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View Full Version : Help configuring / creating a playlist



hartlenb
10-26-2013, 05:41 AM
I'm stumped so I thought I send out a challenge... I'm looking for a way to create a playlist that will dynamically display only the last 6 months of video files from the file structure shown in the attached image. Each folder shown (eg 20131016) has 1 or more raw .mts video camera files. The folder and file names automatically include the date (in YYYYMMDD format) but I can't see a way to have Mezzmo dynamically select only files from the last six months.

602

As a second level challenge: Is there a way to dynamically select which folders are included in the library? In my case, I have thousands of these mts files, as the camera saves every scene (play to stop) as a separate file. I usually edit the raw files into manageable and viewable chunks (single files). But sometimes we have raw footage that we'd like to watch before I get around to editing (this is why I'm asking for help with the playlist above). If possible, I'd also like to dynamically limit the files or folders that I include in the library, so all these *.mts don't show in the All Video files playlist either.

Paul
10-28-2013, 01:29 PM
We don't have a smart playlist attribute to search by date. We'll consider adding this into a future version.

In the current version (v3.4.2.0), you could create a smart playlist that groups you files by the date that is specified in the mts' path. In your smart playlist, you could use a rule like:

[File path][contains][2013]

and this would limit your playlist to only include files that have "2013" in the path. This would allow you to group all this year's (i.e 2013) videos together. You could then create a smart playlist for 2012, 2011, etc. files as well. In addition, you can set the "Sort by" field in the Smart Playlist Properties dialog to "Created date (Ascending)" so they are listed in chronological order.

Regarding the second challenge, I suggest you look for something unique in the file/folder path and use that to restrict/add your files into the list. For example, if the 1000s of recorded, raw files are named in a consistent way and your edited files are named in a different way, then add another rule into your smart playlist that specifies the way that you name them so it will filter out the recorded, raw files.

If you need more help, then please provide the full path of a few files that want included and the full path of a few files that you don't want included.

hartlenb
10-31-2013, 04:11 AM
Hi Paul, Thanks for the reply. I am at v3.4.2.0.

Challenge #1: I do have a smart playlist defined similar to your suggestion --

[filepath][starts with][\\DNS321\Volume_1\Media\Home Movies Source\] AND [Year][2012],
then sorting by file name (which starts with the date & time, 20131030145913) in descending order and
then limiting the results to 50 items.
This way I always get the most recent clips. In general, not a bad approximation of what I was trying to achieve except that when the clips are displayed / played on my devices they are in reverse order. E.g. lets say we have 10 clips from a birthday party that are in this playlist.... the last clip (#10) is the first displayed in the list, the next clip (#9) is the 2nd last, etc... So when played by Mezzmo that day is out of sequence - first clip played is #10 and shows everyone leaving the party and last clip (for that day) is #1 and shows everyone arriving. If I were to sort the playlist in ascending order to put the clips in proper chronological order, I won't get the 50 newest clips... I'd get the 50 oldest.

If there was a way to combine smart playlist and active playlist capabilities, I think I could do exactly what I wanted. Use smart playlist to define the subset of files I'm interested in and then use active playlist to categorize the files.

Challenge #2: I don't think I explained this properly. This question is if there is a way to dynamically limit what files are included in the Mezzmo library. My assumption is that the larger the library, the longer it will take Mezzmo to do the things it does (maintenance, creating new playlists, etc). So including files in the library that I know I'll never watch is something to be avoided. Here's my file structure:


\\DNS321\Volume_1\Media\ --> has folders with all media (music, pictures, video)... some that we want Mezzmo to manage and some that I don't want Mezzmo to manage
\\DNS321\Volume_1\Media\Home Movies --> has edited Home Movies that we watch and want available in Mezzmo library
\\DNS321\Volume_1\Media\Home Movies Source\IMx3SEVer6\IMx_AVCHD --> has raw files from video camera organized in folders. Each day has its own folder. Currently there are 79 folders with at least a 1000 clips... and this grows over time as we take more videos. I really only want the files from the last [I]rolling 6 months included in the Mezzmo library.
\\DNS321\Volume_1\Media\Home Movies Source\IMx3SEVer6\IMx_AVCHD\20131016 --> this is the path for the newest raw video folder
\\DNS321\Volume_1\Media\Home Movies Source\IMx3SEVer6\IMx_AVCHD\20101204 --> this is the path for the oldest raw video folder


I wasn't aware of an easy way to add just the folders I wanted (as of today, without worrying about the rolling six months). So I added the \\DNS321\Volume_1\Media\Home Movies Source\IMx3SEVer6\IMx_AVCHD\ folder to my library which pulls in every raw clip I have, of which I then only access the newest 50 clips (using the method in Challenge #1 above)

Paul
10-31-2013, 09:31 AM
Challenge #1: We do have plans to add smart playlist rules to active playlists so you can fine-tune what files you want listed. For the moment though, I think what you have is the best you can do. You could add [Play Count][greater than][0] if you only want to list unwatched videos. This may give you a few more ideas.

Challenge #2: Mezzmo has been designed to operate with large collections of files. We test it here regularly with 500K media files - so don't worry too much about your Mezzmo library getting larger. Once a file has been added into your Mezzmo library, it will remain there until: (i) you remove it manually from your Mezzmo library, or (ii) you remove the file from disk and then run Maintain Library with the "Remove media files from your Mezzmo library that cannot be found on your computer" check selected. So if you remove the raw original .MTS files from disk from time-to-time, then running Maintain Library will also remove these entries from your Mezzmo library.

You can also limit the types of files that are added into your Mezzmo library via the folders that you have added into Mezzmo. The Folder Properties dialog has 'File filter' edit box that lists the file extensions that Mezzmo will look for and include. If your raw original files are .MTS and you don't want these included, then you could remove .MTS from the File filter edit box in the Folder Properties dialog. Now, Mezzmo will not pick up and add any .MTS from this folder or sub-folders.

hartlenb
11-01-2013, 01:00 AM
Thanks Paul. I was pretty sure that I couldn't make it do exactly what I wanted. This
We do have plans to add smart playlist rules to active playlists so you can fine-tune what files you want listed... is good news.