How to properly name your media files for DMS

[tbrown25]

The MS uses the web site "themoviedb.org" as it's primary source of meta information. In that system, the episodes are numbered sequentially starting with 1 and proceeding in the ordered the episodes were aired. (note: I sometimes find errors in that database)

Frequently, the pilot episode for a tv show will be listed in that system under "season 0". The movie server currently cannot deal with season 0 and thus pilot episodes are not handled as far as a poster wall goes. I've been complaining about this problem for at least a year. They say it will be fixed in a future firmware release.

Under the latest firmware (2013), I have found that the MS does very well handling movies. However, the system does not handle TV shows as it should.There are quite a few problems in the tv show part of the system. Hopefully, that will get addressed sometime soon.

[TRJ]

If you are using Clone, the only way to access it as individual episodes is with the menu on the original disc, which is included in Clone output. You can use Customize copy mode and rename each title using the naming conventions listed elsewhere here in a sticky.
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I do understand that to access the individual episodes will require using the 'Menu mode" and play the whole disc. The real question is with a single ISO file, if the naming convention is used and is for four episodes as an example, will it at least show 4 clips for the episodes be given/shown?

[signals]

I think not, but I must honestly say I have never tried it that way. If the disc is authored as you outline with one of the consecutive episodes on a different disc, I think you will be happier using Customize or Ripper to have a file for each episode for easy selection (not organized on a disc basis). The DMS should automatically put them in a Collection under a single poster that you can open to choose the episode, much like a menu.

[TRJ]

Signals - thank you for the feedback. Note the example we been discussing just happens to be the first one I started with - most others of mine are likely consecutive but my first 2 tests on one that is still doesn't seem to work. Here is my dilemma.

I have somewhere between 300-500 original season discs for CSI, CSI Miami, CSI NY, CSI Cyber, NCIS, NCIS LA, NCIS New Orleans, Hawaii 5-0, Arrow, Flash, Agents of Shield, Supergirl, Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead, Airwolf, Bones, McGyver, Terminator Chronicles, Jessica Jones, Daredevil, Shannarah Chronicles, Resurrection, Games of Throne, Jack Ryan, Westworld, just to name a few just off the top of my head (I have many, many more not listed - and yes - all are original). I am looking to keep ISO's a) in order to keep all the extras with the discs, b) it simpler process to just rip the ISO especially dealing with this volume of shows, and c) Trying to rip/match, confirm literally thousands of episodes, only to loose menus, and extras - doesn't make sense when ISO appear play ok in themselves, d) keeping ISO ensures a single starting point closest to the original should software or other things change later and not having to start over (i.e. future software works better for menus, etc), e) user friendliness with sufficient customization generally leads to less maintenance down the line and f) I have a very large family of 7 and am trying to make is easier to access all these via the media server instead of by discs.

So for sake of getting the basic premise working for starters let's assume most shows will be consecutive (I understand there will be some issues with some out of order and also pilots, etc. causing some issues here/there).

Other posters have suggested that the using the labeling convention has or does give them the clips for the list based on the naming convention (i.e. 4 episodes on disk, naming convention given for 4 episodes, and therefore 4 clips are shown), however I've only seen one so far with each try. To be sure we are talking about the same thing, by clips - I mean the list of episodes show at the bottom of the example shown in the attachment provided for clarity. From reviewing other posts, I gather that, there seems to be some priority of XML over naming conventions, but I've really not seen more than one episode appear for a multi-episode disc myself yet and given it appears others have had it work I'm trying to work through where my error may be. Note in another world of gaming/retro systems, with many XML related files and specific naming conventions, they typically publish something to show the hierarchy of the logic to help power users make the most of it. Here with how the system seems to update, depend on various methods of updating, rebuilding, or updating library/meta data, etc I've not got a true picture of the hierachy.

If showing the several episode "clips" per disc is possible, then this is the ideal situation for me even if it plays the whole disc when clicking on it.

However as a second best solution would be to simply allow customized labeling below the "clips" to allow you to relabel something such as Disc 1, Episodes X-Y", etc, but would also allow you to update the Plots above for the clip to the extent you desire (i.e. put in mutli episode info, or even simply titles/numbers for the episodes. That way when you click on it, it still loads the whole disc, but the name of what is being accessed is correct and makes sense. Then if this were possible, also ordering and adjusting the clip could further allow you to easily add pilots, etc. Right now I am concentrating on the main episodes but I have not found any way of updating the XML for these items related to the clips. In theory, to be most flexible to the user, you should be able to tailor most areas shown. The current web access seems to allow a limited edits - when the user has other needs, should be a bit more flexible.

