Hi all

Just wanted to say thanks to JackLuminous for a fantastic app it's exactly what I was looking for

I do have a quick question though for anyone that can answer it for me:

How do I force the app to gather the metadata for a TV show (as I have a few TV shows that will not update) ?
I've tried removing the hidden metadata folder that is in the TV series folder and starting the app up -- >Doesn't update
I've tried setting the NeedsMetadata line to True within the <seriesname>.folder   --> Doesn't update
I've tried reinstalling the app -- also nothing

Is there anyway I can add the Metadata files manually ? (I've tried already but it crashes the app...even if I try to amend an already existing file with the new series info)
Am currently re-reading the thread for about the forth time looking for something I've missed but If anyone can point me in the right direction it'd be much appreciated

Keep up the awesome work

Xkimo,

I just did a complete re-install for my Series (not doing the movies again, took ages to get them up to scratch adding metadata) and allowed fresh metadata updates for all series.  First time around, I had the same issue, couldn't really get much metadata.  The thing appears to be that it grabs metadata in the background, but if for any reason, you close the application, it seems to assume it's done (not sure if this is a bug or not JL).  Basically, to get it to download ALL application data, I browsed my series folder and sat it there for quite some time.  I didn't follow any links to series, just left it at the main page.  When I came back to the screen, all metadata had updated and all images were in place.

To test this, delete all metadata folders and browse to your series, and do as I did.  Leave it while you have dinner or something and come back to it.

Side Note:

It's new series time, and I just added the first episode of Season 5 of Entourage, and thought I'd allow it to test the waters when updating a new season.  It grabbed the thumbnail fine, but still only appears to have grabbed the small amount of data from the provider cache folder, didn't refresh the provider cache data.  I don't mind removing the Ep from the folder and trying anything you need to test this out, but yeah, thought I'd pass this on (not hard to fix, just remove the .metadata and let it refresh, but thought it would be worth testing).  That being said, I'm sure I'll have other new seasons in the coming weeks, so can keep testing it with them.

Cheers,

Schlep. :D

Schleppel,

Thanks for the reply will try that a bit later...although would it not have the same effect if I moved the series folders elsewhere then copied them back in to the TV root after I re-run the app again ? as only two of the series are old ones that wouldn't update the other three are brand new (and one of those updated straight away)

Thanks for the help and the quick reply

Xkimo

so basically, "background" is misleading. I never confirmed whether the app keeps downloading the season/ep info if you back out and go to a new series....

Also, this is a foreground application only with no additional services or background add-ins. The usage was "go into a folder" then "download any metadata needed".

To force a manual refresh just kill the series.xml and/or the /providercache/*.xml files.

Schlep, can you explain your scenario to me? I am not  familiar w/ Entourage so is this currently running series with a new season 5? If so, is thetvdb.com updated w/ season 5?

 

Xkimo,

Are you saying that it never finds metadata for some shows? If that's the case, can you post the [show name].series.xml file? Furthermore, what's in the <Status> tag in either the series or the episode file?

Are your shows recognized as tv episodes? Ie, if you looked at the matching xml for one of the of the episodes is <IsArchivedTV> set to True?

I had the same problem with Entourage, it refuses to grab the overview and episode thumbnail.

---

PC (HTPC): Vista x64 • AMD X2 4800+ • 2GB DDR400 • eVGA 7800 GT • 250GB HDD
SERVER: WHS • CM Stacker 810 • 3.4TB Storage • 300+DVDs • 19,000+ MP3s

Ok I have run into a problem with upgrading to 1.07

After install everything works fine on the VMC but on all the extenders I cannot play anything.  If browsing episodes clicking on the play button does nothing and when watching series if you click on the watch episode button nothing happens, it just goes beep.

Any ideas what is causing this.  All my files are on a network share and I am using the \\server in the config file.  All the covers and everything work fine.  I tried deleting all metadata and it got new metadata just fine but wont play anything.

Andrew

Unfortunately, I don't have an extender to verify.

On a side note: the current version should be at least 1.08 or 1.09 (I think).

Sorry I meant upgrading to 1.09

 

JackLuminous:

Xkimo,

Are you saying that it never finds metadata for some shows? If that's the case, can you post the [show name].series.xml file? Furthermore, what's in the <Status> tag in either the series or the episode file?

Are your shows recognized as tv episodes? Ie, if you looked at the matching xml for one of the of the episodes is <IsArchivedTV> set to True?

