Series2Folder plugin

[prl]

I just installed the latest USB update and noticed series2folder had disappeared when I selected Menu when in live TV. Is this normal? ...

Yes, it's normal. A USB upgrade overwrites the whole firmware, including any installed plugins.

[Paul_oz53]

...
It won't appear in the plugin menu because it technically isn't a "plugin" in that sense.
...

It's more that plugins have a number of different options about where they get hooked into the user interface. The post where you download it should be more explicit about where it appears.

Can't help but wonder if calling it a plugin is misleading - perhaps it would be better labelled as a "Media player extension".

As a user I have become familiar with the distinction but, based on the label 'plugin', new users will generally expect to find it in the main menu.

Yeah, I know they should read the instructions first but we all know that 'tldr' will be the first shortcut taken...

Paul

[prl]

...
It won't appear in the plugin menu because it technically isn't a "plugin" in that sense.
...

It's more that plugins have a number of different options about where they get hooked into the user interface. The post where you download it should be more explicit about where it appears.

Can't help but wonder if calling it a plugin is misleading - perhaps it would be better labelled as a "Media player extension".
...

Why is it misleading? There are other plugins that insert themselves in places other than the PLUGINS screen. EPGSearch, for example.

[peteru]

There's some confusion about the two similarly named menu options, where one only has ... appended and leads to a config screen.

Perhaps you could kill two birds with one stone and move that entry from the context menu into the plugin menu as a config option. That way users can find the plugin in the usual list and configure it from there and you don't have to have two almost identical menu items in one place.

[prl]

There's some confusion about the two similarly named menu options, where one only has ... appended and leads to a config screen.

Perhaps you could kill two birds with one stone and move that entry from the context menu into the plugin menu as a config option. That way users can find the plugin in the usual list and configure it from there and you don't have to have two almost identical menu items in one place.

I find it most useful to have the configuration where it is. I could add configuration to the Plugin screen, but that still doesn't help people to find the plugin where it's actually useful.

[000]

Hi folks.

Ahhhh. It's on the '2nd screen' of the options, when you are in the Media directory, on a show, and you select 'Menu' again. I've got to say, that's really well hidden.

OK, some quick feedback...

• 1. For the "plugins" section, why not put a place holder entry there, for Series 2 Folder, and put a plain English explanation of how to install it, and more importantly, how to call it up! Those two issues are going to keep coming up. It doesn't matter to the average user whether something is a "plugin" or an "extension" (for that matter, which "plugin" section to look in!). All that matters to them is that they want the extra functionality, and it's not clear how to get it.

• 2. That list (where Series2Folder is on the 2nd page), is not obvious that it goes onto a second page. Remembering that we're talking about a "10 foot interface" here -- is it possible to make it clearer that there is a second page of results / actions hiding away, waiting for you to access? (the scroll line? the arrows? "1 of 2" pages text?)

• 3. Change the "Sel series to folder" label to a more action-oriented one, such as "Apply S2F to selection" or "Apply S2F to recording"

• 4. Change the "Series to folder" label to "Run S2F on recent recordings" or similar

• 5. Change the "Series to folder..." label to "Configure Series 2 Folder options..." or similar

• 6. When the "Series to folder" option is currently run, on a large selection, it takes a long time. It would be useful to inform the user at this point with a dialogue, what is going on. Yes, there is a spinining star-style waiting logo after a few seconds. But at first I thought the GUI had frozen. A dialogue such as "Preparing to run Series 2 Folder on new recordings - please wait a moment while this is run" or similar.

I couldn't quite tell for 100% certainly if the S2F system auto-deletes empty folders afterwards (after you delete the last recording). But ideally, if it doesn't already, I'd like it to!

Thank you =>
D.

[MrQuade]

1. For the "plugins" section, why not put a place holder entry there, for Series 2 Folder, and put a plain English explanation of how to install it, and more importantly, how to call it up! Those two issues are going to keep coming up. It doesn't matter to the average user whether something is a "plugin" or an "extension" (for that matter, which "plugin" section to look in!). All that matters to them is that they want the extra functionality, and it's not clear how to get it.

That is what is being discussed in the earlier posts.
I personally think that the Series2Folder configuration options could stand to appear both in the Plugin menu and in the Media Player context menu where is currently is.
I agree that the configuration option in the context menu could do with rephrasing to make it simpler though. Something like:
"Series2Folder settings..."

