DVRMS Metadata Populator takes MyMovies metadata and places it into your DVR-MS file's attributes. I created this tool after taking a look at the new 7MC Movie Library and wanting to try it out with my DVR-MS movies. The tool waits for a directory to be input and then traverses through all subdirectories. In each directory, it will look for the mymovies.xml file and then migrate that metadata into the first dvr-ms file in that directory that it finds.

The metadata that is used is as follows: actors, directors, description, title, genres, rating, production year, parental rating (US), parental rating reason and the movie flag. The IMDB ratings used by MyMovies is a 10-star system whereas Media Center uses an 8-star system (considering the half-stars). The rating conversion is as follows: 9,10(****); 8(***½); 7(***); 6(**½); 5(**); 4(*½); 3(*); 1,2(½).

IMPORTANT: Due to the way metadata is stored and the size of video files and the length of the description metadata, modifying the metadata can take a long time (several minutes depending on video size, disk speed, etc.) because the header must be enlarged in memory so there is going to be a lot of disk activity. Do not kill the program unless you want to corrupt the dvr-ms file being processed. If you have a large collection to process at once, expect the application to run for several hours. This time could probably be greatly reduced by forming a new file so feel free to modify the code to do so.

This is my first attempt at a C# .NET program. Thanks go to Stephen Toub, Andy VT (DVRMSToolbox) and MediaBrowser project for their code and help.

If you don't have .NET Framework 3.5, you will probably need to install that before using this tool.

Application and source are posted here:

http://www.mymovies.dk/forum.aspx?g=posts&t=12530

Do you know if this will work with the Metedata file created by Yammm(The one that's compatible with the native Media Center Movie appl)

Looks interesting, but I'm a little confused at what this accomplishes.

Are you saying that once a dvr-ms file has metadata in it, it will show up properly in windows 7's Movie Library? And not show up in Recorded TV?

If the Movie type is set to Bluray in My Movies could you make your program flag the file as HD in the DVRMS metadata?

alton987,

This application only deals with metadata stored in the mymovies.xml file. The MyMovies application will store this in each directory containing the associated program. If Yammm can store metadata in the same format and in a file named mymovies.xml, then this application would work.

Ben,

I haven't played around much with Win7, but I noticed when I used it that my movies in DVR-MS containers showed up automatically in the Win7 Movie Library, but they didn't have metadata. When I put the metadata into one using Toub's metadata editor, then Win7 showed it in the Movie Library. I don't remember the dvr-ms file showing up in RecordedTV on Win7 like in Vista. I have my movies on a separate drive from RecordedTV.

I just wanted to try out the Win7 Movie Library interface as it looks like it would suit my needs. Since I already had the metadata in each directory of the movie from MyMovies, I decided to just make this tool to scrape the metadata and place it into the DVR-MS file. I didn't really want to dso this manually with Toub's tool as it would be quite tedious.

I need to reinstall Win7 RC1 to verify what I saw before.

swoon:

alton987,

This application only deals with metadata stored in the mymovies.xml file. The MyMovies application will store this in each directory containing the associated program. If Yammm can store metadata in the same format and in a file named mymovies.xml, then this application would work.

Thanks, what about the HD flag in the DVRMS metedata?

alton987,

I don't have any Bluray movies so I didn't think about this. If it is information stored in mymovies.xml, it would be quite easy to make a new version to add this metadata as well. I can look into it and make an updated version if it's information stored in mymovies.xml.

I also prefer the Movie Library UI and although I haven't tried it on 7, on Vista to get teh dvr-ms files to show up with metadata in Movie Library they also showed up in Recorded TV.

I'll try it again later tonight.

bjdraw:

on Vista to get teh dvr-ms files to show up with metadata in Movie Library they also showed up in Recorded TV.

I have succeeded in stopping that.

