use folder names instead of file names?

**bek** · December 2nd, 2011, 11:28 AM

Identify files by folder name, NOT file name.

Anyone else interested in this feature?

Marcel didn't seem interested at all in implementing it. He just recommended I rename all my files (all 3000 movies and unknown number of TV series).

(Yes, I know there are utilities out there that will probably work for the majority of them, but it's so much easier on my XBMC to just click the option to use folder names.)

**ntg** · December 9th, 2011, 02:59 PM

I'd love to see this implemented, it would solve soooo many problems and parsers are really not hard to write.

Actually I would like the file parser to do multiple sweeps: First using the current algorithm; then if it's undetermined then ignore all the title modifiers and punctuation (eg "A" "The" "-" "," etc); then if TV then try different approaches for Season/Episode (S01E06, S1E06, 1x06, 106, etc); then try to identify by "extended" file name (s01e06.the.title.of.the.show), then by folder name (esp helpful for "S02 Extras").

I'm sure there are lots of other ways to parse, but it makes complete sense to me to use a hierarchical set of rules. If the first rule doesn't find a match, just move down to the next one. There aren't enough unidentified files that this should make a huge performance impact on scanning, but there are definitely enough unidentified files that it will make a massive impact on my sanity and manual identification (I have thousands of unidentifieds, and most of them are DVD Extras). Heck, it would be absolutely perfect if we could set up our own parsing patterns and include them in the chain...

**judgeschambers** · December 9th, 2011, 06:48 PM

Actually, I seem to recall back in the early days of Boxee PC and my testing for the team that Boxee supported the use of folder naming....I tested it and it worked, but used that name as well if needed to index. And that may not be the case with BBox now. Useless info I know, but thought I'd mention it. (Update: yes, I have dvd video_ts folders in a titled folder and they index fine)

Personally, I've always named my movie the actual name of the movie, tv show ep, etc. Just makes things so much easier. Even before I used boxee. Back when nothing was put into a dedicated folder....just the media files all in one folder. I don't envy the renaming task you have ahead of you....

Example I use now:

-Folder (My Fav Movie - 2011)
-My Fav Movie - 2011.avi
-folder.jpg (just in case)

**ntg** · December 9th, 2011, 08:08 PM

lolthx for the compassion. I follow the same naming protocols as you do, except I put multiple movies into a folder by genre, instead of 1 per movie. That still makes no difference to the autoscanner when it finds punctuation and things that it mysteriously doesn't like.

...but the worst thing by far are the extras for TV shows. I have dozens (hundreds?) of directories with hundreds (thousands?) of files, all of them named "\TV Show Title\S0x Extras\xx.xxx" or "xx extra - titleOfExtra"...and the parser is forcing me to manually name them all one at a time. It won't even sweep the entire folder to set them all to the same show...so I just completely give up on those unless there's another option.

I might even tough it out and rename them, except I can't find any names that will work except for setting them all to Season 00 ("S00Exx") and then letting them all get lumped into a single episode description (IOW, no description at all).

**darcilicious** · December 9th, 2011, 08:50 PM

so I just completely give up on those unless there's another option.

NFO files should take care of this for you. I'm not sure if they will show up under the same show if the rest of the (regular) eps are without NFO files but it's worth a try.

**ntg** · December 9th, 2011, 09:51 PM

Yeah, nfo files are an option but I just don't relish building and scrubbing all of them. Nor do I want to litter the filesystems with thousands of tiny files if I can avoid it.

Can't remember if it was this thread or another, but I mentioned that another big problem is when it resolves the TV show but gets the episodes all wrong (the numbers are right but the database has the wrong descriptions since the viewing order was different on DVD/BluRay/etc). To really get everything right I'd have to scrub every file by actually viewing them first--and there are thousands of them, plus some legitimate multiples of the same episodes. Ick.

I'm fine with a few inconsistencies--they'll get ironed out eventually; but I basically have naming OCD and I don't want to start with thousands of unidentified/misidentified files. I already spent >20 solid hours trying to resolve the first few hundred before I gave up. Everything is arranged so neatly into folders right now, but the parser doesn't care about that and it's all spread across a dozen drives with no descriptions, so I guess anything is an improvement.

Finally: using the remote with a 5min time lag after every lookup is another real killer... Is there a way to transfer the database from a Dlink BB to a PC, then edit it en masse, and put it back? Even if it's possible, will the edits hold when the file gets moved to a different directory or a different drive? Again this is an attempt to avoid nfo files if possible, but I might have to bite the bullet on those. Or bite the bullet and get rid of the BB.

**darcilicious** · December 9th, 2011, 09:57 PM

Is there a way to transfer the database from a Dlink BB to a PC, then edit it en masse, and put it back?

Nope. No direct access to the "file system" on the Boxee Box.

I never look at the filesystem that has my video files, everything is automated and NFO files are a godsend.

I wouldn't expect Boxee's current scanning/identifying process to improve much beyond what it is now so you're going to have find a way around your OCD via filebot (renamer) and NFO files I'm afraid. Or give up on the Boxee Box...

**darcilicious** · December 9th, 2011, 10:05 PM

And for my movies that are recorded by SageTV's pvr system? All of those recordings are in a single folder, and every movie as a .properties file in addition to an NFO file -- talk about messy!

But I only ever directly "look" at it when I'm testing something to help folks here