2. That list (where Series2Folder is on the 2nd page), is not obvious that it goes onto a second page. Remembering that we're talking about a "10 foot interface" here -- is it possible to make it clearer that there is a second page of results / actions hiding away, waiting for you to access? (the scroll line? the arrows? "1 of 2" pages text?)

.
Thats what the "..." means. This is standard notation for "there is a submenu" across the whole GUI.

I couldn't quite tell for 100% certainly if the S2F system auto-deletes empty folders afterwards (after you delete the last recording). But ideally, if it doesn't already, I'd like it to!

No it doesn't, and part of its functionality relies on the directory being present even when empty.

If the directory is empty, and a new episode is recorded, then Series2Folder knows to put the newly recorded show into that directory since it has the same name as the show

[Paul_oz53]

Why is it misleading? There are other plugins that insert themselves in places other than the PLUGINS screen. EPGSearch, for example.

Personally speaking, I'm ok with it being called a plugin.

My point is only that newbies get lost looking in the wrong place, in part because the menu item "Plugins" is not a complete list of ALL plugins.

I see this as a first world problem though - nice to tidy up but not essential.

[000]

1. For the "plugins" section, why not put a place holder entry there, for Series 2 Folder, and put a plain English explanation of how to install it, and more importantly, how to call it up! Those two issues are going to keep coming up. It doesn't matter to the average user whether something is a "plugin" or an "extension" (for that matter, which "plugin" section to look in!). All that matters to them is that they want the extra functionality, and it's not clear how to get it.

That is what is being discussed in the earlier posts.
I personally think that the Series2Folder configuration options could stand to appear both in the Plugin menu and in the Media Player context menu where is currently is.
I agree that the configuration option in the context menu could do with rephrasing to make it simpler though. Something like:
"Series2Folder settings..."

2. That list (where Series2Folder is on the 2nd page), is not obvious that it goes onto a second page. Remembering that we're talking about a "10 foot interface" here -- is it possible to make it clearer that there is a second page of results / actions hiding away, waiting for you to access? (the scroll line? the arrows? "1 of 2" pages text?)

.
Thats what the "..." means. This is standard notation for "there is a submenu" across the whole GUI.

I couldn't quite tell for 100% certainly if the S2F system auto-deletes empty folders afterwards (after you delete the last recording). But ideally, if it doesn't already, I'd like it to!

No it doesn't, and part of its functionality relies on the directory being present even when empty.

If the directory is empty, and a new episode is recorded, then Series2Folder knows to put the newly recorded show into that directory since it has the same name as the show

OK, that makes sense. Thank you.

For the empty-folder problem them, how about this enhancement:

• 1. For any empty folders, display a "(0)" at the end of the folder name.

E.g. if a folder called "Thomas The Tank Engine" existed, but was empty, it would display as "Thomas The Tank Engine (0)"

So this applies globally, not just when Series 2 Folder is installed.

The user story I'm coming from is this "Bob has 20 folders, with various shows in them. Bob wants to know which show has a show in it to watch. Bob tries folder XYZ1, but it's empty. Bob then has to exit that folder, and look in folder XYZ2, but that's empty. Eventually Bob finds folder XYZ3 has a show in it to watch. To avoid this, if the folders showed zero-contents, then Bob could go straight to that folder".

OR

• 2. For any folders, display a total item count, e.g. "(5)" at the end of the folder name (including 0-counts).

So the above user story has a big brother... "Sue has 20 folders, with various shows in them. Sue wants to watch the shows that have the most episodes. But doesn't know which folder has the most episodes, so she has to open each folder individually to 'weigh up' which is the best one to open first and watch. To avoid this, if the folders showed content-counts (aka what TiVo does), then Sue could go straight to the folder with the highest number of episodes"

You could also use a third user story, for working out which folder of episodes to 'cull' (clean up) when disk space is running low, by using these folder item counts...

(The even bigger story could be "folders with unwatched episodes" -- that would be great for those shows that you're saving up for a "rainy day" but I won't go there, as counts in general would be a great step-up...)

Cheers!
D.

[MrQuade]

• 1. For any empty folders, display a "(0)" at the end of the folder name.

OR

• 2. For any folders, display a total item count, e.g. "(5)" at the end of the folder name (including 0-counts).

This topic has come up before, and you will probably not like the answer.

To display a file count against directories would be a very IO intensive operation and would slow the Wiz down to an unacceptable level. This feature request is unfortunately of the table need on past discussions.

