Movie Poster Art Location

[Hi-Def_PCs]

My 2 TB storage drive was getting full in my Win 7 Pro WMC DVR computer, so I moved the recorded TV movie library to my 12 TB NAS and told WMC where the movies are now located. However, the movie poster art and most of the descriptions no longer show for each of the movies in my recorded movies library, but new movies not yet moved still show poster art and descriptions. Apparently the metadata does not move with the movies. Recorded TV shows moved to my NAS just fine. Where is the movie poster art and descriptions stored by WMC? Can I move that data to the new movie folder to restore the poster art, or do I have to move the movies back? I am using the life saving EPG123 program for guide data and art and I prefer not to have to resort to a movie data program that requires individual movie name folders to achieve what was happening with WMC by default before the move. Thank you in advance for your valuable time!

[Space]

The poster art is taken from the data that is downloaded from Schedules Direct by EPG123 at the time the movie is recorded and stored in the WMC database.

When you move the WTV file (the recorded movie) it seems to break the link to the data stored in the WMC database and you loose the poster art (and perhaps some other metadata, but not sure about that).

It may be possible to write a program that fixes this "link breaking" to restore the poster art, but that is not something I know much about. I'm not sure how long the poster art remains in the WMC DB after you move the WTV file (it may be deleted when the garbage cleanup runs, which is normally every 5 days).

When the extended metadata servers went away, Gary talked about the possibility of loading the cache by separately downloading some of the metadata, so that is another possible option.

My entire movie library of recorded movies in WMC is currently just colored rectangles with the movie name on them. This happened when I moved over to EPG123 and started with a fresh WMC database. I wouldn't mind having some program that could (at least) restore the poster art for all those movies.

[Hi-Def_PCs]

Thank you, Space, for your quick reply. I will copy the movies back to the default record folder to see what happens. The colored blocks with movie titles only makes it hard to be drawn into a selection quickly. I guess I do judge books by their covers, lol. Should I submit my question to the EPG123 forum for Gary to see? Cheers!

Update... after moving the movies back to the default record folder, some of the metadata was restored, and each of the synopsis. I will assume that was the garbage not taken out yet that Space described above. Now to figure out how to move a movie and its data without loss. I may be using a movie data program after all?

[jachin99]

I think the covers are actually embedded in the wtv file itself. I remember this because I experimented with the differences between a wtv file and something like a mkv. I don't think the cover is lost all together but for whatever reason wmc isn't reading the file properly. I also remember something about holidayboy pointing me to a particular database where the covers might be stored. I think I had to enable hidden files in windows to see it.

[Hi-Def_PCs]

Very interesting, jachin99. I hope someone chimes in with a solution for that.

[Space]

Should I submit my question to the EPG123 forum for Gary to see? Cheers!

I think Gary monitors all the sections here on this site, so he will probably see this thread. I haven't seen him post since Sunday morning, so he may have not visited the forums since then. I'd wait to see any posts from him in other sections before assuming he did not see this thread.

[garyan2]

I took a brief look, but looks like there are some challenges.

WMC will store all the program information with the Recording in the database to include the file path. When you move the file, that connection is broken and the "new" file is brought into the database as a new entry and relies on the metadata of the WTV file to populate everything. You will lose character names and the images. I thought that I should be able to grab the program ID and possibly download everything from SD for the new entry, but so far unsuccessful. Also, I would categorize this as a new program separate from EPG123 to try and refresh data for recorded shows/movies. Those shows/movies would also need to have been recorded when using SD/EPG123 data, so anything recorded with MS/Rovi data would not be possible.

[Space]

Gary,

I found this old post and I think there may be some confusion between movie poster art and thumbnails.

I think thumbnails may be part of the WTV file itself, but the movie poster art is not. Can you confirm this?

Is there even a mechanism to add poster art to existing movie recordings in the WTV format? I mean I have DVDs that were ripped and have poster art with a special file (movie_name.dvdid.xml) located in the same folder, but not sure if you can do that with WTV files.

For instance there is Media Center Master that can download poster art for movies from imdb.com, but I don't think it works with WTV files.

