i wouldn't mind being in on the beta test..... 

You know I'm up for testing!

...And I think including me would make up the usual suspects ;)

_)*(_!#*!_@(_+!!! I just tried a bunch of times to make a lengthy post and this (@)#(*@ thing gives "web page not found" ? Whatever. Anyways, the lengthy post is up on my skyDrive at

http://cid-bc8c4296c2addc53.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Public/videolibrary

This is where I'll put the refresh.

JackLuminous:

_)*(_!#*!_@(_+!!! I just tried a bunch of times to make a lengthy post and this (@)#(*@ thing gives "web page not found" ?

This is related to the other bug we've been talking about in a few other posts. Just reply with some temporary text (like "placeholder") and then go back and edit the reply and type out your normal post. This has generally always worked for me to get around the reply bugs.

Checking out your SkyDrive stuff, will report back later!

Ok, removed old version, installed the new version. Crashes as soon as I run the plugin.

VideoLibrary.log:

07/06/2008 22:43:20.664 - Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
   at VideoLibraryEngine.Services.VideoDiscovery.GetDefaultRecordedTVFolders()
   at VideoLibraryEngine.Services.VideoDiscovery.GetDefaultWatchedFolders()
   at VideoLibrary.LibraryApplication.CreateDefaultConfiguration()
   at VideoLibrary.LibraryApplication.LoadConfiguration()
   at VideoLibrary.LibraryApplication.Start()

I'm assuming this is because I don't have a tuner and thus don't have any recorded TV folders?

Notes from Word file:

JackLuminous:

I am considering but have not fully thought out how/when to expire the cache automatically.

Is there a way to check thetvdb site to see if a series is still running? If so, I'd say expire it based on the next time a new episode airs. Could figure this out based on the air-dates of older episodes maybe?

JackLuminous:

I am seriously thinking of pulling ALL non-hidden files from a folder and look-them up in Registry to see if they are perceived as video files by Windows --I am currently looking only at a pre-set list of file types. What do you guys think?  I haven't tested to see what the overhead is like (my collections are tiny compared to you guys')

I would probably load all of the files and see if they're "perceived as video files by Windows". Later you could add functionality to display .nfo (scene info files) or something nifty like that.

another assumption crashes and burns..lol....I'll do proper checks there.

Ogre:

Ok, removed old version, installed the new version. Crashes as soon as I run the plugin.

VideoLibrary.log:

07/06/2008 22:43:20.664 - Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
   at VideoLibraryEngine.Services.VideoDiscovery.GetDefaultRecordedTVFolders()
   at VideoLibraryEngine.Services.VideoDiscovery.GetDefaultWatchedFolders()
   at VideoLibrary.LibraryApplication.CreateDefaultConfiguration()
   at VideoLibrary.LibraryApplication.LoadConfiguration()
   at VideoLibrary.LibraryApplication.Start()

I'm assuming this is because I don't have a tuner and thus don't have any recorded TV folders?

Yes. There is a broadcast status (currently saved in series.xml and video.xml) that indicates ended/continuing.

When a new episode gets added, if the series is continuing, the episode is not in the cache, and and the last update was over X days ago, then download series information again....

...I'm 90% close to just pulling all non-hidden files in a folder and checking their perceived type and be done with it....

PS. Thanks for the feedback, Ogre, with regards to the "i don't have tuner, dummy!" :-). I've noted the need for fail-safe checking

Ogre:

Is there a way to check thetvdb site to see if a series is still running? If so, I'd say expire it based on the next time a new episode airs. Could figure this out based on the air-dates of older episodes maybe? ....

JackLuminous:

I am seriously thinking of pulling ALL non-hidden files from a folder and look-them up in Registry to see if they are perceived as video files by Windows --I am currently looking only at a pre-set list of file types. What do you guys think?  I haven't tested to see what the overhead is like (my collections are tiny compared to you guys')

I would probably load all of the files and see if they're "perceived as video files by Windows". Later you could add functionality to display .nfo (scene info files) or something nifty like that.

Almost forgot ...there is now a language config setting so you can set what language versions you want to use with thetvdb.com. More info later

Damn. I should have paid more attention to this post. It described what was happening precisely with that wierd crash bug .....

JJohnson:

In the TV Shows folder, a few straggling video files are still in there.  When in tv library, I see this:

[Scrubs.avi ]       [Andromeda] [Andromeda Deutsch] [Angel] [Angel - Jäger der Finsternis]....

If I'm on Andromeda, and click the left arrow, tv library crashes.  It doesn't like the stragglers.  Once I get rid of the video files, and leave bare folders, it's ok.  I haven't done much with movies yet, as I was more concerned with the TV side of it, but I'll take a look there soon.

James

JL,

Love it, I was so excited to check and find you'd posted a new release.

I started from scratch with all my files, and had the same error as Ogre, but that's cause I don't have a tuner in this machine (I guess).  I went through and found it much faster to add new shows than it has been before.  I have quite a number, and they have all added nice and quickly.  I'm doing my Movies scan while I type this post, as it's going to take a while (just under 400 now..).  I used my old .config file and just renamed it, and everything worked as expected.  However, I seem to have stuffed one thing up.  My Spanned folders aren't working properly anymore.  my videos.folder.xml file has these lines in it (direct from the previous file that worked).

