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CCC Install - Catching Up

Chameleon CentralController (CCC) is used to export My Movies metadata directly to CMC's Movie DB, and manage User Accounts and Parental Restrictions, and tracks Watch History and WatchLists on a per-user basis.
pks
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CCC Install - Catching Up

Post by pks » Tue May 03, 2022 12:31 pm

Hi Paul
Last fall my HTPC went down. Throughout 2021 I had not kept up with your latest CMC versions. I've been too busy for the past 6 months to address any of this, so it is only now that I'm trying to get everything back to normal. I've started with a formatted C: Drive (SSD), re-installed Windows 10 Pro, My Movies (now on the latest stand alone version), and installed your latest CMC and CCC. I've tried to follow all your instructions in "Getting Started With CMC and CME. I've chosen your newer the CCC route this time though I used to use CME. By the way I have 3,000 My Movies Contribution Points so I'm getting the full benefits of your features. I read through your Chameleon CentralControl link documentation. I've allowed CCC through my Windows firewall. I chose the localhost with API key to access the My Movies database. I did a Run Full Export Now and everything worked fine. So I think it is all working - except -
When I ran CMC and chose the icon for selecting the Media Type that I want to switch to (you know the one that gives the option of All Media Types, Movies, TV Shows, etc.) and when I went to TV Shows it showed two movies that I should have coded as Movies in My Movies instead of TV Shows. So I made those change in My Movies, saved them, exported the metadata, closed and then reopened CMC. But they still showed up in TV Shows. So it got me to thinking that CCC had not automatically seen the changes in My Movies. I also noticed that when I run CMC, CCC does not launch and is not in the Windows Tray. It is not running. Furthermore, (though not sure it should be) it is certainly not in the Windows Start Up Programs.
I think your documentation says somewhere that CCC should always be running when CMC is running. So when reading your CCC installation instructions and you're on My Movies API Authentication (tab 3), you focus on the login in process and password.
I didn't see where you might have discussed and suggested choosing either "Schedule CCC to Launch When Windows Boots" OR "Schedule CCC to Launch when you log in". What about the check boxes below like Start CCC minimized to the System Tray, etc. Should any of these be selected. Maybe I was just supposed to figure that out on my own.
At any rate I fixed my issue with the two shows that were being listed under TV Show Media Type by doing a second Run a Full Export Now.
Please advise on how I should have set things up.
Thanks,
Pete

Jamie
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Re: CCC Install - Catching Up

Post by Jamie » Tue May 03, 2022 6:40 pm

Hi,

I noticed that Paul Hasn't responded yet, so I'll try to give my two cents. With CCC you are using the mymovies API so you don't need to export data from Mymovies any more. CME requires you to export data from mymovies, but not CCC. If you dont want to run CCC all the time, You Have to open CCC manually and synchronize your new mymovies data. That is done on the CCC first page click the button to update or synchronize. I forget the wording but it should be easy to find. If you do not want to run CCC manually you can schedule it to run updates at certain periods, and you should chose to check run on bootup or when you sign in. I do not know what would happen if you check both but I chose bootup and I allow it to show up in the taskbar, "minimize" on the bottom right of windows. Jamie

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Pauven
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Re: CCC Install - Catching Up

Post by Pauven » Tue May 03, 2022 6:42 pm

Hi Pete,

Welcome back to the fold :)

I think some of the info you seek is in the very last CCC tutorial: 401 - Final CCC Configuration <- IMPORTANT!!!

While CCC should be running, it only needs to run in 1 place. You didn't describe your network setup, so I don't know where you have CCC installed. For example, I have CCC running on my dedicated My Movies PC - those are the only two things that run on that PC. Then when I run CMC on one of my HTPC's, it talks over the network to that My Movies PC to communicate with CCC.

There are some My Movies bugs that allow certain content changes to go unreported as a change. CCC simply pings the API and asks "what's new?", and if the API doesn't report a title has changed, then CCC won't know to grab an update. While these bugs do exist, they are normally rare and hard to hit, but it's possible you might have discovered one.

You've got two options, one slow and one quick:

A) SLOW - Do a new Full Export in CCC

or

B) FAST - Type in the name of the title you changed in CCC's search box, then do a Full Export

What's cool about option B is that when you have a name in the search box, running a Full Export switches to an append mode. This essentially allows you to force a Full Export for one or a few titles (wildcard match) but you keep the rest of your titles. With option A, where you don't type anything into the search box, the CCC DB is rebuilt from scratch, all titles.

It sounds like you already solved it by doing option A, but in the future should this happen then just do option B, it's a handy little trick.

If tutorial 401 doesn't answer the remainder of your questions, let me know.
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Pauven
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Re: CCC Install - Catching Up

Post by Pauven » Tue May 03, 2022 6:47 pm

Jamie wrote: Tue May 03, 2022 6:40 pm I noticed that Paul Hasn't responded yet
Ha, you beat me by 2 minutes!

Jamie wrote: Tue May 03, 2022 6:40 pm With CCC you are using the mymovies API so you don't need to export data from Mymovies any more.
Splitting hairs on this technicality - CCC exports the data via the API, so you don't have to force My Movies to export data. But CME also exported data via the API, so it's not that different in that regard. The difference is the target for the data. CME wrote it to XML files, while CCC writes it to the CMC DB directly.

