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Full Version: Looking for: external HDD media manager
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Hello,

I have been using XBMC for a couple years now, and I love it. It a great inferface for watching my media at home on my TV, and I love the automatic metadata scraping.

What I am looking for is a program (or a plugin) that uses that metadata in a nice interface for allowing me to select specific files to be copied to an external HDD (so that I can easily copy select movies/tv shows to my external drive for trips, etc...). For comparison, I am thinking something like what iTunes does for videos when transferring to an iPod. I have been just manually using windows explorer to copy files over, but I have my libraries split over multiple folders, and I don't always immediately recognize a movie by the filename; having a nice interface for managing which files are on my external drive would make the process easier.

Does anyone know of such a program, or any such plugin for XBMC? I have searched google and the XBMC forums, but I haven't been able to find anything that does what I want.

Thanks.
I think Ember can do this, to some extent. I use this to manage my media over many external drives while I build my server.
Additionally, you could clean up the name of your media using TheRenamer or a programme like that. Ember has a built in renamer as well. It's easy enough and can be automated nicely with minimal hand holding.
Thanks for the suggestion. I gave Ember a try, but it doesn't seem to do what I want it to. It looks great as a scraper, but the result is that I get a bunch of different files (.jpg, .nfo, etc...) in my movie folders, and it seems to be recommended that I separate each movie into its own folder. This would make it even harder to do what I want with windows explorer. I really just want something to manage which movies are copied to an external HDD, while using a library-type organization.
I'm working on a media manager in PHP (http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=132304), but there's still alot of work left before a release.

It is currently able to export meta files to external folders - movies should be easy to implement though.

Let me know if that's something you could use, and I could implement the movie export for you Smile
(2012-07-27, 05:46)MyPoorAllies Wrote: [ -> ]Thanks for the suggestion. I gave Ember a try, but it doesn't seem to do what I want it to. It looks great as a scraper, but the result is that I get a bunch of different files (.jpg, .nfo, etc...) in my movie folders, and it seems to be recommended that I separate each movie into its own folder. This would make it even harder to do what I want with windows explorer. I really just want something to manage which movies are copied to an external HDD, while using a library-type organization.

You can, in the options, disable the bunch of different files bit. Just untick all that.

Also, you can set it up for movies, under the options as well, that all the movies are not in separate folders.

But there might be a better manager for you, but I do know that the complaints you mentioned can definitely be disabled!
(2012-07-27, 11:34)fional Wrote: [ -> ]You can, in the options, disable the bunch of different files bit. Just untick all that.

Also, you can set it up for movies, under the options as well, that all the movies are not in separate folders.

But there might be a better manager for you, but I do know that the complaints you mentioned can definitely be disabled!

I think that I am either not seeing the functions in Ember, or I am not doing a good job of communicating what I am trying to do. The closest thing I can find in Ember is the ability to "Sort Files into Folders", which isn't what I am looking for. In particular, that would (at least in my understanding) move the files, rather than copying them. Additionally, it would do so for the entire library, not just a selected set of files.

I was hoping for some functionality with, for example, a checkbox next to each item in the library, and a button at top to "Export Selected Items" with a customizable destination. Even better would be if it were a sort of sync function, where unchecking the box would remove that file from the external drive.


(2012-07-27, 10:26)connors Wrote: [ -> ]I'm working on a media manager in PHP (http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=132304), but there's still alot of work left before a release.

It is currently able to export meta files to external folders - movies should be easy to implement though.

Let me know if that's something you could use, and I could implement the movie export for you Smile

That certainly sounds like something I could use. For example, referencing this picture, from that thread: http://imgur.com/a/OQZqX#3 I would picture having some check-boxes or individual buttons next to each movie to copy files to an external location. I really appreciate your willingness to add that for me.


Again, thank you both for your help.
(2012-07-28, 17:43)MyPoorAllies Wrote: [ -> ]That certainly sounds like something I could use. For example, referencing this picture, from that thread: http://imgur.com/a/OQZqX#3 I would picture having some check-boxes or individual buttons next to each movie to copy files to an external location. I really appreciate your willingness to add that for me.

There's already an export panel ( see http://www.webpagescreenshot.info/img/93...01215213PM ) that's just missing the ability to export the movie file itself. Will add this when my server is back up from maintenance.
(2012-07-29, 12:55)connors Wrote: [ -> ]
(2012-07-28, 17:43)MyPoorAllies Wrote: [ -> ]That certainly sounds like something I could use. For example, referencing this picture, from that thread: http://imgur.com/a/OQZqX#3 I would picture having some check-boxes or individual buttons next to each movie to copy files to an external location. I really appreciate your willingness to add that for me.

There's already an export panel ( see http://www.webpagescreenshot.info/img/93...01215213PM ) that's just missing the ability to export the movie file itself. Will add this when my server is back up from maintenance.

Just added the ability to export movie files from the tools page to the git repo Smile
Awesome; from the picture, your export panel looks like exactly what I am after. I will play around with it when I get a chance, and let you know how it works for me. Thanks for adding that in.
So I have finally had a chance to give it a try, and I realized I have no idea how to install it. I know nothing about php, and simply don't know how to get it working. I am running Windows 7, and have managed to clone the GitHub repository to a local copy (as per the command in the readme), but the command "oil refine install" doesn't work, and I have no idea how to get FuelPHP working in Windows. If you can help me with that, I would appreciate it.

Thanks.
You'll need to add PHP to your PATH var, or reference it by its path.

See https://samsami2u.wordpress.com/2008/07/...l-command/

After adding PHP to your PATH, you can do php oil r install from the commandline when in the dir with oil Smile