Have a search of the forums for phrases like "file count". Some other users have strategies for dealing with this situation.

For instance, you can configure Series2Folder to create the directory after finding only one episode of a show. That will effectively put EVERY recording into a folder, including movies. However, you can manually delete the directory when done and know that the next recording will recreate the directory.

[000]

Ah, Ok. High IO is bad. So that makes sense.

What about a once-a-day job (e.g. in the early hours?), like a cron-job, to do daily update of the items-in-folders count?

Cheers,
D.

[MrQuade]

What about a once-a-day job (e.g. in the early hours?), like a cron-job, to do daily update of the items-in-folders count?

Then you'd never be sure if your information was out of date. Often times, misleading information is worse than none at all.

Have a read here to see what ground has been covered on this topic.

[prl]

Hi folks.

Ahhhh. It's on the '2nd screen' of the options, when you are in the Media directory, on a show, and you select 'Menu' again. I've got to say, that's really well hidden.

It's just in the MENU when you're in the media player (and have highlighted a recording or media file). The same, for example, as the Cutlist editor and Execute cuts. Its intention is to add a feature to the media player, to be used inside the media player.

• 1. For the "plugins" section, why not put a place holder entry there, for Series 2 Folder, and put a plain English explanation of how to install it, and more importantly, how to call it up! Those two issues are going to keep coming up. It doesn't matter to the average user whether something is a "plugin" or an "extension" (for that matter, which "plugin" section to look in!). All that matters to them is that they want the extra functionality, and it's not clear how to get it.

There's no entry in that list for a plugin until the plugin is installed, the list can't contain entries that tell you how to install the plugin. It tells you how to install the plugin at the place where you get the plugin..

• 2. That list (where Series2Folder is on the 2nd page), is not obvious that it goes onto a second page. Remembering that we're talking about a "10 foot interface" here -- is it possible to make it clearer that there is a second page of results / actions hiding away, waiting for you to access? (the scroll line? the arrows? "1 of 2" pages text?)

The menu has a scroll bar. Series2Folder isn't the only thing on the second page.

• 3. Change the "Sel series to folder" label to a more action-oriented one, such as "Apply S2F to selection" or "Apply S2F to recording"

• 4. Change the "Series to folder" label to "Run S2F on recent recordings" or similar

• 5. Change the "Series to folder..." label to "Configure Series 2 Folder options..." or similar

The same text used in the menu has to fit into a button for when the action is bound to a coloured button. This is a limitation in the media player code, not the plugin.

• 6. When the "Series to folder" option is currently run, on a large selection, it takes a long time. It would be useful to inform the user at this point with a dialogue, what is going on. Yes, there is a spinining star-style waiting logo after a few seconds. But at first I thought the GUI had frozen. A dialogue such as "Preparing to run Series 2 Folder on new recordings - please wait a moment while this is run" or similar.

That's not a bad idea. I'll think about it.

I couldn't quite tell for 100% certainly if the S2F system auto-deletes empty folders afterwards (after you delete the last recording). But ideally, if it doesn't already, I'd like it to!

As MrQuade has said, the existence of a series directory is the flag to SeriesToFolder that it should continue saving recordings to the directory immediately, rather than waiting for the condition required for the series directory to be created. Adding the feature would add to the processing time, because it would need to scan every directory that is being used by Series2Folder to see whether it was empty. There's no quick way to tell this, and even if there was, an "empty" directory from the user's point of view isn't actually empty of contents. A mechanism for SeriesToFolder to work out which directories are its targets would have to be added.

If it were added, it would definitely need to be an option, since it's not the behaviour I want.

[000]

Thank you.

Yes, makes sense to leave the empty folder then, so that it can be soon repopulated. That lead me onto that idea about item counts (which is obviously a tricky one to implement too).

For the folder count updating frequency, perhaps this could be user-selectable? Somewhere between once an hour, to once every 24 hours. Users are then effectively responsible for long GUI pauses, by choosing their own risk appetite. Perhaps helped by a dialogue like 'please wait while folder-counts are updated').

I've read through the other thread, and one part about the edge-cases stands out: Why not just focus on the low-count items?

If counts just focused on 0-9 and "+", then the subroutine counting a folder's content count only needs to realistically record a number as 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 or "+".

