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Over the last couple of months I've ripped over 100 BluRays and 800 DVDs (with another 500 to go!) to an NAS and have been playing them on my Dune HD 3.0 using Zappiti. With Dean's help I've been preparing for some time to move over completely to CQC, and this is the only thing left.
I've been planning on using the CQSL Repository, but when I started to do preliminary conversion work last weekend it seems that, unlike Zappiti, there's no 'import' or 'scraper' mechanism to load already ripped files. Am I missing something? Is there a defined way to do this that I didn't see?
Any help would be appreciated.
Ken
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You can do it from another repository, like DVD Profiler. You could download the demo version of DVDP, set it up and import all your stuff, make sure the metadata is good, and then you can use an import tool to do it. That's documented in the Utilities Guide technical document. It's pretty simple to do, though you do need to do it carefully. You should start with an empty CQSL repo. If something goes wrong, delete it (and the directory you told it to use) and create another empty one to try again.
Dean Roddey
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There is mymovies, it might also provide metadata for the dune.
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12-19-2012, 08:12 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-19-2012, 10:13 AM by kcl.)
Well, I do have a fully licensed copy of My Movies and an unlimited license for DVD Profiler is only about $30 so either would work. I just need to have whichever one I use be able to scan, ultimately, 1300+ already ripped DVD and/or BluRay files, construct the movie database, and then be able to transfer that database over to the CQSL Repository.
Dean, thanks for the pointer. I'll take a look at the utility docs this evening and if I have any questions I'll post them.
Ken
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I don't think it will work for My Movies. It's reading data straight from the export XML files of JR/DVDP, and I don't think it has the smarts at this time to do the same from the MyMovies database, because it would have been so much replicated code. Even the JR/DVDP ones are too much replication but I went ahead and did them.
Oops, and also that utility is NOT in the Utilities Guide. Oh well, it's very simple and it prompts you for what it wants. So just open the CQC Command Prompt and run CQSLRepoImp.exe.
Dean Roddey
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Get your mymovies database in order, it will likely auto import most your titles. Then CQC connects to the database.
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12-19-2012, 10:05 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-19-2012, 10:08 PM by kcl.)
Well, I spent a few hours trying to get DVD Profiler to load from my existing ripped DVDs, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to do it. It insists adding DVDs can only be done one title at a time, with it's preferred method a bar code. There just doesn't seem to be a 'native' function to load from directories, and I looked everywhere for a plugin to do the load but just couldn't find one.
So I started looking at alternatives. I found that XBMC would do the loads, but it was far more complex than I wanted to deal with. Heck, I'm still not certain how I was able to get the 'scraping' to work, but all of a sudden it did. :-D I then couldn't see how to get it exported to CQC. I have to say, though, that the art that it generated for the DVDs was absolutely gorgeous.
Since potts.mike seems nicely satisfied with My Movies and I have a full license, I decided to give that a try. So I installed a stand-alone copy of their Collection Manager and found that it was fairly easy to load a test set of 80 movies. The problem of course is that the collection data is primarily stored externally in 'my' MyMovies.com account. It does, however, have an XML export function and that resulted in a very verbose 2.4 MB file for the test movies.
So it looks right now like my best bet is to use My Movies, and then either access it directly via the supported CQC driver, or export the data to an XML file and massage it into a CQSL acceptable form.
What do you think, Dean?
Ken
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I'd just use My Movies if you are happy with it. It works well and there's no extra export step to deal with, since the driver can just reload directly from the MM database.
Dean Roddey
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Dean Roddey Wrote:I'd just use My Movies if you are happy with it. It works well and there's no extra export step to deal with, since the driver can just reload directly from the MM database. Yeah, that's pretty much what I was thinking, too. (K.I.S.S., baby, K.I.S.S. :-D )
Ken
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OK, Dean, quick configuration question. I've got a 'lite' system that controls the home theater, an NAS with the movie files, and my main system with all the power, memory, and DVD/BluRay drives. For CQC, I've got the control system as the master server and the main system as a client.
I'm not sure, though, which of the three My Movies installs I need for each of these. MM has a 'Standalone', 'Server/Client', and 'Client' install, where the first two maintain a local database and the third accesses an external database. My inclination is to install the MM Server/Client on the CQC client (main system) and the MM Client on the CQC master server (control system).
Is this what you'd recommend?
Ken
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