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DVD Library Manager for Vista Media Center v0.1 (free)

post #1 of 28
10/1/07 at 5:38pm
Thread Starter 
DVD Library Manager for Vista Media Center (VMC) is a free Windows program which allows you to edit the DVD information (meta data) used by DVD Library in Vista Media Center (VMC). It can download additional movie information from Amazon.com and IMDB.com. This program is to be run outside of the Vista Media Center but on the same computer running VMC.

This program started as a small utility for personal use but I figured that other people may be interested in it. It's a very early version of the program (Version 0.5) and I will continue to update it often. I hope you find it usefull and please don't hesitate to contact me for bugs, comments, new features, etc. I am open to all the suggestions.

You can uninstall the program through Vista's control panel.

Download link:
http://www.taranu.net/download/dvdlibman01.zip

Who is it for?
- Users of the DVD Library feature of the Vista Media Center for watching DVDs from a hard disk (or network share)

What does it do?
- It allows you to graphically modify the movie information (meta data) for the DVDs displayed in the DVD Library, including cover art.
- It can download additional information from Amazon.com (can specify .de, .ca, .fr. and .jp) including cover art.
- It can download additional information from IMDB.com including cover art.
- It allows you to open the raw .XML file containing the meta data to be updated manually.
- You can drag and drop cover art to the DVD Details screen or just select an image file from the hard disk.
- It can modify the DVD information downloaded by VMC (Chapter names will be lost in this case).
- It will scan all the DVD folders found in the monitored movie folders (DVD Library) of VMC and present all of them in a grid format with the information available (Covert Art, Folder, Movie Title, Director, Actors, etc). This way you can sort on any columns and see what kind of information is missing for a certain movie.
- When creating new DVD information it will automtically create a DVIDID XML file (default name taranu.dvdid.xml) and the corresponding .XML file in the Cache folder.
- It can delete all the DVD information by deleting the corresponding .XML files by right-clicking on a movie.
- It can play the DVD with the default DVD player (that handles .IFO files) by right-clicking on a movie.

Limitations
- This version does not update the Chapters names.
- If you update DVD information downloaded by VMC (based on the DVDID), all Chapter names will be lost (of course you can always open the raw .XML file, save the chapter information and later merge it with the new updated data).
- Cover art downloaded by VMC of the format "cov150/drt000/t036/t03685uhvgs.jpg" will not be displayed by the program (however it is not getting lost and VMC will show it properly).
- There may be a few user interface inconsistencies

Future additions
- Can specify which folders to scan, not just the ones monitored by the VMC DVD Library
- Lots of polishing of the user interface
- maybe add support for Windows Media Center 2005
- Allow for playing the DVD (.ifo file) with a custom program (for me WMP is the default)
- Anything else that people find usefull

Here are some screenshots:
Main screen:


DVD Details:


Amazon search:


Download link:
http://www.taranu.net/download/dvdlibman01.zip
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post #2 of 28
10/1/07 at 7:38pm
I'm a user of the DVD Gallery, I have a mixture of Ripped DVD's and have a Sony XL1B2 Changer. When ever I had an incorrect read I would manually correct by using DVDXML.com or use MCEDVDID (which was really designed for MCE2005) I currently don't have any incorrect Metadata for my DVD's but will try this out later tonight. You really should post this on the thegreenbutton.com under Vista - 3rd Party Applications. You will be loved.

Also, for a future feature, would be the ability to differentiate DVD's with Multiple Discs. That's one of the biggest problems with the DVDGallery.

Nice work,
Dwight2001
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post #3 of 28
10/1/07 at 8:47pm
have you used mymovies?

http://www.mymovies.name/
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post #4 of 28
10/1/07 at 9:00pm
Excellent utility!

MyMovies is NOT compatible with Vista x64, while this little thing just worked flawlessly.
I rip my movies on a different computer than the HTPC and this is just what i needed.

BTW I wonder why VMC retreived metadata for the fist DVD that i put in the gallery (ripped) a few days ago, but not for the others, maybe does it in background.
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post #5 of 28
10/1/07 at 9:02pm
More comments:

The Interface is not intuitive at all, but when you know where to click, it works like a charm.

