Title Metadata added to the physical file.

[scottier]

So I have several DVD rips where the Title metadata on the physical file is wrong. Mezzmo reads that incorrect data and cant search for the movie. I can go into mezzmo and search for the correct one and am good to go. If I move the physical file on my computer, mezzmo reads it again and pulls the incorrect title metadata from the physical data again. Example,

File Name: The Client (1994).avi
Title Meta on file: VIDEO_DVD 1083 1994

Mezzmo read the physical meta data and used that as the title and of course cant find the movie via internet. I manually search with the file name in mezzmo and get the correct data but mezzmo does not update the title tag on the physical file. Not a big deal on small databases but I have 26,000+ worth of Video Files alone. Takes Days of non stop manual searching to fix files like this one. If I ever have to redo the mezzmo db or do a clean install all that work is gone due to it looking at this Title Tag on the physical file.

[Paul]

Thanks for the suggestion. At the moment, Mezzmo does not touch your files or folders in any way. All information is stored in your Mezzmo library. We'll consider your idea for a future version.

If you do move your files to another folder/drive, then you can update the existing entries in your Mezzmo library using the Change Paths feature. See this FAQ - http://forum.conceiva.com/showthread.php/6027-Tutorial-Moving-your-Mezzmo-database-to-a-different-drive-folder

[scottier]

That's good for moving your library but not for moving around just some files in the library which I find my self doing from time to time.

[Paul]

Sorry that link does provide the wrong information.

What I was trying to suggest was the following: Go to the Maintain Library dialog and click on the Tools tab. The 'Change Paths' feature lets you change the folder paths for files in your Mezzmo library. Click Help for more details and example usage.

[Kaiser2000]

I'd echo the above request for an option to update the file itself with the correct metadata. Have run into this problem myself and manually searching (while it works) is tedious - especially if you have to reinstall/recreate the library for any reason.

Cheers :)

[Paul]

Thanks for the +1 on this feature request.

[Coises]

I’d like to suggest an alternative.

I’d like to see Mezzmo be able to write its database information to a “flat file” (e.g., CSV or XML) in a fully-documented format. The idea would be to select an item, or several items, or one or more playlists, or the whole database, and then select which fields are wanted. Artwork should probably be handled by writing the image files to a folder and referencing the filenames in the flat file.

Of course, Mezzmo should be able to import that information: for example, if one has to rebuild the database. Keeping it a flat file in a documented format would help when users need to do things like rename a bunch of files according a different scheme than they chose originally; the file could be edited or processed with a script, rather than having to manage every changed item by hand.

Then, have a stand-alone tool that can read that file and apply selected metadata updates consistent with the media file types. (Many file types can’t contain much of the important information as metadata.) Prudent individuals would not run that tool without appropriate backups.

The same or a similar tool could write, say, XBMC files.

I realize some of that functionality might be part of the new database backup in Mezzmo 4; I haven’t had a chance to upgrade yet.

I also realize this probably seems like a round-about solution to the original request. I’m thinking of stability, flexibility, and isolating the things that can do greater damage—modifying the media files themselves—from the frequently-used database maintenance GUI. Also, in many installations updating the media files would require different privileges than the Mezzmo GUI otherwise needs.

[Paul]

Thanks for the alternative idea. We'll add your thoughts to the topic that we have logged in our development task database.