0-count shows that you don't need to go into that folder. It's empty.
1-to-9 counts shows you literally those counts. Either a good folder to clean up, or you've got some binge watching to do ('9').
+ count means it's 10 and above, and the Bwiz isn't going to waste all-day counting on more than just it's 10 fingers. That takes care of the massive NAS or multi-TB libraries that are out there. You can see it's 10 or above. No need to deep-count and traverse every node on the tree.

Could that free up some potentially long loops, by only counting to "10"?

It also helps prevent the count effecting the display of the folder names (lengths - getting too long) as well.

All these sorts of ideas could really round-off and 'smooth' the Beyonwiz user experience. I know it's always trickier to make these "wishes" reality, but any of these little minute changes do actually vastly improve the usability of Bwiz units. And simplifying counts (for example) is really quite a small item that could really give "big" kudos to the Beyonwiz platform =>.

[PStepanas]

I was recommended this plugin to fix an issue I'm having and will try it out.

But I'm perplexed that there doesn't seem to be any explanation of what the plugin actually does!

Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place (can't see any links to plugin directories from the forum interface), but shouldn't the first post in the thread for any plugin describe what the plugin actually does?!

Just a thought.

[MrQuade]

But I'm perplexed that there doesn't seem to be any explanation of what the plugin actually does!

You are correct, the operation instructions are pretty limited.

Basically it moves TV series episodes into directories that have the same name as the series. It keeps episodes of the same series all grouped together.

It does this by looking for any recordings that have the same filename. When it finds same-named recordings, it creates a directory and moves the recordings into it.

If a directory with the same name as a recording already exists, the plugin will move the recording straight away.

You can trigger the move manually by selecting the appropriate action from the Media Player MENU button pop-up.

Or you can set the plugin to automatically run in the background so you don't have to worry about it. You can set up the automatic mode via the Series2Folder configuration option in "MEDIA->MENU->Series to folder...".

The plugin does have more functions and settings, but that is it in a nutshell.

[prl]

I was recommended this plugin to fix an issue I'm having and will try it out.
...

The instructions were written at a time when there was active discussion on the forum about the plugin and how it should work. In that context, I'm afraid that the basic information of what it does didn't get into the post.

The post could do with rewriting anyway.

[paullings]

Hi prl,
Would it possible to add a default sort order for Series2Folder. I've noticed when new folders are created the sort order is always by name, then by date.
It's not a big deal to change it manually though.

[MrQuade]

Would it possible to add a default sort order for Series2Folder. I've noticed when new folders are created the sort order is always by name, then by date.
It's not a big deal to change it manually though.

If you set the sort order via MEDIA->MENU->Settings->Sort, then that will determine the default sort order for newly created directories.


....at least I think so. You may have to disable the "individual settings" option first, then re-enable it after...*thinks*

[prl]

Yes, as MrQuade says, the directory sort order is independent of Series2Folder and set in the media selection's setup screen..

[tarabrae]

Has anyone tried reinstalling this since the upgrade? I've tried but the familiar menu items have not returned.

[Paul_oz53]

Has anyone tried reinstalling this since the upgrade? I've tried but the familiar menu items have not returned.

I have it installed and working fine on a T3 and a T4 with the 20170422 beta firmware.

Appears in the menu when in media player but be aware that you can turn two of the three lines off in that menu if you configure it that way.

P.

[MrQuade]

Has anyone tried reinstalling this since the upgrade? I've tried but the familiar menu items have not returned.

Have you restarted the Wiz after installing it?

[prl]

Has anyone tried reinstalling this since the upgrade? I've tried but the familiar menu items have not returned.

Have you restarted the Wiz after installing it?

Only a GUI restart is required after installing Series2Folder, but a reboot or shutdown/restart will also work. Going to standby won't help.

[tarabrae]

Crisis averted. Operator error. Didn't notice i needed to tick the box to make it install.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

User-forced bug?

1. Series folder exists for program
2. Timer for event stopped prematurely - event had finished, post-padding had started,
   I was in a hurry to install alpha for icetvdesc version-2, before my next timer fired.
3. Installed above alpha and restarted UI
4. Timer fired for second time since still within time window - creating same file name as original recording (my guess is between #2 and #4, Series2Folder moved the original recording to the series folder (as it should), otherwise filename for subsequent recording would've been suffixed with "_001").
5. Upon timer finishing at original time, Series2Folder kicks in again and moved the subsequent recording to the series folder and overwrote the original recording.

