VAP Testing Version With Movie Metadata Search

[Gripweed]

Jachin99, what EPG are you using with WMC? Microsoft/Rovi or EPG123? Like I said before, I'm not really into metadata and the like but I do know that the cover art and metadata gets its sourcing from the EPG. What's left of what Microsoft gives is horrid. If you aren't using EPG123 then I suggest you give it a try. Gary, the author, really knows his stuff when it comes to WMC and he is very willing to share his knowledge.
EPG123 link

 

[dlflannery]

Hopefully that works but I'm not sure it will. I have more info to share, so when life slows down a little, hopefully in a day or so, I'll try this out and get back to you. I have tried something similar, and it showed cover art but I could never get cover art AND full metadata. There has always been a compromise. I'm not too concerned about reviews at the moment because if I can get covers then I'm mostly there. If we are so successful that I can focus on reviews then that will be a good thing. Thanks again, and I'll keep you posted.

As you've probably suspected I am not a WMC user. In my web browsing on the cover art topic I came across threads on the greenbutton forum and I see you are an active participant and really into the WMC world. I found this 7WMC tutorial you linked very interesting: https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11232-media-center-setup-movie-library.html
The metadata-based output file/folder renaming/creation feature of VAP could be configured to create the <movies folder><movie name> folder and place the video file in it. VAP also can be modified to download the cover art .jpg from TMDb and place it in that folder and name it "folder.jpg". If embedding the remaining metadata in the video file doesn't satisfy WMC it may even be possible for VAP to create the <movie name>.dvdid file.

VAP can also get "backdrop" images from TMDb. There are several sizes including width = 720, 1280 and "original" (whatever that means). Do you want that?

TMDb has several choices of poster image widths too. Currently VAP is getting the third one listed which is 318. Would smaller or larger be preferable?

I also see Reviews as an item available via the TMDb api. Haven't looked in detail. I'm guessing these are url's to reviews (?).

 

[jachin99]

Sorry for the long wait but here is a small update. Placing the .jpg image in the same folder as the movie may have worked in Vista but it no longer works in win 7. The tutorial on the seven forums suggests using YAMMM, which by itself only provides a synopsis and picture, provided you place each movie in a unique folder structure, and include your desired image names as folder.jpg in the folder with the movie. In spite of the tutorial showing cast & crew info, etc, this no longer works. Those functions were provided via the additional metadata lookup feature in WMC, and not yammm itself. Microsoft is shutting down the additional lookup feature. The best hope so far is to still toy around with with albumcover url but that doesn't look very promising at the moment. Thanks for your help so far on this, and I still love your program for cutting commericals. I use it everyday, and my current strategy is to record my MKV library as it comes on TV, and use VAP to cut commercials until I can find something better.

 

[dlflannery]

As I may have not made clear in my previous post:

1. VAP currently has the capabiity to automatically create the distinct movie-name folder and put the processed output video file in that folder, named as desired.
2. I can modify VAP so it automatically puts the artwork file for the movie in the same folder, and named "folder.jpg".

Seems like this should be of some value to WMC users, no?

 

[jachin99]

That would help and its probably enough to keep most people happy. I don't how many others pay attention to the synopsis, etc. On top of this, if I just added a mkv then i usually just want the easiest way to find it and watch it.

 

[dlflannery]

In the attached zip is VAP executable (NOT an installer) ver. 1.42T10.

This version will create a folder.jpg poster image beside the output video file under the following conditions:
1. Checkbox "Generate folder.jpg for WTV movies" on Other tab of Advanced Configuration form is checked.
2. The video being processed is a movie and TMDb lookup has succeeded and found the poster art URL.
3. The output video file has either the .wtv or .dvr-ms extension.

Creating the metadata-based output folder and video file name structure for WMC is accomplished by a properly constructed "Movie Output file name/path renaming template" entered in the upper portion of the Metadata Templates tab on the Advanced Configuration form. I don't use WMC but here is an example template that should illustrate this:

c:\temp\mgmovies\{title} ({movieyear})\{title} ({movieyear})

Thus for the movie True Grit released in 2010, the output folder is: "c:\temp\mgmovies\True Grit (2010)"
and the output file name is "True Grit (2010)"

Obtaining the required metadata items for this is done through a combination of input file name parsing and TMDb lookup as has been previously discussed here.

For example, if the video input file is named "True Grit (2010).mkv" then an input file name parsing template would be entered in the lower portion of the Metadata Templates tab of the Advanced Configuration form as follows:

Extension = ".mkv" (without the quotes)
Template =

{title}({movieyear})

and the checkbox named "Do not do TMDb (movie) searches" on the Other tab of the Advanced Configuration form should NOT be checked.

One of the iffy issues about all this is that VAP has to guess whether the input file is a movie or a series episode (so it can decide whether to search theTVDB or TMDb for the metadata). Hopefully it will do this correctly in most cases. If you know that you will never be processing anything but movies you can aid this decision process by checking "Do not do theTVDB (series) searches" on the Other tab of Advanced Configuration.

I'm not sure what size the folder.jpg images need to be. This can be adjusted if someone tells me.

 

[jachin99]

I have been using this since about April across a few different PCs. And operating systems. I haven't enabled metadata lookup just yet but that executable still seems to work really well. I want to dig into the metadata lookup as soon as I get a chance. Hopefully before the end of the week.

 

[dlflannery]

Well for better or worse the changes described in this thread have been incorporated in VAP Ver. 1.42 and in VAP6.

 

[jachin99]

I used it for quite a while, and I don't remember having issues with it. I'll add it to my current version of VAP at some point but first I need to working some a few small scripts to move files after a video has been processed.