Xrecord some questions on how to use

[jasjol]

I recently upgraded GBPVR and Xrecord after not changning for a couple of months. And I have some questions:

The new Movies button - I cannot fully understand the difference between Movies and Video: I can see that archived recording is shown together with PEG text info under videos.
and also that mpeg files under movies has a poster attached to them.

1) what are the differencies between movie and video? HWne should one use the either?

2) I don't seem to be able to get a picture in the poster of a mpeg under movie even though there is a correspondent picture in /ART - how can I get pictures per MPEG file?


Archiving: as I understand it, archiving moves the MPEG to another directory for example another disk drive - and keeps the info in GBPVR database along with a newlink to the mpeg file. The recording then shows in both recordings (where it is deletable) and in videos (where it is not deletable - since I set so in config):

3) If I want to keep a recording with the EPGtext - and I don't not want my kids to accidentely delete it - can I do this within Record?

[jorm]

movies do not have a delete option and they are always hetero collections so you can group your dvds or stuff easier. And your kids cant delete it.

2) if you do an export there is a item in the dat called image or something. At least I think it is there, if not let me know and I will add it.

3) just archive to your movie folder. It can only be deleted manually on the computer.

[jasjol]

2) if you do an export there is a item in the dat called image or something. At least I think it is there, if not let me know and
I will add it.

The Image to a movie is determined by the Title= in the DAT file - which is consistent with videos and Recordings in Ready- ok for me.

For myself and someone else who did not understand fully videos, ready and movies in Xrecord - here is how I understand it:

1) recording with the EPG title "showtitle" is made from EPG - will be found in READY under poster named "showtitle" and EPG data
is kept in GBPVR.mdb database.

2) I archive the recording - which will be found in READY and in VIDEOS under poster named "showtitle". BUT EGP data is saved to
a file called showtitle.mpg.DAT which is saved at the same place as the archived recording and GBPVR.mdb deletes EPG data.
This means that I can keep EPG data and manually move a archived file to another directory if I set a videopath to that directory
in config-plugin-Xrecord, as long as I also move along the showtitle.mpg.DAT file. And still see all info in READY- grouped
by(under poster) title=showtitle in DAT file.

3) MOVIES - if I set a MOVIES path to a directory "MOVIES" in config-plugin-Xrecord, I can organize my archived recordings and
any other mpg file. And if I create a DAT file per mpg, I can add title and descriptive info about my own mpg - for example a
home video.

When you create a windowsfolder called e.g. violent movies and then add diehard1.mpg, diehard2.mpg, Hannibal.mpg etc - you can
have one poster picture for the violent movies - and a different poster per mpg file. And maybe another folder/poster named
childrens movies for hook.mpg etc. This way you can sort your recordings and movies from e.g. DVDs.

The advantage contra VIDEOS as I see it, is that in VIDEOS (and READY) everything is grouped by showtitle which may be good for
series such as 24 where there will be several recordings under each poster. But when I record films Die hard, Hannibal, Hook, etc
They tend to reside under their own poster - which gives me to many groups/posters after a while of recording and archiving.

One thing to remember is that you cannot have subdirectorys in Xrecord - as I understand it anyway. All mpg is shown as grouped by title or by praent folder.

Now it would be good if I could lock a movies folder with a code? - so that the kids cannot see "violent films". I have to test
locking in movies folder, did not work now - must restart...

4) what is a DAT - file, well if jorm or someone else could explain what the lines represent and which part we would need to keep and why
when making them ourselves I would be glad. Below is an example of DAT file:
(The DAT file must be named showtitle.mpg.DAT and saved as text at the same place as showtitle.mpg)
START DAT (not in the file)

title=Live aid
description=Highlights from the historic Live Aid-show, 13 July 1985........
fullfilename=C:\recordings\Live aid\Live aid_20050716_22302335.mpg
filename=Live aid_20050716_22302335.mpg
starttime=2005-07-16 22:30:00
endtime=2005-07-16 23:35:00
uniqueid=230113
channel=Svt 2
subtitle=
recordedtime=2005-07-16 10:30 PM - 11:35 PM
channelnumber=2
starttimeticks=632571498000000000
endtimeticks=632571537000000000
quality=2
chainfile=

STOP DAT (not in the file)

My guesses is that what one would like to have minimum is:
title= (this gives the picture to the mpg)
description= (This gives some information)

5) something I miss from todays info when looking at a recording in Xrecord after archiving is:
* the quality information - is that possible to show( and keep in DAT) from
archive as medium, low, high etc?
* Another thing I miss is runtime (yes I can count - but it would be easier to have the figure runtime= 1:50 hours)

[jorm]

try using blue to lock a show, might work for movies if not i will fix it. i will look at quality and runtime

[jorm]

Minimum is probably
just title and description.

