Utility: Phoenix Tools - Phoenix Renamer

[SkierHiker]

A little late in the game but I have a question regarding renaming files.

I'm using Phoenix Renamer to rename my files for Plex but I also want to keep them known to SageTV. I found that if you rename a SageTV recording with the Season/Episode and keep the AiringId in the name, SageTV still remembers the recording. Is there any way to use the Phoenix Renamer and keep the AiringId in the new name?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by SkierHiker

A little late in the game but I have a question regarding renaming files.

I'm using Phoenix Renamer to rename my files for Plex but I also want to keep them known to SageTV. I found that if you rename a SageTV recording with the Season/Episode and keep the AiringId in the name, SageTV still remembers the recording. Is there any way to use the Phoenix Renamer and keep the AiringId in the new name?

Unfortunately, no. Although, I'm not sure, but I think if there is a .properties created with the recording, and you rename the recording, it should rename the .properties as well (might require --renameArtifacts arg), and then sagetv should retain all the metadata when it re-imports the renamed media file.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Unfortunately, no. Although, I'm not sure, but I think if there is a .properties created with the recording, and you rename the recording, it should rename the .properties as well (might require --renameArtifacts arg), and then sagetv should retain all the metadata when it re-imports the renamed media file.

The only hitch with this would be if the .properties file didn't have the complete information. Normally, all a properties file gets written for is changes to metadata, so depending on how the file was originally formed, it may not be complete (a sage recording, for instance, has most the metadata in the file itself, and then any changes later (like by phoenix core, for instance) would be written to the .properties. If the file itself has been converted, it may have lost that embedded metadata.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

The only hitch with this would be if the .properties file didn't have the complete information. Normally, all a properties file gets written for is changes to metadata, so depending on how the file was originally formed, it may not be complete (a sage recording, for instance, has most the metadata in the file itself, and then any changes later (like by phoenix core, for instance) would be written to the .properties. If the file itself has been converted, it may have lost that embedded metadata.

IF you Install the CMT Plugin you can set it to create a properties file with all the metadata. I use Filebot to rename my files and I created a batchfile to retain the fileid.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents - S01E02 - Premonition -6608001-0.mp4

#Generator: CMT Metadata, written on Saturday, September 21, 2013 9:08 AM
SeasonNumber=1
Live=false
Subtitled=false
Director=Bob Stevens
Guest\ Voice=
ExtendedRatings=
Actor=John Forsythe;Cloris Leachman;Warren Stevens;George Macready;Percy Helton;Harry Tyler;Paul Brinegar
Trivia=
DiscNumber=0
MediaProviderID=tvdb
Host=Alfred Hitchcock
Stereo=false
Dolby=false
ScrapedDate=1377367852712
Writer=Harold Swanton
Correspondent=
EpisodeNumber=2
Anchor=
Dubbed=false
PartNumber=0
Guest\ Star=
Title=Alfred Hitchcock Presents
MediaType=TV
Guest=
Taped=false
IMDBID=tt0508232
3D=false
Executive\ Producer=Alfred Hitchcock
Letterbox=false
MediaTitle=Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Musical\ Guest=
ChannelPremiere=false
SAP=false
Producer=
OriginalAirDate=-449107200000
SeasonFinal=false
ParentalRating=TVPG
SeriesInfoID=184
MediaProviderDataID=73614
Description=A young man (John Forsythe) returns home after an absence of four years to investigate his father's death.
TrailerUrl=
Rated=
UserRating=70
Misc=
New=false
DD5.1=false
TotalParts=0
Language=
Contestant=
HDTV=false
Composer=
UserCategory=EDKEEP
Choreographer=
Team=
Narrator=
SeriesFinale=false
Judge=
Premiere=false
SeasonPremiere=false
CC=false
Genre=Drama/Anthology/Suspense
ExternalID=EP0001840106
Voice=
RunningTime=0
SeriesPremiere=false
Year=
Quotes=
EpisodeName=Premonition
Widescreen=false
Surround=false
TagLine=
ScrapedBy=Phoenix
SeasonFinale=false

UserCategory=

UserCategory=EDKEEP

[SkierHiker]

I ended up writing my own app to use Phoenix Renamer and then insert the SageTV AiringId into the name. I've attached a zip of the source code with the .exe in the Release folder. It's written in .Net C#. Anybody is welcome to use it and modify it. If you want me to modify it I will. Here's how it works:

1. Creates a temporary folder @RenTV in the root of your recordings drive.
2. Searches your SageTV folder for all .ts and .mpg files.
3. Skips any files already containing Season/Episode.
4. Extracts the AiringId from the file name of the recording.
5. One by one, moves the .ts or .mpg file and artifact files to the temp folder.
6. Runs Phoenix Renamer against the temp folder.
7. Adds the AiringId to each file name in the temp folder.
8. Moves the files from the temp folder back to the recordings folder.

