Metadata for DVDs NOT stored on disk?

[elaw]

Okay so here's a weird idea I had, wondering if this is possible (preferably in SageMC) with a plugin, or if not whether anyone had considered writing one...

What I'm looking for is a way to store info on my DVD collection (which has not been ripped to HD) in Sage, then use it when I want to view a movie. Here's how I picture it working:

1. I enter info about each of my DVDs. Preferably only title and physical location, IMDB or similar would be used to get the other info.
2. In Sage, I go to "my videos". In addition to everything else shown there, the titles of DVDs I entered in step 1 are listed.
3. I select a DVD that's not on HD. A prompt appears showing the location of the DVD and telling me to insert the disc into the DVD drive. Something like "That DVD is in the upstairs cabinet, 3rd shelf. Please insert the DVD and click OK".
4. After putting the DVD into the drive, I press a button to confirm, then Sage begins playing the disc.

Does this make sense?

And yes I know I could rip all my DVDs to hard disk, I'd just rather use my time and disk space for other pursuits!

[matt91]

Sean's metadata importer provides for offline movies. Not sure it does everything you want, but you could look into it:

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34301

[MeInMaui]

Offline DVD support is already built in to SageMC using DVD Profiler. It works pretty much just the way you describe.

Aloha,
Mike

[elaw]

Cool! I had seen some references to DVD profiler but didn't realize it'll do what I want.

Can I ask a few dumb questions about the DVD profiler interface?

I set up DVD profiler (on a machine other than my Sage server), loaded info on a few of my DVDs into it, and exported the database to an XML file. Put said file into a folder on my Sage server, and configured SageMC's "metadata XML path" to point to that file.

When I go into my videos and to the "import offline videos" screen, there are two problems. First, it shows 4 DVDs but my profiler database has 5! Also, I see the DVD tiles listed and a "cancel" button, how do I do the import?

To see if it made any difference, I installed DVD profiler on the server, then imported the database from the workstation I first installed it on... nothing seemed to change (I set the DVD profiler path in SageMC setup to point to the local database "images" folder).

Also... what is "offline path" in settings?

Thanks!