Video Library Metadata Questions

[cliveb]

When I add videos to my video library I absolutely DO NOT WANT metadata added.
In the frontend Video Metadata Settings, I turned off "Perform metadata lookup after video scan".
To my surprise, when I ran mythutil --scanvideos, metadata was added.
I then noticed that on my other frontend (I have two), the "Perform metadata lookup" option was switched on. (I've now switched it off).
So I conclude that this setting is frontend-specific, and that's why running mythutil --scanvideos on the backend machine looked it up.

Questions:
1. How do I switch off metadata lookup globally? I see nothing in the backend setup about metadata lookup.
2. How do I remove the metadata that has been added to my video library?

[white_haired_uncle]

When I add videos to my video library I absolutely DO NOT WANT metadata added.
In the frontend Video Metadata Settings, I turned off "Perform metadata lookup after video scan".
To my surprise, when I ran mythutil --scanvideos, metadata was added.
I then noticed that on my other frontend (I have two), the "Perform metadata lookup" option was switched on. (I've now switched it off).
So I conclude that this setting is frontend-specific, and that's why running mythutil --scanvideos on the backend machine looked it up.

Questions:
1. How do I switch off metadata lookup globally? I see nothing in the backend setup about metadata lookup.
2. How do I remove the metadata that has been added to my video library?

1. I don't know about this, it might just apply to recordings, but take a look at Job Queue (Backend-Specific) at http://mythbackend:6544/setupwizard/general (where mythbackend is your BE)

2. mysql> delete from videometadata; # This is for Videos only

[cliveb]

1. I don't know about this, it might just apply to recordings, but take a look at Job Queue (Backend-Specific) at http://mythbackend:6544/setupwizard/general (where mythbackend is your BE)

2. mysql> delete from videometadata; # This is for Videos only

Thanks.

1. When I try to go to the setupwizard web pages, it's asking for a username and password. Trouble is, when I try mythtv/mythtv, it's not accepted. I don't recall changing the mythtv password, and am hesitant to do so in case it breaks something.

2. Once I've remembered how to drive the mysql client, I'll try out the suggested update.

[white_haired_uncle]

1. I don't know about this, it might just apply to recordings, but take a look at Job Queue (Backend-Specific) at http://mythbackend:6544/setupwizard/general (where mythbackend is your BE)

2. mysql> delete from videometadata; # This is for Videos only

Thanks.

1. When I try to go to the setupwizard web pages, it's asking for a username and password. Trouble is, when I try mythtv/mythtv, it's not accepted. I don't recall changing the mythtv password, and am hesitant to do so in case it breaks something.

2. Once I've remembered how to drive the mysql client, I'll try out the suggested update.

You're the one running v31, aren't you? The webapp didn't exist back then, but you should be able to find the same in mythtv-setup.

assuming you're on the db host:

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$ mysql -h localhost -u mythtv -p mythconverg

assuming you're on the db host

[cliveb]

You're the one running v31, aren't you? The webapp didn't exist back then, but you should be able to find the same in mythtv-setup.

Yes, running 0.31.
I think the webapp is there. If I go to http://<mythbackend>:6544 I do get a page, which has a side-menu that includes a link to the Setup Wizard.

But when I click that link, it asks for a username/password. Have tried mythtv/mythtv and mythtv/mythconverg, but neither are accepted. But no matter, if it only replicates what's available in the old fashioned backend setup application, then I've searched through that and not found anything that seems relevant.

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$ mysql -h localhost -u mythtv -p mythconverg

assuming you're on the db host

Thanks, running "delete from videometadata" in mysql did the trick. After running that, the frontend declared the video library to be empty, and a rescan brought them all back without any metadata.

[white_haired_uncle]

You're the one running v31, aren't you? The webapp didn't exist back then, but you should be able to find the same in mythtv-setup.

Yes, running 0.31.
I think the webapp is there. If I go to http://<mythbackend>:6544 I do get a page, which has a side-menu that includes a link to the Setup Wizard.

But when I click that link, it asks for a username/password. Have tried mythtv/mythtv and mythtv/mythconverg, but neither are accepted. But no matter, if it only replicates what's available in the old fashioned backend setup application, then I've searched through that and not found anything that seems relevant.

Same port 6455, different applications IIRC. Either way, I think you're stuck with mythtv-setup>General>Job Queue (Backend-Specific)>Allow metadata lookup jobs. Again, I don't know if this will help you, but there it is.

I thought by default when you did a scan from the FE it would start a metadata lookup for everything in the background. Maybe not, or maybe yours is set up differently than mine (some of my settings are over 20 years old so I don't have any clue what I did). I also thought that if you kick off a scan on the FE it ran the metadata lookup on the FE (making the above setting irrelevant, if it isn't already).

[cliveb]

Same port 6455, different applications IIRC. Either way, I think you're stuck with mythtv-setup>General>Job Queue (Backend-Specific)>Allow metadata lookup jobs. Again, I don't know if this will help you, but there it is.