The program is designed very well, at first launch it recognized the two folders which are watched by WMC. And it suggests automatically the cover that I have saved as folder.jpg in each movie folder.

Two thumbs up!

A search with imdb would be the next major improvement
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post #6 of 28
10/1/07 at 10:14pm
Thread Starter 
Thank you very much for the comments. I will definetly try to make the program easier to use and more intuitive. This is always a bit of a problem when there is a lot of information to work with. I've already started work on getting data from IMDB but it will take a little bit more time since there is a lot of parsing to do.
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post #7 of 28
10/1/07 at 10:17pm
Thread Starter 
Hi bootron, MyMovies is an excellent program. I just wanted something simpler geared towards the built-in DVD Library in VMC.
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post #8 of 28
10/1/07 at 10:36pm
One of the biggest problems with the DVD library is..it's speed, in a client server configuration where you have your movies on a server. Once your collection grows to a nice size (over 200), and you have coverart for your movies, the library can take up to a minute (or more..even on gigabit) to load initially. Why? Because the coverart is stored (generally) as a folder.jpg file where the media is.

Now, assuming you have only 1 HTPC, you can come up with some creative ways to cache the coverart locally (it's actually not that difficult, smallcoverparams and largecoverparams settings in the *.dvdid.xml file), and it loads fast then, real fast. With 200 movies it literally loads in under 5 -6 seconds. Most of the slowness is VMC copying the coverart over the network. And it has to do this everytime you exit the library and go to let's say TV. Sigh..

What I'd love to have (and I may just sit down and write the damn thing, if someone else doesn't), is a utility that can accomodate single and multi HTPC configurations. Let's say you use a workstation to do your ripping and cataloging (which I think most people do anyway), and have one or more HTPCs that are going to access that metadata and coverart. WHat would be ideal is that the "management" application is a standalone Windows utlity that you can use to manage your collection, and a "background" utlity that runs under VMC. That background utility should:

- When VMC starts, it should scan your "Movies" folder
- Copy all *.dvdid.xml files locally to the dvdinfocache directory
- Copy all coverart locally (either by a complex renaming algorithm assuming every coverart image is called folder.jpg, or an easier solution is to just recreate your Movies folder tree locally with the coverart images, but minus the actual media. Perfect synchronization).
- Modify the *.dvdid.xml files that were copied locally, so that the parameters point to the local coverart.

voila! Super fast DVD Library.

In essence what you are doing is keeping a pristine copy of your *.dvdid.xml files and coverart in your movie store, but modify the XML files as they are copied locally. The copying should happen:

- When VMC starts/system reboot
- When the system comes out of sleep mode

This way if you copy new movies to your movie store WHILE your HTPCs are running and have not rebooted/gone to sleep etc, when you access your DVD library, it will still see the new movies and copy their coverart, but ONLY for the newly added movie, the older movies' coverart and XML files will already be locally cached.

I kind of have this setup right now with synctoy and Windows scheduler, but it's a bit clunky.

Sorry, I got a little long winded..
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post #9 of 28
10/2/07 at 8:29pm
Thread Starter 
I've uploaded a new version of the program with updated visuals to make it a little bit more intuitive (the images at the top of the thread should show the new changes).

It also remembers and shows which Amazon site it is using (.com., .ca, .de, etc).
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post #10 of 28
10/3/07 at 7:15am
BUG: it overwrites the folder.jpg that I was aleady using with the pictures on amazon, which is very annoying, because mines were covers at high-res that I spent one hour with photoshop to crop the front...
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post #11 of 28
10/3/07 at 7:53am
Thread Starter 
Sorry about that. I'll be working on a solution for this. You'll be able to select which fields from Amazon to use and it will prompt you for overwriting the folder.jpg file. I should have an updated version tonight. Thanks for the report.
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post #12 of 28
10/3/07 at 10:55am
Just a warning if it founds already a folder.jpg in the movie, wich overwrite yes/no would be fine

BTW do you know that it never get the Genre? It can be parsed from amazon?
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post #13 of 28
10/3/07 at 5:28pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by RealTelstar View Post

Just a warning if it founds already a folder.jpg in the movie, wich overwrite yes/no would be fine

BTW do you know that it never get the Genre? It can be parsed from amazon?