To install RenTV follow the steps below:

1. Install Phoenix Renamer.
2. Install the .Net Framework 4 Client Framework.
3. Copy RenTV.exe to your folder of choice. I recommend the PhoenixTools folder.
4. Create a shortcut with the necessary parameters (see below).
5. Run the shortcut.

There are four parameters:

1. Your SageTV Recordings folder ("" if RenTV is in this folder)
2. Phoenix Renamer folder ("" if RenTV is in this folder)
3. The number of recordings you want to rename (0 for all)
4. Boolean for Suppressing Output ("1" to not show any output)

Shortcut Examples:

C:\PhoenixTools\RenTV.exe "E:\\My Recordings" (renames all files)
C:\PhoenixTools\RenTV.exe "E:\\My Recordings" "" 1 (renames only 1 file)
E:\My Recordings\RenTV.exe "" "C:\\PhoenixTools" 0 "1" (renames all files with no console output)

Some caveats:

1. The --renameArtifacts option is hardcoded
2. There is no masking
3. UNC file names are not supported
4. You must double wack (\\) your paths

I used this as a one time conversion of my recordings from SageTV to Plex on the Roku. I still have my HDPVR recording to my Plex TV folder and have set the SageTV options to add Season/Episodes so I don't have to do this again.

@stuckless - Good to see you're still around. If you have the time could you look into two TV shows that did not get renamed? They are Castle and Myth Busters. I tried various flavors of the SageTV name but to no avail. Castle is the one I'd really like to figure out why your renamer can't find it. Here's are a couple of Castle and Myth Buster SageTV file names.

Castle-AChillGoesThroughHerVeins-3901187-0
Castle-Countdown-2853135-0

MythBusters-BouncingBullet-5425729-0
MythBusters-DuctTapePlane-5502975-0

Thanks.

[stuckless]

If I recall, Castle has multiple entries (ie, multiple series called castle). I use a MediaTitles.xml entry for castle.

btw, thanks for posting your tool as well.

[DDuckles]

Can someone help me out with this? Calling phoenix-renamer against a directory and get this response:

INFO - Phoenix Home: C:\PhoenixTools
SLF4J: Failed to load class "org.slf4j.impl.StaticLoggerBinder".
SLF4J: Defaulting to no-operation (NOP) logger implementation
SLF4J: See http://www.slf4j.org/codes.html#StaticLoggerBinder for further detail
s.
INFO - Phoenix Standalone is online and ready for commands

...and it returns to the command prompt.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by DDuckles

Can someone help me out with this? Calling phoenix-renamer against a directory and get this response:

INFO - Phoenix Home: C:\PhoenixTools
SLF4J: Failed to load class "org.slf4j.impl.StaticLoggerBinder".
SLF4J: Defaulting to no-operation (NOP) logger implementation
SLF4J: See http://www.slf4j.org/codes.html#StaticLoggerBinder for further detail
s.
INFO - Phoenix Standalone is online and ready for commands

...and it returns to the command prompt.

HOw are you calling it... that output is actually normal when no parameters are passed.

[DDuckles]

Cut from a command window:

C:\PhoenixTools>phoenix-renamer c:\TorrentToRename
INFO - Phoenix Home: C:\PhoenixTools
SLF4J: Failed to load class "org.slf4j.impl.StaticLoggerBinder".
SLF4J: Defaulting to no-operation (NOP) logger implementation
SLF4J: See http://www.slf4j.org/codes.html#StaticLoggerBinder for further detail
s.
INFO - Phoenix Standalone is online and ready for commands

C:\PhoenixTools>

[DDuckles]

Oops! Thanks for pointing out the obvious. Wrong path.

BTW, love BMT.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by DDuckles

Oops! Thanks for pointing out the obvious. Wrong path.

BTW, love BMT.

It happens

[Tweety]

I came upon this extremely useful utility and have been using it now with great success... One little niggle of annoyance though, that if at all possible I'd like to see changed...

