MyMovies Tutorial
or How to Add a Box-Set (multi-Season) TV Series in the new MyMovies
Ramblings from a heretofore casual user who was caught with the complexity of the new TV Series and Box Set editing with little documentation available.
This tutorial gently introduces more and more complicated procedures to eventually enable you to understand editing a
Box Set (multi-season),
TV Series (multi-episode) referencing an online disc image. With the new
MyMovies introducing
TV Series and
Box Set concepts, the potential reward is great but at the cost of a much more difficult editing process.
Key to understand from the start is that
MyMovies now has
TV Series that are distinct from single or multi-disc
Titles (including
Box Sets). And that although both can be edited from similar screens in the same
Collection Manager, the sharing of data between the two groupings is only via the WebServer and not your local
Collection Manager (i.e. computer or database). Once this is clearly understood, and that you need both for
TV Series from Discs, then the intricate steps needed to edit, save, contribute (i.e. upload), download and continue editing will be better understood.
The scenarios of adding information in the
Collection Manager covered here are given below; in order of increasing difficulty and building on the description before.
- Movie Title with one or more single or double-sided discs
- Box Sets of movie release collections where each movie release may have one or more discs
- TV Series (one or more seasons) that you wish to reference locally as individual episodes (common for portable devices or non-DVD formats)
- TV Series (one season) that you wish to reference locally as discs from your box set where the information is complete and previously entered
- TV Series (one season) that you wish to reference locally as discs where the information is non-existent, partial or incorrect
- Box Set of TV Series (more than one season) that you wish to reference locally as disc
It is these last two that are more complicated and involves editing and contributing both a
TV Series and multi-disc
Title or two to complete. Each is covered in more detail below. But before covering each, lets introduce a little background and a few more important terms. Note you can click on each title below to expand or collapse its information.
What Changed?
Traditionally, there was only one form of editing in the
Collection Manager — adding a
Title. What continued to complicate this further was the seemingly endless and varying ways that production houses re-mastered or repackaged movies. The distinction between unique optical discs and their collection in a product started blurring; especially how users wanted to view the products as well. Further complicating this is the larger-disc release associated with TV Series, the need for handling transcoded movie files of TV episodes and movies (especially for portable devices), and the ability for DVD Players to bypass the main menu and jump to specific content inside the disc.
To address these new needs and multiple, confusing collection management conventions developing, two new features were added. The
Box Set and the
TV Series. Both have implications in the MyMovies viewer and selection for play as well.
One should consult the existing ))
MyMovies((
tutorials and
videos in conjunction with this tutorial. Specifically:
Terminology and Conventions
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- Countries, Languages, and more
- Data is stored separately for each country or language of release. Hence the importance to get this correct when entering the data. The differences in the disc information can be large beside just the cover language.
- Title
- Often a single Movie, a box-set collection of related movies, or maybe a TV Series season or box-set of multiple seasons. The title is historically more tied to the product sold consisting of one or more optical discs — whether it be DVD, ))BluRay((, HD DVD, VHS or similar format. Often a barcode is associated with a Title and uniquely identifies it (within a specific country).
- Series
- A television series consisting of multiple episodes and possibly multiple seasons. Most often a season is a year but sometimes a weather season in addition to a year. Episodes are often the same length in time and periodically aired (e.g. a weekly basis) but not always.
- Disc ID
- A usually unique code or number stored on the optical disk that can be read at startup. The Disc ID is written in the inner rim area that is not writeable with writeable media and so is a unique feature of manufactured discs. Each disc in a Title will have a unique Disc ID and can usually be used to help determine the Title in the database.
- 'UPC or EAN Barcode
- A commonly used and understood label on every product that helps uniquely identify the product. It is either 12 (UPC) or 13 (EAN) digits and often unique in a country if put on by a registered manufacturer.
- Chapters, Episodes, and more
- Within the context of an optical disc, there may be titles and chapters to divide up the material into index-able sections. Each disc (side) can have multiple titles with one or more chapters in each title. This is the structure of the disc. Note that the optical disc titles are distinct from the MyMovies Collection Manager Titles. A dual layer disc is just a double-length single disc in understanding this structure. Intro material in a Movie DVD, such as the illegal copy warning, are often a title. As is the main menu. Scenes, as identified in a menu of scene selection, are often chapters. For TV Series DVD's, each episode is often a title and there may be multiple chapters (or scenes) within that. Unlike movies, the chapters or scenes in a TV Series are usually not part of a menu, only the Episodes.
Because the same disc (i.e. Disc ID) may be included in multiple different packages, it does not uniquely identify a
Title. Only that disc. Similarly, the barcode is not always unique in a country as some retailers add their own unregistered barcodes local to their enterprise. Or a manufacturer may use the same barcode for slightly different editions of a product. So things are not absolute and doubt is a useful attribute.
Adding a Movie Title
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The
Creating a Title and
Editing a Title videos serve as a useful introduction. We augment with a few more refinements here.
