Sage folder organization with DVDs and BD

[pjpjpjpj]

I use the stock STV with ADM to create links to movie folders on my drives. I have a menu item that looks at a certain folder with our (parents) DVD rips, and another that looks at a folder with kids DVD rips. Because the kids like the extra bonus features (games, previews, etc.), I leave the kids DVDs in full folder structure. I have converted all of the parents DVDs into main movie MKVs.

I recently made the jump into Blu-Ray and have been ripping a few BDs, converting them to "main movie only" in MKV format.

The BD MKVs that are in (parents) folders with other DVD MKVs all show up together just fine in the folder-view menu item. However, when I throw the BD MKVs into the folders with the (full structure) kids DVDs, the MKVs don't show up with the DVD rips. Strangely though, when I back out of the folder structure, into a view that shows every single folder where I have any sort of imported video, there is another folder there, with the same name as the folder where I have the DVD rips, and it contains just those BD MKVs. (I hope that's not too confusing). In other words, at the "all imported videos" level, Sage is showing two separate folders, each with the same exact path and same name, but one holds all of the DVD rips, and the other holds the BD MKV files.

Is it possible (within stock STV/ADM) to have the BD MKVs and DVD rips show up, intermingled, in one single folder? I'd like to not have to make MKVs out of all the kids DVD rips (thus losing the DVD extras) if possible.

P.S. Apologies if this should be under the v7 Customizations subforum, but it doesn't appear many people are reading up there these days, plus I don't really know whether this is a Sage issue or simply an ADM issue.

[trk2]

I don't know how to fix your issue, but I can confirm that on my movie view (I don't view by folders) I see blu-ray and dvds intermingled regardless if they are ripped to MKVs or full structure. So yes, what you are trying to do is possible.

FYI, I'm not using ADM, but I am using Gemstone. However, loading the default v7 stv still shows all movies intermingled together.

One thought is instead of using folder view, have you tried creating a view filtering by Genre (and make sure the genre meta data is correct)? That way all movies could be stored in the same folder and use ADM to open a view that filters by children movies.

[stanger89]

If you've got your folder structures organized well, you can try the "Folders" view in Sage.

Sage determines "DVD" based on the structure, if it's got a DVD (VIDEO_TS) or BD (BDMV?) folder structure it's displayed in the "DVD"s menu, otherwise it ends up under videos, regardless of the folder structure you have organized. These two menu items (DVDs, and Videos) collect all video media under them from all imported folders and ignore folder structure.

But the "Folders" view will retain the folder structure, just make sure you import one level above the one where you want the folders to be seen ie:
D:\movies\kids
D:\movies\parents

If you import "kids" and "parents" I don't think you'll see those folders, but if you import "movies" it will show "kids" and "parents" folders in Sage.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by stanger89

If you've got your folder structures organized well, you can try the "Folders" view in Sage.

Sage determines "DVD" based on the structure, if it's got a DVD (VIDEO_TS) or BD (BDMV?) folder structure it's displayed in the "DVD"s menu, otherwise it ends up under videos, regardless of the folder structure you have organized. These two menu items (DVDs, and Videos) collect all video media under them from all imported folders and ignore folder structure.

But the "Folders" view will retain the folder structure, just make sure you import one level above the one where you want the folders to be seen ie:
D:\movies\kids
D:\movies\parents

If you import "kids" and "parents" I don't think you'll see those folders, but if you import "movies" it will show "kids" and "parents" folders in Sage.

Unless I'm confused about something, I have it organized as you describe. Through ADM I used the "copy mode" and added in the "video folder" method. Is there some other type of folder mode I'm not aware of?

[stanger89]

I'm not familiar with ADM, I'm just talking about the stock STV, when you expand the videos submenu you get choices of DVDs, Videos, Folders, etc, if you pick Folders you should see everything organized as it is on your hard drive.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by stanger89

I'm not familiar with ADM, I'm just talking about the stock STV, when you expand the videos submenu you get choices of DVDs, Videos, Folders, etc, if you pick Folders you should see everything organized as it is on your hard drive.