If I have "extra material" that I use XBMC's "video extra" plugin for, the tool tries to match and rename then, failing miserably, to my annoyance... Could it have the option to ignore an "extras" sub folder? That would make my life soo much easier...

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by Tweety

I came upon this extremely useful utility and have been using it now with great success... One little niggle of annoyance though, that if at all possible I'd like to see changed...

If I have "extra material" that I use XBMC's "video extra" plugin for, the tool tries to match and rename then, failing miserably, to my annoyance... Could it have the option to ignore an "extras" sub folder? That would make my life soo much easier...

that is a good idea, I'll add it to the list. At the moment, I'm not doing any active development, but I'm hoping to get back to development this fall.

[SWKerr]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Something else to consider as well... Phoenix Renamer supports a --cmd argument that enables you to call another command when the rename is complete. The command that is called is passed a single argument which the newly renamed file.

What is important about this, is that the environment for the called script will contain all the metadata for the file that is passed in, as environment variables. Each Phoenix Metadata variable, such as SeasonNumber or EpisodeNumber is exposed as PHOENIX_SEASONNUMBER and PHOENIX_EPISODENAME, etc.

So, using this knowledge you could easily write a batch file that uses that information to once again rename files, create directories, etc.

In my scenario, I typically use the --cmd arg to call a "move" script that moves my newly renamed file into it's TV series folder. --cmd is ONLY executed if the initial metadata lookup and rename was successful.

I don't suppose anyone has an example of this?

This appears to be a great tool for putting my SageTV Library into a Kodi friendly format. The renamer works fine but until you actually move the TV series into its own folder Kodi will not recognize them. Did not find an example of this anywhere but it looks like it is possible.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by SWKerr

I don't suppose anyone has an example of this?

This appears to be a great tool for putting my SageTV Library into a Kodi friendly format. The renamer works fine but until you actually move the TV series into its own folder Kodi will not recognize them. Did not find an example of this anywhere but it looks like it is possible.

I don't have an example of this... but you can play with this in a test area...

if you create a .bat file like moveit.bat, then you can initially just dump out the env vars and see what you get...

phoenix-rename --cmd movit.bat TVFILE

initially the bat might just do this...

SET > env.txt

that should list the all the known varialbes... then it's just a matter of finding which variables and using them..

it might end up being something like...

mkdir TV\Shows\%PHOENIX_SERIESNAME%
move %1 TV\Shows/%PHOENIX_SERIESNAME%\

You'd have to play with it and see

[skyeclad]

Stuckless, if I rename my tv files to make them more Plex friendly, will SageTV lose the database lookup and drop it from the TV list? I noticed that a single file I renamed was no longer in the Recorded TV list.

I wanted to try out Plex but I don't want to screw up Sagetv in the meanwhile. I'm not entirely sure that Plex is necessary yet.

[SWKerr]

Gemstone allows you to treat imported TV files like they were part of the TV Library. The newly renamed files just show back up your shows listing. In basic Sage they would just show up in the import folder because behind the scenes they are just imported recordings. I am not sure how the rename would impact how SageTV tracks what it records.

I have done my whole library at this point using phoenix-renamer and a windows tool called theRenamer.exe. I found using both tools got me better results since some things matched with one and not the other. theRenamer.exe also puts them in a Show\Season directory although you have control over this option. There was still a lot of manual work to setup some exceptions for titles that did not match or did so incorrectly. But this only has to be done once. There are some shows that will never match because they are not in the TVDB database or just have bad EPG data like missing or wrong episode numbers or titles. Sports and news also will not match. I just leave these in the Recording directory where they play in SageTv but do not import into Kodi or Plex.

I now run a nightly batch file that moves them from a recording directory to a import directory. I really don't notice a change in SageTV with Gemstone.

Nightly batch:
c:
cd \Data\PhoenixTools
phoenix-renamer --renameArtifacts D:\RecordedTV

c:
cd C:\Program Files (x86)\theRenamer
theRenamer.exe -fetch -o -tvam="on" -ff="D:\RecordedTV" -af="D:\DVR"

Note: theRenamer has a GUI interface as well and you can see and approve the name change before committing.

Lastly: Recorded movies were an issue. I had to remove the SageTV recording Id before processing them. I got something like x(2014) for the rename. (Same problem in both tools) This was not a big deal since they tend to be large files so I was able to sort by size and move them out to a temp movie folder before processing them. Could be an issue if you record movies though and use the batch file.