Additional thoughts that digress beyond the main point above:
I think the media server has a lot of potential and simply love the few things I do have working. But I am a long way from where I want to be and it has been more difficult than expected even for someone such as myself with much database, XML and other scripting experience to get things going smoothly and a satisfactory end result (TV shows, bonus discs, pilots, home videos, etc). To this issue, giving a bit more end-user control to at least add/modify much of the basic metadata the way the user would like it to be would be desirable. To make this product great simply needs a bit more end-user capable customization of the metadata and/or even allow some customizable fields, and not force a reliance on a single scraping site/senario. Assume there will be errors and/or missing info, and give the user a way to adjust if they wish.

As an example of something that scrapes movie data and allows sufficient customization (strictly a database, but essentially contains/obtains/and allows customization of the same type info used by the media server) I've been using All-My-Movies for close to 10 years and have been able to tailor all the needed items to cover my own posters/clips and info to satisfy even any fully customized situation, including discs that I've made such as home movies, or putting together misc videos I've obtains such as a large number of sort clips.

[tbrown25]

Since no one was sure how this works anymore, I went ahead and did a test run, transferring a 3 episode disk as a single iso file.

Under firmware 2013, this results in a single episode level poster labelled EPISODE 1.

Guess I was taken by surprise as the last time I did this, I got multiple episode level posters. But, that was several versions of firmware back and as firmware changes, so does the system.

[TRJ]

tbrown25 -Thank you for checking on this. I'm going nuts as a newbie to this MS, since I've been following a sticky post (that I assume is correct and stuck as important) that explains how to do it and yet it doesn't work - so it's been driving me crazy. So Far I've tried 3 DVD discs and one bluray disc and so far no luck. I was going to attempt a third show today just to see, but I don't have much hope.

I've noted that Kodi, and other systems do use similar naming convention allowances or nfo files with episode data. Here, neither seems to work currently that I've been able to identify, at least under the latest firmwares. Given that Movies and TV shows are the core of it's life (at least for me), I hope they address this sooner than later. Even a shorter term solution of just recognizing naming conventions (and later implementing the nfo file XML recognition) would be helpful.

FYI...the following is a nice technical syntex discussion from Kodi that could be helpful
https://kodi.wiki/view/Naming_video_files/TV_shows (See Section 6.4)

So we know the initial episode scrape appears to be working ok. It seems the additional scrapes are not occurring. If the naming conventions of 6.4 worked here, I could address not only consecutive episodes, but ones that are out of order (if this occurs). I recognize that multi-episodes are not considered "best practice", but for those of us who purchased the MS, based on using ISO's, and the fact that it appears the MS used to do this, and it is something other servers do, I hope it's something that can be resolved soon.

[Movie Man]

Hello DMS Team, I have updated again to the version 2.0.2.1. Many of my previous Cover art changed. Not only did it change the cover art but also renamed of the movies. I have read the how to name the files and folders and still it cannot identify correctly. Also any move that I have that is 2 disc or more will only place the cover art work on the 1st disc. This started recently. Please provide the Covert art info for the Band of Brothers (2001), The Pacific (2013). I have all the original covert art for all my movies and I have tried several time to add it the the local DMS Media Server. Some update some do not. For example, The Pacific (2013) renamed the movie and cover art to "Lost in the Pacific", then it renamed it to "War Dogs of the Pacific" completely different movies and names. I have tried to manually update the cover art locally but no luck. Please resolve these constant re-occurring issues.
Thanks

[briana]

Hello,

Having an issue with movie server not playing the videos. Everything is current and movie server sees the files, shows the cover art, disk information and movie synopsis, year and cast information. But it won’t play them just returns an error trying to play message.
I have Tried ISO, MKV and TS files without any success.

[briana]

Also note that the movie server only reports the hard drive size as 1024mb when it is actually a 8Tb
This is not helpful! Movie is named correctly. The movie server sees the files shows the cover art and the movie synopsis but the movie won’t play.

do you have any other information rather than naming?

[signals]

The drive may not have been formatted or partitioned correctly for the DMS to recognize it. As to the naming, the scraper works pretty well if the name and year of the title match what is in the database. Double check that.

Remove the drive from the DMS and connect it to a pc, see if the movies will play on that configuration. You really should have started a new thread instead of posting in this old unrelated one. Do that next time.

[signals]

All,
This old thread has information that is dated and will be closed. If you have a question about naming or a problem, please start a new thread in the DMS forum, thanks.