Getting the Most out of your SageMC Video Library

[ryttingm]

Hi all,

I decided to write a short informational post about how you can get the most out of your video library experience within SageMC. This topic focuses more on handling multi-disc DVDs and boxed sets. It all begins with using the File system view from within SageMC's video library. When in File system view, some things work differently than in the Genre or Group views.

When in file system view, SageMC uses the Title property to decide how to group and sort things. Title is different than Episode. The Episode is the name that actually shows up in the list. When a video is first imported into SageTV it's Title is set as the location of the video on your file system. For example, suppose you have 2 video folders setup.

E:\DVD

• - James Bond
  • - Casino Royale
  • - From Russia with Love

F:\Movies

• - James Bond
  • - Octopussy
• - Harry Potter
  • - Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix
• - The Incredibles
• - Band of Brothers
  • - BB1
  • - BB2
  • - BB3
  • - BB4
  • - BB5
  • - BB6
  • - BB7
  • - BB8
  • - BB9
  • - BBZ

When you import these folders you end up with the following titles.

James Bond/Casino Royale/VIDEO_TS
James Bond/From Russia with Love/VIDEO_TS
James Bond/Octopussy/VIDEO_TS
Harry Potter/Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix/VIDEO_TS
The Indredibles/VIDEO_TS
Band of Brothers/BB1/VIDEO_TS
Band of Brothers/BB2/VIDEO_TS
Band of Brothers/BB3/VIDEO_TS
Band of Brothers/BB4/VIDEO_TS
Band of Brothers/BB5/VIDEO_TS
Band of Brothers/BB6/VIDEO_TS
Band of Brothers/BB7/VIDEO_TS
Band of Brothers/BB8/VIDEO_TS
Band of Brothers/BB9/VIDEO_TS
Band of Brothers/BBZ/VIDEO_TS

When you turn on the file system view you will see the following structure

• - Band of Brothers
  • - BB1
  • - BB2
  • - BB3
  • - BB4
  • - BB5
  • - BB6
  • - BB7
  • - BB8
  • - BB9
  • - BBZ
• - Harry Potter
  • - Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix
• - James Bond
  • - Casino Royale
  • - From Russia with Love
  • - Octopussy
• - The Incredibles

Notice how the James Bond folders got grouped together even though they were in different video folders. Also notice how everything is sorted alphabetically based on Title. Now we bring in DVD profiler that also uses my updated DVDPro2Sage class file that can be found here. After using the DVD profiler import using the side A description field for the Band of Brothers Discs your library view will look like this.

• - Band of Brothers
  • - Band of Brothers - Disc 1
  • - Band of Brothers - Disc 2
  • - Band of Brothers - Disc 3
  • - Band of Brothers - Disc 4
  • - Band of Brothers - Disc 5
  • - Band of Brothers - Disc 6
  • - Band of Brothers - Disc 7
  • - Band of Brothers - Disc 8
  • - Band of Brothers - Disc 9
  • - Band of Brothers - Disc 10
• - Harry Potter
  • - Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix
• - James Bond
  • - Casino Royale
  • - From Russia with Love
  • - Octopussy
• - The Incredibles

Each disc now has description, rating, actors, etc. imported from DVD profiler. The important thing to notice is that the BBZ folder got mapped to Band of Brothers - Disc 10. This is a way to get the library view to sort things in a fashion you chose. Normally the band of brothers Discs would have been sorted.

• - Band of Brothers - Disc 1
• - Band of Brothers - Disc 10
• - Band of Brothers - Disc 2
• - Band of Brothers - Disc 3
• - Band of Brothers - Disc 4
• - Band of Brothers - Disc 5
• - Band of Brothers - Disc 6
• - Band of Brothers - Disc 7
• - Band of Brothers - Disc 8
• - Band of Brothers - Disc 9

You now have boxed sets for James Bond and Harry Potter. You also have your Band of Brothers boxed set sorted properly. If you go to list view from folder view you can also push right on your remote and jump alphabetically to any section of your DVD library. Very handy for moving around quickly in a large DVD library. Hopefully this post will help some folks maximize their use of the SageMC video library.

-Mike

[Brent]

Is there any way for this to work in genre view also? For instance when I have

- Band of Brothers

• - Band of Brothers - Disc 1
• - Band of Brothers - Disc 2

Under file view I see just band of brothers and then drill down to see disc 1 and disc 2, but under genre view it lists them out as two separate titles first
Band of Brothers - Disc 1
Band of Brothers - Disc 2

[ryttingm]

Originally Posted by Brent

Is there any way for this to work in genre view also? For instance when I have

- Band of Brothers

• - Band of Brothers - Disc 1
• - Band of Brothers - Disc 2

Under file view I see just band of brothers and then drill down to see disc 1 and disc 2, but under genre view it lists them out as two separate titles first
Band of Brothers - Disc 1
Band of Brothers - Disc 2

Unfortunately this only works in filesystem view. SageMC would need to be updated to do this in genre view.

[cenwesi]

I don't think this is only geared towards SageMC. The basic core SageTV does use file system if memory serves me right. If you really want your menu to look even better, then add the Genre as one level above what you already have. For example i have mine as follows.

