MpegImport utility added to wiki

[stustunz]

its cool i wondered if that was the case
and thought you had already gone so didnt hold out much hope
so why media portal ?

[sixgun]

so why media portal ?

It plays all my HD content perfectly and also has the whole TVServer thing, so with my setup it was perfect. I have all my tuners in my server and use the MVPs to watch recordings. Also, MediaPortal's TVServer will make use of a tuner if the desired channel is in a mux that is already being recorded/viewed. So, with the UK having 6 muxes and me having 6 tuners, I can view/record every channel without fear of any conflicts. In the next year, I will get another dual freeview tuner to free up a PCI slot, then get a DVB-S2 card for the freesat HD channels

I always had a Media Centre and the plan was always to get rid of the MVP and use the PC for everything, but I never got around to it with GBPVR. I suppose I could have achieved the same thing with GBPVR, but for me MediaPortal just seemed to do it more easily. Plus it's open source, which in my eyes is better.

So, I've just recently built a new HTPC and have just ordered the same bits to build a second. And then I'll have the same viewing experience, bar the screen size, in 2 different locations within the house.

Not that GBPVR hasn't been anything but fantastic for me.

[stustunz]

fair enough i guess there are a few pluses there
always found media portal jumpy but im sure they have sorted that now
good luck and thanks for your mpeg import tool

[garyeuph]

I would like to see the source code if you were happy to release it.

I use this utility regularly.

thanks.

Gary.

[tvshowman]

Thank you for creating and releasing this great utility. Something very important to most after recording a show is to catalog and and save the show to watch at a later date. Unfortunately the only way to view movie descriptions and info is in the recordings menu and if you have moved the files around then they are lost in gbpvr and you have to use the video library menu which to me offers zero info just a file name so you have to guess what might be under the name of the file. Also the recordings menu offers the resume features. I think PVRX2 really needs to offer more viewing and cataloging features to make it a much better experience/ So after losing the database of 100's of movie files I found your program on the wiki and I was pleasantly surprised to see that it added the movie descriptions back into PVRX2 using the metadata. This has it much easier for me to enjoy what I have recorded since I can still use the advanced features in the recordings menu.

Cheers to you!

[sixgun]

Well to be perfectly honest I created it for completely selfish reasons originally. I was building a new GBPVR server and wanted to make sure I didn't lose my recordings. I knew I could use the video library but didn't really like to. So, I wrote this little utility to meet my own needs, and it kinda grew a bit from there.

For something so simple it seems to have helped a few people out.

So, I will try and find some time to release the source code for it soon.

I guess the ideal place would be in the wiki, but eventually people are going to make modifications to it, so some sort of source control system will be needed.

Regards.

[jksmurf]

For something so simple it seems to have helped a few people out. So, I will try and find some time to release the source code for it soon.

The reason it's so great is because it is so simple. If it could "live on" in the GBPVR-world, I for one would be very very happy.

k.

[stustunz]

FYI

mpeg import will import from sub directories but would not scan whole hardrive

wont find anything if you scan "H:\"
but if you had "H:\recordings" (recordings folder having sub folders in it )

it works fine not a problem now that i know i just have to make a new folder and transfer all my other folders into it

[SWK]

Hello,

Would it be possible to add support for XRecord .dat files in MpegImport.

The .dat file is produced when using the Archive or Export options in XRecord. Its just a text file with a list of fields taken from the GBPVR database. The filename is the same as the original .mpg file but with the extension .dat added to the end.

Eg: For the file Reaper_20080514_21002200.mpg, the .dat file is Reaper_20080514_21002200.mpg.dat (note the .mpg extension remains).

I assume the same world be true for .divx and .dvr-ms files as well.

Here is a sample .dat file:

[INDENT]title=Reaper
description=Comedy series following Sam, a lifelong slacker who discovers that his parents sold his soul to Satan before he was born. Andi finally learns Sam's secret pact with the Devil after she is captured by a demon and the gang rescues her. Unfortunately for Sam, the truth frightens Andi and she keeps her distance. Ben meets the woman of his dreams while chasing a demon at a hospital's maternity ward.
fullfilename=G:\VIDEO\Reaper_20080514_21002200.mpg
filename=Reaper_20080514_21002200.mpg
starttime=14/05/2008 21:00:00
endtime=14/05/2008 22:00:00
uniqueid=13015119
channel=E4
subtitle=Coming to Grips
recordedtime=14/05/2008 9:00 PM - 10:00 PM
channelnumber=136
starttimeticks=633463956000000000
endtimeticks=633463992000000000
quality=1
chainfile=
resume=True
repeat=
rating=
[/INDENT]
Notes:

1. The order of the fields is not fixed
   
2. Each field is terminated by a CR+LF
   
3. The path in the 'fullfilename' field is probably incorrect, since archive moves the file to another directory.
   
4. The name of the file can sometimes also be renamed to the 'subtitle' field, or manually to something else - But it will always be the same as the .dat file.
   

I have also attached a copy of the above .dat file, but had to rename it .dat.txt

Thanks, Sean

[wannabepvr]

It seems that MPEG IMPORT will not presently work with the 1.2.13 released, probably due to gbpvr.exe being removed in this release.

As a work-around you can still use the utility to create a import.xml file and then 'manually' import into GBPVR through the confix.exe utility on the plugin tab.

Works a treat for fixing mistakes, new rebuilds, moving/upgrading HDDs etc.

Note be vary careful with your choice for the channel field. If you enter a channel that is not already in the database then this can create an empty channel in your TV guide. (most annoying) This entry is case sensitive so get is exactly the same as an existing channel.


My thanks again to Sixgun an invaluable tool.