• Media delivery/server??

    From Spectre@21:3/101 to Anybody on Sun Jul 5 17:44:00 2020
    Having beaten the network into submission, and aside from an odd teething ìproblem its working like a champ. I find I'm looking for something to ìorganise the video collection.

    I've worked one of two ways in the past, just play individual files with VLC ìwhich pretty much always just works, but of course you have to know your ìdirectory structure and know what you want when you go looking.

    I also briefly played with KODI at one stage, but it wasn't very happy with ìme trying to reorganise my somewhat fragmented storage of the time and it ìwould insist on adding extra entries for what it considered new items and ìnever clean out the ones now missing.

    Having sorted the server backend mostly, I find its a lot of effort looking ìover 7000 files and trying to find something that hasn't come around in ìrotation for a while, as my eye inevitably tends to drift to the same items. ìSo what's anyone doing with their collection to try and keep an orderly eye ìon things?

    Spec


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    * Origin: (21:3/101)
  • From Ayster@21:1/999 to Spectre on Sun Jul 5 16:31:22 2020
    I've worked one of two ways in the past, just play individual files with VLC which pretty much always just works, but of course you have to know your directory structure and know what you want when you go looking.

    Have you tried Plex Media Server? It will present all your media in a Netflix like application which you can run either over the web or through an app
    (they have apps for TVs, Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, iOS, Kodi, games consoles) and it remembers your watch history, you just add all your media folders to 'Libraries' so you dont have to remember where they are to play them.

    The software is over at http://plex.tv

    I would recommend it as I use it everyday. It will also show any new media you've added as 'recently added TV/Movies/video/Audio' etc

    Cheers,
    Ayster.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Raspberry Pi/32)
    * Origin: Starbase 291 (21:1/999)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to Ayster on Mon Jul 6 02:09:00 2020
    Have you tried Plex Media Server? It will present all your media

    All I know about Plex is the name. I always figured it was something like ìKODI.. I'll have a look... s'pose the next question is does it have any kind ìof auditing for missing/removed files.. I did't have it in place long but th ìat was one of my main problems with KODI.

    Will look into it,

    Ta, Spec


    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: (21:3/101)
  • From Ayster@21:1/999 to Spectre on Sun Jul 5 21:53:30 2020
    like KODI.. I'll have a look... s'pose the next question is does it have any kind of auditing for missing/removed files.. I did't have it in
    place long but th at was one of my main problems with KODI.

    Yes it shows as unavailable if you try and play something that has moved or been deleted.

    I suppose its similar to KODI but much easier to work with, and a lot easier
    to manage your libraries with. Give it a go and if you need any help you can ask me, or plex.tv has a pretty good help forums.

    cheers,
    Ayster.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Raspberry Pi/32)
    * Origin: Starbase 291 (21:1/999)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to Ayster on Mon Jul 6 09:26:00 2020
    So I'm peering into Plex, it seems to be pretty anal about the conventions it ìwants to use for folder/file names. Is this a real problem or is it enough ìto point it simply at a folder full of movies? Most of mine have the dates ìin [1990] kind of format, while its looking for (). Be a pain to go and ìrename everything at this stage.

    Spec


    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: (21:3/101)
  • From Adept@21:2/108 to Spectre on Mon Jul 6 01:07:20 2020
    the same items. So what's anyone doing with their collection to try and keep an orderly eye on things?

    I haven't felt all that difficulty with video files, though I know I used to have various things that I burnt to DVDs, then put in a folder, then largely forgot about them so I felt fine with tossing most of them during a move.

    These days, I have various things that I'm trying to keep together in a directory, and the things I've watched, likely won't watch again, but can't stand to delete I'll put on an external drive and delete it off the internal one, and being okay if I lose the backup eventually.

    I think my current bigger struggle with categorization and storage is all my BBS-related items. I'm not quite sure how to sort everything, and there's various reasons to keep stuff around everywhere.

    I guess personal photos are a bit like that, too, but I feel like my current hodgepodge situation is at least somewhat close to what I'd prefer.

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  • From Ogg@21:4/106.21 to Spectre on Sun Jul 5 22:05:00 2020
    Hello Spectre!

    ** On Sunday 05.07.20 - 13:44, Spectre wrote to Anybody:

    Having beaten the network into submission, and aside from an odd
    teething problem its working like a champ. I find I'm looking for
    something to organise the video collection.

    [snip]

    ...So what's anyone doing with their collection to try and keep
    an orderly eye on things?