I thought by default when you did a scan from the FE it would start a metadata lookup for everything in the background. Maybe not, or maybe yours is set up differently than mine (some of my settings are over 20 years old so I don't have any clue what I did). I also thought that if you kick off a scan on the FE it ran the metadata lookup on the FE (making the above setting irrelevant, if it isn't already).

I suspect the "Allow metadata lookup jobs" option might only be for recordings. That option has been switched off forever on my backend, and it didn't stop something looking up the metadata when I ran mythutil --scanvideos (which was on the backend, so the frontend wasn't involved).

After deleting all the metadata, I rescanned on the frontend (which also has the "lookup metadata" option in the video settings switched off). It would be instructive to try once again, but this time run mythutils --scanvideos on the backend to see if it looks up metadata. Also, take a look at the job queue to see if a metadata lookup job appears there. I may try that and report back.

[dnalorernst]

If you are interested in getting now metadata at all (for recordings and videos),
try deleting the entries for the grabbers shown in
Frontend --> SetUp --> Data and Artwork Sources
Maybe setting them to

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/dev/null

could also work

[cliveb]

After deleting all the metadata, I rescanned on the frontend (which also has the "lookup metadata" option in the video settings switched off). It would be instructive to try once again, but this time run mythutils --scanvideos on the backend to see if it looks up metadata. Also, take a look at the job queue to see if a metadata lookup job appears there. I may try that and report back.

OK, I tried deleting the metadata then rescanning on the backend with mythutil --scan videos. The metadata was still added. (Although I didn't see a metadata lookup job in the job queue). No matter, I will just make sure to scan the videos from a frontend.

But now I have another slight irritation...

I organise my video directory hierarchy thus: Program name / Season / Episodes.
If I use numbers in the Season and Episode names, the scanner tries to be "helpful" and fills in the season and episode fields in the database, uses the overall show name as the title, and puts the episode name in the subtitle.

For example, suppose I have this file system hierarchy:

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Battlestar Galactica
	Season 1
		01 The Mini-Series

After scanning, the result is:

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title: Battlestar Galactica
subtitle: The Mini-Series
season: 1
episode: 1

When the video list is displayed in the frontend, we get this:

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Battlestar Galactica > Season 1 > Battlestar Galactica 1x01 - The Mini Series

Showing the episode title like this is redundant. We already have the show name and season number; no need to repeat it in the episode title. What's more, there isn't enough screen estate to display the entire episode title, which consequently gets chopped off.

But if the hierarchy is this:

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Battlestar Galactica
	Season A
		01 The Mini-Series

After scanning, we get:

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title: 01 The Mini-Series
subtitle: <empty>
season: 0
episode: 0

And when the video list is displayed in the frontend, we get this:

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Battlestar Galactica > Season A > 01 The Mini Series

That is how I'd like to see the display - except that I want to call it Season 1 rather than Season A.

Is there any way to configure the scanner so it doesn't interpret numbers in directory and file names as season and episode numbers?

[dnalorernst]

The wiki https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/MythVideo_File_Parsing outlines what MythTV supports.

[cliveb]

The wiki https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/MythVideo_File_Parsing outlines what MythTV supports.

Thanks for that, but it explains pretty much the opposite of what I'm trying to achieve.
It shows how to name your files so the correct metadata is extracted.
And there's no need to be as prescriptive as that wiki implies: pretty much any directory/file names with numbers in them result in season and episode metadata being created.

I'm trying to figure out what naming strategy that still uses numbers in the file names will PREVENT it creating season/episode metadata. I now think there's probably no way to prevent it, so will fall back on updating the metadata once it's been created, thus:

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update videometadata
    set title=concat(lpad(episode,2,'00'),' ',subtitle),season=0,episode=0,subtitle=''
    where season>0 and episode>0 and subtitle is not null;

The above SQL amends the metadata so that it displays the way I want in the frontend's video list interface.

I'm now wondering if there's a way to get a VIDEO_LIST_CHANGE backend message to trigger execution of a script that performs this database update.

[white_haired_uncle]

I, II, III, IV, ...

[cliveb]

I, II, III, IV, ...

I did consider that, but when you get to VIII, IX, X, the ordering goes out the window.

[white_haired_uncle]

so will fall back on updating the metadata once it's been created, thus:

For those not comfortable with squeal, if you select a video in Watch Videos and hit 'i', then Edit Details (or something very close) you can edit the Title, Sub, Season, etc.

[cliveb]

For those not comfortable with squeal, if you select a video in Watch Videos and hit 'i', then Edit Details (or something very close) you can edit the Title, Sub, Season, etc.

That's OK for the occasional one off update, but not practical when there's hundreds of videos to amend. I'm happy to run the SQL when needed.

(If anyone is wondering why I'm doing this, am ripping all my DVDs so they can be put away in the loft to free up some shelf space).