[NEW FEATURE in v7.0] Local Trailers

[RKEP]

Hi Paul

I have decided to start adding trailers which upto now have not bothered. I would like to use my own downloaded trailers but have no idea how to link them to the movie or where to store them. Please could you help me with this process, thx

Best Regards

Richard

[Pauven]

Hi Richard

Which kind of trailers are you referring to? The movie trailer for the movie you are currently browsing, so you can see a preview of it to decide if you want to watch it? Or a series of pre-movie trailers that would play before each movie, like "Silence is golden, silence your electronic devices", "Refreshments are available in the lobby", "Dolby Atmos" sound demo, and "Coming Soon..."?

If you are referring to the first scenario, the movie trailer for the movie you are browsing, this works by linking the movie (not the disc title, but the movie itself) to the trailer on YouTube - you do this in My Movies Collection Management. This data is imported into CMC, and then when you click on Trailer it will play back directly from YouTube using MPC-BE. Note, constant YouTube changes have the side effect of breaking this playback, so you'll have to occasionally update MPC-BE which usually fixes the playback issue (the issue is that playback just shows a black screen).

I assume the above is what you're asking about, and there's not currently any support for local media, only the YouTube trailers, since that is the data provided by My Movies.

If instead you are wanting to play a series of pre-movie trailers and clips, this is a feature I've been pondering for a few years, and it is something I would like to add even for myself. I think it would be pretty neat to have a "Welcome to Paul's Theater" into plus maybe some sound demos play when I have friends over for a watch party. But as of right now, this is just in my head, doesn't exist in CMC yet.

Paul

[RKEP]

Hi Paul

Thx for info. If possible in a future update, personally I would prefer to be able to save a movie trailer locally and link it and not use YouTube. Maybe you can consider this as an option, thx

Best Regards

Richard

[Pauven]

Do you use CCC or CME?

So, what would the methodology look like? Put a file called Trailer.MP4 in each media folder, and then flip a switch in CMC that enables a scan for Trailer.MP4 in each media folder, and allow it to play back if it exists? When would the scan happen, all media folders at once like the legacy movie folder scanning feature, or only when you open a movie to browse the contents.

Or perhaps CCC would be responsible for scanning, sharing the results with all clients.

Regardless, since this is not a feature of My Movies, it becomes some type of add-on in CCC or CMC, which would require scanning for trailers and would spin up your media drives to perform the scan.

Seems so much better if this could be a feature in My Movies. Since you have to add the trailers manually anyway, that makes the most sense to me, makes it a one stop shop for all your media management.

I'm not super psyched about having CCC or CMC scan folders (at least, not when CMC is in CCC mode). One of the best things about using the My Movies API with CCC is that folder scanning became obsolete.

[RKEP]

Good Morning Paul

I am using CCC.

If trailers could be added into my movies that would be ideal but I don't know how you could do that, there doesent seem to be an option for it.

I do not understand the technicallities with doing this but I think this is what you are saying. If the trailer is in the movie folder (labelled as required), could the trailer button on the GUI (CMC) be fixed "in the CMC program itself" to link to the trailer in the corresponding movie folder and then play on PowerDVD just as the play button does for the movie.

In very simplictic terms. You gave the option to change backgrounds on the GUI for each section, ie movies, tv etc. I have a created a new folder labelled Backgrounds in the CMC program folder and set links to these. Which is a great feature I might add!

As I said I do not understand the technicalities and how difficult/awkward this might be, but apprieciate your thoughts on this idea. Thx

Best Regards

Richard

[Pauven]

Exciting discovery!!!

I was about to reply, saying that the required functionality in My Movies does not yet exist, and that we would need Binnerup to add it.

But I have a habit of double-checking things before I write, and I just discovered something that somehow I've never noticed before. I was thinking how it could be nice if the YouTube Trailer ID allowed us to use a local filepath. But then I thought, "there's no way that Binnerup would allow us to put local data in a global field that would update all users worldwide". Then I thought to myself, "no, Binnerup would put local data in the Personal Data section, that way it is specific to each user"...

So, while on a Movie, I clicked Personal Data, mainly to see where a good spot to put it might be, but also to consider if an existing field could be repurposed for our needs. Low and behold, what did appear:

image.png (158.42 KiB) Viewed 4713 times

It already exists!

Then, out of curiosity, I checked the Personal Data options for a Disc Title too:

image.png (134.33 KiB) Viewed 4713 times

I know that looks like two copies of the same image, but trust me they are slightly different, one for the Movie (lowercase "of" in the movie title at the top), and one for the Disc Title (incorrect uppercase "Of" in the disc title at the top). All the options seem the same. So, there are literally two different places the local trailer path can be stored.

That said, currently CMC/CCC doesn't make use of this data. But I will add this to the next version!!! To be honest, I'm sure I've noticed this data tag before in the My Movies XML data, but didn't pay much attention to it because I doubted anyone would bother maintaining local trailers. You've proved me wrong.

I will have to make it behave so that certain values override other values, since the movie trailer can come from 3 different sources. I will give it the following priority:

1. Disc Title - Personal Data - Local Trailer
2. Movie - Personal Data - Local Trailer
3. Movie - YouTube Trailer ID

So you can go ahead and get started on maintaining this data in your collection, and then when the next release comes out, it will begin using it.