    I have used this product for BOOKS:

    https://www.collectorz.com/

    They now have DVD specific and MUSIC specific versions (and lately: COMICS and GAMES).

    When I started using it for books, the product was available for one-time purchase. They have since moved to a subscription model.

    The stand-a-alone version works fine for me.

    However an upgrade would provide access to my collection from any device. For now, I am perfectly fine managing my books from one device.

    If I had my druthers, I would would simply use iTunes to catalog my .mp4 videos. It may not be very good with other formats. But you could
    "rename" a copy of the file to the format that iTunes recognizes. Instant database of films. No need to reinvent the wheel - just work with the one that you got.

    Hope this helps.


    ../|ug

    --- OpenXP 5.0.45
    * Origin: (} Pointy McPointFace (21:4/106.21)
  • From alterego@21:2/116 to Spectre on Mon Jul 6 13:05:40 2020
    Re: Media delivery/server??
    By: Spectre to Ayster on Sun Jul 05 2020 10:09 pm

    All I know about Plex is the name. I always figured it was something like

    I've used plex for years - its awesome.

    It will visually tell you what you havent watched, you can add items to a "play list", or even have it downloaded to a device for offline viewing.

    And when you name your media files appropriately, it will go off and get the meta data for the media (image, actors, description, etc).

    And if you are interested in multimedia with a specific actor, you can list everything in your catalog with that actor, etc.

    ...δεσ∩

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    * Origin: I'm playing with ANSI+videotex - wanna play too? (21:2/116)
  • From alterego@21:2/116 to Spectre on Mon Jul 6 13:08:32 2020
    Re: Media delivery/server??
    By: Spectre to Ayster on Mon Jul 06 2020 05:26 am

    So I'm peering into Plex, it seems to be pretty anal about the conventions it wants to use for folder/file names. Is this a real problem or is it

    You may be able to reconfigure it - havent played with that side of it.

    All I do is rename my items with <text>.<year>.<imdb_id>.mp4|mkv, etc, as I drop it on the NAS. I think the only important thing is the imdb_id, since sometimes movies have a different name...

    But before I did that, I think its pretty good at matching <name>.<year>....

    ...δεσ∩

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  • From Ogg@21:4/106.21 to alterego on Mon Jul 6 00:46:00 2020
    Hello alterego!

    ** On Monday 06.07.20 - 09:05, alterego wrote to Spectre:

    I've used plex for years - its awesome.

    It will visually tell you what you havent watched, you can add items to a "play list", or even have it downloaded to a device for offline viewing.

    iTunes can do that with the number of plays column.


    And when you name your media files appropriately, it will go off and get the meta data for the media (image, actors, description, etc).

    iTunes does a pretty good job of fetching cover images for music. Not sure
    if automatically does that for movie files.


    And if you are interested in multimedia with a specific actor, you can
    list everything in your catalog with that actor, etc.

    iTunes is useable and searchable the same way, as long as all those
    details are included somehere with the file entry.

    Alternatively, I think you can tell iTunes to look for the film on their store. The details for the film would all be there.

    But does Plex operate completely offline? It sounds like it needs a WAN connection to the internet it you want to stream to another device in your own home. iTunes can send to another device on your LAN as long as iTunes
    is installed on that device too; it doesn't need a WAN connection.

    Do I still need to register for a "free" account even if I am not
    interested in their streaming service of their movies or music? You don't need to login with iTunes to use it as a local DB or player.

    I took a look at the Plex Privacy Policy. You should look at some of the exceptions they make for your "Personal Content". :(

    iTunes could provide the same functionality and require less "calling the mother ship" than Plex

    How large is the main Plex application?

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    * Origin: (} Pointy McPointFace (21:4/106.21)
  • From alterego@21:2/116 to Ogg on Mon Jul 6 14:58:24 2020
    Re: Media delivery/server??
    By: Ogg to alterego on Sun Jul 05 2020 08:46 pm

    But does Plex operate completely offline? It sounds like it needs a WAN

    Yup, I load up ipads with movies, so the kids can watch them in the car when on long trips. (Boy it seems ages since we did one of those.)

    Do I still need to register for a "free" account even if I am not interested in their streaming service of their movies or music? You don't need to login with iTunes to use it as a local DB or player.

    I dont stream anything from their services - I only use it to present my own media. I do have a plex account - I'm a lifetime member that gives me some features that I used to use. The DVR recording was one (but havent watched a live (or recorded) OTH TV feed in years now...)

