MB Server vs. MCM for backdrops/metadata

[rms8 12]

I figured this had to have already been covered countless times, but my searches were not successful.

[if this has already been covered, could someone point me to the link/s or recommend some better key words to search with?]

 

I rip all my BR/DVD into their native folder structure.  When I was using MB2, I used Media Center Master to collect the backdrops and folder images plus metadata.  MCM would also rename my folder [movie (year) ].

 

I see that MB Server has a built in fetcher.  What is the general consensus on it?  Is it just as good? Better, Worse?

 

When I rip my discs, I do it on another machine to an external HDD which is my mirror BU.  Then once I got all the backdrop/folder images, metadata, folder-rename accomplished by MCM, I would then plug the external HDD into MB Server and copy the new folder to it.  If MBS can accomplish the few things I did with MCM, then that would save me a few steps.  I don't need the extra options for TV shows since I rip my TV show DVDs/BRs to their native folder structure too, which means they are not parsed as individual episodes.  So MBS treats their folder as if they were a movie folder.

 

 

Thanks in advance!

Rob

 

[gcw07 347]

To me at least I think it depends upon if you use the advanced features of MCM or not. I didn't. I used it solely for metadata fetching. About 6 months ago I switched over to using MB3's internal fetcher instead. To me the internal one works as well if not better then what MCM did. Now if your using advanced features of MCM like the torrent stuff, etc., then obviously MB3 can't be a replacement for it. But for pure metadata fetching it can.

[rms8 12]

Thanks gcw07...that's the sort of answer I was looking for!  I don't use any advanced features with MCM, just the basics I described above.

Let me ask this about MB3's built in, does it re-name the folder for you?  Also, when you add a new movie, can it be set up to just scan that new folder, or does it rescan your whole library?

 

Thanks a bunch,

Rob

[gcw07 347]

It will not rename the folder for you. That is something that has been considered as an extra plugin, but at the moment it will not.

 

As for scanning. It actually looks for changes to your library folders. So when you move a new file into one of your library folders, MB sees it and then runs the fetcher. Even running a scan to update your whole library should only take a few seconds if no changes have occurred.

[steve1977 67]

I went the switch to MBS and it actually has all you need. I would go ahead. MBS will allow you a one-in-all solution for movies/shows/music and is very actively been developed. So, would suggest you go ahead. A few things you may want to be aware of when making the switch:

 

* Identifying movies based on folder name - would say that regex is still quite far behind MCM or others. Having said this, I changed my user behaviour giving the folder very precise names, which then always gets identified. Something I can very much live with

 

* Foreign-language posters - not supported yet and will need to be manually downloaded and added. Feature-request out to allows direct manual upload

 

* Foreign-language TV show description - not supported yet. Feature-request out, but not too high on agenda it seems

 

* Technically, MBS also does not scrape posters from IMDB, but this will only impact if you have some rare movies in your collections that do not have posters on TMDB/fanart. I changed my behavior to adding posters myself to TMDB for the few rare movies that I have.

 

 

Besides these 3 items, it is much much better, in active development, and does suffer much less from issues/instabilities that MCM and others have.

 

So, go ahead and make the switch and contribute with feedback to make MBS metadata management even better.

[ebr 14948]

We support other-language posters from tmdb...

[mystic.bertie 23]

Today i was trying out the metadata manager within mBS, i have been using MCM for a while now, i like the fact you confirm its choices when there are several possibilities, i think using MBS you need to have accurate folder names for your movies. I usually dont have the names spot on and MCM allows for this.

 

Today i had the new percy jackson sea of monsters movie, the folder was called 'percy jackson' and MBS automatically renamed it 'percy jackson and the lightening thief'. There was no way i could get it to rename it to the correct folder, i renamed the folder, i deleted all the pics and metadata file but no matter what i did it was still showing it as the lightening thief movie, i had to use MCM to download the correct metadata for this. I could not find a way of doing this using MBS.