One way to get poster art back is to update all the movie WTV files metadata with the date of release (if they were recorded with the old Rovi data, they may not have this date), and then somehow emulate the old extended metadata server which can then be used to populate the poster art (as well as other extended metadata). Although I'm not sure if new installations of WMC have this component (the part that attempts to download extended metadata in real-time) similar to how the garbage cleanup is no longer included in new installs.

I'm not sure if there is another more direct way to populate poster art in the WMC database. Perhaps examining the WMC database would provide answers to anyone who is interested.

The main problem with the way WMC stores poster art is that if you move the WTV from from it's original location, the poster art is eventually purged from the WMC database, and there appears to no longer be a way to get it back.

[garyan2]

Yes, thumbnails are part of the WTV file. The poster art would get populated when the MS metadata server with AMG was still up (and the year of release was populated) for movies. Since that service is no longer available, we are stuck with the thumbnail for movies. I think the poster art provided by SD/Gracenote will stay as long as the file doesn't move and there is no database recovery that would clear out the contents of the database.

When you record a program, the entry for the recording is still linked to the schedule entry, which is still linked to the program entry to provide the artwork and character names. When a recording is imported into the media library, all the information is provided by the wtv metadata which has some limitations. Part of the metadata is the thumbnail of the recording in a byte array and the metadata does not support character names. The importing of the wtv file does create a dummy schedule entry, if I remember correctly, but it doesn't get linked to a program in the database. That's why I was thinking it may be possible to create that program entry and link it to the recordings schedule entry to get all that information... theoretically. When I have time, I'll look further/harder.

There is also the question if it is possible to replace the thumbnail image with the poster art. Again, I think it should be possible but I don't what the limitations are.

[Space]

Replacing the thumbnail with the poster art is not helpful if you are using the "Movie Library" as that only displays the poster art, not the thumbnail. If there is no poster art available, it just displays a colored rectangle with the name of the movie in it.

[StinkyImp]

For instance there is Media Center Master that can download poster art for movies from imdb.com, but I don't think it works with WTV files.

I've used Media Center Master (MCM) for years but not with my wtv files. As a test I added my "Recorded TV" folder to MCM and it does recognize my wtv files and will create metadata. The only caveat is it's not automatic and it's very kludgy to make it work. You have to separately identify and update each wtv file manually. For a large wtv library, that could take a loooong time, making it impractical.

It works great for libraries like Rickt1962s -> (which gave birth to the Library Time Machine utility).

[Hi-Def_PCs]

Thank you everyone for your feedback! Since computers will be computers, the inevitable rebuild will destroy any effort to leave movies in Recorded TV just to preserve the poster art, and restoring from a recordings backup would have the same losses too. A hard drive failure would be devastating. WMC is very fragile, but I love it just the same. I would totally embrace a third party app that can seamlessly monitor a movie folder location and keep the poster art and synopsis intact to display in WMC Movie Library as intended. Especially if garyan2 adds the feature to EPG123, or creates a new stand alone program for that duty. EPG123 works fabulously, so I know any movie data utility would be equally amazing. I have my fingers and toes crossed for that!

[jachin99]

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2185 Recorded TV HD might do something for you. I don't know how well it still works but IT Troll has been using it for a while, and likes it. Maybe you should ask about it in the link.

[aquadextrous]

I'm not sure it's doing *exactly* what you want, but I use YAMMM to monitor my movie folders. It changes folder names etc to match the movie and year and has an option for WMC data. It then provides a poster and some small synopsis to WMC. It's all automatic and just set and forget. It is usually pretty quick and just works. It doesn't provide much info (just a short synopsis and the poster) but enough to keep the movie library looking good.

This thread and links within might be useful if you wanted to check it out... viewtopic.php?t=11518

[Hi-Def_PCs]

Update...

I gave Media Center Master and YAMMM a try. MCM only restored some of the movie synopses, no cast or ratings, and usually the poster art was a bit different than what WMC received from EPG123 when viewed in WMC movie guide. All the synopses, cast, and ratings appeared in MCM if you patiently waited for it to open, but that is not where I wish to view it. YAMMM, I could not get to work at all, it appears to be no longer supported as well.

