CMC Forums

I know I should search the forums a little more but I'm going to just ask here in the Metadata section. I have added a few old movies I recorded off TCM that weren't in the MyMovies database so know how to do that.

Is there a way to add things to the Chameleon database that aren't added to MyMovies online (and never will be)?

Thanks,

Doug

Hi Doug,
No there isn’t a way to do that directly with CCC/CME, but what you can do is add your movies as personal titles in MyMovies collection management. Give it a barcode of 12 zeros then add whatever information you want for your personnel title then save it and never upload it to the MyMovies web service. All new titles that you create in MyMovies are personal titles in your local database until you upload them to the web service. CCC/CME will pick up the title and add it to its database. From that point, you simply sync up your CM client(s) to the local CCC database for the title to show up. Same thing applies if you use CME, but you really should be using CCC now.

Hope this helps you Doug!


Efrain

Hey Doug,

If you've migrated over to using CCC, then no there is not currently a way to add non-MM videos.

If you are using the now legacy approach of folder scanning syncs (with CME generated XML files or even mymovies.xml files), then yes, you can get non-MM data into CMC. There's a setting you would have to change in the folder scanning settings, to import data missing metadata. If you really wanted to, you could create the metadata files too, and CMC would import them and make it look like it came from MM. But at that point, you've done so much work that you might as well have added the videos to MM.

Something that is on the to-do list for CMC is for me to add the ability to import non-MM videos, like home videos and such. This has been an often requested enhancement. I don't have a firm ETA on this new functionality, it's still just in the planning stages, though I will say that since some of the major obstacles like delivering CCC are now complete, there's a good chance work will begin on this sooner than later. This is a huge undertaking, so it could be a while once development starts.

Paul

Thanks for the replies, I am using CCC. No hurry on that feature but if you get to it I think a lot of people would use it.

Pauven wrote: ↑Mon Mar 22, 2021 10:14 am Hey Doug,

If you've migrated over to using CCC, then no there is not currently a way to add non-MM videos.

Paul

Hi Paul,

I usually do what Efrain described and it works fine. I know it seems to be a wasted effort but I have a number discs that I do not want to show the world and I also broke some MM rules when I added them to the CM. Yes, I use CCC.

Jamie

Hi Jamie and Paul,

Jamie is on point. It works just fine that way. CCC doesn’t really care if it’s a local personal title or a global one. If it’s there, CCC will see it and pull it into it’s own database. Paul you really don’t need to do any additional programming. I think that would be a waste of your time that can be better spent on other areas for improvement or adding new features.

Everyone's comments line up pretty well with what Brian Binnerup wrote on his website a month or two ago. He said to simply add these videos to My Movies as personal items (non-contributed), and didn't understand why I would add this capability to CMC.

I appreciate the feedback, but I still plan to add this to CMC. Mainly to support web based content, i.e. home videos taken on a cell phone and stored in the cloud. I think that's a pretty cool add. But I also think having CMC scan for videos and importing them will be an important feature that will make many users happy, even if it is somewhat redundant with MM's capabilities.

Jamie wrote: ↑Mon Mar 22, 2021 8:58 pm I have a number discs that I do not want to show the world and I also broke some MM rules when I added them to the CM.

I don't think you broke any rules. Since these are non-contributed personal items, I don't think rules apply.

I don't mind adding them as personal items - looked around for that while initiating an add new item but didn't see how to do it.

As long as you don't contribute it, it's personal.

You can recognize personal items by the icon, which will include a person overlaid on the icon. For example, here's a personal Movie Collection I created for National Lampoon movies:


When adding personal videos in My Movies, you'll simply add a Title with Manual Typing:


You may also be able to add it with folder monitoring, I think that will auto-fill-in some of the data, but I'm not sure which workflow is better.

Thanks - I wasn't imagining that there was no "Add Personal Item" option