[mythtv-users] adding files from elsewhere to myth

[lists.md301]

On Wed, Oct 10, 2012 at 5:11 PM, Michael T. Dean <mtdean at thirdcontact.com>wrote:

> On 10/10/2012 04:57 PM, Nick Rout wrote:
>
>  On Thu, Oct 11, 2012 at 9:12 AM, Michael T. Dean wrote:
>>
>>> On 10/09/2012 10:08 AM, R. G. Newbury wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 10/08/2012 05:17 PM, Evuraan wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I've mythtv 0.25.2, OTA wit hdhr dual.
>>>>>
>>>>> I generate (flv,mpg) files from publicly available, commercial laden,
>>>>> tv streams. I'd like to add these files to mythtv recording list, and
>>>>> need them processed by mythcommflag above all.
>>>>>
>>>>> I've couple of local channels that I never watch stuff on – so either
>>>>> I can pin these hourly dumps to those, or float a new channel. If i
>>>>> have the know-how, that is, and hence this email. :)
>>>>>
>>>>> I've seen recommendations to name the file as 1091_20121008070000.mpg,
>>>>> and have myth.rebuilddatabase.pl run against those files etc -  i am
>>>>> afraid these instructions are old, and does not apply to 0.25 that I
>>>>> am on.
>>>>>
>>>>> So in summary, how do I add files from elsewhere to mythtv?
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Although myth.rebuilddatabase.pl has been deprecated it does work at
>>>> least
>>>> partially.
>>>>
>>>> I suspect that part of the reason it has been deprecated is because it
>>>> does not insert the file size into the database. As a result, myth
>>>> reports
>>>> it cannot find the file although the script has run properly and entered
>>>> everything else.
>>>>
>>>
>>> It's primarily been deprecated because MythTV now has a very-capable
>>> place
>>> for including user-provided/user-managed content:  the Video Library.
>>>  Now
>>> that Video Library has full support for metadata and metadata grabbing
>>> (including fan art, banners, covers, ...), there's not a lot of reason to
>>> allow users to poke some fake recording information (having to make up
>>> fake
>>> channel and start time and (tons of other)... information) into the
>>> database
>>> to fool MythTV into thinking it had recorded the show.
>>>
>>> If you have other related content in Watch Recordings that you want
>>> grouped
>>> with your non-recording content, just move the real recordings to Video
>>> Library, too.
>>>
>>> And, since Video Library allows the user to organize the content however
>>> he
>>> desires, you actually have /much/ more capability in Video Library than
>>> in
>>> Watch Recordings.  Watch Recordings was really designed as "temporary"
>>> storage for recordings made by this MythTV system, and any other content
>>> (whether temporary or meant for long-term archival) belongs in Video
>>> Library
>>> (and due to its ability to allow user organization, it's easy enough to
>>> separate out the temporary and long-term content in Video Library).
>>>
>> So is there a plan to put ALL recordings into the video library?
>> (that's a wee bit what the above sounds like a prelude to.)
>>
>
> MythTV will continue to put recordings into Watch Recordings.  Users who
> want to archive recordings long term (and who live in areas where doing so
> is legal) can then choose to move any they want to Video Library.
>
> Watch Recordings is good for a first-in/first-out organization of
> recordings that need to be watched to make room for future recordings.
>  Video Library is good for large collections of videos and for long-term
> archival of video.  We won't be losing either of them.
>

That's good to hear.  I was following an IRC conversation last week which I
believe included you, wagnerrp, and another user regarding interfacing to a
Roku, and the division between Recording and the Video Library came up.  I
understand the developer goal to have a more unified database
infrastructure for both recordings and video content, which seems like "a
good thing" for maintainability.  There was also pushback against the idea
that there should be somehow a combined in a common user interface, which
from the Roku user's perspective would have been helpful, but he came to
understand it wouldn't be for other users.  I can only speak for myself,
but the way I use recordings is much different than how I use video; but
then I'm also an almost exclusive front-end user.  Maybe HTTP Live
Streaming will modify that a bit, but I'm not there yet (0.24-fixes Gentoo
user).

The one comment I would make on this, perhaps related to a unified meta
database, if there was some no-brainer migration path that allowed
Recordings to be "moved", INCLUDING METADATA, into the Video Library, to a
physical location specified by some kind of recording option (just like a
recording/playback group or transcoding rule).  Something that specified
the creation of subdirectories and the migrated filename, ala the
mythlink.pl script convention.  That would be extremely desirable.  Perhaps
that is the ultimate developer destination after the database is cleaned
up, but I just thought I'd throw that out there.  Not asking for a feature,
just giving a bit of user feedback.  Maybe this is already been talked
about and I'm just not aware.
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