Problems with v 1.8.2018.0318

[stansey]

First of all, it's a great program and I now have it installed on three machines around the house connected to a TV.

Yesterday I updated my software to 1.8.2018.0318 and noticed immediately that my number of titles dropped by about 150, so with my son in one room on a PC running the 1.7.2017.1230 version, I was able to see that a large reason for this was that it grouped together titles, particularly TV series. That's fine, except that it didn't pull the entire series (for example, it all seasons of Bewitched made the transition except season 2, which isn't there but may be under a different title? Same with season 6 of Bob Newhart, season 5 of Happy Days, and the entire Sex and the City series and entire The Pacific series). In other cases, the movies themselves didn't come over (or are maybe a sub-movie with another film?).

The error log file shows no errors, so there's nothing to show there. I didn't run the other log file, but can do so if it helps.

I've since reverted back to 1.7.2017.1230 on that PC (I'd kept the downloaded zip file), and everything is back again that was missing in the new version.

I like the new interface and the capabilities of it, I just want to make sure I have access to all my films and don't have to go hunting for them.

Any suggestions?

Steve

[Pauven]

Hi Steve,

Sorry to hear that you got off to a rough start with v1.8.

The grouping by TV show is based upon the TV Series ID, which is assigned in My Movies. If this metadata is missing, then in v1.8 a title or disc will not show up correctly. This is a new behavior, as 1.7 did not use this value.

Have you read through the TV tutorials here in the forum? Primary the TV201 tutorial, which covers series grouping. I think this has the answer to your missing seasons.

Please let me know how it goes, or if you need more help.

Paul

[Pauven]

Also, regarding missing movies, I can help troubleshoot that issue, but I will need to know specifics. It also will be helpful if you turn on debug logging and run a full sync, and send me the logs.

[Pauven]

The error log file shows no errors, so there's nothing to show there.

I plan to add this scenario (missing TV Series ID on a disc marked as a TV Series) to the error log file. That would have been very helpful to you in your troubleshooting.

Paul

[Jamie]

Hi Paul,

Do you know how we can update the tv series id in MM?

Jamie

[Pauven]

I just published MM Browser v1.8.2018.0323, which includes the fix to the Sync Error Report to now include this issue.

Hi Paul,

Do you know how we can update the tv series id in MM?

Jamie

Yes, please review TV201 - TV Series Grouping in the Tutorials section on the Forum. The second image in that guide should illustrate the problem.

[stansey]

Paul,

I tried to attach the sync error log, but get an error stating that the txt file generated in the log folder is an "invalid file extension" - let me know what else I need to do.

That said, I updated to 1.8.2018.0401 and took care of most of the problems that I was experiencing before (mostly I did not have TV programs categorized and the error report shows that I still have a couple that still need to be done, although I'm confused why certain discs within a season are fine but others get an error message when they're coming from the same MyMovies title, so the tag should be universal - I'm certain there is something I've done wrong and will go back and figure it out). Specifically (when I can get the error file to you) see Bewitched Season 1, Bob Newhart Season 4, and Quantum Leap Season 4.

However, there are two things that I did notice that I'd appreciate some advice on fixing:

1. When I went through my database to fix the TV series issue, I took the opportunity to clean up my database - specifically, I eliminated duplicate titles: I had a copy of Braveheart from the late 1990s in NTSC format and have since updated it with a 1080 BD copy; in all, I eliminated 50 titles. When I ran the sync, it pulled in all the old titles and presented them as blank DVD boxes with the title listed as the file name in the database (eg: "BRAVHEART"). It put gold stars in the bottom corner of these titles that aren't in my MyMovies database anymore (and the TV shows that remain unaffiliated). Since these discs are not in my MyMovies database anymore, shouldn't these titles be ignored?

2. Is there a way to change the cover box for the TV series that are grouped together? For example, I grouped all my kids' Peanuts shorts (A Charlie Brown Christmas, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, etc.) into one TV series, but the software doesn't show the graphic you see when choosing which TV series it is in MyMovies, but arbitrarily chose to assign "It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown" to the cover. It did similar things for other titles that were TV shows that could be better described as an anthology because they include dissimilar story lines and actors. This may be in one of the TV101/201, etc. and I missed it, but if you could direct me to where it is, that would be helpful.

Thanks,
Steve

[Pauven]

I tried to attach the sync error log, but get an error stating that the txt file generated in the log folder is an "invalid file extension" - let me know what else I need to do.

It took some searching, but I just found where this setting was hiding in the phpBB settings. You should be able to attach .txt files now.

I'm confused why certain discs within a season are fine but others get an error message when they're coming from the same MyMovies title, so the tag should be universal

I would agree that the tag should be universal. There should be a *.mymovies.xml file generated for every disc, and this only happens if each disc is properly linked on the Edit Discs panel in MMCM. If you only have 1 disc per folder, you can use Location Type 'Online Folder', but if you have multiple discs per folder, you must use 'Online File', otherwise the mymovies.xml file won't properly link to the disc.

