HD vs DVD

[CiXel]

What do you guys think is the best way to define DVD vs HD movies?

Here's my scenario. I have a bunch of dvd's in external changers as well as ripped to my Hard Drive, so I use offline /online to change the commands required. I've also started taking some HD movies and placing them on hard drives so I can enjoy random access. I have all these rips in a separate directory.

I'm trying to figure out the best way to separate these movies out when choosing what to watch. ie. All movies / HD only

I thought about creating a separate database for HD only, but if I make a change in one, then I need to mimic it in the other. Also it would mean updating 2 databases when I import a new movie. The only other way to overcome this with multiple databases, and I don't know if it's possible, but to have ONE database reference Another. So have an HD database and a DVD database which also references the HD.

Any ideas?

[m_ski]

If you have your directory structure like this...

Movie Folder\DVD\Movie 1
Movie Folder\DVD\Movie 2
Movie Folder\HD\Movie 1
Movie Folder\HD\Movie 2

Then you could use a metamask on the file import to pull in the 'DVD' or 'HD' name into a xlobby variable which you could then use to filter on to just show HD movies. Remove the filter and you'll see everything.
I can probably help with the metamask if you need some assistance - I use them to import details from my tv recordings which all have a set filename structure.

[CiXel]

If you have your directory structure like this...

Movie Folder\DVD\Movie 1
Movie Folder\DVD\Movie 2
Movie Folder\HD\Movie 1
Movie Folder\HD\Movie 2

Then you could use a metamask on the file import to pull in the 'DVD' or 'HD' name into a xlobby variable which you could then use to filter on to just show HD movies. Remove the filter and you'll see everything.
I can probably help with the metamask if you need some assistance - I use them to import details from my tv recordings which all have a set filename structure.

Ah That's an interesting approach. and I assume it'd also work if I had
Movie Folder1\HD\Movie 1
Movie Folder2\HD\Movie 100
(for multiple drives)
as basically the metamask would show whatever contained the metastring.

That also opens up some some other interesting thoughts. Great Idea.

I see the meta masks area under databases, but I wouldn't mind some direction in setting these up and then what event I would need to use to call the filter.It would probably be a really good resource for all.

Thanks for your method

[m_ski]

It will be dependent on exactly the metamask you are using, this is based on the standard movie import which looks like this initially...

Code: Select all

\\(?<genre>.*)\\(?<name>.*)\\video_ts\\video_ts\.ifo
\\(?<name>.*)\\video_ts\\video_ts\.ifo
\\(?<name>.*)\\.*\.iso
\\(?<name>.*?)\\.*?
\\(?<name>.*)


We now need to add in a new item that will pick up the name of the next folder level up. I will call this new variable 'format'. Change the metamask string on the databases tab to the following...

Code: Select all

\\(?<format>.*)\\(?<genre>.*)\\(?<name>.*)\\video_ts\\video_ts\.ifo
\\(?<format>.*)\\(?<name>.*)\\video_ts\\video_ts\.ifo
\\(?<format>.*)\\(?<name>.*)\\.*\.iso
\\(?<format>.*)\\(?<name>.*?)\\.*?
\\(?<format>.*)\\(?<name>.*)


When you do an import with this metamask each item in the database should have a new field called 'format' and it should have either 'DVD' or 'HD' in it.
It should also work across various different sources as you suggested above.

You can then filter the database using the 'set filter' command. I have never really used this much so you'll have to look up elsewhere about that or have a look in another skin. You want one that sets music genre, for example, just using a single button press, it should be fairly easy to convert this to filter 'format' to just 'HD' or 'DVD'. Do a 'category reset' to show all movies again.

[slaman]

I actually manually add a field when I add a new movie to my database called "format" - with values such as HD DVD, Bluray, DVD, etc...

[CiXel]

I actually manually add a field when I add a new movie to my database called "format" - with values such as HD DVD, Bluray, DVD, etc...

I considered that, but doing that on an established collection could take a long time, as there is no way to batch edit. The less that has to be done manually the better. Not only is there the chance I will forget, but not having to go into XL to set things is a plus, and when I lose that flag for some reason or another (as tends to happen) I won't be stuck keying it in.

I haven't actually tried the meta masks yet, as my usbuirt has started responding much slower than it should, and that lowers the WAF.
I smell another thread soon. . .

[tswhite70]

Not to beat a dead horse, but it would be easy to code up a quick script to process the movies.xml and add\update the format field. I've done several similar scripts for other fields that I like to have populated. The generic code would be:

Open xml file
Read parameter field
if parameter endswith .ifo then
format="DVD"
else if paramter endswith .xpl
format="HD-DVD"
.
.
....etc
close xml...

The only problem would be if you had any format\extension\folderstructure overlap. Just an idea.

good luck,
tsw

[CiXel]

Thanks for all your help guys.
Just to follow up for those interested, and to help others down the road, here's what I ended up using metamask wise:

Code: Select all

\\(?<format>.*)\\(?<type>.*)\\(?<name>.*)\\.*?
\\(?<format>.*)\\(?<name>.*)\\video_ts\\video_ts\.ifo
\\(?<format>.*)\\(?<name>.*)\\.*\.iso

To display these options, I then created a new event under the SKIN > MOVIE group in the Events editor called 'set filter format' where I placed a "set filter" command into the event with a category of 'movies' and a filter of 'format'. That now lets me specify which format I am looking at within the one database, and also allows me to create a format tag on screen for quick confirmation.