I do not have the patience to go this 3rd party route for my movie library any more and a RAID error lost it all anyway! So now my plan is to keep the TV movies where they record to as WMC intended and move recorded TV shows to the network instead, because TV show thumbnails and synopses are not location dependent like the movies. Dragging TV shows to another folder is far easier than the 12 step process to retain movie info only to be disappointed with the final result too.

However, a new issue is at hand. Movies show up in both the WMC movie libraries (with movie poster art) and recorded TV libraries (with TV show like thumbnails). WMC seems to know the difference between a movie and TV show (although some documentaries confuse it) but can movies be excluded from showing up in Recorded TV to save clutter? Is there a proper thread to post my question at?

Cheers my friends!

P.S.

Since writing this update I have located a few threads on the exclude movies from Recorded TV library view in WMC subject. All seem to be dead ends with no recent activity. Hopefully someone will address the matter and create a registry hack that will truly work to exclude movies from the Recorded TV library view without involving moving the movies and losing their WMC metadata connection that would require a 3rd party app to restore.

[Hi-Def_PCs]

I found the Recorded TV HD WMC addin, see below.

https://thegreenbutton.tv/forums/viewto ... 63#p149863

[Hi-Def_PCs]

My entire movie library of recorded movies in WMC is currently just colored rectangles with the movie name on them. This happened when I moved over to EPG123 and started with a fresh WMC database. I wouldn't mind having some program that could (at least) restore the poster art for all those movies.

Space, I have Recorded TV HD Addin installed from the Green Button Wiki: https://www.thegreenbutton.tv/wiki/Recorded_TV_HD
It works fabulously and its own movie library does restore movie poster art, and it handles TV show art as well. I paired it with
Media Center Studio to add custom backgrounds and to modify the WMC start menus. I am very happy with the results so far.

However, I have migrated to a new build to escape the sfc /scannow reported errors, and the movie metadata did not follow.
That means poster art no longer shows in WMC's movie library, but it still shows in Recorded TV HD's movie library. To clarify, the
movie art was retained somehow in WMC's library months later, even though the files were moved to my NAS the following day.

Would you happen to know how to backup the WMC DB so it may be migrated to my new build?
Recorded TV HD's movie library is fine, but I am just being anal about completing my project.

Thank you!

[Space]

I'm not sure exactly where the movie poster art is stored for the native WMC movie presentation, but I think the WMC data base has links to images that are in a cache on your system. So the art itself is not in the WMC database, just the links to the cached versions of the poster art (which I think is located in some folder somewhere on your system, not sure where).

So to answer your question, once you lose the movie poster art, I don't know of any way of getting it back. It used to be populated by the extended metadata server that Microsoft maintained, but they shut down that server a while ago. In theory, if someone were to make a server that can emulate that old server, it would be possible to re-populate the movie poster art (as well as other extended movie data) that way, but as of now, I am unaware of anyone that has been able to populate the poster art once it is lost from WMCs native movie section.

[Hi-Def_PCs]

I'm not sure exactly where the movie poster art is stored for the native WMC movie presentation, but I think the WMC data base has links to images that are in a cache on your system. So the art itself is not in the WMC database, just the links to the cached versions of the poster art (which I think is located in some folder somewhere on your system, not sure where).

So to answer your question, once you lose the movie poster art, I don't know of any way of getting it back. It used to be populated by the extended metadata server that Microsoft maintained, but they shut down that server a while ago. In theory, if someone were to make a server that can emulate that old server, it would be possible to re-populate the movie poster art (as well as other extended movie data) that way, but as of now, I am unaware of anyone that has been able to populate the poster art once it is lost from WMCs native movie section.

Thank you, Space

For now, Recorded TV HD Addin does a fine job until I figure it out. I've hidden the native
WMC movie library link and renamed its menu movie guide using Media Center Studio.

[garyan2]

Just to answer a question, all the artwork for WMC programs are stored in your Internet Cache. The thumbnail images are embedded in the wtv file.

Win7: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\
Win8-11: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\