Recognising and Unresolved Videos

jamesfoster · #1 November 8th, 2009, 09:13 AM

I know this has probably been brought up many times. So if you think this has been explained better elsewhere please post a link (preferably to a specific post so we don't have to read the entire thread to find it). I'm hoping to see a lot of these changes make it into the Beta.

The whole area of recognising files at the moment is inconsistent. The user experience is extremely poor. Either wait an unreasonable amount of time for it to automatically recognise it, or Browse, find the file, and choose recognise... but that is full of problems...

I name my files as follows:

TV/Show/Season SS/Show - SSxEE - Title.avi

for example

TV/FlashForward/Season 01/FlashForward - 01x04 - Black Swan.avi

(the title may be missing)

When I go to recognise the video a) it should know it's a TV show simply by the directory it's in. I don't mind specifying this when adding the source. b) it should understand the format of the filename, and it should know the name of the show, the season number and episode number.

But it doesn't.

If it did understand the file name it would have recognised it correctly because if I manually enter "Flashforward,1,4" it finds it.

How should we name our files?

I could even write a regular expression to extract the info!

c) if I absolutely have to type it in manually, prepopulate the textbox with your best guess, like "FlashForward -,1,x04" or whatever.

d) because of the directory structure, it should know that that directory is season 1 of flashforward. and so should be able to automatically recognise it.

e) because it has already recognised episodes 1 2 and 3, and each time I've said "Apply to entire folder", it should know that that directory is season 1 of flashforward. (I shouldn't have to say "Apply to entire folder" more than once. i don't mind boxee storing a file in this directory so it knows for next time. Ideally tho, it would be stored in boxee's database)

f) I know under Windows it's possible to listen to the contents of a folder and be notified of changes. so if a new file is added, or an existing file is renamed or deleted you can kick in and do something. I'm not sure but I would have thought there was something similar on Mac. Why do we have to wait so long for our files to be auto recognised? You don't need to scan (which eats up CPU) you just need to listen and recognise them instantly.

g) If a file is renamed, it appears twice in my Local Media. the original should be deleted.

-----

h) What is the Unresolved Videos source? It's not Unresolved Videos! It doesn't contain any of the videos (which have been sitting on the HDD for months!) which HAVEN'T yet been recognised. Worse still, it DOES contain some videos which HAVE been recognised!

Thanks for any help you can give.

DPK · #2 November 8th, 2009, 09:43 AM

Quote:

How should we name our files?

There's a topic stickied at the top of this forum:
http://forum.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=5215

...which links to:
http://forum.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=5214

jamesfoster · #3 November 8th, 2009, 10:45 AM

Thanks DPK. That is a really good, comprehensive post on how to name your files.

According to that post my naming convention should be fully supported.

Do you have any thoughts on any of the other issues? Have you had the same experience as me? Do you agree?

Perhaps I'm only experiencing this because I'm using boxee on the appletv?

mkoby · #4 November 8th, 2009, 02:45 PM

The whole thing on how to name your files doesn't actually work.

For example:

I have my Firefly DVDs ripped and they are named as follows

Firefly.s01e01.Serenity.avi

I used the DVD order because that's the actual correct order of the shows as opposed to the aired order. When Boxee parses the show, it 1) Ignores my file name and 2) uses aired order rather than DVD order (by default TVDB does aired order rather than DVD order).

Also on movies, I have my my movies name liked the following:

Halloween_(2007).avi

This should signify that this is the 2007 remake of of Halloween done by Rob Zombie and NOT the original Halloween from 1978 (or 1979 can't remember). Boxee ALWAYS parses it as the original rather than the remake. It also does this for The Producers, I have my file named as

The_Producers_(2005).avi

This, again, should signify it is the remake rather than the original, but Boxee again parses the film as the original.

On both of these examples even AFTER I specify that it's the wrong movie and tell it what the right one is, it doesn't replace the thumbnail or the info with the correct data. Also, I have NFO files, thumbnails, and fanart and it doesn't use ANY of this information.

I'm hoping that some of this will be fixed in the Beta, but since that will be closed until next year, I'll have to wait. XBMC uses the NFO and thumbnail files just fine, and it also has an option to use DVD order for TV Shows so I don't understand why Boxee doesn't do this.

jamesfoster · #5 November 8th, 2009, 06:21 PM

I wholeheartedly agree, movie recognition should definitely include the year. I have Assault on Precinct 13 which always resolves to the remake instead of the original.

As for Firefly, it is unfortunate that thetvdb disagrees with the DVD but it's not a problem with Boxee. Boxee is doing what it was designed to do so I don't count that as a failure to recognise the media. The title is seen as "extranious information", the season and episode number are all it uses to determine the metadata.

Just so this thread doesn't start to repeat what's already out there, here's a thread dedicated to which shows Boxee has a problem recognising.

http://forum.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=4501

This thread is more about the User Experience of recognising media.

DPK · #6 November 8th, 2009, 06:27 PM

There will be improvements in the upcoming beta version which should resolve some of these issues. It won't completely fix the problem, but will be better than what currently exists in the alpha builds.

jamesfoster · #7 November 8th, 2009, 06:28 PM

regarding point b, since my naming convention is supported, why do I have to type in "FlashForward,1,4"? Sometimes it gets it and sometimes it doesn't. but whenever I type in "Title,Season,Episode" it always gets it. I don't understand why this is so inconsistent?

jamesfoster · #8 November 8th, 2009, 06:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DPK

There will be improvements in the upcoming beta version which should resolve some of these issues. It won't completely fix the problem, but will be better than what currently exists in the alpha builds.

That's good to hear.

Any specifics?

jamesfoster · #9 November 9th, 2009, 04:37 AM

Regarding Firefly (slightly off topic) if the DVD Season and Episode numbers are available on thetvdb.com (which they are for Firefly) then we should be able to say which way we've numbered our files! And this should be the way they're displayed and sorted as well.

mkoby · #10 November 12th, 2009, 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamesfoster

Regarding Firefly (slightly off topic) if the DVD Season and Episode numbers are available on thetvdb.com (which they are for Firefly) then we should be able to say which way we've numbered our files! And this should be the way they're displayed and sorted as well.

Actually, XBMC has a checkbox for "Use DVD Order" when adding a source and marking it as TV Shows (another thing you can't do in Boxee, is tell it that the videos in a specific source are Movies/TV shows/Music Videos/etc). Boxee could fix the issue by just putting that feature back in.