Can some thought be given to amending Series2Folder to check for existence of the recording in the target folder, and 'version' the duplicate if the original exists, please?

[prl]

Yes, it looks like the move could do with some more checking.

[paullings]

Not sure if this is the correct place for this post.
When folders are created using Series2Folder if the folder name has a special character such as ? or . it shows as an underbar as below.
Not sure if this is a skin issue and relates to the font I use.

[prl]

It's a Series2Folder feature designed to keep folder names NTFS/FAT/SMB/CIFS compatible.

You can disable it by disabling MENU>Series2Folder...>Configure move series recordings to folders>Use portable folder names.

But, of course, if you allow folders to have characters that aren't SMB/CIFS compatible and you mount the movies folder as a share, that will mangle the filenames to conform to the allowed SMB/CIFS character set. Similarly if you copy the folder to a FAT- or NTFS-formatted attached disk or thumb drive.

Disabling the "portable folder names" setting won't change the names of any existing folders, so new episodes of existing series will go into the new folder name and the existing episodes will stay in the old folder. So if you change the it, I suggest that you:

• Disable MENU>Series2Folder...>Configure move series recordings to folders>Allow Series to Folder to run in the background.
• Disable MENU>Series2Folder...>Configure move series recordings to folders>Use portable folder names.
• Return to the media player selection list and use to rename any folders where underscores have been substituted to their unmodified name.
• Enable MENU>Series2Folder...>Configure move series recordings to folders>Allow Series to Folder to run in the background.

[paullings]

Thanks Peter. The answer's obvious when it's pointed out. Sorry to waste your time.

[prl]

Thanks Peter. The answer's obvious when it's pointed out. Sorry to waste your time.

Not a waste of time, and it clearly wasn't obvious to you. I've added some new information to the post you replied to about how to disable the feature and the consequences of disabling it.

[prl]

When I was looking at the recent problem reported of a crash in the Series2Folder plugin if the default movie directory couldn't be opened, I mentioned that I'd have a look at allowing the user-specification of a list of directories for Series2Folder to scan (defaulting to just the default movie directory).

The basics of it aren't too hard, though they still need a bit of thought.

However, while I was doing that, I also had a look at adoxa's pull request Move relative to the selected service.

It's basically a good idea whose implementation I didn't particularly go for.

Currently, if you're in the media selection screen and you run MENU>Sel Series to Folder and you're in a folder other than the default movie directory, the scan for the selected series name is run in the default movie directory, not in the directory you're currently in, and the recordings in the series are placed in a folder directly in the default movie directory, not in the currently viewed folder. The fact that it doesn't scan the currently viewed folder when it's supposed to be scanning for the episodes matching the current selection seems a bug to me. The choice of the destination for the series episodes seems less obviously a bug.

Adoxa's change meant that Sel Series to Folder's scan ran in the currently open folder, and it placed the series recordings into a folder under the current folder, not in the default movie directory. That's probably more sensible behaviour, though I think it's reasonable to ask whether the destination should be the current folder or the current movie directory (or an option, though I like to go with Ockham's rule of "not multiplying entities without necessity" as far as options go).

Currently, if you run MENU>Series to Folder, the scan runs in the default movie directory and places episodes into folders under the default movie directory no matter which folder you're viewing. This seems less obviously a bug, since it was intended to be a way of doing manually what Series2Folder would do if it ran automatically.

So, on to the user-specification of a list of directories for scanning. This changes things a bit.

• The idea was to use the LocationBox screen to manage the list of directories that Series2Folder scans. The LocationBox screen is what you get in the media selection screen with YELLOW Location>Other. I'm not a big fan of this screen, but I think it's the only one that does the job I want it to.
• Then automatic scans would run through this list of folders, and put any series episodes into subfolders of the folder they were found in.
• When Sel Series to Folder is used, what directory should be scanned, and where should the series episode found be put? For efficiency reasons, the destination for a Series2Folder move must be on the same physical device as where it was found. One way of helping ensure this is that the episodes found go into subfolders of the scanned folder. Another possibility is that if the scanned folder is in the folder tree under one of the folders in the scan list, the found episodes go into subfolders of the selection list entry that contains the scanned folder. That might still have issues about whether they're on the same physical device.
• When Series to Folder is used, I think it should do the same scan as an automatic scan.
• Should there be a "series in current folder to subfolders" manual scan, and if so, where should the found episodes be put? I'd guess, probably somewhere consistent with what Sel Series to Folder does. Any supporters of this functions are challenged to think of a menu name for this item that will fit into a coloured button icon in the media selection screen, since all the Series2Folder functions can be tied to coloured buttons.