 

even with the correct metadata retrieved by MCM, MBS still shows it with the wrong title.

Edited December 22, 2013 by mystic.bertie

[Luke 37178]

Today i was trying out the metadata manager within mBS, i have been using MCM for a while now, i like the fact you confirm its choices when there are several possibilities, i think using MBS you need to have accurate folder names for your movies. I usually dont have the names spot on and MCM allows for this.

 

Today i had the new percy jackson sea of monsters movie, the folder was called 'percy jackson' and MBS automatically renamed it 'percy jackson and the lightening thief'. There was no way i could get it to rename it to the correct folder, i renamed the folder, i deleted all the pics and metadata file but no matter what i did it was still showing it as the lightening thief movie, i had to use MCM to download the correct metadata for this. I could not find a way of doing this using MBS.

 

even with the correct metadata retrieved by MCM, MBS still shows it with the wrong title.

 

it kept showing the wrong data because after you renamed the folder it probably still had a movie.xml inside with all of the saved information. best thing to do when something is mis-identified is just go and correct the tmdb/imdb id and then refresh that item. then you don't have to mess with the file system. obviously over time we'll improve and get more tolerant of incorrect names.

[mystic.bertie 23]

it kept showing the wrong data because after you renamed the folder it probably still had a movie.xml inside with all of the saved information. best thing to do when something is mis-identified is just go and correct the tmdb/imdb id and then refresh that item. then you don't have to mess with the file system. obviously over time we'll improve and get more tolerant of incorrect names.

 

Thanks for the reply Luke.

 

I did delete the movie.xml file, i deleted everything except the movie bluray folders, even though i had the correct metadata using MCM, if i opened MBT, it was still named the wrong title, i managed to fix this by going into scheduled tasks, cleaned the cache and scanned the library, one of these fixed it, now the correct name is shown in the metadata manager and MBT.

Edited December 23, 2013 by mystic.bertie

[steve1977 67]

We support other-language posters from tmdb...

 

What I mean is that MBS only supports one language by library. If I have 900 English movies and 10 French ones, I still like to work with one library. Unfortunately,k the 10 French movies will not have posters if there are no English posters available. There is a feature request out to allow manual selection of foreign-language posters. Hope this will get implemented. Until then, it still works to use MCM/EMM/etc in parallel to compliment the missing posters.

[steve1977 67]

Today i had the new percy jackson sea of monsters movie, the folder was called 'percy jackson' and MBS automatically renamed it 'percy jackson and the lightening thief'. There was no way i could get it to rename it to the correct folder, i renamed the folder, i deleted all the pics and metadata file but no matter what i did it was still showing it as the lightening thief movie, i had to use MCM to download the correct metadata for this. I could not find a way of doing this using MBS.

 

even with the correct metadata retrieved by MCM, MBS still shows it with the wrong title.

 

I have experienced this issue in the past as well. Even when manually changing the IMDB ID, it reverts back to the "old movie name" (and also "old" IMDB). I will need to find a way to better replicate this issue for better trouble-shooting. I believe this is a new behavior and did not occur in older versions of MBS.

[ebr 14948]

I have experienced this issue in the past as well. Even when manually changing the IMDB ID, it reverts back to the "old movie name" (and also "old" IMDB). I will need to find a way to better replicate this issue for better trouble-shooting. I believe this is a new behavior and did not occur in older versions of MBS.

 

Did you change the tmdb id?

[Koleckai Silvestri 1150]

When I started this trip, I started with Plex. I wasn't happy with how it handled metadata. There where mismatches, it was hard to fix and several other issues. After that I tried XBMC and had pretty much the same problems. Even after making sure my library is in the formats they wanted. Pulling information for Music Artists was the worst. Had to manually configure them on both systems. Since Plex is really just a fork of XBMC this is understandable.