You've been using CMC since the beginning, and I think part of what you're recalling is the original solution where we had to force My Movies to export the XML's, and then we scanned for them with CMC. I don't miss those days at all...
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Jamie
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Re: CCC Install - Catching Up

Post by Jamie » Tue May 03, 2022 6:57 pm

Pauven wrote: Tue May 03, 2022 6:47 pm
Jamie wrote: Tue May 03, 2022 6:40 pm I noticed that Paul Hasn't responded yet
Ha, you beat me by 2 minutes!
Pauven wrote: Tue May 03, 2022 6:47 pm You've been using CMC since the beginning, and I think part of what you're recalling is the original solution where we had to force My Movies to export the XML's, and then we scanned for them with CMC. I don't miss those days at all...
Yes, that is what I remember and glad that I don't Have to muck around with the xml data

pks
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Re: CCC Install - Catching Up

Post by pks » Wed May 04, 2022 10:40 am

Thank you both very much! That link was indeed something I failed to read until now.

Just before your responses, I decided to experiment and I chose to click "Schedule CCC to Launch When You Log In" and I checked the box "Start CCC Minimized to the System Tray". Then saved it, exited and rebooted my PC. I discovered CCC had indeed launched, minimized and was in the System tray. So success!

But today I've come to feel that my situation is that I really don't need to have CCC perform a check every 5 minutes because these days I rarely make My Movies changes. With all the streaming going on my wife is usually accessing what she wants to watch via our ROKU device. I think I have probably only purchased 2-3 Blu-ray movies in the past year. Also, my PC is about 10 years old and so it does not have a fast processor. I did install a SSD for the C drive some time ago and that made a world of difference. But I also occasionally record a TV movie using my Hauppauge Colossus 2 card and capture software. I am concerned that if CCC checked for MM changes every 5 minutes it just might hinder my processor's ability to smoothly record any TV shows. So I've decided to do what I used to do with CME - just perform a full sync whenever I add, delete, or make any changes in MM. No big swig. I'm now 73 and retired and the small amount of time and effort is nothing to me.

I sincerely hope you are both doing well. It was such a pleasure to bring my system back to life and once again see all my movies and music on CMC.

I have to ask, how is CMC doing? After posting my question I started looking around the forum and found a very small amount of action going on since early 2021. Did the pandemic do some damage? Has the popularity of streaming resulted in a loss of public interest in DVD/Bluray ripping and PC access to entertainment? Has CMC attracted enough users to help you sustain the effort of supporting and improving the program. Having been a database programmer for much of my life I am aware of the vast amount of effort you have poured into the development of CMC, CME and CCC. I sincerely hope CMC continues on because it really is a good system and I have appreciated it very much.

Best regards,
Pete

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Pauven
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Re: CCC Install - Catching Up

Post by Pauven » Wed May 04, 2022 11:09 am

The check that CCC does every 5 minutes typically takes 1-3 seconds. It's super-fast and lightweight. So it shouldn't affect your performance at all. If you open CCC back up, you can monitor the sync right in the main window, and you'll see how fast it is on your setup.

That said, if you'd prefer to run manually, or change the schedule to anything else, that's fine. You can easily configure it in CCC's settings.

I wouldn't recommend doing a full export though, unless you encounter issues with data missing in a changes only update. You can easily run it on demand, whenever you feel like it, and changes only should be perfect and quick.

I was working on v5 for release last fall, and then due to too many bugs I missed my original target dates. Development has been on hold for about 5 months, as I've just been too busy with work and life and other projects, but I do expect to pick back up and finish v5 here in the coming weeks.
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pks
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Re: CCC Install - Catching Up

Post by pks » Wed May 04, 2022 11:24 am

Thanks Paul.
A couple of minor bugs to mention.
When I was working in CCC I attempted to exit the screen by clicking the window's upper right X. A warning box appeared that read " Are you sure you want to close CCC?"
The problem is the the warning box frame is not sized large enough to make visible the remaining message. And the two option buttons (probably Yes and No) are not clearly visible.
Second little bug that has existed for a long time is that when in CMC and I attempt to select a different media category a message sometimes appears that reads "[updatedetails]EStringListError.List index out of bounds (-1)"
Pete

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Pauven
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Re: CCC Install - Catching Up

Post by Pauven » Wed May 04, 2022 11:35 am

pks wrote: Wed May 04, 2022 11:24 am A warning box appeared that read " Are you sure you want to close CCC?"
The problem is the the warning box frame is not sized large enough to make visible the remaining message. And the two option buttons (probably Yes and No) are not clearly visible.
What is your display resolution and scaling?

pks wrote: Wed May 04, 2022 11:24 am Second little bug that has existed for a long time is that when in CMC and I attempt to select a different media category a message sometimes appears that reads "[updatedetails]EStringListError.List index out of bounds (-1)"
That's already fixed in v5.
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pks
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Re: CCC Install - Catching Up

Post by pks » Wed May 04, 2022 11:54 am

4K x 2K, 3840 x 2160

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