# How do you tag MPEG files with Series and Episode title/numbers?



## GunnerMcGrath (Nov 17, 2007)

I'm ripping my Seinfeld series DVDs onto a big hard drive, so I don't have to fool with the discs anymore, thanks to TiVoToGo. However, to get them in order, the best thing I have been able to figure out is naming them like:

Seinfeld 163 The Slicer

which is how they show up in the TiVo Now Playing list. Is there any way to tag the files so they show up like recorded shows do, in a folder, and as Seinfeld: The Slicer, with the shows ordered properly sans the number in the title?

It's a minor point, but having to scroll through hundreds of episodes of one show just to get to the next one on my hard drive listing would be a major pain. Please someone tell me how to group series episodes together!

Thanks, from a newbie.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

There is no way to get them into a folder. There are however alternative programs to TiVo Desktop, like Galleon, which support the addition of minor metadata such at the show title, epsiode name, etc...

Dan


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

I am just thinking out loud here and have not tried this but...

The pyTivo thread has just recently figured out how to add quite a number of metadata items to mpg files, and working on more as I type this.

If the OP recorded an episode of seinfield off some channel and then looked at the XML version of the now playing list, he could get the series id for Seinfield.

Then using pytivo could set the series id for each of his recordings to that number. Will Tivo then group the mpg recordings into the Seinfield folder? Don't know but worth a try.......


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## greg_burns (May 22, 2004)

jcthorne said:


> I am just thinking out loud here and have not tried this but...
> 
> The pyTivo thread has just recently figured out how to add quite a number of metadata items to mpg files, and working on more as I type this.
> 
> ...


I've been following the pyTivo stuff as well. But has anyone successfully set a series id and had it group in a folder because of it?


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## wgw (May 16, 2007)

greg_burns said:


> I've been following the pyTivo stuff as well. But has anyone successfully set a series id and had it group in a folder because of it?


Not that I've heard yet. I've tried making up series ids but it does not work. A valid series id might work but I don't know how to get them. If we knew the general format, we might be able to make up fake ids that work.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

The show has to be in the TiVo's current guide data for it to group, even if it's a valid ID, so I doubt made up IDs will ever work.* However recording an episode of Seinfeld on the destination TiVo and grabbing it's ID might work. As long as the TiVo has access to the show in it's current guide data (or cache if it's not in the current data, but has recently been recorded) then it should group.

Example an episode of The Colbert Report I have on my PC has a section like so...

```
<series>
  <isEpisodic>true</isEpisodic> 
  <vSeriesGenre>
    <element>Comedy</element> 
    <element>Interview</element> 
    <element>Talk Show</element> 
    <element>News Magazine</element> 
    <element>Comedy</element> 
    <element>News and Business</element> 
    <element>Talk Shows</element> 
  </vSeriesGenre>
  <seriesTitle>The Colbert Report</seriesTitle> 
  <uniqueId>SH774699</uniqueId> 
</series>
```
I believe the "uniqueId" in this section is what causes the TiVo to store the show in the folder.

Dan

* If you want to see this in action try transferring a show from one TiVo which has digital cable, something like Eureka for example, to one that does not. Even if the show is grouped on the original TiVo it will not be on the destination TiVo.


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## DUDE_NJX (Feb 12, 2003)

But then again, tivocasts aren't in the program guide, and they still group into folders.


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

Hate to be so out of it, but I've never seen anything group in my TiVo NPL (other than subfolders coming back via pyTivo). What are the conditions for it to happen? Is there a config item in the TiVo interface itself that turns this on or off?


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## andyw715 (Jul 31, 2007)

"The show has to be in the TiVo's current guide data for it to group, even if it's a valid ID,..."

Really? I have a a group of very old recordings(about a year old), they haven't been broadcast since, but still shows up in NPL like it did when it was recorded.


Is there somthing specific to .tivo files that allows the grouping? If so is there an app that creates a .tivo file out of video files?


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## andyw715 (Jul 31, 2007)

you should be able to modify the properties of NPL to group by show. There is a remote control shortcut...i think its 0 (zero)??

and of course 2 or more episodes of the show to group.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

greg_burns said:


> I've been following the pyTivo stuff as well. But has anyone successfully set a series id and had it group in a folder because of it?


Yes. I wouldn't have mentioned it in the pyTivo thread if I hadn't.

I haven't tried setting a bogus ID; I doubt that it would work. Valid IDs are easy to get -- just look at the XML version of the Now Playing list:

https://<tivoip>/TiVoConnect?Command=QueryContainer&Container=%2FNowPlaying

(Add "&Recurse=Yes" to see into the folders.) In my test, I marked a clip as "Star Trek", which has the series ID "SH003985", at least on my Tivo. It went into the existing folder, alongside the three episodes I already had. This, despite having a completely different title, BTW. All I did was to add the "<SeriesId>" tag.


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## gonzotek (Sep 24, 2004)

dlfl said:


> Hate to be so out of it, but I've never seen anything group in my TiVo NPL (other than subfolders coming back via pyTivo). What are the conditions for it to happen? Is there a config item in the TiVo interface itself that turns this on or off?


