Moving Files to NAS Share Controlled by MB

[moviefan 187]

Primary storage for my videos is a Synology NAS.

 

Typically I download videos to another computer, run MCM on the files (or folders) and then migrate them to the Synology share which is where MB points.

 

Recently I have had a weird issue which has the following behavior:

 

- I initiate the transfer to NAS from my computer

- Video file moves and then other metadata files continue to transfer

- I receive a warning message from Windows indicating the movie.xml file is already there and if I want to move it to replace or whatever else (standard windows dialog for existing file)

 

At this point, no matter which option I select, the movie seems to contain the pictures I moved but none of the detail included in the xml.

 

I have verified that when I click movie folder and replace the actual XML generated by MCM it works initially, but then appears to be overwritten by by an essentially blank xml by MB.

 

I have clicked ignore and then experienced the same behavior.

 

Once this happens, I can usually fix the issue by editing the metadata of the title, adding the IMDB ID, saving, and then refreshing.

 

But the behavior that I am seeing indicates that MB is somehow locking the folder in a weird way once the folders have been added and messing with the XML files AFTER the fact which I don't fully understand.

 

I think the root of the problem is that the videos are taking too long to transfer so MB is detecting the folder and adding the XML to it while the video file is transferring but BEFORE the XML has transferred.  However, I dont understand why it overwrites the XML files I add to it afterwards.

 

I've even tried manually adding the XML files myself to the folders and have watched them become overwritten.

 

Anyone have any thoughts on this?  BTW it does not happen for 100% of my movies I am adding.  More like 20%.

 

Thanks!

Edited January 13, 2014 by moviefan

[bloodtaker 71]

Sounds like you have the Metadata being populated by MB server if you go into the settings of the server go to the metadata tab and turn off or uncheck the 2 boxes in basics if you are using MCM to do all of your metadata for you.

[moviefan 187]

I want MB to handle metadata after the files have been moved to the shares controlled by MB.

 

The issue I am experiencing seems to be due to the delay of moving the xml file (if the video file is many gigs it can take a minute or two) after the initial folder has been created.

 

But the real problem is that AFTER MB has created an XML file, if I replace it, it just overwrites it.  And then it doesnt seem to do its own metadata collection.  The metadata stays blank until I edit the title, ADD the IMDB ID, and manually click refresh.

 

Basically it works in a worse way than if i I had just moved the title with no metadata and let MB download all of it because it ignores the MCM data by overwriting it with a mostly blank XML file and then not adding in the missing details normally provided by a metadata refresh.

 

This is the part I don't fully understand.

[ebr 16183]

You are always going to end up with potential conflicts if you tell two different programs to generate metadata for you at the same time - which it appears is what you have done.  

 

Why do you want MCM to generate the xml?  What is better about it than what MB provides?

[Koleckai Silvestri 1154]

You are always going to end up with potential conflicts if you tell two different programs to generate metadata for you at the same time - which it appears is what you have done.  

 

Why do you want MCM to generate the xml?  What is better about it than what MB provides?

 

Several things:

 

MCM will rename the folder and files so all your folder names are consistent. So if I rip a DVD and it is in a folder named Fox_and_the_hound, MCM will rename it "Fox and the Hound, The (1981). If the file is named title04.mkv, it will be renamed "Fox and the Hound, The (1981).mkv. It will also rename any other files. If there are multiple movies with the same name, it gives a popup and allows you to choose the correct one. 

 

MCM will output metadata files for MediaBrowser, XBMC, Western Digital, Boxee, Netgear, Popcorn Hour, DLNA, MythTV and others. Granted you can do XBMC with a plugin in MediaBrowser Server.

 

MCM gives you a lot of control over artwork, including download limits and resizing. MCM allows you to control the size of the trailer download so you're not downloading Gigabyte+ 1080P trailers if you don't want to. It will also re-encode your trailers to a lower bitrate. You can do trailers with a plugin in MediaBrowser but there is absolutely no control and it doesn't download current trailers, only streams them.

 

However, I suspect most people use it because it will find and download content for them. I personally haven't used this functionality but it is there.

 

MediaBrowser's scaper is really good but this standalone program has a lot of extras built in. If you want to control internet access, say you have a bad connection or in a rural area, a third-party scraper is probably best as it is.

Edited January 13, 2014 by Wayne Luke

[ebr 16183]

Okay, then, if you prefer the MCM program, simply turn off either the fetching or the saving in MB.