If you're wondering whether to put the trailers on the Disc Title or the Movie, consider the following: I have 3 copies of Lord of the Rings, in DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K. If I add the trailer to the Movie, then it applies to all 3 discs, since they all link to the same movie, so less effort. But if you have a trailer specific to a special edition of a disc (i.e. a newly restored 4K remaster of an old movie), it would make more sense to put that trailer on the Disc Title, so it only applies to that disc's version of the movie. With the priority list above, if all three values exist, the Disc Title's local trailer wins.

If the trailer is in the movie folder (labelled as required), could the trailer button on the GUI (CMC) be fixed "in the CMC program itself" to link to the trailer in the corresponding movie folder and then play on PowerDVD just as the play button does for the movie.

Yes, essentially that is how it will work, and how it already works today with the YouTube trailers. But I will say there is one distinction and I will likely not change this: playing YouTube trailers requires MPC-BE to be installed. This is for two reasons: 1) it can play video from URL's including YouTube, and 2) It will automatically close after playback finishes. That #2 is a biggie. If you used PowerDVD, then after every trailer you would have to hit the close button. With MPC-BE, it's just automatic, and I believe it is the only player that has this feature. Since #1 is a requirement for YouTube trailers, and since #2 is extremely nice, I will stick with this requirement. It also helps keep the support documentation simpler.

Considering that MPC-BE is free and only takes a few minutes to install, I see this as a low hurdle for CMC users. MPC-BE is also awesome for watching TV episodes, as it will auto-close and allow CMC to play the next episode without manual intervention.

[RKEP]

Hi Paul

I never noticed that local trailer box before, so thats great! I always use the Disc option myself as I find PowerDVD plays ISO's better than Files for some reason. The playback is always smoother??? Looking fwd to the next update and try this out, thx

Best Regards

Richard

[Pauven]

The disc vs movie option for trailers has nothing to do with playback.

Every movie related Disc Title has an attached movie, that's just how it works. You click the plus sign next to the disc title, and you see the movie embedded inside of it. If you have multiple copies of the same movie on different disc editions, they all link to the same movie.

If you only have 1 disc version of every movie, then putting the trailer on the disc title is fine and probably easiest. But if you have multiple copies of the same movie in different disc formats, then you can simply add the trailer to the associated movie once, instead of separately to each disc title. Movie playback is still from the disc title, just like you prefer, but the link to the local trailer can be pulled from the associated movie.

The YouTube Trailer ID only exists on the Movie (always wished Binnerup would include that on the Disc Title too. So when CCC does the export of your disc titles, it also grabs the movie ID and exports the movie data too, solely for the purpose of grabbing the YouTube Trailer ID. It makes exporting slower, but it's the only way for CCC to grab all the data. Since CCC is already grabbing the movie data, that's why you can optionally put the local trailer just on the movie if you want. You can also mix it up any way you want, put the trailer on the disc title for some, on the movie for others, it will all work pretty much the same.

[Pauven]

I have added support for Local Trailers to the next version of CMC. These will play in CMC when you go to the Movie Details screen and select "trailer".

Local Trailers can be assigned in My Movies to either the Movie or the Disc Title. For either Discs or Movies, click the "Personal" button at the bottom of the screen to find where to enter the Local Trailer info (see screenshots earlier in this thread).

If you have a movie in multiple formats, you can assign the Local Trailer to the associated Movie just once, and it automatically links to all Disc Titles (i.e DVD, Blu-ray, UHD, Director's Cut, Unrated Edition) that you might have for that same movie. Otherwise, if you only have one copy of a Movie, you can assign it to the Disc Title itself.

The way My Movies is built, there can be multiple trailers associated with a single Disc Title and the associated Movie, so CMC will apply the following ranking to determine which trailer is chosen for playback:

1. Local Trailer assigned to the Disc Title
2. Local Trailer assigned to the Movie
3. YouTube Trailer ID assigned to the Movie

Lowest number = highest ranking, so #1 will play if it exists, otherwise #2 if it exists, otherwise #3 if it exists. The reason for the ranking is that if you have a special trailer that exists for a special edition Blu-ray, you can link that to that Disc Title, and even if you already had linked a Local Trailer to the Movie, the special one you linked to the Disc Title will be the one that plays when you click on "trailer".

I've already added a few, and I'm loving this new capability. Years ago I added the YouTube Trailers (something that was lost in the WMC version of My Movies), and while I really liked this feature, often the trailers were extremely low quality. With Local Trailers, I can download trailers of very high quality, plus playback starts quicker as they are local on my network.

If you're wondering where to get high quality movie trailers for free, check this out!!!: https://thedigitaltheater.com/master-trailer-list/ AND https://thedigitaltheater.com/ (NOTE: Check out both links, as I've noticed the Master Trailer List is incomplete, they have tons more on the main page)

Just like the YouTube Trailers, Local Trailers will play with MPC-BE, so you must have that installed. Another new feature I just added to CMC is the ability to detect MPC-BE installs from the Microsoft Store, which is easier to install and maintain versus grabbing MPC-BE from SourceForge.