  <SpannedFolders>
   <SpannedFolder Content="\\STUART\My Videos 2" Enabled="true"/>
  </SpannedFolders>

and I also have this line in my .config file

    <add key="CombineDuplicateFolders" value="true" />

I can't remember if there was anything else, but this did work and now isn't too happy with me :)

I also noticed that I have a few shows where they played 2 eps back-to-back and I have cut the AVI file in half to allow proper episode sorting.  On these shows where the two eps aired on the same date, I find that it puts episode 02 before episode 01.  I think it might have something to do with the modified date of the files...  I'll keep you posted on that one, 'cause if it's that, there's nothing to change :)

I have a few music and comedy videos in different folders, and they seem to work well.  However, if the filename and year don't get me a search result, I'm not sure what else I can try to add for searching, do I just fill in more fields, or do only some of them count to the search..?

Considering this is a Beta, and I only have a query or 2, you're doing a stand-up job JL.  I love the app, and really do encourage you to open up a donations path.  I won't expect any better support than I'm getting ('cause, for a single Dev. you're doing an amazing job), but I'd really like to make a small contribution to you.

Cheers,

Schlep :D

Schlep,

Thanks for the feedback and support. This is my main hobby (to my spouse's chagrin) so no donations are necessary. The thought of it is nice, but..ah .no :-).

Ok, my bad for not thinking about lack of tuners. I'll suss this out.

With regards to the episode on the same day sorting problem, I can confirm that. I get the same prob with my Avatar boiling rock eps (I initially updated the entry in tvdb). I was in the process of making it use the EpisodeNumberAndSubTitle but i didn't finish.

With regards to name + year not being enough to find anything...maybe I'll go back and let you put in an <ID>...since it'll take another 2 weekends to get a BASIC (read: b-f-ugly) find UI available.

schleppel:

JL,

Love it, I was so excited to check and find you'd posted a new release.

I started from scratch with all my files, and had the same error as Ogre, but that's cause I don't have a tuner in this machine (I guess).  I went through and found it much faster to add new shows than it has been before.  I have quite a number, and they have all added nice and quickly.  I'm doing my Movies scan while I type this post, as it's going to take a while (just under 400 now..).  I used my old .config file and just renamed it, and everything worked as expected.  However, I seem to have stuffed one thing up.  My Spanned folders aren't working properly anymore.  my videos.folder.xml file has these lines in it (direct from the previous file that worked).

  <SpannedFolders>
   <SpannedFolder Content="\\STUART\My Videos 2" Enabled="true"/>
  </SpannedFolders>

and I also have this line in my .config file

    <add key="CombineDuplicateFolders" value="true" />

I can't remember if there was anything else, but this did work and now isn't too happy with me :)

I also noticed that I have a few shows where they played 2 eps back-to-back and I have cut the AVI file in half to allow proper episode sorting.  On these shows where the two eps aired on the same date, I find that it puts episode 02 before episode 01.  I think it might have something to do with the modified date of the files...  I'll keep you posted on that one, 'cause if it's that, there's nothing to change :)

I have a few music and comedy videos in different folders, and they seem to work well.  However, if the filename and year don't get me a search result, I'm not sure what else I can try to add for searching, do I just fill in more fields, or do only some of them count to the search..?

Considering this is a Beta, and I only have a query or 2, you're doing a stand-up job JL.  I love the app, and really do encourage you to open up a donations path.  I won't expect any better support than I'm getting ('cause, for a single Dev. you're doing an amazing job), but I'd really like to make a small contribution to you.

Cheers,

Schlep :D

i installed it on my system and had a few little issues....

1.  the program does find metadata better than it used to but it still did not get metadata for about half of my movies.  (not a huge issue though)
2.  for some reason i cant force it to use cover mode anymore and there was no folder.xml to set the cover option.  moving my old one in did not help either.
3.  i know my naming convention will be off but i went ahead and added my tv folder to this as well to help test out that side of it and still no metadata downloaded (not sure if it is supposed to work better or not yet)

anyways those were my quick impressions of the new version...

jagowar,

1. actually I was expecting the same performance or a little better. For the movies that it doesn't find, can you find them off movie-xml.com?

2. "Folder.xml" is no more. If the folder is identified as just a plain folder --ie. it's not a series and not a season folder -- then the filename you want is [my folder name].folder.xml. The imagetype attribute is the same as before but I may have  borked things up with the default values. They may be "NotSpecified" by default.

3. In the case of your "tv folder" are these the archived tv files stuff? The archivedtvexpression handling is the  same so you can use the same one you used before.

Since there are no longer any seriesmatches.xml or moviematches.xml files anymore, what i WILL DO is give a user-friendly description of why there's no metadata.

For example, "no matches could be found" or "Multiple matches reported but could not identify the correct one", or "Movie metadata provider, Movie-xml could not be contacted". Since I killed the *matches.xml file, this feedback went missing as well....