[mythtv-users] Mythlink Questions

[Mike Perkins]

On 10/10/15 19:40, Michael Wisniewski wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 9, 2015 at 4:22 PM, Mike Perkins <mikep at randomtraveller.org.uk>
> wrote:
>
>> On 09/10/15 22:05, Michael Wisniewski wrote:
>>
>>> I've been using MythTV for about 6 months now and have developed a pretty
>>> decent library.  After the recording, I transcode the videos using a user
>>> job that executes handbrake.  After the transcode, I end up with something
>>> like:
>>>
>>> 1225_20150417133000.mp4
>>>
>>> What I would like to do is rename these files to something more useful,
>>> such as
>>>
>>> <TV Show Name>\<Season x>\<Episode Name.mp4>
>>>
>>> It looks like Mythlink can do this, but I don't want to execute it before
>>> I
>>> actually know it won't mess things up.  Reading the instructions, it looks
>>> like it just creates a symlink in the format above (with a bit of work).
>>> You then rename the episode permanently and remove the symlink.
>>>
>>> Is this correct?  If so, how does MythTV know to play the updated filename
>>> and not the numerical one?  I would think that if I did this, all the
>>> recordings would break because the database points to
>>> "1225_20150417133000.mp4" instead of the expanded name.
>>>
>>> Thank you in advanced!
>>>
>>> That's because, once you have edited and transcoded your files, you are
>> supposed to move them to the Video library. If you go there you'll see that
>> the directory structure you give as an example is one of the ways that
>> library can be arranged.
>>
>> Mythlink is a utility which is designed to give a human-readable link to
>> files in the Recordings directories (as opposed to the Video directories).
>> It was never intended for those names to replace the filenames in the myth
>> database.
>>
>> --
>>
>>
> When you say "Video Library", what do you mean?  In the MythTV menus, I
> have "Watch Recordings" and "Watch Videos".  When I go to "Watch Videos",
> it doesn't seem as easy to navigate as the Recordings are.  Basically the
> recordings are Show -> Episode List with pretty pictures and descriptions.
> The Videos are just file folders with filenames.
>
> I took it as the Recordings are stuff that's been recorded.  The Videos is
> your existing video library of things that you've ripped or acquired over
> the years.
>
> In either case, it sounds like Myth likes to use the numerical names and if
> I want to change it over to what I was thinking, I would have to almost
> export it out of myth.
>
Recordings is everything you have recorded using a tuner and not done anything with. In general, 
this would be any program you would watch and discard, like the news, sports or maybe documentaries, 
etc. These just have a filename consisting of Channel ID plus date and time the recording started. 
This is what is stored in the database, this is *not* a text field.

Videos is where you would put anything that you want to keep, like favorite movies or particular 
series that you enjoy and want to view again, or maybe children's programs which get seen over and 
over again. These can be stuff you ripped or programs you exported from Recordings. There are a 
number of scripts around which can do this for you. You get to choose the name and directory 
structure, but there are certain arrangements that mythtv will automatically understand[1].

Mythlink is a utility program to help you view *recordings* outside of the myth system by just 
accessing the directory directly - perhaps using Samba or NFS. Since the filenames are impenetrable, 
this just allows you to provide something human-readable.

In the Video storage directories, you could set it up the same as Recordings appears, ie set up 
subdirectories with Show -> Series -> Episode. Doing it this way is one of the ways Myth 
understands[1] and it is also easy for humans to follow.

[1] Myth will automatically look up metadata and artwork for you if you follow one of these schemes.

-- 

Mike Perkins