At the bottom of the Now Playing screen is a line of text reading "Sorted by ______ (Press ENTER to change)" (the blank will be either date or alphabetical. In the options page you can turn grouping on or off, as well as change sorting to alphabetical or record date.

Also, you don't need to go into the options page.
The following remote shortcut keys work in Now Playing:
1 - Toggle sort
2 - Toggle grouping


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

gonzotek said:


> At the bottom of the Now Playing screen is a line of text reading "Sorted by ______ (Press ENTER to change)" (the blank will be either date or alphabetical. In the options page you can turn grouping on or off, as well as change sorting to alphabetical or record date.
> 
> Also, you don't need to go into the options page.
> The following remote shortcut keys work in Now Playing:
> ...


Well, blow me down! I'll have to check my TiVo manual (June 2006) to see if this was explained in there all this time! *Thanks!*


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## greg_burns (May 22, 2004)

andyw715 said:


> "The show has to be in the TiVo's current guide data for it to group, even if it's a valid ID,..."
> 
> Really? I have a a group of very old recordings(about a year old), they haven't been broadcast since, but still shows up in NPL like it did when it was recorded.


We are talking about what happens when you MRV them to another Tivo or use TTCB.



andyw715 said:


> If so is there an app that creates a .tivo file out of video files?


Not yet.


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## wgw (May 16, 2007)

wmcbrine said:


> Yes. I wouldn't have mentioned it in the pyTivo thread if I hadn't.
> 
> I haven't tried setting a bogus ID; I doubt that it would work. Valid IDs are easy to get -- just look at the XML version of the Now Playing list:
> 
> ...


Missed that, thanks. Works great! I just recorded 10 seconds of a show called Hitlist, got the SeriesID SH897934 using your command. Now I can use that seriesid for all movies transferred to the Tivo. By placing the name of the movie in the EpisodeTitle tag, I now have a folder called HitList containing all my movies and the title of each movie is displayed inside the folder. Woohoo! This is great!:up: Doesn't get much better than this.


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## greg_burns (May 22, 2004)

wmcbrine said:


> Yes. I wouldn't have mentioned it in the pyTivo thread if I hadn't.
> 
> I haven't tried setting a bogus ID; I doubt that it would work.


Sorry, that is what I meant to imply when I asked if it was working. 

Edit: definitely wouldn't have gotten that impression based on what I replied to. My bad.


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

wmcbrine said:


> Yes. I wouldn't have mentioned it in the pyTivo thread if I hadn't.
> 
> I haven't tried setting a bogus ID; I doubt that it would work. Valid IDs are easy to get -- just look at the XML version of the Now Playing list:
> 
> ...


I have my TVAP program automatically getting the metadata, including Series ID from TTG .tivo files, using tivoDecode software components, and generating auxiliary text files that experimental versions of pyTivo use to feed metadata back to the TiVo with TTCB videos. Grouping based on the Series ID works. The key was the uniqueId tag as pointed out by Dan203 in post #6 of this thread. See here and here for more details.


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## Soapm (May 9, 2007)

OP, try this application http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=364710

Note the naming scheme you must follow to acheive what you want. I think this will do what you need.


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## greg_burns (May 22, 2004)

Soapm said:


> OP, try this application http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=364710
> 
> Note the naming scheme you must follow to acheive what you want. I think this will do what you need.


Doesn't this require a hacked/prommed tivo?


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## Soapm (May 9, 2007)

greg_burns said:


> Doesn't this require a hacked/prommed tivo?


Does the OP say the Tivo isn't hacked? I'm sorry if I overlooked that.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

Soapm said:


> Does the OP say the Tivo isn't hacked? I'm sorry if I overlooked that.


This isn't the Underground forum, so the proper assumption would be that it is not hacked.


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## Sicklybutsexy (May 5, 2007)

wgw said:


> Missed that, thanks. Works great! I just recorded 10 seconds of a show called Hitlist, got the SeriesID SH897934 using your command. Now I can use that seriesid for all movies transferred to the Tivo. By placing the name of the movie in the EpisodeTitle tag, I now have a folder called HitList containing all my movies and the title of each movie is displayed inside the folder. Woohoo! This is great!:up: Doesn't get much better than this.


Where do you add the episode title tag and series id?


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## wgw (May 16, 2007)

Sicklybutsexy said:


> Where do you add the episode title tag and series id?


I am using version cf13 of pyTivo. See posts 991 through 993 in this pytivo thread. You create a txt file with the same name as your video file and enter the tags in it. pyTivo searchs the txt file for the tags.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=5710531#post5710531


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## tycobka_69 (Jan 5, 2008)

I've created a similar file to below but my mpg files transfered with pyTivo are still not grouped together (recorded shows are). Am I missing something?



> description : Home made mpg
> isEpisode : true
> seriesTitle : Home movies
> title : Mushroom hunting - Fort Ross
> ...


Thanks for the help.


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## greg_burns (May 22, 2004)

tycobka_69 said:


> I've created a similar file to below but my mpg files transfered with pyTivo are still not grouped together (recorded shows are). Am I missing something?


You can't just make up a seriesId. AFAIK, it has to a real one that exists in _YOUR_ program guide's database.


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