For the breakdown of each line.
title=title of the program
description=description of the program
fullfilename=more for info I think I set it when I load it to the mpeg.
filename= probably for info, might not be needed.
starttime=the date the program started.
endtime=the date the program ended.
uniqueid=unique id of epg currently not used.
channel=the name of the channel it was recorded from
subtitle=subtitle of the program
recordedtime=the range it was recorded
channelnumber=the number associated with the channel example if NBC is channel 6, it would be 6
starttimeticks=a numerical representation of start time.
endtimeticks=a numerical representation of end time.
quality=(2 medium, 3 low, 1 high)
chainfile=can be used for 2 part shows can chain one into another when 1 finishes the 2nd video begins

> One thing to remember is that you cannot have subdirectorys in Xrecord - as I
> understand it anyway. All mpg is shown as grouped by title or by praent folder.
correct. I did this so you can easily copy the video from one machine or drive to another and they are still grouped. For example movies I have my movies over 3 drives. It does not matter to me the folder is Action Films. Show me all of them.

> Now it would be good if I could lock a movies folder with a code? - so that the kids
on my todo list.

> 4) what is a DAT - file, well if jorm or someone else could explain what the lines
> represent and which part we would need to keep and why
When I do it I keep subtitle, title, description, filename, fullfilename. But I dont know if you need the last two. A dat is what I call data files that programs use. I did not want to use .txt since comskip used it.

[jasjol]

chainfile=can be used for 2 part shows can chain one into another when 1 finishes the 2nd video begins

1) How would the text after chainfile look for this to work?

> Now it would be good if I could lock a movies folder with a code? - so that the kids
on my todo list.

Sounds good

Regarding mixed mode - this is from the wiki:
v27 2005–5−25 (xrecord-setup.zip only) So I finally started converting dvds to mpeg for my kid and realized there was something lacking in xrecord to handle mixed directories (movies). So I created a mixed mode that can be set on a given directory. It will show the list of shows 3 at a time showing the description and the image that matches the title.

This works for me in movies - which always has mixed mode.
I checked mixed mode in config and now I can via stop button make a poster in READY be in mixed mode - so that an image can be shown per show of e.g. 24.

What would be interesting for me would to be able to add my own folder in my videolibrary called BECK with 2 different BECK recordings- but now I cannot get mixed mode to work - nothing happens - I press set mixed - but it looks like before. I seems to work only with a folder in videolibrary which contains a mpg with a title in the DAT that is the same as the folder name - also I cannot change back to unmixed if there is not a mpg with a title in the DAT that is the same as the folder name.

2) Is this a bug or is there some setting I have missed?

(During testing I also sometimes have had problem to set/clear mixed if there was several mpg files in the folder - I did not find the cause of this and this was not consistent - maybe something with åäö characters in title or desription - but I cannot swear on this)

More testing - searching for what happens when you set mixed - I found that Xrecord creates a empty file called foldername.mix - so I tried to make a new file and called it beck.mix and everything worked! - so this is a workaround if it does not work via remote - set mix.




Regarding Like Shows:
I have not yet understand what Like Shows do, (shown after pressing stop button on a folder),
3) why and when do you use it?

[jorm]

The reason why is we use the shows title. Since there are no .dat just mpegs we dont know the title. We can use the directory name. I will make a note of it.


> was not consistent - maybe something with åäö characters in title or
that is very likely. Since I am using english I never have any of those characters in my epg.

> More testing - searching for what happens when you set mixed - I found
correct all mixed mode does is create the .mix file.



Regarding Like Shows:
It pulls the recommendations from imdb for the given show and shows it in fastfind so you can find other shows that people that liked one might like.

[jorm]

chainfilename give full path

c:\videos\part2.mpg