I have uploaded a new version, it will ask you if you want to overwrite the file.

It also allows you to only select certain fields from Amazon if you want (a checkbox beside each field).

I get the Amazon data through their web service and I can't seem to find the Genre anywhere. I will keep digging.

Other changes:
- When doing drag and drop of a cover art image from a web browser, a folder.jpg file will not automatically be created. You have to save the cover art image first (default is folder.jpg or moviename.jpg but you can change it)
- When getting cover art from Amazon, a folder.jpg file will not automatically be created. You have to save the cover art image first (default is folder.jpg or moviename.jpg but you can change it)
- When getting data from Amazon you can select which fields to used (there's a checkbox for each field)
- added a setting for the default folder when reading or saving cover art:
- you can have it look in the DVD folder, default image name to folder.jpg
- can select a custom folder, default image name is MovieName.jpg

- this way you can have all the cover art images stored in one place on the local computer (useful for network shares and backup purposes).
- Added button to launch IMDB.com in a browser window, with the name of the name of the movie (or folder name) as the search parameter. A little bit better and copy and paste.
- Added Play DVD to the DVD Details dialog
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post #14 of 28
10/3/07 at 5:58pm
I currently use mymovies and still can't figure out how to get it to put a DVDID.xml file in the folder for when I like to use DVD Library, so I have been manually putting the xml file from DVDXML.com in there. I might have to give this program a shot, thanks for posting!
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post #15 of 28
10/4/07 at 6:21pm
Thread Starter 
Uploaded new version with the following changes:

Version 0.4.0.0
- Updated to a newer version of the Amazon web service.
- Amazon Search should be more accurate now.
- Amazon Search can be on Title, Actor or Director
- Amazon Search: Can now see all the results from Amazon, 10 at a time (added button Next 10 Results)
- Amazon Search: Movie genre should be available for most movies but it's not perfect yet
- The Release Date should be of the format yyyy mm dd for VMC to see it. The program tries its best to write the correct format but it many not get it right every time. If you leave just the year then it will save in the correct format (will append 01 01 to the year).
- If you used a previous version of the program and your Release Date is not in the format yyyy mm dd or contains just the year, just open the DVD Details for the movie and save it.
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post #16 of 28
10/7/07 at 11:25am
Thread Starter 
I uploaded a new version, 0.5.0.1. This version includes a IMDB Search dialog, very similar to the Amazon search one. This is my first pass at it so please let me know if you encounter any problems.

There a few things to remember:

- IMDB search is a bit slower than Amazon search so please have patience. You can always close the dialog or cancel the lookup.

- IMDB search doesn't use a web service so I am parsing the data myself. Some data may not be exactly as I expect it since IMDB doesn't publish any standards. So thinks may change in the future but I will try to catch up with any changes.

- Cover Art images are very low resolution on IMDB, especially compared to Amazon
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post #17 of 28
10/21/07 at 4:04pm
Thread Starter 
Uploaded a new version which which is more reliable at finding the DVD folders. Please try this version if you had problems with movies not showing up in the list. It also adds a View Error Log option under the Advanced menu in case you still have problems.

Download
http://www.taranu.net/download/dvdlibman01.zip
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post #18 of 28
10/21/07 at 6:47pm
Taranu,
Do you have an official web site? I went to taranu.net and couldn't make much sense out of it.
Thanks,
SuperTal
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post #19 of 28
10/22/07 at 7:40am
Thread Starter 
Sorry SuperTal, I haven't had time yet to update the website. I should have something by the end of the week though now that I'm back home.
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post #20 of 28
10/24/07 at 8:32am
This is a great little application! I'm using Vista 64 and have been frustrated by the lack of this funtionality. Thanks for the work, Taranu -
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post #21 of 28
10/24/07 at 8:37am
I would love to be able to search Netflix as well as Amazon and IMDB. Netflix has the most concise synopsis. Also, when scrolling through VMC I am unable to see any of the movie details, all I get is cover art. Am I missing something or is there a way to have the synopsis etc. appear in the VMC DVD Library?
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post #22 of 28
10/29/07 at 10:33am
Thread Starter 
I found a problem with the program or should I say with an undocumented VMC feature.

