Details about metadata properties files

[Opus4]

I was asked for more info about metadata properties files & since I would rather this be on the forum for everyone to read or comment on, here is the info that I can think of at the moment:

Is there a resource that outlines all possible fields in a .properties file?

The currently valid properties are listed here. Each property must be on a single line, just like sage.properties. That post also shows a file naming example.

How do you set SageTV to create .properties files for your imported or recorded TV? Where does this file get stored?

SageTV does not create the metadata properties files; they are user-created files for use with imported media & are put in the same place where the media file is located.

Do you need to use the Default STV to use the .properties files?

The STV does not use the metadata properties files at all. The files are read when its associated media file is imported. And, it is only read when the media file is imported. If the metadata in the properties file changes, you'll need to update the time stamp on its media file so SageTV sees that the media file is newer & reimports it during the next library import directory scan.

Once the media file is imported & the metadata properties file is read, the metadata is stored inside SageTV's database. The STV then has access to the data in the same way it would for any other info about a media file -- via API calls.

Older posts that I found include this post, this post, and this topic: Metadata Properties Parsing.

Note: As of v6.4, imported DVDs can use .properties files. To add a metadata properties file for a DVD, place the <DVDName>.properties file in the same folder where the DVD folder is located, so that the <DVDName>.properties file and the <DVDName> folder are in the same parent folder.

- Andy

[Armondole]

Thanks Opus4.

[JREkiwi]

Originally Posted by Opus4

SageTV does not create the metadata properties files; they are user-created files for use with imported media & are put in the same place where the media file is located.

<shameless plug>And of course you can create metadata properties files using this import for the Default STV.</shameless plug>

John

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Yes: this is how the Title & Episode fields work for imported videos.

There is a sticky topic in this forum section for this: Details about metadata properties files. There aren't a lot more details, though... the metadata system is more of an experimental thing that hasn't been fully developed yet.

- Andy

Unfortunately it appears that Sage never really finished implementing this feature to import metadata from .properties files. I would have to say it is really in a pre-alpha state and not really usable. Here are the problems I've seen so far (with version 6.2.7):

1. Sage only reads the .properties file when something changes with the media file. It does not monitor the .properties file itself for changes and there is no way to force it to update (aside from modifying the media file).

2. The property names are not consistent with the Sage API and STV. For example, the property called "genre" is used to specify the "category" (ie: Action, Sports, etc.).

3. Many properties that are settable through the Sage API and should be settable through the .properties file are not available. For example, there is no property for sub-category or for expanded ratings info.

I took a look at JREkiwi's STVi for handling metadata (.my files and .properties files): http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21629

It works pretty well, but it looks like he has to "cheat" to make it work. When he creates a .properties file, he includes fields that are not officially supported to hold the extra data (at least the fields are not listed in this post:
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...413#post211413

When you use this import to import or edit metadata from a .properties file, it is the STV that is parsing the data and then making API calls to update the database. If you tried to use one of the properties files generated by this import with the default STV, the data would not import properly.

There is nothing wrong with JREkiwi's import. In fact it is quite nice. But since the .properties files cannot be imported correctly natively by the Sage core, there really doesn't seem to be any reason to use them instead of the .my files.


I'm thinking I should probably file a bug report with Sage and move this discussion to another thread that is focused on metadata, but just wondering if anyone else has experimented with this and seen similar or different results?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Tiki

Unfortunately it appears that Sage never really finished implementing this feature to import metadata from .properties files.

I told you in the post you quoted that it wasn't fully implemented yet... it probably should have been left out of the release notes where it appeared until there was time to work on it more.

- Andy

[stuckless]

Just some extra notes about Sage's metadata properties, that is probably apparent to everyone except me

First, the property file name has to be the same as the filename. I took to this to mean that the property filename should be the same as the filename less the extension, which is NOT the case.