    ...δεσ∩

    ... Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.
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    * Origin: I'm playing with ANSI+videotex - wanna play too? (21:2/116)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to Ogg on Mon Jul 6 15:26:00 2020
    If I had my druthers, I would would simply use iTunes to catalog

    No need to reinvent the wheel - just work with the one that you got.

    I dunno, I have so many wheels here... the triangle wheel... not very good ìthat one...the square wheel, the hexagonal wheel. Some are smoother than ìothers, I'm still looking for the perfect shape though. Who'd had thought a ì1 sided shape might work best?

    Not a fan of itunes, but I haven't looked at it since about 7.5 that was the ìlast version that would work with the ipod I still have kicking around here ìsomewhere. If I can get it fired up.... In fact the whole ipod thing didn't ìwork for me very well, I tended to prefer the .mp3 player... just dump some ìgoodies on there and play..

    Thanks for the thoughts though... So far plex is looking promising, give the ìplay locations around the unit... boudoir, PS4 with the boys. And basically a ìsingle setup, not looking forward to testing its anal retentiveness with ìfilenames though. Followed by KODI still I think.. despite being something ìof a management pain in the past, it looks simple to drive for SWMBO....

    Spec


    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: (21:3/101)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to alterego on Mon Jul 6 15:32:00 2020
    It will visually tell you what you havent watched, you can add items
    to a "play list", or even have it downloaded to a device for offline viewing.

    And when you name your media files appropriately, it will go off and
    get the meta data for the media (image, actors, description,
    etc).

    Its sounding good, this file renaming though... I have a lot of files dumped ìinto a single folder.....

    Video - Holds everything the rest are self explanatory
    - Sci-fi
    - Marvel
    - DC
    - etc, etc

    File names are generally just "Name of Video [YEAR].avi" If I really have to ìrename everything I'll be here til after the apocalypse.

    Spec


    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: (21:3/101)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to alterego on Mon Jul 6 15:34:00 2020
    All I do is rename my items with
    <text>.<year>.<i .mp4|mkv, etc, as I drop it on the NAS.
    I think the only important thing is the imdb_id, since sometimes
    movies have a different name...

    That does make sense, and going forward easy enough to do.. But the sheer ìvolume already behind me is... daunting. Still one can only try and see what ìthe results are I guess eh.

    Spec


    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: (21:3/101)
  • From Ayster@21:1/999 to Spectre on Mon Jul 6 21:22:22 2020
    I just point at a folder and it usually can sort out what is what, and any thing it misses or gets the wrong thing, i go into it and click the menu,
    then there is a 'fix match' or just 'match' if its not found anything. It is usally good at finding what things are, not all my stuff has the date on. If you need to rename a whole load of files there is a utility I use called
    'Batch Renamer' which is pretty good (its not part of plex, but a separate
    app)

    cheers
    Ayster.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Raspberry Pi/32)
    * Origin: Starbase 291 (21:1/999)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to Ayster on Tue Jul 7 15:57:00 2020
    Plex

    I can't find a reasonably straight forward how-to for plex. At the moment I ìhave the pkg installed, and I can see it running there. I can't seem to ìcoerce it into finding any media though, even with "Plex Media Scanner". I ìalso can't convince the windows client to see the local server out there ìeither....

    Spec


    *** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
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    * Origin: Scrawled in haste at The Lower Planes (21:3/101)
  • From alterego@21:2/116 to Spectre on Wed Jul 8 03:13:38 2020
    Re: Re: Media delivery/server??
    By: Spectre to Ayster on Tue Jul 07 2020 11:57 am

    I can't find a reasonably straight forward how-to for plex. At the moment I have the pkg installed, and I can see it running there. I can't seem to coerce it into finding any media though, even with "Plex Media Scanner". I also can't convince the windows client to see the local server out there either....

    You manage it by pointing to http://ip.address:32400/web

    Have you been doing that?

    ...δεσ∩

    ... Who is General Failure, and why is he reading my disk?
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    * Origin: I'm playing with ANSI+videotex - wanna play too? (21:2/116)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to alterego on Wed Jul 8 05:11:00 2020
    You manage it by pointing to http://ip.address:32400/web

    Ahh no, didn't know that was a thing :) Now I see that, I need to get part ìof my network back online... after the reconfig early, a bit of physical ìrelocation was in order after which of course, the NAS didn't come back ìonline properly... so that'll be next then we'll try and add :)

    Ta
    Spec


    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: (21:3/101)
  • From Ogg@21:4/106.21 to Spectre on Fri Jul 10 02:43:00 2020
    Hello Spectre!

