Phoenix Core Services messing up file system view?

[wirecreative]

Hi,

I'm using Sage 7 with SageMc and Phoenix Core Services. I've been wrestling with PCS's auto-meta info downloading.

In theory, I like it, especially how it automatically applies Parental Controls based on ratings and content.

However, I use the file system view to display my video library, because it's the easiest way to organize my files immediately. For example, I have these folders in the root of my video library:

ARCHIVE
HOME
KIDS
NEW

ARCHIVE is for items that have been added to my permanent library.
HOME is for home movies
KIDS is for all of the family-friendly movies and TV
NEW is for things we haven't watched yet

When I want something to go into a specific folder, like NEW/Movies, I'll copy it there over the network, and there it will be in Sage when I want to watch it.

However, it seems like as new files are copied into my Sage library folders and tagged by PCS, the library view gets corrupted and randomly some movies are displayed in the library root rather than the proper folder, while others show where they should be. This can be a problem when one or more movies with suggestive titles clog up the root directory, which my kids have to go through to get to their folder.

The only way I have found to correct these stray listings so far is to remove all of my imported media folders, refresh my imported media, and then re-add my imported media folders and refresh my imported media again. Unfortunately, this also erases useful data like what and how much of certain videos I have already viewed.

I've also had problems with persistent wrong metadata. I've been copying over some home movies from last year into my HOME directory. Not only are these movies often showing up in the root rather than in their proper folder, but because the file names are something like 2010-Summer-01, 2010-Summer-02, etc., they all get tagged by PCS as "2010: The Year We Make Contact," and it's not clear how to fix that.

Anyway, I like PCS and want it to work for me, but it seems like either I'm not using it correctly, or it just doesn't work well with Windows 7's Virtual Store or something.

Any ideas on this issues and if there's anything I can do to fix them?

Thanks.

[stuckless]

First, if you haven't done so already, install the Batch Metadata Tools which is a web frontend to PCS. You should also read the user guide for it (which is linked in my signature)

I haven't tried SageMC under Sage7, so I'm not sure exactly what your issues are as it relates to the filesystem view. I do know that in Sage6 there were similar complaints, but I thought that MeinMaui added code SageMC to work around the fact that BMT doesn't prefix Video Titles with the folder path.

From the web ui, you can set an exclude filter so that HOME is never affected by bmt/pcs. You can also add your custom metadata for each movie using the web ui as well.

Also using the web ui, you can try to run the batch command, "Add Relative Paths To Titles", which should add a relative path to each of your videos. This may fix the SageMC issue, since I think that is what SageMC was using to build the folder view.

If that works, then from the web ui, Configure - Phoenix - Fanart Metadata Settings, enable the setting, Prefix Videos with Relative path.

Alternately, you can try to simply use the Sage7 UI, or one of the the other Sage7 themes/mods. I think you going to find very limited support for SageMC in Sage7.