Ability to NOT write to NFO until told?

I have been using Media Companion for my TV Shows from the start... so far no problems. But I noticed a behavior I do not like.

Every edit I make it edits the NFO file almost immediately...

I'm about to try to use Media companion to fix my Movie library, however I've done some extensive manual NFO entries already.
I'm afraid to even point Media Companion to my movie folder for fear they will go in and muck up my NFO before I decide IF I want to write to them.

Is there any method to allow me to make changes withing Medai Companion and then once I approve my results to THEN write to the NFO files?

This Live Editing is fine if all you ever use to edit your files is Media Companion.. but if you use multiple editors.. I don't want one editor messing up with another editor's nfo until I'm sure they won't mess anything up.

The simplest way that I can see is that you backup your nfo's & then compare a few to see the results. It might be prudent anyway if you are using multiple editors...

The nfo files are not edited live,

They are updated only when the save icon is pressed, or when the watched status is changed.

You can edit other things as much as you like, but if you select another movie before saving you will loose any changes.

Out of curiosity, why would you want to edit an nfo and not save it, surely this is counter productive.

I did not realize there was even a save button.. hmmm not sure how I missed that.

But actually I was thinking of more of a 'batch' save type of idea.

The usage would be to say update genres/sets then use the filters to be sure everything is set up correctly.. and THEN commit the results.

HOWEVER, I've since learned from messing with the editor a bit more that you cannot really edit multiple files at once so that really kinda throws this feature out the door anyway.

OH well so much for using one editor for everything.. I love how this one handles TV.. but sadly it doesn't really work for me when updating my movie library.

DaGnome wrote:

OH well so much for using one editor for everything.. I love how this one handles TV.. but sadly it doesn't really work for me when updating my movie library.

Just curious as to what it doesn't do for you re the movies....what extras are you adding that I assume you can use in XBMC that MC doesn't current allow you to add....

Cheers

Actualy XBMC doesn't let me manage my movies either.. right now I'm playing with XB NFO Editor (XBNE) and it has 'most' of the features I need when it comes to movies.. but it's still in the 'adding features' phase.

Specifically the ability I want is to manage MULTIPLE files at once.. say to select several files, set their Genre, Rating, Year, etc... Even more important when I start updating my Music Library soon.

The one thing XBNE doesn't have yet is the ability to manage SETs via a Multiple file window.. but he said that is coming. Sets ability at all was just added the other day.

If you ever added the ability to manage multiple NFO's at once... well.. then sir we'd have a different ballgame on our hands

I'm not sure if its what you wanted,

But from the next build MC will support editing mulitple files at once,

How it will work is:

• Multiple movies selected from list
  
• Main page text fields remains blank
  
• Fields (Textboxes) to be changed can be edited as desired
  
• Select Save
  
• Movies are updated with Fields that have content.
  

Just tried it with sets,
Searched for movies with Jackie Chan
Selected them all
Selected 'Jackie Chan Collection' set
Then Clicked The 'Save' button. All movies were updated with the new set.

Certainly saves some time, but it is limited in that only fields that you want to be the same can be multi-edited

That would be Nice, but honestly I'd probably rarely use it myself.

The only reason I'd probably stick with XBNE is the format of the UI when changing these things. I like the horizontal layout (row/column based) which lets me spot errors more easily than selecting each individual file.

While your interface is great for editing single files, it simply isn't very user friendly for being able to view and manipulate multiple. Row/Column based allows me to view multiple records at once and easily scan down to see which ones have incorrect Genres or sets, or in some cases even a misspelled Studio or other field.

I appreciate the work, but I think having multiple edits alone won't solve my particular needs.

My apologies, I misunderstood what you wanted.

A table layout view would be easily achieveable,

Just the small issue of design and implementation to consider

billyad2000 wrote:

My apologies, I misunderstood what you wanted.

A table layout view would be easily achieveable,

Just the small issue of design and implementation to consider

Exactly It's somewhat of a departure from your current UI so I don't expect anything anytime soon, if ever.

My opinion would perhaps to be to hold off until you start thinking about other media such as Music, as that type of media lends itself extremely well to multiple editing. I've not begin to 'clean up' my music library just yet myself because of the sheer number of 'errors' I see in Artist Names, Genres and other items that tend to be slightly off from scraper to scraper.

Whatever you were to come up with for Music (If you were planning that at all) would probably be easier adapted to movies, than the other way around.

I would not actually consider changing MC in that way,

The most likely implementation would be within a seperate tab, like the wall, and would remove all constraints given by the current browser.

As for support for music, this is something I would like to add, but it poses a complex set of problems that I am not sure how to handle - Yet.