antp.be forum

I have written new importing software as MVList didn't quite do what I wanted to achieve. Also the latest release of MyFilms for MediaPortal inspired me to write this as I needed to create playlists for my multi-part movies.

Description:
AVIList makes it easier to import large numbers of movies into Ant Movie Catalog. Select the folder where your movies are stored and AVIList will parse the folder for any .avi files.

It will then compile a CSV list with info for each file, which you can then import into Ant Movie Catalog. Each file is listed in the CSV file in the following order:

Movie Name;Path;FileSizes;Number of Discs;Video Format;Resolution;Framerate;Video Bitrate;Audio Format;Audio Bitrate

Additionally, you can tell AVIList to create a playlist file for each multi-part movie it finds. The path to the playlist file can be specified as the path to the movie in AMC.

NOTE:
Please note that if your files are not labelled properly (files named the same as the movie name) AVIList will probably not work correctly, if at all. If you want to update your filenames as a batch I recommend Flexible Renamer by Naru, or AntRenamer which can be found on this site - great software and it's free!

Features:
- Creates a CSV file to import into Ant Movie Catalog.
- Parses the given folder (including sub-folders) for any .avi files.
- Automatically extracts video information from each file.
- Save path as Playlist, Folder, or File (multi-part files are separated by ";").
- Automatically generate playlists for each movie (or just multi-part movies).
- Stores each file size for multi-part movies as "[filesize 1]+[filesize 2]"
- Option to move prefixes "The" or "A" to the end of the movie name. (i.e. "The Matrix" would change to "Matrix, The")

Usage:
- Select the folder to search. Click "Search".
- Select or name a CSV file to save to. Click "Save Info".

Download Here

Any comments appreciated. Enjoy

Add scan CD/DVD ?

it should scan cd/dvd already, I'll have to test it when I get home.

It definitely won't create playlists because the CD/DVD is read-only. So for now you won't be able to use playlist mode, because you'll get a load of write errors.

I'll have to add an option to save the playlists to a separate location.

Hi there gave your util a quick test, can't quite use it yet but almost. Ran it, browsed to folder, hit save info = msg box "no files found!"
Msg should warn "Please click search first, select entries to be imported BEFORE clicking save info" took a few mins to guess this.


re-browse for folder, if file explorer starts at last selected folder, it's a lot easier next time.


csv file generated should Add field names as first line in csv file, can be unticked so as NOT imported otherwise it's quite hard to match up the headers. When importing csv file users need to ensure delimeter = ; or no dice. Also there's a blank line at top of file so you get an empty entry (unless you untick it).

HOWEVER this is all by the by as matching up the columns to import into Ant is a total pain so for < 10 files it's quicker to just do it manually. BUT after a bit of testing I realised a much neater solution is to export your file in ants XML format which will require minimal changes to your code. Then users can just do Import|Amc type and select the xml file, much easier. The cool thing is if you set <Movie Number="0" for EVERY entry ant will auto-assign unique numbers on import. You don't need the Checked, or FormattedTitle fields, So an example xml file would be:-
You could also set the MediaLabel field to the Disk Label (handy for numbered/named DVDR's) which Ant import does and is a necessity for using disks with MesFilms, else it won't be able to prompt you which disk to insert.


Lastly Ant currently also imports the info for mpeg files and maybe others. If you could add the other main formats supported by MediaPortal (.avi,.mpg,.ogm,.mpeg,.mkv,.wmv,.ifo,.qt,.rm,.mov,.sbe,.dvr-ms,.ts,.dat,.rmvb) and just set the Source, OriginalTitle, Size & Disks fields that are format independant that'd be great. If at a later date you wish to add the embedded file info great. I checked Ant against most of the above formats and here's the embedded stuff it currently gets:-
.avi = All (VideoBitrate, AudioFormat, AudioBitrate, Resolution, Framerate)
.asf = All Except VideoBitRate + Framerate
.ifo (DVD) = none
.ogm = All except VideoBitRate
.mkv = All (Import takes 3+ minutes! seems to read through whole file)
.mov = None
.mpg = All
.rmvb = VideoBitrate + AudioBitrate
.wmv = All Except VideoBitRate + Framerate



Cheers

Doesn't seem to work on DVD's for me - where files are in root directory anyway (as all mine are). Error message I get is "Folder not found. Please specific a valid folder to search."

Sorry, it doesn't seem to like the root of any drives. I'll get that fixed in the next release.

Would be much appreciated

Thanks.......Thermal
Thermal's Movie db / TV Series db

It's taking a little longer than i thought to code the new version of AVIList (read: almost complete rebuild ), so I've released a quick build that'll let you search the root directory.

You can download it from the link above.

Thanks ryall

Download doesn't seem to be working
I'm looking forward to testing it.

ryall wrote: AVIList makes it easier to import large numbers of movies into Ant Movie Catalog. Select the folder where your movies are stored and AVIList will parse the folder for any .avi files.

Thanks ryall for the program.
It's possyble to scan for mpeg files (i was try but only .avi files are stored in the csv file)

Thanks

Any news about this sort of scripts ?
It would really be a great addon.

One suggestion is to import from a folder/disk:
- folders
- media files (avis/mkv, ...)

Being carefully for the multiple files in a folder, for example, a movie can have multiple files, in this case is normal to use the folder name for the movie.
Even better it should be made a parse from the folder name, ex: my.movie.2008.dvdrip.ac3-somegroup
And put the release name in a specific item.

And a good year to everyone

just use any catalog software such as whereisit or advanced file organizer etc, and export all the movies to a csv and then import all the movies...its pretty easy

Can you tell me why AviList imports such large bit rates (i.e over 14000 for Video and over 512 for Audio). I get totally different numbers when I simply drag and drop files.

Is there any way to change it to get the same numbers as when I drag and drop files?

Also, can I use AVIList to batch import data into an existing AMC database and have it match titles and merge the data?

Thanks for your help and a great utility!