1. When I went through my database to fix the TV series issue, I took the opportunity to clean up my database - specifically, I eliminated duplicate titles: I had a copy of Braveheart from the late 1990s in NTSC format and have since updated it with a 1080 BD copy; in all, I eliminated 50 titles. When I ran the sync, it pulled in all the old titles and presented them as blank DVD boxes with the title listed as the file name in the database (eg: "BRAVHEART"). It put gold stars in the bottom corner of these titles that aren't in my MyMovies database anymore (and the TV shows that remain unaffiliated). Since these discs are not in my MyMovies database anymore, shouldn't these titles be ignored?

I remember in WMC, when you deleted a title it prompted whether it should remove it from the database, or delete it altogether. In MMCM, it seems that deleting a title only removes it from the database. Most likely, you will see that the media (ISO or DVD Folder) still lives on your storage drive, and MM Browser is finding it. I consider this a benefit, as it helps you truly clean up your collection in ways that MM is failing to do. By deleting the ISO's that My Movies failed to delete, you should recover another 300+GB of space.

There might be a setting in My Movies to have it delete your data instead of just removing the title from the database, but if there is that might be a scary setting to enable. For me, I use the remove from database feature all the time with the confidence of knowing that my media will not be deleted.

2. Is there a way to change the cover box for the TV series that are grouped together? For example, I grouped all my kids' Peanuts shorts (A Charlie Brown Christmas, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, etc.) into one TV series, but the software doesn't show the graphic you see when choosing which TV series it is in MyMovies, but arbitrarily chose to assign "It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown" to the cover. It did similar things for other titles that were TV shows that could be better described as an anthology because they include dissimilar story lines and actors. This may be in one of the TV101/201, etc. and I missed it, but if you could direct me to where it is, that would be helpful.

No, this isn't possible in v1.8. A problem that I am struggling with is getting My Movies to export the TV Series meta-data and artwork. In months of testing, I've only succeeded in doing this one time for one show, and I don't know how I did it.

For now, I have to assume that everyone else is having the same problem with My Movies, so instead of reading the TV Series meta-data and artwork, I am cheating and just grabbing the Name and Artwork from the first Title in the Series. I even trim the 'Season 1' text off the title to make it look like the normal TV Show Title instead of the individual disc title.

The hope here is that we will discover how to reliably generate the TV Series meta-data, similarly to how we can generate the Episode meta-data by assigning a e##.txt file to each Episode.

This is very frustrating for me, since I know it is possible to generate the TV Series meta-data and artwork, I just don't know how to do it.

Even worse, the one time it worked, the data wasn't really even usable. The "<Series>" file was only generated with the Zappiti.xml meta-data option enabled, but the file was was written to the wrong folder. The file was placed in my \TV_Series\ folder, and it should have been placed in the \TV_Series\The Big Bang Theory\ folder. Because it was placed in the wrong folder, it can be overwritten by other TV Shows, and it is almost impossible to associate it with the correct show. The good news is that the artwork was written the \TV_Series\The Big Bang Theory\ folder, so it would be usable.

Paul

[Pauven]

I just did some more testing, trying to force My Movies to export the TV Series meta-data, and discovered something new.

In My Movies Collection Management, a Title can be expanded in the left column to drill down to the Episodes. The tree structure is like this:

Title > TV Series > Seasons > Episodes

With Zappiti enabled in the Meta-data options, when you select the TV Series level, and click the Save-Meta button, My Movies writes the <Series> meta-data file (named Zappiti.xml).

But if you then click the Title level and click Save-Meta again, My Movies overwrites the <Series> meta-data file with a <Title> meta-data file (also named Zappiti.xml).

Perhaps there is another meta-data file format that doesn't overwrite the different file types. So far, all I've learned is that TV Series meta-data files don't ever get written as mymovies.xml files, and while they do get written as Zappiti.xml files, they also get overwritten by <Title> meta-data files.

I haven't played with any of the other meta-data file formats. I guess I need to turn them on and see what happens. If anyone else has experience with other meta-data file formats, specifically knowing which ones generate the TV Series meta-data, I would appreciate feedback.

Paul

[stansey]

Paul,

While I can't respond to your meta-data questions, I can tell you that monkeying around with MyMovies has allowed me to successfully align all the discs and episodes for the TV series titles. I have not cleared the old ISOs from the database yet, but will do so this evening, which will (as you point out) save about 300MB of space and clean up the UI in MM Browser. Finally, I'll take a look at some of the options you mentioned in your last post to see if I can determine ways to align the TV series meta-data and artwork. If you were able to do it once, there is a way to make it happen. If I discover anything, I will certainly share it with the Forum.

Thanks again for all you're doing to keep MyMovies available for the Windows users.

Please consider this thread closed, unless there is some reason you'd like to keep it open. If I discover a way to align TV series meta-data and artwork, I'll let you know through a separate post.

Thanks,
Steve