Simoncasey, if you're still around, does this suggestion cover your modifications to Series2Folder that handle recordings in "Genre" folders? If not, what would you need to make it work in a way that covers that requirement?

Is this overkill? If so, how should Sel Series to Folder work in Series2Folder?

[Paul_oz53]

Hi prl,

In response to the general question you ask: How do users want Series2Folder (S2F) to operate, my response is as follows.

Ideally, it should recursively examine the existing folder structure and if a sub-folder or sub-sub-folder exists with a matching name, move new episodes to that folder. To explain:

Our main Media folder receives all recordings from any source. S2F presently clutters this folder with new sub-folders. I want to restrict this just to one folder and single recordings in order to keep the list short and very current. We know what programs we record so we generally do not need to see new episodes listed here.

In Media, we have a level 1 sub-folder: "1 T4 Programs Saved". The number is to force this to be the first listed folder in the directory. (It is required because S2F creates new sub-folders when it matches the set number of three episodes of a show. I don't use the sort order option for this purpose, but others might). "1 T4 Programs Saved" contains a set of level 2 sub-folders:

• Adult
• Science
• Software

And "Adult" (as an example) currently contains the level 3 list:

• Doc Martin
• Dr Who
• Gotham
• Humans
• Masters
• Movies

This list varies through the year as shows come and go.

"Science" is even more elaborate as it has two levels or more of subclassification - science topics. (e.g. At level 3: Nature and at level 4 sub-sub-sub-folders by show e.g. Attenborough and some of these shows are grouped at level 5 in further sub-folders by series title.)

"Software" contains just software.

My ideal version of S2F would scan the sub-folders and move new episodes of a program (say Dr Who) to that existing sub-sub-folder. Ideally, if the folder name does not exist, it would be a user option to set it to create a sub-folder in a user nominated, existing directory.

As this is quite complex, I appreciate the programming effort may be huge. My alternative if this is impractical would be to set S2F to create a new sub-folder in a user nominated, existing directory - which in my case I would create at level 2 and call it "New Recordings".

I am content that this functionality should be restricted to one physical device, be it the HDD or NAS as the destination. The locations list is probably apt though it nowhere near as complete as my more elaborate usage would dictate and, in my case, involves four physical devices.

My name suggestion for this option would be "New episodes to subfolders".

Regardless, there is a bug in S2F that arises with the Cricket at the moment. IceTV is set to record the Ashes. It creates three recordings on day 1 and these are moved to a "Cricket - the Ashes" sub-folder without fail. On day 2, because of a clash of recording names which issue we discussed some time ago in another context, S2F moves the morning session to the sub-folder, where it later gets overwritten by the first after-lunch session. Thus, days 2-5 only retain the after-lunch sessions. So, S2F must be turned off while multi-session events are recorded or the number of recording set to a very high number to prevent this over-writing effect.

Thanks in advance for all your continuing efforts on this very useful plugin,

Paul

[prl]

...
Ideally, it should recursively examine the existing folder structure and if a sub-folder or sub-sub-folder exists with a matching name, move new episodes to that folder.
...

IMO, recursively traversing the whole folder structure is something that it should definitely not do.

[prl]

... clash of recording names ...

What do you have MENU>Setup>Recording settings>Composition of recording filenames set to?

[Paul_oz53]

... clash of recording names ...

What do you have MENU>Setup>Recording settings>Composition of recording filenames set to?

Aah, yes - short filenames. I assume you will tell me that long filenames are necessary to avoid the problem...

[Grumpy_Geoff]

... clash of recording names ...

What do you have MENU>Setup>Recording settings>Composition of recording filenames set to?

Aah, yes - short filenames. I assume you will tell me that long filenames are necessary to avoid the problem...

I expect he'll point you at this - http://beyonwiz.com.au/forum/viewtopic. ... 26#p154358

[prl]

It may be time for Series2Folder to refuse to operate if recording filenames aren't in a compatible form.

[Paul_oz53]

It may be time for Series2Folder to refuse to operate if recording filenames aren't in a compatible form.

Perhaps. I think the best option is to eliminate the problem at the source. Since users don't generally see the full filename anyway, deleting short filenames as an option would prevent over - writing, however it arises.

