Tip: How to clean up filenames and embedded metadata in music and video files

[oatmeal]

This method may not work for you but here's a couple of tips I have come across that may help others keep their library clean. All of the software mentioned below is free to use but they do ask for donations or offer a "gold" version if you want to help out. I am not affiliated with any of these products and am just a user.

I don't trust pulling metadata from internet sources (more for video files) because of incorrect lookups so I am hands-on with media cataloging and use the following method to keep my library organized.


To clean up filenames for similar files like television episodes
I use Bulk Rename Utility (http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Main_Intro.php). It looks really intimidating but once you get used to it (I don't use the RegEx portion) it can be very powerful. It even has an undo feature.

I use this to clean up the filenames in preparation for the "Auto-tag from Filename" feature found in MediaMonkey. If you trust internet lookup this step alone may help you correct most of the incorrect searches you are receiving depending on how you rename the files.


To clean up embedded tags (metadata)
If you have a bunch of video files that are showing up in Mezzmo with titles that differ from the file name (ex. "Batman - The Brave And The Bold - 109 - Journey To The Center Of The Bat! {C_P}" it is because the file already has embedded tags. Here's how I fix that.

1. Download and install MediaMonkey (http://www.mediamonkey.com/download/) (you can replace the crippled 30-day version of lame_enc.dll with this one (http://lame1.buanzo.com.ar/) if you want to rip CDs or convert audio file formats)
2. add your library of files to MediaMonkey (Insert Key)
3. look through your files and tweak the fields one at a time or en masse using the "Auto-tag from Filename" feature. (Ctrl+Q) You need to reconfigure the filename format used by Media Monkey to get the proper results. Thankfully it previews the changes before you make them.

There are some files and file formats that may give you some grief when updating the tags. Those I have not completely figured out yet.

This method works for both audio and video files but it can be cumbersome if you switch back and forth due to the software's limit of only one "file format" description. If you use the "Auto-tag from filename" or "Auto-Organize" features you will have to be sure you are not using the wrong settings for the way you want files organized on disk.

If you have programing skills, MediaMonkey lets you write your own scripts to perform customized tasks repetitively.

[SolihullRog]

This looks fascinating, and appears to overcome what I see as Mezzmo's biggest drawback - the difficulty in achieving appropriate and correct metadata for a large number of movies.

Mezzmo's weakness is due to the difficulty in controlling automatic population from websites and the absence of a bulk update facility. e.g. Select all Elvis movies, and populate Actor with Elvis on all of them with one click.

Even the slow method is V-E-R-Y s-l-o-w.

I'm trying to follow your method by populating the metadata in the movie file using Mediamonkey's bulk update facility, then importing them into Mezzmo.

But I'm finding this very hit and miss, especially due to the the different fields which are available.

Have you mapped out the relationship between the metadata fields in Mezzmo with those in Mediamonkey?

[smitbret]

I don't let Mezzmo or any other software automically populate names or metadata. I like to have total control.

For movies and television shows, I run them through TinyMediaManager (http://www.tinymediamanager.org/) and create a companion .nfo file. It is meant to be used with the Kodi/XBMC media center but Mezzmo can be set to read the .nfo file. You can let it automatically scan and populate the metadata or verify every file one at a time. I find it to be quite a bit faster than doing the same thing with Mezzmo and if I lose my database for some reason, I can easily repopulate everything since all of the metadata is stored in the .nfo file that I keep with the original along with a movie poster labelles <filename>.jpg.

I use MP3Tag and just embed the metadata into my music files http://www.mp3tag.de/en/. If I had a huge library to do though, I would just use MediaMonkey to automatically do it for me.

[SolihullRog]

The .nfo file route sounds like a great tip for movies, smitbret.

I'm going to try it immediately.

I've had MP3Tag for ages, so my music isn't a problem.

Thanks a lot.

[oatmeal]

I didn't map out any field relationships because I was only looking at the basics. I prefer no metadata in the video file because I don't need it and just use the file name. The reason I went this route was a bunch of files with an incorrect metadata title that would prevent (over-ride) my clean file names.

If I had a more attractive DLNA interface on my media player I would be more concerned about metadata.

[oatmeal]

I would like to find a way to have subtitles work for my media extender (GoogleTV) for the occasional movie that sees the need to speak in Romulan.

[smitbret]

I would like to find a way to have subtitles work for my media extender (GoogleTV) for the occasional movie that sees the need to speak in Romulan.

A lot of that is going to depend on how the GoogleTV supports subtitles and what app you are using to playback:
http://community.sony.com/t5/Internet-TV/HOW-CAN-I-SEE-SUBTITLES-IN-MY-GOOGLE-TV/td-p/170245
http://www.googletvforum.org/threads/subtitle-support-on-sony-nsz-gs7-google-tv.5906/

If these solutions won't work then you may want to have Mezzmo burn the subtitles into the screen when it transcodes the file for playback. You'll probably want to make sure that your subtitle file is just the "Forced Subtitles" though.

[Paul]

Mezzmo can stream external or embedded subtitles to your device and/or can burn your subtitles into the video before streaming via transcoding. So you should be able to see your subtitles on your Google TV using Mezzmo. For more information, see this FAQ about subtitles - http://forum.conceiva.com/showthread.php/5977-Tutorial-Subtitling-Basics.