[skyeclad]

SWKerr,

I'm not 100% committed to Plex just yet and I'd like to avoid changing the Sage UI at this point, WAF reasons. I guess SkierHiker's RenTV mod would be a good option but I need to reach out and ask what I might be doing wrong because it keeps failing on me. Maybe I'm doing something wrong but I think I've followed the directions pretty well.

[SWKerr]

Originally Posted by skyeclad

SWKerr,

I'm not 100% committed to Plex just yet and I'd like to avoid changing the Sage UI at this point, WAF reasons. I guess SkierHiker's RenTV mod would be a good option but I need to reach out and ask what I might be doing wrong because it keeps failing on me. Maybe I'm doing something wrong but I think I've followed the directions pretty well.

If you have not tried Gemstone it would probably add to the WAF.
It does not really change the way that you navigate like Phoenix. Just adds a lot of eye candy like banners and Fan-art and different sort and filter options.

For Plex you may want to look at the Plex Scanner plugin. It works pretty well and allows you to add most of your TV library to Plex without renaming the files. It is not perfect but adds almost everything to Plex without changing the SageTV Library. I went the rename route because I wanted to use XBMC\Kodi as well.

Note: Plex does not support Comskip. And in some of the Plex clients not all options are functional at this time. (Although they are working on them)
I have found Plex is really best when you need to stream to something like a Tablet that may have a problem playing back the native file format. I really prefer Kodi for an HTPC since it offers NextPVR integration and a lot of other great plug-ins. And...I have been impressed with Kodi on the $40 Amazon Fire Stick. But Kodi does not support things like Netfix, Hulu, HBO and Amazon which is were something like the Fire Stick and Plex may be better.
You can use Playon for Online integration in Kodi but it is not as slick as having a dedicated app like on the fire stick.

Personally I use Xbox Ones and the HDMI pass-thru to my HTPCs on the Big TVs so I can use the Xbox for my online apps but can switch quickly to the HTPC for Kodi or SageTV. (There is also a Plex app for the Xbox) But on the smaller TVs around the house a dedicated PC is overkill or impractical, so...I have SageTV extenders that I am now replacing with Fire Sticks with both Plex and Kodi. I have not really picked a winner on Plex vs Kodi. Plex might be better for WAF as it is simpler to navigate but there is no Live TV. Also: Plex is really the only practical option for tablets or phones. Kodi is more complicated to setup but also has a lot more options and plugins. I will probably use both depending on mood and\or platform.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by SWKerr

If you have not tried Gemstone it would probably add to the WAF.
It does not really change the way that you navigate like Phoenix. Just adds a lot of eye candy like banners and Fan-art and different sort and filter options.

For Plex you may want to look at the Plex Scanner plugin. It works pretty well and allows you to add most of your TV library to Plex without renaming the files. It is not perfect but adds almost everything to Plex without changing the SageTV Library. I went the rename route because I wanted to use XBMC\Kodi as well.

Note: Plex does not support Comskip. And in some of the Plex clients not all options are functional at this time. (Although they are working on them)
I have found Plex is really best when you need to stream to something like a Tablet that may have a problem playing back the native file format. I really prefer Kodi for an HTPC since it offers NextPVR integration and a lot of other great plug-ins. And...I have been impressed with Kodi on the $40 Amazon Fire Stick. But Kodi does not support things like Netfix, Hulu, HBO and Amazon which is were something like the Fire Stick and Plex may be better.
You can use Playon for Online integration in Kodi but it is not as slick as having a dedicated app like on the fire stick.

Personally I use Xbox Ones and the HDMI pass-thru to my HTPCs on the Big TVs so I can use the Xbox for my online apps but can switch quickly to the HTPC for Kodi or SageTV. (There is also a Plex app for the Xbox) But on the smaller TVs around the house a dedicated PC is overkill or impractical, so...I have SageTV extenders that I am now replacing with Fire Sticks with both Plex and Kodi. I have not really picked a winner on Plex vs Kodi. Plex might be better for WAF as it is simpler to navigate but there is no Live TV. Also: Plex is really the only practical option for tablets or phones. Kodi is more complicated to setup but also has a lot more options and plugins. I will probably use both depending on mood and\or platform.

Why do you need to pick a winner between Kodi and Plex when you can have them both by Installing the Plex Plugin in Kodi. That is what I have done NEXTPVR to Kodi + Plex Plugin. Also on a local network you can use the Plex Kodi Plugin and comskip will work. .... by setting the playback option in Plex Plugin to SMB. Just make sure Comskip ini has this option .... edl_skip_field=3...