Server & Clients: Improved support for disc-based libraries

[TrackZ 16]

MB3 is being largely focused towards file-based libaries (like MKV), but there are users like me and hopefully many other that want to use the software while maintaining disc-based libraries. There are somethings that could be done in MB3 and MBT to make such libraries more accessible.

 

The pain point has to do with multi-disc releases. Take for example, a current major 3D Blu-ray release. You have the 3D disc, the 2D disc, and maybe even a third special features disc. In my storage, I like to keep these files together under one movie folder like so:

 

\Server\Movies\Title\Movie [bD][3D].iso

\Server\Movies\Title\Movie [bD].iso

\Server\Movies\Title\Special Features [bD].iso

 

When I access that foldre manually, I know which rip is which easily and I can quickly folder search through my files for certain tags. The problem is how to work such a release into MB3 and MBT.

 

Right now would require putting all three movies under sub-folders, doing some renaming, and meta dataing each specific ISO up as replicates of each other. Then you'd have to do something to try to differentiate them into MBT, like adding "3D" or "Special Features" to the name or trying to put an overlay on their posters. But you still end up with 3 entries in your MBT UI for a single movie. Multiply this out and the UI gets bloated. So here is my idea...

 

Allow a mode that treats a movie entry as a folder. So the movie is represented by the folder. Within the meta data page for that entry, have a subsection for each movie file found within the folder. So in the case above, MB3 server would find those 3 ISOs and show them with the paths.

 

In this meta data entry, let us enter in a custom name for each of those entries. So I can one "Movie Blu-ray 3D", another "Movie Blu-ray", and the last "Special Features". By default, you could just the file name, but make it a text entry box to allow differences between the UI and file name. All of the other top level meta data for the movie remains as is with one XML file and one set of meta data images for that one movie.

 

Then in the clients, that movie has one only entry. When I go to it and press play, I get a pop-up window showing me all of the videos available for that movie in a list. I pick which one I want to view and away I go with the client starting playback on that file.

 

I could even place an MKV file or other non-ISO file in that same folder and have that show up in the pop-up play window as well. So I can designate sub-files as "Main Movie Rip" or "Mobile Encode".

 

This solution allows flexability and scalability. You are already on the road to this with recent features allowing for multiple encodes for a single entry. That framework can be expanded in this idea. You can merge the two ideas and satisfy both needs. If the client is mobile and a small rate single video file exists, then play that. If the client is MBT capable of playing anything on an HTPC then don't auto-select and let the user pick.

 

This also allows way better support for representing disc-based TV Series in MB3 as well. A disc-based TV season release is functionally the same as multi-disc movie. It's one entry in the UI but multiple discs underneath. All you need on top of this is the ability to group multiple entries together under a show entry to keep a full series together.

 

This capability would seal the deal for me go all in with MB3 for my media library and HTPC playback. MyMovies is the only other program out there that really presents and navigates movies and shows in a disc-based format, but I don't want to be tied into Media Center, and many other elements of MB3 are really superior.

[TrackZ 16]

Is that in MBT as well now? I don't have media center on my install and I'd like to avoid it in favor of MBT.

[ebr 14960]

 

 

In addition, it also resolves the issue with movies like Lord of the Rings on 2 BD's. I can have a part 1 ISO and part 2 ISO in the same folder and use the selection screen to choose which one to play as there's no way to merge the ISOs into one.

 

You can do this now with the beta version of MBC.

[Luke 37272]

Check out the blog posts from the last two server releases to learn how to group multiple movie versions together. and/or the library wiki.

 

We're doing pretty well with folder rips and iso's, but we're up against two issues - degree of difficulty, as well as support from external libraries we depend on. That being said, the functionality we do offer for ISO's is pretty strong. I don't know of many other products who can transcode them on the fly the smart phones and tablets. But as far as offering menu selections of different titles on the disc, it is the issue of support from libraries we depend on such as ffmpeg. There is no point in us putting forth all of that effort in presenting the data if playback is then going to fail immediately afterwards.

[TrackZ 16]

Yes, I saw the feature for "Multi-Version Video Grouping", and it's very similar to my suggestion, but there are a few specific differences. The feature as is seems to assume that all versions are the same (i.e. same movie encoded in various formats) whereas my use case covers versions being different but related to the main movie (movie disc vs special features disc).

 

The release notes say: "Clients that transcode will automatically choose the version that is most optimal for them, in order to reduce the load on your server and your bandwidth. Clients that do not transcode will automatically choose the highest quality version, or present a selection screen when the choice is not obvious." I be concerned that there's too much happening automatically there.

 

- If I drop a full disc ISO and an encoded MP4 file in the same folder, what happens in MBT? Will it automatically play the ISO?

- What if I had a full quality main movie MKV rip with a full disc ISO? Would MBT select one?

- If I have 2 BD ISO's in the folder (3D and 2D), will MBT auto select one?

 

Maybe clients just need to be able to disable the automatic selection so the manual selection screen always appears.

 

The release notes also say: "Please note this is intended for multiple encodings of the same content, and not grouping together editions like theatrical and director's cut. This feature is intended to be a performance optimization, but we may consider expanding it later."

 

That's more or less what I'm asking for. Again, not multiple versions of the same content, but selection capability for differing elements related to the same content. That's how to do multi-disc full disc ISO libraries right.

 

In addition, it also resolves the issue with movies like Lord of the Rings on 2 BD's. I can have a part 1 ISO and part 2 ISO in the same folder and use the selection screen to choose which one to play as there's no way to merge the ISOs into one.

 

 

That being said, the functionality we do offer for ISO's is pretty strong. I don't know of many other products who can transcode them on the fly the smart phones and tablets.

 

Yes, I think you're doing great and on the right track. You're so close to covering both library use cases and making MB3 entirely flexible for both at the same time.

 

 

But as far as offering menu selections of different titles on the disc, it is the issue of support from libraries we depend on such as ffmpeg. There is no point in us putting forth all of that effort in presenting the data if playback is then going to fail immediately afterwards.

 

I agree. Reading into ISOs and presenting menus/titles is not what my suggestion is about. We don't need MB3 to go into the titling of the ISO for anything. The suggestion is all about having multiple discs containing content for a single top level movie.