Disc Location and Content editing
This is one of the most important aspects of title editing; especially in terms of adding useful local data. It is here you can attach the physical location of the disc image if you have loaded it into a DVD JukeBox or maybe copied the disc onto a magnetic storage device or server.
It is helpful to note that you are better off using a network address than a local disc hard coded path. This to allow clients on addition machines to access the titles with the same database and location names. Under MS Windows, this can be done most effectively by adding all your folders for movie storage to a library. Then sharing that library with the network (or possibly Homegroup if Win7). This way, the physical location and structure spanning one or more discs is not coded into the MyMovies DB reference. The library mechanism hides the physical path to each folder and simply exposes the content of each referenced folder directly. Use this network reference on the server when linking a Collection Manager Title to the physical disc location.
Adding a Box Set
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Now a Box Set title can simply reference individual movie titles, thus retaining all the correct specific information for each individual title. During selection in the MyMovies interface, this adds a level of hierarchy in the list mode (as opposed to pushing it down to the disc selection point after hitting Play). In summary:
- Create or download each individual Movie Title and complete as normal
- Include referencing to the disc if online
- Create or download a Box Set Title
- No need to reference the discs to the online title here even if the discs are already defined in the downloaded Title
- See the documentation on minimal data normally needed for a new Box Set Title
- Click the "Is a Box Set?" in the Box Set Title while in the editing interface
- Click the Series/BoxSet button at the bottom right of the Title edit interface
- In the dialog that pops up, add the individual movie Title's previously completed into this box set.
You are now done and the
NOTE: Do not delete the Box Set if you wish to retain the added Titles in your database. Instead, first remove the Titles from the series and then delete the box set. This might happen when you decide to no longer use a box set hierarchy and instead simply want the flat, individual movie list.
NOTE: Usually check the box Do not include holding title as part of the Series/Box in the Series/Box Set pop-up for a Box Set Title. Otherwise, if the Box Set description includes a list of discs, you will get those discs and their references to online files/folders in addition to the referenced Titles. You usually only want one or the other.
Background
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Historically, one used the cover art of the box set of multiple movies, merged the other information (such as actors, crew, rating, and such) into the Title, and then listed the discs of each of the movie members. As such, the Disc ID used in Add Title often pulls up the various box sets including the Title/product when the disc is a standalone product. These titles still and should remain in the database for those not wanting to use the more complicated, hierarchical Box Set methodology.
With the new software, one can now have a Box Set title that is distinct from the titles of the containing movies. This way, each movie (and disc) can be described separately and accurately using its own cover art, crew list and such. Then, if the collection or box set hierarchy is desired in ))MyMovies((, the Box Set title can be loaded (or created) and the individual movie Titles simply referenced from the Box Set title. In the ))MyMovies(( interface, the Box Set is shown and when selected, the individual movie entries are then shown. Thus adding some hierarchy to the collection and selection process. Historically, selecting a box set would then not allow selecting the movie until you clicked the play button that then brought up the disc selection.
If preferred, and this usually is for BluRay and HD DVD formats for simplicity, TV Series can be treated as box sets. Each Season is a Movie Title which just happens to have more discs on average, and then the overall TV Show is a Box Set. The arbitrary distinction of which episode is on which disc is not something you want to highlight and thus a Season is not treated as a box set itself. This method for a TV Series is simplest in that it involves no chapter / episode editing and distinction. But it is not possible to jump straight to an episode; only to the disc containing the episode.
One issue of going to box sets is the need to identify or group all discs of the Box Set into referenced Titles. So if an included disc of Special Features is part of the box set, it will now require its own entry (e.g. Title) in the ))MyMovies(( Web Service so it can be included in. This even though it likely does not have a separate bar code or availability outside of one or more box set products.
Adding a TV Series (individual episode files)
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This is the simplest
TV series mode and the one most users may eventually end up using. But it can be difficult to get too from optical disk purchases of a season or more of the
TV Series. This because the optical discs incorporate multiple episodes on the same disc; often dual layer. And that you desire to access the material by episode independent of the disc it was put into.
Key to understand here is if you are solely using a
TV Series with individual files, you do not need to find, edit and save a
Title. You simply need to find or add the
TV Series title and attach your individual files to each episode. A
TV Series is distinguishable in the Collection Manager with a TV () as opposed to a Clapperboard () icon. This is important because later on we will see a Clapperboard top level with a TV icon below it.
One area of potential confusion or difference between people editing and creating such series is what to do with the special and extra features. Deleted scenes, additional featurettes, and such. For those going to the trouble to transcode the original material from optical disc may not care and deal with this, those staying with optical disc structure are more limited. Hence, it is key to follow the conventions of:
- putting all such material in Season 0,
- keeping the same structure as found on the optical discs so optical disc titles and chapters can map to it, and
- titling or labeling such "episodes" with the season they were packaged with (e.g. Season 2: Deleted Scenes) or some useful and similar method for similar material across multiple seasons (e.g., preview of upcoming seasons labeled Preview Season x).