Correct Metadata Naming

Movie.avi
Movie.avi.properties

Incorrect Metadata Naming

Movie.avi
Movie.properties

Not related to properties, but just as important, here is a note about the Thumbnail....
The thumbnail has to be the same name as the video file. Which after I got metadata working, I took to mean, filename + extension... which is wrong. It has to be the filename less the extension + the .jpg extension.

Correct Thumbnail Naming

Movie.avi
Movie.jpg

Incorrect Thumbnail Naming

Movie.avi
Movie.avi.jpg

So while the naming for metadata properties and thumbnails is inconsistent, hopefully this post will serve as a quick guide for those too lazy to fully read the manual... as I was

Sample for Correct Metadata and Thumbnail

Se7en.avi
Se7en.avi.properties
Se7en.jpg

Sample MetatData naming for DVD Folders

Terminator/VIDEO_TS
Terminator.properties
Terminator.jpg

Update:
I wrote a command line tool to generate metadata properties and thumbnails from movie file names (using imdb). You can download it here.

[nielm]

Quick question...

How can one assign multiple genres in a property file (like TV's category/subcategory)?
as far as I can tell, you can only assign a single Genre:
Genre=Action
(semicolons don't work)

And what is the GenreID field for?

[stuckless]

I asked the same question in another thread.... I was told to use / instead of ;

[jusjoken]

Using the Default STVs refresh method to import .properties including genre with either a "/" or a ";", neither seems to import the second genre listed into the SubCategory field in the database. The entire string in the genre= property line is imported into the Category field in the database.

If no one else has had any luck with the import working for multiple categories, then perhaps a bug should be opened with Sage.

(PS: I am not sure this is real important to many users as I don't think the default STV used the Subcategory anywhere. I have customized my Video Browser so I could see the SubCategory based on imports I did with SageMC from DVD Profiler, so it would be nice if the genre imported properly).

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by jusjoken

Using the Default STVs refresh method to import .properties including genre with either a "/" or a ";", neither seems to import the second genre listed into the SubCategory field in the database. The entire string in the genre= property line is imported into the Category field in the database.

If no one else has had any luck with the import working for multiple categories, then perhaps a bug should be opened with Sage.

(PS: I am not sure this is real important to many users as I don't think the default STV used the Subcategory anywhere. I have customized my Video Browser so I could see the SubCategory based on imports I did with SageMC from DVD Profiler, so it would be nice if the genre imported properly).

I filed a bug report on this last September (see my post above here), but never got a response. I haven't noticed any rev notes in the Beta's to indicate that they have done anything to improve the MetaData handling in more recent versions...

I just gave up and used the jrekiwi .my file import, but if someone else would file a bug report, maybe it would get more attention.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by nielm

And what is the GenreID field for?

I forgot to post this one earlier: GenreID is a number from numeric genres used in old ID3 tagging.

- Andy

[jusjoken]

Originally Posted by Tiki

I filed a bug report on this last September (see my post above here), but never got a response. I haven't noticed any rev notes in the Beta's to indicate that they have done anything to improve the MetaData handling in more recent versions...

I just gave up and used the jrekiwi .my file import, but if someone else would file a bug report, maybe it would get more attention.

I have also filed a bug report for this.

[jusjoken]

I submitted a bug report regarding the import of the genre field from the .properties file and this was the response I got from Sage...

My example was "genre=comedy;action;drama"

"Ken,

This has now been updated for the next version. You'll be able to use a ';'
or '/' to separate a category/subcategory description in the .properties files for metadata.

It'll take everything after the first part and make that the subcategory, so
for your example 'action;drama' would end up being the subcategory.

Cheers,

SageTV Support Team
"

And of course the Category would be "comedy"


Ken

[stuckless]

As per the this post, it lists the following properties for music and videos.

* Title
* Album
* Artist
* AlbumArtist
* Composer
* Track
* TotalTracks
* Year
* Comment
* Genre
* GenreID
* Language
* Rated
* RunningTime
* Duration
* Description

I'm wondering if someone could explain the following properties as it relates to Videos.

