. But it was the same description for each episode, nothing like the detailed description in Hulu. I was testing BMT with HGTV shows like "House Hunters". Maybe I was suppose to edit the metadata manually? If this is true, BMT isn't what I was looking for. I was expecting the episode descriptions to be automatically populated and be similar to what is displayed in Hulu. Maybe BMT isn't designed to be used with TV episodes? Just thought I would share my experience.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by mbowling

BMT may not be hard to use, I'm not really sure. This is my personal experience with BMT. I tried the Hulu importer to add Hulu shows directly within Sage. I think they were imported in the "Video" menu. This worked, but I didn't have any descriptions for the imported episodes. I couldn't tell one episode from another. Someone said that I needed to use BMT in order to see the episode descriptions. I installed BMT and a generic description was added for each imported episode. But it was the same description for each episode, nothing like the detailed description in Hulu. I was testing BMT with HGTV shows like "House Hunters". Maybe I was suppose to edit the metadata manually? If this is true, BMT isn't what I was looking for. I was expecting the episode descriptions to be automatically populated and be similar to what is displayed in Hulu. Maybe BMT isn't designed to be used with TV episodes? Just thought I would share my experience.

Actually it sounds as it BMT didn't find the metadata for your files, which is totally possible. BMT runs in 2 modes... the first being an automated processor that checks each file (tv or movie) and then attempts to find metadata/fanart for that movie as its added to your library. BMT has to use fuzzy logic to find things, so it goes without saying that it will not match 100%.

The other mode of operation, is the web ui. The web ui is there to allow you to browse your videos, and to manually fetch metadata for folders or individual items. I tend to rarely use the web ui, since the automatic scanner tends to work fairly well for me.

[Pelicanjoe]

Thanks to your information, I at least gotten http://localhost:8080/bmt up and running on the local machine. I can't figure out how to access the webpage on another machine on the same network. Do I need to map this domain to my router? Any preferred methods?

Thanks!

Joe.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by Pelicanjoe

Thanks to your information, I at least gotten http://localhost:8080/bmt up and running on the local machine. I can't figure out how to access the webpage on another machine on the same network. Do I need to map this domain to my router? Any preferred methods?

Thanks!

Joe.

If you know the IP address of the server on which sage is running... then just use the ip address, ie, something like, http://192.168.1.105:8080/bmt/

localhost is simply a "known" name that refers to the local machine. Whenever you use it, it will always refer to the local machine that you are current on.

[gtfreymann]

Originally Posted by Pelicanjoe

Thanks to your information, I at least gotten http://localhost:8080/bmt up and running on the local machine. I can't figure out how to access the webpage on another machine on the same network. Do I need to map this domain to my router? Any preferred methods?

From your home network, just find out what the IP# is for your server and use it. I usually set the server to use a static ip # so it's always the same.

Go to the server, and from the main menu, look at SETUP and SYSTEM INFORMATION. You'll find your IP# there. From other computers just use:

http://192.168.1.1:8080/bmt

to get there (replace 192.168.1.1 with YOUR sage server ip number).

[Pelicanjoe]

Outstanding!! Thank you! That works! Now I have to figure the tool out, but now I can do it at different locations in the house!

Cheers!

Joe.