 

If you want to let MB still fetch metadata for things that aren't found by MCM or that you don't use MCM for, then just turn off the "Save metadata within media folders" option.  If MB finds metadata placed by MCM (or anyone else) it won't fetch its own.

[moviefan 187]

The main reason that I use MCM is for file/folder renaming and to ensure that the proper movie is detected.

 

MCM only points to a temp directory where I do the staging before moving it to MB on my Synology.

 

The issue doesn't really have anything to do with MCM but more about how MB handles items with prepopulated metadata that are transferred into its managed folders.  The same would be the case if I just had a new drive of files I wanted to import into my collection.

 

In general everything works fine, but the times when it starts trying to fetch metadata while the title is still copying are the issue.  And I wouldn't think this was a problem if it would just update the metadata afterwards.  But instead, MB is creating its own XML file (not the one generated from MCM that I am trying to copy over because that is still waiting to be copied) and then does what you indicated above regarding not trying to fetch its own metadata.  This is what I don't think should happen.  If MCM creates the XML then it should be able to normally go out and fetch  data afterwards.  Instead I have to go and search IMDB, find the ID, fill in the blank IMDB field, and manually refresh it.  If I don't have an IMDB ID then it doesnt even do anything.  I don't get the creation of the blank xml file without an IMDB ID.  This is what seems to be the issue to me  Is this how it normally works?  It creates a blank one and then fills it in?  Or is this just some weird behavior I am running into that only happens during a copy?

[Koleckai Silvestri 1154]

Copy the metadata first and then the video file?

 

My staging directory is on the same system as my media collection so copying it is fairly instant as it only needs to update the pointers in the drive's index.

[moviefan 187]

Yes I could copy the metadata first and then the video file but then I couldn't drag many folders at once.

 

It isn't the end of the world  I just think that it is strange behavior.  MB should either [a]) create an xml and download metadata or  recognize the xml has been already created and use that file.

 

In my case it is creating its own xml, but leaving it blank, and then not downloading metadata.  Just doesnt make a lot of sense to me.

Edited January 13, 2014 by moviefan

[ebr 16183]

Have you tried my suggestion of turning off "Save metadata within the media folder"?

[candybar213 7]

I have this same set up MCM will move the folder for you. So you rip to one directory MCM will pick up there rename, fetch meta and artwork then move the folder to the location you want it will even move to different locations based on if it is a tv show or movie if you do tv shoes I will put it in the correct season folder as well. I don't seem to have this problem as long as I let MCM move it but if I move it I have gotten the same problem.

 

 

The Candybar213

[ebr 16183]

Something you guys can try is increasing the amount of time it takes for our server to react to file system changes.  I think, in your case, we react too fast.  Look in the system.xml file on the server and increase the FileWatcherDelay tag.  It is in seconds.

[moviefan 187]

Thank you for pointing out that setting.  I was a bit confused why this was happening because I thought it only scanned the library based on the scheduled tasks.  

 

So there is a file monitor process that kicks off library scans when it detects file changes?

 

I see that the value on mine is set to 8.  I will try changing it to 30 and see if that helps.

 

I still am perplexed as to why MediaBrowser is creating an empty XML and not downloading metadata for it   But I suppose if this is good as a workaround it doesn't really matter.

[Koleckai Silvestri 1154]

I still am perplexed as to why MediaBrowser is creating an empty XML and not downloading metadata for it   But I suppose if this is good as a workaround it doesn't really matter.

 

Seems like it is trying to download the information but failing due to the incomplete video file. I bet if you went to that item in the Metadata editor after it completes its download and clicking "Refresh Metadata" it will work properly. Or if you want until the Library Scan happens.

[moviefan 187]

I still continue to experience this problem occasionally although it was gotten better since I changed that timing value.

 

Last evening I started moving a big batch of movies prior to going to sleep.

 

Upon waking this morning, I had the movie.xml warning for one of those particular movies.

 

I went into MB and looked at the movie before choosing what to do.  It didn't have any metadata.  MB had created a blank movie.xml file.

 

Then, I clicked the "move and replace" option to move the movie.xml file generated by MCM into the location.  I then ran another scan to try and update the metadata.

 

At this point now I am in the exact same situation that makes no sense to me.  I have a movie that has correct data in the XML file, but does not show the data in MB.  Neither scanning nor refreshing will update the metadata.

 

Why is MB creating a blank xml file, not reading the data from the XML once it's been fixed, and why is it not updating it on its own if it believes it to be missing?

Edited February 1, 2014 by moviefan

[Luke 42078]

@@moviefan

@@bloodtaker

@@candybar213

 

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[Luke 42078]

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