• Album
• Artist
• AlbumArtist
• Composer
• Track
• TotalTracks
• RunningTime
• Duration

Thanks.

[rtrski]

Maybe this is a really ignorant question, but I'm new to this still, so feel free to peform a beat-down if I didn't search well enough before asking (thought I did!). Did find a very similar question HERE so I at least know I'm not alone in doing this (other question was about create-your-own properties, but would benefit from similar automation if filename structure already included some of the required fields).

This post from Opus describes the metadata fields. The BMT will try to populate a .PROPERTIES folder based on folder names (in the case of DVDs) and can be called up on a per-folder basis thru the Sage (or SageMC) interface. Obviously if the starting folder name isn't close enough though, things get wacky in a hurry....and then once a metadata search ends up CHANGING the name as shown in Sage, the IMDB search similarly goes wacky.

I come from a digital photography background (well, attempted! ) where all the good organization programs (Lightroom, PhotoMechanic, etc.) allow metadata tagging on your pictures, and you can do it in a quick, automated fashion (select a bunch of pics in a directory-tile like view, enter the tags, and apply to all at once, even with tools to allow sequential numbering and the like). I understand multiselecting things thru the Sage interface isn't the right way to go about this, but if one already has proper directory structure, e.g.

Battlestar Galactica
--Battlestar Galactica Season One
-- --Battlestar Galactica S01E01
-- -- --Video_TS folder (<---or co-named .avi, or .mkv, or whatever)
-- --Battlestar Galactica S01E02
.....

...it shouldn't be hard for someone good with coding (probably would be pretty slow for me, but I think even I could try to script something up that would run using VBscript or something) to parse the folder names, populate each directory name that's appropriate with a corresponding .PROPERTIES file that at least had the show title, season #, and episode # in it from the folder name supplied...after which the metadata tools should be able to "complete" filling the listing in pretty easily? Maybe that VBscript could even 'call' the BMT in a loop to fill out the population outside of Sage? Then you re-import the directory and have it all correct in one swoop? (Of course this is really only necessary when importing large numbers of incoming files...)

Or am I missing something entirely here, and BMT already does work in true 'batches' but I'm just the idiot who's been trying to run it a single file at a time?

I saw one external utility that imports one PROPERTIES file into another, but don' want to then hand-edit each one either.

Is this idea somewhat viable? Does something like it already exist?

UMMMM....re-reading Stuckless's description, that's exactly what BMT is supposed to do from a command-line. So, looks like I put my foot in it again. Sorry for the wasted post.

[will]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I'm wondering if someone could explain the following properties as it relates to Videos.

• Album
• Artist
• AlbumArtist
• Composer
• Track
• TotalTracks
• RunningTime
• Duration

Sorry for asking a question is such an old post but I can't figure out how to properly set the Duration for a <DVD>.properties file. Does anyone know how to set this?

Thanks.

[will]

Originally Posted by will

Sorry for asking a question is such an old post but I can't figure out how to properly set the Duration for a <DVD>.properties file. Does anyone know how to set this?

Thanks.

+bump

anyone?

[JREkiwi]

You don't need to set the duration, SageTV determines the duration when the DVD is imported.

John

[will]

Originally Posted by JREkiwi

You don't need to set the duration, SageTV determines the duration when the DVD is imported.

John

Using the default STV; mine only shows duration for MKVs. Is there a setting to get Sage to show this for DVDs?

I am using DVDs as a ripped folder.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by will

Using the default STV; mine only shows duration for MKVs. Is there a setting to get Sage to show this for DVDs?

I am using DVDs as a ripped folder.

Duration is a readonly field. I think this is a long standing sagetv issue... I don't think sagetv shows duration for DVDs... some plugins will show the Runtime field instead, which I think is populated by bmt/phoenix.