[Action,Thriller]

• - [2007]
  • - [James Bond]
    • - [Casino Royale]
    • - [From Russia with Love]

Notice how i broke it down to year as well

[mtyme]

Now if there were only a way to assign a folder image to that top level "James Bond" folder that's NOT the one picked up from the first movie folder it finds under that folder.

[jvl711]

Originally Posted by mtyme

Now if there were only a way to assign a folder image to that top level "James Bond" folder that's NOT the one picked up from the first movie folder it finds under that folder.

I agree 100%. I have been waiting for this feature. it would make the video library much easier to navigate using pictures only.

[shinnlly]

Originally Posted by mtyme

Now if there were only a way to assign a folder image to that top level "James Bond" folder that's NOT the one picked up from the first movie folder it finds under that folder.

Has this ever been resolved? I tried adding a folder.jpg, but it seems to be ignored.

[sydowmatrix]

I have read through all the posts explaining the behavior of the DVD Profiler import, where in a multi-disc situation it looks in the disc section Side A of profiler and looks for those folders as well, but I am wondering if this is something that can be done through the import where it does not name the mkvs Lost Season 3 - Disc 1 where I have it named Lost Season 3 - Episode 1

Here is how I have it setup:
Stored on Hard Drive as:

TV
|-----Lost
|----------Lost Season 3
|---------------Lost Season 3 - Episode 01
|--------------------Lost Season 3 - Episode 1.mkv
|---------------Lost Season 3 - Episode 02
|--------------------Lost Season 3 - Episode 02.mkv


I have profiler setup as title Lost Season 3 and discs 1 - 23 as Lost Season 3 - Episode 01, etc.

The import correctly pulls in the DVD Profiler information, but renames the MKV as Lost Season 3 - Disc 1 inside SageTV, but I really want it to keep the original name of Lost Season 3 - Episode 01.

I know that it works in File System view, but I use imovies and would like to see it correct there.

Any thoughts

Thanks for the help

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by mtyme

Now if there were only a way to assign a folder image to that top level "James Bond" folder that's NOT the one picked up from the first movie folder it finds under that folder.

I have been trying to code this into my wall but I started other things I think it is just a simple code change but I could be wrong I will try and look again soon.

[compuguru]

Sorry to bump this up, but I can't seem to figure this out. I have the Seinfeld Season 9 box set in DVD Profiler and on my hard drive. I have a folder called "Senifeld Season 9" (The real name according to DVD Profiler is Seinfeld: Season 9, but I had to get rid of the ":" so I set "Seinfeld Season 9 as the original title" and put the folders for each disc underneath it. What do I name those folders though? I've tried a bunch of names and it does pickup the disc cover, the metadata is all blank. Any ideas?

[gplasky]

Look in your DVD Profiler program and see in the details of your DVD and check out DIscs. There should be a list of the disc names for that.

Gerry

[compuguru]

Ok, I looked at the Discs section and they were called "Main Feature" and "Bonus Materials". So I created a folder called "Mulan" (that's the name of the movie) and then created the sub folders "Main Feature" and Bonus Materials" each with their VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders underneath them. After refreshing everything, the case for the Main Feature did show up, but neither of the discs have the metadata. Any ideas?

[Folkboat]

I read this thread when it first came out and figured it wasn't applicable to our collection of DVD's stored on SageTV.......unfortunatly thats changed!!

We would like to take our "Murder, She Wrote" collection and store it in Sage.
This collection consists of 12 seasons, 3/4 discs per season, multiple episodes per disc.
Our current "Movie only" collection using My Videos - File system (folder view) works fantastic. Great cover art/descriptions from DVD Profiler, very clean and simple.

OTOH if I ripped all 12 seasons, and populated "My Movies" we would be adding 36 individual cover art photos of Murder, She Wrote.

Can a single cover art photo be displayed in My Videos and when clicked go to a seperate screen displaying the 12 Seasons with individual cover art??

We only have 25 movies stored in Sage....................what are people doing who have hundreds of movies??

Thanks

[Peter_h]

Originally Posted by Folkboat

I read this thread when it first came out and figured it wasn't applicable to our collection of DVD's stored on SageTV.......unfortunatly thats changed!!

We would like to take our "Murder, She Wrote" collection and store it in Sage.
This collection consists of 12 seasons, 3/4 discs per season, multiple episodes per disc.
Our current "Movie only" collection using My Videos - File system (folder view) works fantastic. Great cover art/descriptions from DVD Profiler, very clean and simple.

OTOH if I ripped all 12 seasons, and populated "My Movies" we would be adding 36 individual cover art photos of Murder, She Wrote.

Can a single cover art photo be displayed in My Videos and when clicked go to a seperate screen displaying the 12 Seasons with individual cover art??

We only have 25 movies stored in Sage....................what are people doing who have hundreds of movies??

Thanks

I extract all of the discs into individual episodes and use "TV Explorer" to keep them organized by season.

If you want to keep them as discs, use "Sage Movie Wall".

[Folkboat]

The SMW might work, haven't spent a lot of time with it.

I can't imagine I'm the only SageMC user archiving series and episodic DVD's,
there must be some clever way to make this work.

Thanks

[Peter_h]

Sage Movie Wall will do what you want.