• Stop watching everything.
• Clear out the WMP library cache and reboot. (c:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Media Player)
• Make a folder for all your TV stuff, move all your "Recorded TV" into it and add that new folder to the "More TV Locations" in VMC setup (Tasks\Settings\TV\Recorder\\More TV Locations). I built subdirectories for different series just to make my life easier. Recorded TV ignores the directories anyway.
• Make a folder for all your movies, and a separate folder for each movie. Put the DVR-MS file in the folder. The folder and the DVR-MS file should have the same name.
• Modify the DVR-MS file's metadata according to http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/permalink/369625/369659/ShowThread.aspx#369659.
• Install Yammm and point it at the movies folder.
• For each movie, create a hard link to its folder in the C:\Users\Public\Videos folder.

You should see all the data showing up in the Video Library, and no longer in the Recorded TV library.

You can insert hard links in the Public Music and Public Pictures folders too.

gildavis:

bjdraw:

on Vista to get teh dvr-ms files to show up with metadata in Movie Library they also showed up in Recorded TV.

I have succeeded in stopping that.

• Stop watching everything.
• Clear out the WMP library cache and reboot. (c:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Media Player)
• Make a folder for all your TV stuff, move all your "Recorded TV" into it and add that new folder to the "More TV Locations" in VMC setup (Tasks\Settings\TV\Recorder\\More TV Locations). I built subdirectories for different series just to make my life easier. Recorded TV ignores the directories anyway.
• Make a folder for all your movies, and a separate folder for each movie. Put the DVR-MS file in the folder. The folder and the DVR-MS file should have the same name.
• Modify the DVR-MS file's metadata according to http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/permalink/369625/369659/ShowThread.aspx#369659.
• Install Yammm and point it at the movies folder.
• For each movie, create a hard link to its folder in the C:\Users\Public\Videos folder.

You should see all the data showing up in the Video Library, and no longer in the Recorded TV library.

You can insert hard links in the Public Music and Public Pictures folders too.

Doesn't that defeat the whole purpose of this tool?  The whole advantage to DVRMS is you can embed the metadata and not have to mess with separate meta data files

gildavis:

bjdraw:

on Vista to get teh dvr-ms files to show up with metadata in Movie Library they also showed up in Recorded TV.

I have succeeded in stopping that.

• Stop watching everything.
• Clear out the WMP library cache and reboot. (c:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Media Player)
• Make a folder for all your TV stuff, move all your "Recorded TV" into it and add that new folder to the "More TV Locations" in VMC setup (Tasks\Settings\TV\Recorder\\More TV Locations). I built subdirectories for different series just to make my life easier. Recorded TV ignores the directories anyway.
• Make a folder for all your movies, and a separate folder for each movie. Put the DVR-MS file in the folder. The folder and the DVR-MS file should have the same name.
• Modify the DVR-MS file's metadata according to http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/permalink/369625/369659/ShowThread.aspx#369659.
• Install Yammm and point it at the movies folder.
• For each movie, create a hard link to its folder in the C:\Users\Public\Videos folder.

You should see all the data showing up in the Video Library, and no longer in the Recorded TV library.

You can insert hard links in the Public Music and Public Pictures folders too.

gildavis, it sounds like you are referring "My Videos" whereas Ben is referring to Vista's "DVD Library" and Win7's "Movie Library".

Just tired it on one movie and its doing something weird.  If click on the movie once where it brings up the Play, Stop, Resume option it doesn't show much meta data at all.  If I play the movie then hit info I can see all the metadata?

Also the movie did not show up in my recoredtv section.

alton987:

Just tired it on one movie and its doing something weird.  If click on the movie once where it brings up the Play, Stop, Resume option it doesn't show much meta data at all.  If I play the movie then hit info I can see all the metadata?

Also the movie did not show up in my recoredtv section.

Okay, so it sounds like this is under Win7. At the moment, I don't have Win7 installed, but I will get around to it to see how it treats the metadata. Do you have Toub's Metadata editor? You can use it to verify the metadata was migrated into your dvr-ms file.

Yes the Metadata mapped over fine, and yes I am using windows 7.  Also in My Movies you have to pick a format NTSC\PAL\480\720p\1080i\1080p.  If you could mapped that to the HD flag in DVRMS that would be awesome.