    ** On Monday 06.07.20 - 11:26, Spectre wrote to Ogg:

    Not a fan of itunes, but I haven't looked at it since about 7.5 that
    was the last version that would work with the ipod I still have
    kicking around here somewhere. If I can get it fired up.... In fact
    the whole ipod thing didn't work for me very well, I tended to prefer
    the .mp3 player... just dump some goodies on there and play..

    I like iTune's ability to play lossless files. I was starting to embark
    on a CD-->FLAC process, and then learned that iTune's own lossless is indestinquishable with FLAC (to me anyway) ..and the bonus is that iTunes
    is actually a pretty good database manager for music collections like
    that. That was my plan: to use iTunes to create the lossless files and
    use it to cue up my digital music collection from anywhere in the house to the room (really just two main rooms) I wanted.

    Along the way, I discovered Spotify and that put a hold on the CD-->FLAC project. I mean.. what was the point when you can just look it up with Spotify.

    Meanwhile, I learned that iTunes can be used to cue up .mp4 video files
    too.


    ..Followed by KODI still I think.. despite being something of a
    management pain in the past, it looks simple to drive for SWMBO....

    I never heard of KODI. It seems to be tied to a streaming service I
    wouldn't need. But if it can manage and cue up my own music and video collections, then that is somethng I would like to try, albiet in Windows.




    --- OpenXP 5.0.45
    * Origin: (} Pointy McPointFace (21:4/106.21)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to Ogg on Fri Jul 10 17:45:00 2020
    I like iTune's ability to play lossless files. I was starting to

    Hmm my music is completely lost already... I have the hearing of well ìsomething that doesn't hear very well. So I don't mind my 128bit mp3s.

    project. I mean.. what was the point when you can just look it up
    with Spotify.

    Well not using spotify? Aside the name I don't know anything about it. I ìalways thought it was a service though. I prefer to keep my media local.

    ..Followed by KODI still I think.. despite being something

    I never heard of KODI. It seems to be tied to a streaming service

    KODI started in life back in the dark ages as XBMC... the X-box media centre ìor some such, they liked the interface so much they started porting it to all ìsorts of platforms. It was quite polished, let you select from your movies ìby original cover image if it could scrape them, or by list if you ìpreferred.. It required more grunt than I had to throw at it, at the time I ìtried it. They've probably added streaming goodies to it... I don't think ìthey much existed back then.

    Spec


    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: (21:3/101)
  • From Ayster@21:1/999 to Spectre on Sat Jul 11 00:17:35 2020
    To configure plex server you casn go to plex.tv and login, there should then
    be a 'launch' option on the top right of the website, this will launch your server. You can configure the server and add in the libraries there. There is
    a spanner icon on the top of the screen where you configure everything. You should see your server name on the left side, and under that shows the
    various places to configure stuff, inlcuding libraries and remote access.
    Hope that helps

    cheers
    Ayster.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Raspberry Pi/32)
    * Origin: Starbase 291 (21:1/999)
  • From Nodoka Hanamura@21:2/106 to Spectre on Wed Jul 8 20:08:06 2020
    On 07 Jul 2020, Spectre said the following...

    Plex

    I can't find a reasonably straight forward how-to for plex. At the
    moment I have the pkg installed, and I can see it running there. I
    can't seem to coerce it into finding any media though, even with "Plex Media Scanner". I also can't convince the windows client to see the
    local server out there either....


    I know you were talking to someone else, but you reminded me that Plex was a thing. I think I'll implement Plex or some other kind of Media-oriented streaming server as opposed to Samba.

    Born too late to experience the scene.
    Born just in time to see it come back.
    Nodoka Hanamura - NeoCincinnati BBS SYSOP - neocinci.bbs.io

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    * Origin: NeoCincinnati BBS - neocinci.bbs.io:23 (21:2/106)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to Nodoka Hanamura on Mon Jul 13 00:41:00 2020
    I know you were talking to someone else, but you reminded me that
    Plex was a thing. I think I'll implement Plex or some other kind
    of Media-oriented streaming server as opposed to Samba.

    I'm not sure about Plex, I like the idea... but Kodi seems so much more ìstraight forward. Just mount the remote data via samba and let Kodi do its ìthing.

    Spec


    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: (21:3/101)