As Grumpy_Geoff reminds me, the problem can arise with manual file moves too. Newbies who select the short names option are the likely victims of the hidden trap. On the other hand, sophisticated users are unlikely to suffer any real inconvenience from this change.

I'm not fussed either way - from now on, it's standard filenames.

Regards, Paul.

[prl]

... Since users don't generally see the full filename anyway ...

There have been a few who have been quite exercised over the form of recording filenames.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

...
As Grumpy_Geoff reminds me, the problem can arise with manual file moves too. Newbies who select the short names option are the likely victims of the hidden trap.

One can still have a problem even with standard file names - http://beyonwiz.com.au/forum/viewtopic. ... 91#p153888

[Grumpy_Geoff]

... quite exercised ...

Trevor, is that you?

[Paul_oz53]

... Since users don't generally see the full filename anyway ...

There have been a few who have been quite exercised over the form of recording filenames.

There's always someone in every crowd...

[prl]

... quite exercised ...

Trevor, is that you?

Nope.

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/exercise:

exercise
...
VERB
...
3. Occupy the thoughts of; worry or perplex.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

... quite exercised ...

Trevor, is that you?

Nope.
...

I should've known better, as Trevor rarely gets through the front door at your place

[Grumpy_Geoff]

...
Is this overkill? If so, how should Sel Series to Folder work in Series2Folder?

My needs are simple. I only use the 'Sel Series to Folder' action, and only from the default movie directory. I've turned off the auto-move thingy.

[KGL]

Hi
I'm coming across to this topic from the Series2Folder Plugin in BW U4 topic.

My background for my suggestion is from using a Topfield TAP that scanned the base file folder and if there was a folder corresponding to the filename, it would move the file and produce a report of moved files. It didn't create folders but is did scan subfolders although I am not sure how deep down a directory tree it searched. The TAP could be specified to look for specific number of characters, e.g. It would move Gardening Australia to a folder called Garden if the search criteria was set to 6 characters. I am not saying Series2Folder should replicate this TAP

I like the fact that Series2Folder can create folders.

I would like the plugin to do this for me. Move new recordings to the relevant folder using this type of structure.

Movie
------Wife
----------Bachelor in Paradise
----------Dance Moms
----------Wife Swap
------Me
----------Gardening Austrailia
----------Air Crash Investigation
----------Grand Design
------SBS
----------Spiral
----------Spin
----------Chance
------Films

Note: I have called folder for feature-length movies "Films" because the base folder is Movie which can be confusing. I have wondered about renaming the base folder to Recordings of something similar but am not sure of the repercussions. Fortunately the movie folder name can be specified in the setup of the Series2Folder plugin.

I see discussions about long and short names. I am only new to BW and am not familiar with this option. Also, some might like to arrange recordings of different series in different folders. I know IceTV can distinguish between series but not sure if this carries through to the BW. If so, then the option to separate series might be good.
Cheers
Greg

[Paul_oz53]

I see discussions about long and short names. I am only new to BW and am not familiar with this option. Also, some might like to arrange recordings of different series in different folders. I know IceTV can distinguish between series but not sure if this carries through to the BW. If so, then the option to separate series might be good.

Over the years I've lost a few recordings because I opted to use the short filenames option. This is not advisable if you use series2folder.

Under certain conditions, a second episode does not receive a unique filename in the main recording folder and overwrites the first episode when it is moved to the individual program folder. If you select this option then expect to have problems. Best stick with the default setting or long filenames.

Paul

[prl]

There are performance issue with "scanning subfolders", because it's often not stated where the scan should start from, and what its scope should be. Series2Folder is intended to be small and fast. It won't be if it starts wandering off searching through everything on someone's NAS.

The problem with moving from a single recording directory into a directory structure like the one KGL would like is that for each episode, multiple directories need to be searched in order to find where episodes should go, and if a new directory needs to be created for some new episodes, there's no way the code can tell where it should go.

Doing a "starts with" name match is easy, but opens the door to requests for other kinds of matches: "contains", "case sensitive/insensitive", even "regular expression".

I have thought about using Genre to arrange a two-level directory structure, but it's not always available in the FTA guide, and currently not available at all in the IceTV guide (though I have a back-burner project to fix that).

I wasn't aware of the similar Topfield TAP, but I'm certainly willing to steal good ideas from it