It appeared that It wouldn't find the metadata for the following shows:

Masters Of Horror
Flight of the conchords
Dr. Horrible Sing-along blog
History of the World Backwards
(there was another one but I can't remember it aty the moment)

In the metadata folders for the above shows it would only show the [show name].folder.xml and nothing else no matter how long I left it.

The paths were all as pretty much standard:  \TV\[seriesname]\Season\
The names of the shows were exactly as TVDB shows they should be and the file names either followed scene or were already renamed as per TVDB.

I tried removing all metadata and starting fresh but it only managed to find the other shows and left the ones above as before...
Eventually I just took an already used [show name].series.xml file from a series that worked and changed the name of the show, the show ID and set the needsmetadata to True and dropped it into the none working shows metadata folder (with the correct file name).  This then pulled all the metadata down as it did with the other shows.

I'm not sure if I have been doing anything wrong / missed something important but it all seems to be OK now and is picking up new shows that are added as it should

Congrats again on a fantastic app mate

I have some shows and movies that aren't updating because there are "multiple matches." I thought I remembered seeing a "Find Info" option in a previous version, but it did not seem to work. I was wondering if an option is planned which would display the "multiple matches" and allow the user to chose one. Otherwise, awesome plugin, by far the best VMC plugin I have seen. Please Please keep up the great work.

PS. I know how to get these shows to update manually, would be nice to have a more user friendly option. Once you get this streamlined, I think I'll be paying a visit to your paypal account if you have one.

 

Mogulbasher:

Ok I have run into a problem with upgrading to 1.07

After install everything works fine on the VMC but on all the extenders I cannot play anything.  If browsing episodes clicking on the play button does nothing and when watching series if you click on the watch episode button nothing happens, it just goes beep.

Any ideas what is causing this.  All my files are on a network share and I am using the \\server in the config file.  All the covers and everything work fine.  I tried deleting all metadata and it got new metadata just fine but wont play anything.

Andrew

I figured it out.  For some reason the install changed the properties of the video library folder so that users did not have access to it.  The extender could not therefore write to the now playing file and so nothing happened.  Changing the user permissions on the folder caused the extender to start working again.  Thought I would post in case anyone else runs into this.

cralderson,

Yes, the Find Info, is in the works and long overdue. It takes alot of free time to do a decent job and since I've been swamped in the Real Life™ I couldn't go as fast as I'd like. Blah blah..don't worry I want to get to a point where you don't have to fiddle w/ xml files; you will still be able to, mind you, but it won't be necessary. That's plan anyhow

cralderson:

I have some shows and movies that aren't updating because there are "multiple matches." I thought I remembered seeing a "Find Info" option in a previous version, but it did not seem to work. I was wondering if an option is planned which would display the "multiple matches" and allow the user to chose one. Otherwise, awesome plugin, by far the best VMC plugin I have seen. Please Please keep up the great work.

PS. I know how to get these shows to update manually, would be nice to have a more user friendly option. Once you get this streamlined, I think I'll be paying a visit to your paypal account if you have one.

 

JackLuminous

Any idea why it takes longer to load up when the search directory is a \\SERVER rather than a mapped network drive.  If  I take my VMC and set say L: to the Windows Home server the Video Library app fires up quite quickly.  Unfortunately with this approach none of the extender will work.  So you have to use the full path in the serch string.  When I do this it takes Video Library about 2 minutes to start.

thanks, not sure there is anything you can do about it but since you dont have an extender thought I would point it out.  A

There's definitely something I can do now that someone else other than myself has this problem. I also have WHS and noticed that it was taking twice as long.

So what happened was: I have code in there that says "if the path looks like a \\servername\share type of path then try to ping the server to ensure that it's up before trying to use it. If it is then continue..."  The purpose of this was to prevent things from slowing down (I thought..) due to the server being turned off or otherwise unavailable. In my previous tests, ping returned a quicker response for unavailable server shares than the .NET System.IO API.  Not the best solution but it had worked well for me until I moved my music,  episodes, photos, and DVDs to WHS. (which reminds me: i need to test how dvds worked under TVPack when played via videoLibrary)

In any case, since the code described above is not working well in the case of WHS, I am going to change it. I'll test it on my main MC /WHS and if this resolves it I will upload a new version.

 

Mogulbasher:

JackLuminous

Any idea why it takes longer to load up when the search directory is a \\SERVER rather than a mapped network drive.  If  I take my VMC and set say L: to the Windows Home server the Video Library app fires up quite quickly.  Unfortunately with this approach none of the extender will work.  So you have to use the full path in the serch string.  When I do this it takes Video Library about 2 minutes to start.

thanks, not sure there is anything you can do about it but since you dont have an extender thought I would point it out.  A