Export option for shows?

[justme]

This may exist already, if so sorry. I looked but did not find it. I love to archive a lot of my favorite shows to both DVD and Divx/Xvid. It would be great If you could add an export option feature to the Library. By export I mean save the file to a specific location for editing or archiving. It would be great if it was in the format of showtitle-episode descrption(like in the guide/library). Something like "Futurama-The Honking.mpg", not "Futurama-180937-0.mpg".

Right now I have to look at the show's record date/time and then find the episode title. Fortunately Digiguide makes it a little easier for me by using copy and paste, but I since I bought SageTV I only start digiguide for this. I really want SageTV to do this automatically. Please

PS:It would be really great if the show description was also saved to a text file of the same name.

[SHS]

I agree jeff should try change to the episodes name in sted of id number but you have take this in to count of what if broadcaster d to change to the episode and there no time to update data base or they run the wrong episode.
That last part sound like very good idea sure would save me some time in having to go to SicFi channel web site and rip copy and paste.
So what do think jeff?.

[justme]

Good point SHS,
I understand SageTV needs to use ID's rather than episode names to avoid confusion in it's own guide/library. This is why I suggested the export option be in the library, that way the file has already been recorded and manually moved to the library by the user. I would assume most episode names are correct if they are in the library, at least all mine are. If I want to burn it off to CD/DVD then it is no longer Sage's problem. The user then takes full responsibility for verifying the accuracy of the name Sage provided. This is more of what I had in mind. I should have been more clear, sorry. I hope it helps clarify my request.

Sadly, I just saw on your(SHSPVR) site about DigiGuide US's demise. I will miss them. This makes some form of export support even more important to me. Even just the text file would be great. Thanx

[Narflex]

It's on my list to look into some way of embedding the metadata into the MPEG2 stream directly. That way it'll all be in one file (like the ID3 tags for MP3s).

In the future there'll be an option as part of skinning (because it's related in a weird way) that'll allow you to customize how the files are named.

[justme]

I understand the value of metadata. I love the ADS(alternate data streams) in the NTFS file sytem used in WinXP. It's nice that it just shows up when you mouse over a file.

The metadata that sage would use would either have to be ADS or some form of ID3 tag. ADS would work great for XP users with NTFS, but useless for almost everyone else. The ID3 tags would be very usefull, but only for programs that can recognise them. Don't get me wrong I think this would be a great addition to Sage, but what I want is some thing that works outside of Sage.

Here's what i want to do:
1) Record a show in SageTV
2) If I like it move it to the TV library
3) When space gets tight I want to keep the show, but not neccessarily in Sage.(here is where the export comes in)
4) Edit out the commercials
4a) Maybe compress it with Divx/xvid
5) Burn it to Cd/DVD

SageTV allows me to do all this right now, but it is at step 3 that it could be made easier with an export option. The file name does have the show title, but as stated above I have to search for the episode title and manually change the name. It's a small thing, but I archive 3 shows a day during the week, this work adds up. Nothing you do about the way Sage handles metadata internally would change step 3, unless you build an editor, file compressor and a burning application into Sage.

When I say export I don't mean that SageTV necessarily has to delete the file, it could place the name changed copy in a new user specified location. The user could then decide rather to keep the original file or delete the Sage copy to save space.

I realize that the metadata would be awesome to have if the file was later added back into the Sage library. But in my case the cd/dvd is usually going to my set top box or another computer. I don't really use SageTV to play all my divx/xvid files right now. I may one day and this is where the metadata style you mentioned would really shine. But on another computer the export function would really help.

Please don't take any of this as a complant or demand. I love SageTV and I find I use it more every day. This makes me notice little things. It works so well that when I want to do something with it and it can't, I want to see it get even better. However, I am very happy with your product. I will still continue to recomend SageTV whenever I can, no matter what happens to this feature request.

[jason531]

I, too, am anxiously awaiting this functionality just as justme described. Please post to this thread if someone finds a way to do this or it is added as a new feature. Thanks in advance.

I am not complaining, either. I am very happy with SageTV so far.

[SHS]

Oh no Jeff that very bad idea "embedding the metadata into the MPEG2 stream directly" take look at MS did with MCE and what kind mess it made with ASF wapper this may be a problem with other MPEG software.

[Narflex]

That's the main reason I've been holding off on it. I want to find what's most compliant that I can use to do it.

[justme]

Why not just use a file with the same name as the mpeg that ends in .nfo. This would work on all systems including those that lack a NTFS file system. On systems that have an NTFS why not use the ADS(Alternate Data Stream). This is the method that Microsoft uses to store the "Summary" information that is brought up when you open a file's properties tab. Part of the info is stored in an ADS called summaryinformation. I forget what the other is called, but both are preceded by a nonkeyboard character. I think char(05).

Anyway the great thing about ADS is that they can be read and written to just like a file. You can attach numerous ADS to the same file. They are automatically copied by the OS when a file is moved or copied, as long as the destination supports NTFS. They are basically invisible to the user unless you know their name, or have a utility that will list ADS. One downside(or advantagete) is that they do use disk space but don't show up as part of a file's total size. However for what you want to store thay would use very little space.

You could have Sage create an .nfo file if it see's the destination doesn't support ADS. If a file is being imported you could have Sage take the .nfo file and convert it to an ADS if the system supports it. This would make the data follow the file without compromising the MPEG stream. You could either use the two ADS that microsoft puts on each file, or you could create your own ADS to avoid confusion. Both have advantages, the first would allow the user to see the data in any explorer window(on an NTFS system), but could interfere if the user wished to add their own properties description. The second doesn't interfere with a user adding their own properties descriptions, but doesn't allow the user to easily change the data. Then again maybe not allowing the user to not easily change the data is an advantage as well.

[Colin]

Having it in a .nfo file would make it very easy for say a perl script to figure out if the file is done recording, or put into the library, and spawn off a task to reencode the file into DivX and replace the original. If the nfo format is available, it allows any external application figure out what's available (think cgi scripts listing recorded shows, say Edna (http://edna.sourceforge.net) or something).

[jason531]

For those interested in ADS, here are a couple of links:

Background information
http://patriot.net/~carvdawg/docs/dark_side.html

Utility to view ADS info
http://www.heysoft.de/Frames/f_sw_la_en.htm

ADS FAQ
http://www.heysoft.de/Frames/f_faq_ads_en.htm

Thanks to "justme" for the links. He gave them to me when I was looking for a way to do the same type of thing with my PVR scheduler (which I no longer use in favor of SageTV).

[-LD]

i was just thinking about this as well and it seems others have thought about it as well...i'm not in front of my htpc to check, but has there been some resolution to this feature request? i think an ID3 tag would be the most portable and probably easiest option to implement

[Narflex]

I'm still looking for some standard way to do this and also how to embed closed captioning info into MPEG2 streams. It seems there's some standard, but it just doesn't exist anywhere (and I've bought all the MPEG2 ISO standards docs already, nothing in those)