Adding a TV Series (discs with multiple episodes per disc) already complete on the Web Service
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If the TV Series has been fully added by someone else already, then this is simpler and can be understood as an extension to adding a Movie Title. But if you get part way into this and discover the TV Series has not been fully entered (partially or not at all), then you end up having to perform two edits simultaneously and work to edit, save, contribute, then download to get your information passed appropriately.
Adding a TV Series (discs with multiple episodes per disc) partially complete or non-existent on the Web Service
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This is the complicated procedure as you have to perform two edits in two different modes of the Collection Manager. And confusingly at first, you have to edit, save, then contribute the information from the TV Series before you can then download and use it in the Title editing for that same series. But being familiar with the above other contribution methods helps you understand the steps needed for this below.
To help understand further, when finished, a TV Series which you retain as disc copies or references but which can be accessed by episode will appear like this in the Collection Manager:
Note the top level Movie Clapboard icon with TV Series icons below that. This as opposed to only Movie Clapboard icons at all levels in a traditional Box Set and only TV Series icons at all levels in a traditional TV Series accessed as individual files.
Note that this procedure is required even if other seasons are fully entered for a TV Series. Or if someone entered all the episodes but neglected to complete adding the special features. Of course, this complication is only needed and necessary IF the Title is on DVD (not BluRay or HD DVD), not just on a disc. This because BluRay and HD DVD software players on your computer cannot jump directly to a title in the middle of the disc like can be done with DVD Players. Hence, this complication and benefit is only for DVD's where you want to jump directly to an episode or special feature and start playing there; avoiding the disc menu to select your episode or feature.
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Personal Terminology and Conventions
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Here are conventions used by us to get around limitations in the software.
Groups are pre-defined by the software and cannot be changed. Only groups are available as selectors in the Web-accessible collection list (confusingly termed
online in the tool).
Categories are user-defined and available, like
Groups, in
Filters but not in the Web collection. The Mobile apps can use filters and Groups. We limit, more than the programs, the term
online to apply to titles that are physically on the hard disk of the Windows Media Center and ready for immediate playing.
Titles are a particular Movie, TV Series (season) or similar.
There are four ways to view and possibly manipulate the collection. Through the (1) Windows Media Center interface, the (2) Collection Management windows program, the (3) Internet Browser (aka "online" Web service), and the (4) Mobile App (aka "mobile" Web Service). The Web Service techniques are mostly view only and can be limited (as to what is visible) via the Collection Management program. Each mechanism has different capabilities for filtering and viewing the collection. Not even the Collection Management, which offers the most capability to view and manipulate the underlying local database directly, can easily view, sort and select by all the data fields though.
- We need to distinguish between Owned, Rented, Wished and Ordered titles. These are available Groups and so used as such. This allows one, using the Web Service interfaces, to peruse items needed or already owned while at a store or library.
- We need to distinguish the physical location of the original disk for online titles. Hence we use Categories for this and create entries such as @Dad's (for ))BluRays(( and HD-DVD's, in general), @Mom's (for India DVD's and TV shows of hers, in general), In Archive (for most DVD's, in the storage box), and Rented (to be complete and indicate when the original disk is not in our possession at the current time). As a result, all Titles should be in one and only one category.
- We need to distinguish which titles have a "digital copy" (i.e. MP4) available for phone and tablet viewing. This is more of a yes or no — it either exists or not. While it might be nice to overload the user-defined Categories again, Categories are not visible in the Web Service interfaces. Therefore, we use the Groups of Pre-Owned and Pre-Rented to represent titles that are Owned or _Rented but where a digital copy is NOT available. Only Owned or _Rented can have an image on the hard disk. Luckily, the Group is not mutually exclusive to view in the Media Center interface as it is in the Web-service interface so one can easily peruse all available titles to play in one list.
- We need to distinguish which titles are online versus only on the original optical disk. Online to us strictly means an ISO image on the hard disk that is directly playable in the Media Center application. The existence of an online copy is stored in the database and implied through the Disc's sub-screen setting. It can be used in a filter. But otherwise, in the Web-Service Browser and Phone/Tablet app interface, you cannot really determine if the title is online. In general, we have all Owned and Rented movies (including Pre-Owned and Pre-Rented) online and most TV Series are not.
The biggest nuance is that
Groups are pre-defined and exclusive-or in the Browser interface (if visible at all there). So one cannot use that interface to see all titles at once. You have to view by each
Group individually. If the Browser Web Services collection were dedicated to a single need (viewing digital copies only, viewing available titles only, viewing titles not yet owned only, etc), then the
Groups could be made invisible to the interface and only a subset of
Groups selected for export there.
Groups are not directly visible in
Collection Management under the
Titles General Profile Data section. You have to right click the title entry as if changing its value. The shading to indicate the currently set value is difficult to see as well.
Using
Groups to distinguish the existence of a digital copy introduces a greater potential for the database to be corrupted. This because of incorrectly changing the group after a change in just the digital copy availability. Care should be taken with batch, multiple-title changes made as a result.