 

XBMC does offer better scrapers than the ones installed by default but these can take a lot of configuration. At this point, I started using Media Center Master. It could write the .nfo files I needed while pulling artwork from multiple sources. Would even search for trailers for the different movies if you have the paid versions. Seemed to solve the problems for the most part. I could turn off media scraping in XBMC and know that I had good data. Plex is still an issue though. 

 

Finally, I started using MediaBrowser Server a few weeks ago. It is so fast on pulling Metadata when new content is added to a Collection directory that I don't have time to start Media Center Master. It allows me to pull the artwork I want and writes the XBMC .nfo files for me. Since installing it, I haven't really used Media Center Master that much. Still have it installed but the Server and scrapers in MediaBrowser are doing all the work currently. For the most part I am happy with the data retrieval it is doing. I am storing the information in the media directories to make moving folders easier if needed in the future. It is writing out proper XBMC .nfo files should I need them. Plus it pulled in all the information for Music Artists and stored it in their folders.

 

I really only need MCM for renaming files and folders these days.

Edited December 23, 2013 by Wayne Luke

[Luke 37178]

When I started this trip, I started with Plex. I wasn't happy with how it handled metadata. There where mismatches, it was hard to fix and several other issues. After that I tried XBMC and had pretty much the same problems. Even after making sure my library is in the formats they wanted. Pulling information for Music Artists was the worst. Had to manually configure them on both systems. Since Plex is really just a fork of XBMC this is understandable.

 

XBMC does offer better scrapers than the ones installed by default but these can take a lot of configuration. At this point, I started using Media Center Master. It could write the .nfo files I needed while pulling artwork from multiple sources. Would even search for trailers for the different movies if you have the paid versions. Seemed to solve the problems for the most part. I could turn off media scraping in XBMC and know that I had good data. Plex is still an issue though. 

 

Finally, I started using MediaBrowser Server a few weeks ago. It is so fast on pulling Metadata when new content is added to a Collection directory that I don't have time to start Media Center Master. It allows me to pull the artwork I want and writes the XBMC .nfo files for me. Since installing it, I haven't really used Media Center Master that much. Still have it installed but the Server and scrapers in MediaBrowser are doing all the work currently. For the most part I am happy with the data retrieval it is doing. I am storing the information in the media directories to make moving folders easier if needed in the future. It is writing out proper XBMC .nfo files should I need them. Plus it pulled in all the information for Music Artists and stored it in their folders.

 

I really only need MCM for renaming files and folders these days.

 

Glad to hear it. If you could echo that here, that would be fantastic:

 

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=175430&page=4

[steve1977 67]

Did you change the tmdb id?

 

Nope, I deleted it. Had a hard time to replicate this issue as it only happen to appear with some movies. So, not sure whether possible troubleshoot.

[Luke 37178]

if you delete it and then refresh the item, the imdb will be used next, so you'd have to make sure that was correct. if you deleted it with the intention of having the server search from scratch, you'd need to clear out both the tmdb and imdb id's.

[steve1977 67]

if you delete it and then refresh the item, the imdb will be used next, so you'd have to make sure that was correct. if you deleted it with the intention of having the server search from scratch, you'd need to clear out both the tmdb and imdb id's.

 

That's what I did. I deleted both the IMDB and TMDB ID (and the other ID as well). I then pressed "save" and afterrwards wen to refresh metadata. Unfortunately, the wrong IMDB ID miraculously reappeared again.

 

Don't think we need to further problemsolve though until I find a way to replicate my issue and provide the respective logs.

[moviefan 184]

I really like the MBS metadata options but some of the automation is missing so I still use MCM as well.

 

Folder and file renaming, as has been mentioned already in this thread, is missing from MBS and it is important to me to have standard naming structures and not have to manually create them.

 

Additionally, I like having my download setup such that all TV shows are auto pulled into one folder and MCM just watched that folder, grabs the show, renames it to standard format, and puts it in the right location.

 

Without this I would have to manually put each folder into the right series folder and this just seems like a step backward at the moment.