Oh, that. Yeah, but that doesn't achieve my goal, which is to have a "Kids movies" item and a "Parents movies" item, without having to click through a bunch of subfolder levels.

I'm now thinking I will bite the bullet and just convert all of the kids' DVDs into single-file (MKV or MP4) and just be done with it. That way everything will be in the same folders as I want it. The kids can live without the extras.

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

Oh, that. Yeah, but that doesn't achieve my goal, which is to have a "Kids movies" item and a "Parents movies" item, without having to click through a bunch of subfolder levels.

I'm now thinking I will bite the bullet and just convert all of the kids' DVDs into single-file (MKV or MP4) and just be done with it. That way everything will be in the same folders as I want it. The kids can live without the extras.

I'm not sure if I got this right, but I have a similar setup solved by using categories. Basically I have all DVD with original structure (without menu) and BR structure for "Children", "Movie" categories amongst others and parental control PIN based on MPAA rating with the stock STV.

Eddy

[pjpjpjpj]

I think something is weird in my wiz.bin (or somewhere). I am going to try removing all of the folders from Sage (taking them out of the list of folders Sage looks at), rescanning my media, and then adding them back. I have a folder that has three movies that I've converted into .mpg, one more recently than the first two. The first two show up in the folder as they should, but the third one does not. When I "back up" to the default Sage "Videos" view, another copy of the folder shows up there, with just that third movie in it, alone. I've checked all three and they have similar metadata, so it's not a genre or "type" (TV/Movie) label or anything.

I also have a few home videos (no metadata whatsoever) that have never shown up in the folder with all the others. They linger out in the "Videos" view in Sage, not within any of the many subfolders shown there. When I check the file paths, they are shown as being in the same subfolder with a bunch of other home videos, but they just won't show up in that folder, no matter what I seem to do. It's very strange.

[Skirge01]

Did you try setting the advanced_video_file_recovery=true?

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by Skirge01

Did you try setting the advanced_video_file_recovery=true?

How would I use that here? I've only ever known it to be used to find all the files when you reinstall Sage or move files to a new drive or such.

[Skirge01]

I was thinking that if you have some videos which aren't showing up where they should, Sage may be confused as to their location or may not know of their existence.

[pjpjpjpj]

Hmm. Can't hurt to try, I guess. But I did redo my server a few months ago and those files were in the same spots then and it didn't fix them. That's why I figure it must be the wiz.bin.

Update: I moved my Home Videos folder to a different location last night, and re-pointed the menu item (ADM) to the new location, and those two rogue files are now showing where they should be. I've still got the one random kids video that won't show in the folder with the other two, and then the DVD/ripped file issue. One down, several others to go....

I think my next step will be to move the kids video folder somewhere, scan my media, and then move it back where I want it. I'm guessing that will do it....

[pjpjpjpj]

Update:
Re: the kids subfolder with three videos, one of which refused to show up in that folder within Sage: I moved the entire subfolder out of the main folder (such that it was not an imported media folder at all). Re-scanned media. Then moved it back where it had been and re-scanned. It still showed up the same way, with that one file refusing to be seen in the subfolder.

The master folder (called "Kids") which held this subfolder (with the three videos) also held the subfolder that contained the BDs (converted to MKVs) and DVDs (native file structure) that this whole thread was started about.

So I completely removed the master folder from Sage (which triggers a re-scan of media), and renamed the master folder (from "Kids" to "Kids Movies"). Added that master folder back.

Fixed it! All three videos show up together in the one subfolder (as they should have all along), and the BD MKVs and DVDs all show up in the other subfolder together. The only issue (which doesn't really bother me) is that the MKVs are at the top, and then the DVDs in alphabetical order below them (the MKVs don't mix into the DVDs in alphabetical order). I suspect there isn't a way around that, but that's fine.

I also removed the home videos master folder from Sage, waited for the rescan to complete, then re-added it. That fixed those random stray files as well.

So apparently if you are using folder structure views in Sage, and some files are not showing up properly in subfolders of a main folder, you need to remove the MAIN folder from the Sage media folder import list, then add it back.