Any way to import "already recorded" programming from WMC to NextPVR?

[cityeyes]

I've recorded a few hundred Simpsons episodes over the course of a year or two using Windows Media Center, but have recently decided to phase over to NPVR completely. Unfortunately, NPVR has no way to figure out which episodes of the Simpsons that I've already recorded. Is there any way to import or manually tell NPVR which episodes I've already recorded? I don't want to record and automatically transcode a few hundred Simpsons episodes if I can avoid it.

I saw the option to import recordings, would that work for MCE recordings? I assumed it was for transitioning directly from GB-PVR to NPVR, so I didn't look into that option too much.

Would having the Simpsons episodes already imported in NPVR help?

Thanks so much ahead of time and sorry if this has been discussed before. Tried Google and a forum search, but I couldn't find anything directly pertaining to my problem.

[Zeb]

Hi cityeyes, there's a utility that appears to be suitable for your purpose, however I haven't used it myself. Here's the Wiki page: http://www.nextpvr.com/nwiki/pmwiki.php?....VidImport

[Reddwarf]

Vidimport will import the recordings to npvr's database but I doubt it will prevent npvr from recording the episodes again. Maybe it they comes with a full .xml file compatible with npvr.

[Zeb]

Third sentence of Wiki page says "you need to manually import the recordings XML file created by vidImport."

[johnsonx42]

unfortunately that still won't stop NPVR from recording the same shows again. duplicate avoidance depends on an episode id that comes from the EPG data; unless you can find a way to get those episode id's added to the .xml file before importing it (and I can't imagine how that could possibly be done), NPVR will have no way to match upcoming episodes against those you have.

[cityeyes]

Ok, gotcha - so it looks like there's no way to do this automatically as of yet.

Currently I'm importing thetvdb data into NPVR to flesh out my epg - would there be a way to manually go into whatever file that stores this data and add the episode IDs individually from thetvdb to mark them as "recorded" in NPVR? If so, what file would I be looking for?

If not, no biggie. Worst case I simply delete duplicate Simpsons recordings in-app until they catch up, I'd just rather not tie up my DVR for already recorded stuff if there is another option.

Thanks for the replies, by the way! Regardless of whether I figure this out or not, I appreciate the help.

[Reddwarf]

You COULD look at the xmldata that is stored with each recording and try to make one for each recording that you already have prior to importing it into npvr, but it would be a heck of a job. Normally the matadata is embedded in the recorded .ts file itself, but if you go into config.xml and set "SeparateMetadata" to true, restart the recording service and make a recording you'll get a file with the same name as the recording but with the extension .xml. It'll give you an idea of the work involved. If you'r clever with writing scripts you may ba able to make a script that can do most of the work for you.

[cityeyes]

I've already separated .xml files from the .ts to get MCEBuddy to pick up episode info from my videos for transcoding, so I'm only a few hundred steps away from figuring it all out, haha.

Not so clever with the scripts, but a bunch of work might be worth being able to avoid tying up my PVR an hour or two a day to record old episodes.

Does NPVR figure out what's already been recorded from the .xml files, or is that information stored in the database file?

[ACTCMS]

That would be in the database...

Alex

[mvallevand]

It's certainly possible in North America using the zap2it id. if you want to zip up your MCE ehome folder I think C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome\ I might be able to automate it otherwise I could give you a sqlite table and you could delete the rows you want record.

Martin