Req searchable metadata for home video library
#1
Video 
Hello guys,

I have undertaken our family's home video analog > digital conversion and organisation.

I've got a lot of h.264 MP4 files, and I've noticed the MP4 files can accept "Comments" in the metadata (using VLC Player to look insert that) and Windows8 can search these hidden fields and find matching clips.

It seems XBMC cannot search these metadata fields, so at the moment is limited to searching for file names only.

An example of what I want to be able to do is this... Say I have a 15 minute clip which has 20 different people in it. I would want to put all their names in the metadata "Comment" field so I could do a search/filter for any of their names and find all files that they are seen in.

Would this be possible in XBMC? It would be GREAT also to have a Home Movie category where you could filter and view by date/location/person/etc...

Thanks guys,
Mark.
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#2
What about creating nfo files for your home movies? This will allow you to specify info such as genre, date, plot, "actors", etc. that will be added to the library.
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#3
(2013-03-07, 21:28)artrafael Wrote: What about creating nfo files for your home movies? This will allow you to specify info such as genre, date, plot, "actors", etc. that will be added to the library.

Hi
I did read up about that, but it looks way too complicated for me, and messy having each file in a separate folder with a custom made NFO file in each folder... The mp4 files have inherent metadata, it would be so easy to add the text,save,done...

Thanks for the response though, cheers,
Mark.
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#4
They don't need to be in separate folders. Just name the nfo file the same as the corresponding video file, such as:
Christmas 2008.avi
Christmas 2008.nfo
DSCF1104.avi
DSCF1104.nfo
Mikey's First Birthday.avi
Mikey's First Birthday.nfo
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#5
(2013-03-07, 23:49)artrafael Wrote: They don't need to be in separate folders. Just name the nfo file the same as the corresponding video file, such as:
Christmas 2008.avi
Christmas 2008.nfo
DSCF1104.avi
DSCF1104.nfo
Mikey's First Birthday.avi
Mikey's First Birthday.nfo

Hmm
Ok, I'll give it a go...
It would be good to have an app to create all the NFO files with the right filenames as well as the right format blank code...
Tks
Mark
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#6
Is this code OK?

Id like a tag for location, but I think that's not available...

<movie>
<title>gathering at old house with schoolfriends</title>
<set>Home Movies</set>
<year>1994</year>
<outline>john Smith, Peter krawitz, Fred green, Oscar pistorius, lenny Jones, Kelly astaire</outline>
<plot>at old house, Johannesburg</plot>
</movie>
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#7
(2013-03-07, 23:54)fredphoesh Wrote: It would be good to have an app to create all the NFO files with the right filenames as well as the right format blank code...

If you're running Linux, you can use a simple bash script such as the following to create nfo files for all your avi files located in your current directory:
Code:
#!/bin/bash
for fname in *.avi
do
  fnroot=`echo "$fname" | sed 's/\(.*\)\..*/\1/'`  
  cp sample.nfo "$fnroot"'.nfo'
done
This assumes you have a sample.nfo file in the same directory that serves as a template (contains the XML tags, but no data). You would then manually edit the nfo files to manually add the data.
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#8
(2013-03-08, 00:40)fredphoesh Wrote: Is this code OK?

Id like a tag for location, but I think that's not available...

<movie>
<title>gathering at old house with schoolfriends</title>
<set>Home Movies</set>
<year>1994</year>
<outline>john Smith, Peter krawitz, Fred green, Oscar pistorius, lenny Jones, Kelly astaire</outline>
<plot>at old house, Johannesburg</plot>
</movie>

You may also want to include <genre> and <set> so you can identify and organize them in the library as home movies and not have these titles intermingled with theatrical movies.
Code:
<movie>
  :
  <genre>Home movies</genre>
  <set>Home movies</set>
  :
</movie>
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#9
(2013-03-08, 00:59)artrafael Wrote: If you're running Linux, you can use a simple bash script such as the following to create nfo files for all your avi files located in your current directory

Win8, but thanks for the script... clever!
I wonder if there is a windows tool that can do that.

Thanks anyway,
Mark.

(2013-03-08, 01:14)artrafael Wrote: You may also want to include <genre> and <set> so you can identify and organize them in the library as home movies and not have these titles intermingled with theatrical movies.
Code:
<movie>
  :
  <genre>Home movies</genre>
  <set>Home movies</set>
  :
</movie>

Hi again, and thanks again.
I did have a <set> thing, but the home movies are still all listed with the regular movies, making it a bit of a mess...
I did not have the <genre> thing there, but i'm guessing that wouldn't prevent the home movies from showing up with the list of regular movies, would it?
I noticed too that the FILTER mode does not allow you to filter by outline or plot, which is where I would put the description of the event being filmed as well as the name of each person there. Does that mean I would also have to have an <actor> tag? It looks like the actor tag would take a LOT more work as it seems to require having several lines PER person! I would want to just list the names.
<actor>
<name>Ed Gillespie</name>
<role>Himself</role>
</actor>

Cheers for the help,

Mark.
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