This information is stored in the database for each recording when it is done, but I don't think anything currently displays the information. The Web Admin might, but I can't remember if it does or not.
Ideally the ability to specify a filenaming pattern would be nice. So if a show aired on channel 53, you could name it like:
Star Trek: Enterprise_20041231_200000.mpg
Star Trek: Enterprise_The Hunted_20041231_2000.mpg
The_Hunted_20041231_2000.mpg
The_Hunted_53_20041231_2000.mpg
The_Hunted_53.mpg
The_Hunted.mpg
For each recording the video archive plug-in extracts this information and displays the show name, subtitle (episode name), show description, recording date/time and (optionally) the channel on which the recording was made.
If you are suggesting renaming files, I don't think renaming things with a _ in the name is a good idea. Right now GBPVR has a well know format of <show name>_<record date>_<record start time>. That makes it possible to extract some basic information from a recording even if the information in the GBPVR database has been lost (for example if you manualy move the location of a file). If new formats stop popping up with _ in the file name then plug-ins will no longer be able to rely on this naming convension as the data source of last resort. If you are just suggesting this as a query syntax that seems fine.
Actually I was suggesting renaming the filenames. Mainly because I also play these recordings on a DSM-320, which only displays the filenames for the Videos, so with the names slightly different it is much easier for me to tell on the DSM-320 which episode is which.
The DSM-320 is sorta like the MVP, but without the ability to really change it's interface, but it can play many more formats including Xvid/Divx AVIs natively.
It's not that huge of a deal, as the ones I want to play anyway, I end up converting to an Xvid AVI anyway, so I just rename at that point.
As for the plugins not being able to find the information, that is fairly simple to solve, and one thing I'll be introducing with the External Recording Manager is a previously recorded table that contains a copy of the program guide information at the time the show was recorded.