Media Center crashes when browsing the metadata if the synopsis includes curly brackets {}. I changed the program to convert them to round brackets on saving the data. Some of the IMDB reviews have these brackets.

New version has been uploaded (also keeps the chapters if it finds them for single titles only)
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post #23 of 28
2/20/08 at 7:02pm
Not sure if this is supposed to be this way..... it makes sense for what location to read the data, but what about saving to a different location?

If I change the default save folder for metadata, all information for that dvd does not appear. If I change it back do the Default dvd cache folder the information appears.

Can it read the dvdcache folder, then if any changes are made save the new xml file to a different location?
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post #24 of 28
4/7/08 at 7:27pm
very nice! Can you use this program with your own video files? I've got digital files of TV shows and movies that I'd like to view through such an interface, and somehow see metadata for them, through some kind of recognition. That'd be a great feature if this program enabled such a thing.

James
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post #25 of 28
4/19/08 at 4:23am
taranu,

Thank you so very much for this wonderful utility.

Chad
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post #26 of 28
4/19/08 at 9:40am
Im not sure what Im doing wrong. When I save a movie (metadata), it doesnt show up on the program. Should there be a file in the DVD folder in order to save it??

All I have in my folder is... folder.jpg, and the movie

Do I need to add a file for the program to save the info??

Iget this in the "error log"... 9:46:45 AM: DVDLibraryManager - Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

Please help
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post #27 of 28
5/14/08 at 8:57pm
I tried to run the setup for Taranu's tool, but it gave me this System Update Required error: Unable to install or run this application. The application requires that OMLEEngine version 0.0.0.0 be installed in the Global Assembly Cache (GAC) first.

Running Vista Ultimate with SP1.

Any tips?

Thanks,

CJ
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post #28 of 28
10/16/09 at 5:59pm
Have you found something that does this????

Quote:
Originally Posted by kapone View Post

One of the biggest problems with the DVD library is..it's speed, in a client server configuration where you have your movies on a server. Once your collection grows to a nice size (over 200), and you have coverart for your movies, the library can take up to a minute (or more..even on gigabit) to load initially. Why? Because the coverart is stored (generally) as a folder.jpg file where the media is.

Now, assuming you have only 1 HTPC, you can come up with some creative ways to cache the coverart locally (it's actually not that difficult, smallcoverparams and largecoverparams settings in the *.dvdid.xml file), and it loads fast then, real fast. With 200 movies it literally loads in under 5 -6 seconds. Most of the slowness is VMC copying the coverart over the network. And it has to do this everytime you exit the library and go to let's say TV. Sigh..

What I'd love to have (and I may just sit down and write the damn thing, if someone else doesn't), is a utility that can accomodate single and multi HTPC configurations. Let's say you use a workstation to do your ripping and cataloging (which I think most people do anyway), and have one or more HTPCs that are going to access that metadata and coverart. WHat would be ideal is that the "management" application is a standalone Windows utlity that you can use to manage your collection, and a "background" utlity that runs under VMC. That background utility should:

- When VMC starts, it should scan your "Movies" folder
- Copy all *.dvdid.xml files locally to the dvdinfocache directory
- Copy all coverart locally (either by a complex renaming algorithm assuming every coverart image is called folder.jpg, or an easier solution is to just recreate your Movies folder tree locally with the coverart images, but minus the actual media. Perfect synchronization).
- Modify the *.dvdid.xml files that were copied locally, so that the parameters point to the local coverart.

voila! Super fast DVD Library.

In essence what you are doing is keeping a pristine copy of your *.dvdid.xml files and coverart in your movie store, but modify the XML files as they are copied locally. The copying should happen:

- When VMC starts/system reboot
- When the system comes out of sleep mode

This way if you copy new movies to your movie store WHILE your HTPCs are running and have not rebooted/gone to sleep etc, when you access your DVD library, it will still see the new movies and copy their coverart, but ONLY for the newly added movie, the older movies' coverart and XML files will already be locally cached.

I kind of have this setup right now with synctoy and Windows scheduler, but it's a bit clunky.

Sorry, I got a little long winded..
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