Wiki Navigation

Loading...

Overview

AMC Updater (AMCU) is a standalone utility to scan your movie files and add (import) new films either within MyFilms or using AMCU Import Movies; view and update movies; or globally update your AMC catalog, even by field.

Introduction

AMC Updater is a utility designed to help you manage your digital movie collection. It supplements the Ant Movie Catalog software by enabling automated import of movies stored on your computer / network. The import can be run manually or on a schedule (through Windows Scheduler) and can perform Internet lookups to grab movie information from popular online movie sites such as IMDB.

This utility was originally developed by OrionHall, Zebons and Titof. primarily for people using the Team MediaPortal media interface and the My Films plugin to display movie data directly from an Ant Movie Catalog (AMC) database file.

As of My Films v 5.0 Guzzi integrated AMC Updater into the My Films plugin and significantly improved the ease of use.. It is now installed automatically with My Films. Using the MyFilms Setup Wizard, basic settings are preset/synced to AMCU Settings, and in most cases no additional configuration is required. However, you may customize settings as much as you wish. AMC Updater uses the same Grabber scripts as My Films uses for updates within MediaPortal. So any grabber options, customizations, or override options will also apply to AMCU.

Requirements

Windows XP or above
Microsoft .Net Framework v3.5 or above
A valid Ant Movie Catalog database (v 3.5.1 or 4.1 NOT 4.2) stored in XML format (not native .amc format) - this includes catalogs created via AMCU/MyFilms
A digital movie collection of some kind!

Using AMC Updater

You may run the AMC Updater via the 'Import' button in My Films Setup, or via a desktop shortcut which is automatically created for each Config you create in My Films Setup.

AMC Updater can also be used as standalone application without having MediaPortal or My Films installed - e.g. on a central server.- or while MediaPortal is loaded.

Install Standalone version

To install AMC Updater on a system without MediaPortal installed:

Install MyFilms on a PC with MediaPortal installed.
Copy
```
 ...MediaPortal\MyFilms\AMCUinstaller
```
folder to the PC where you wish to install AMC Updater as a standalone utility
Optionally run Setup.exe if you do not have .Net 3.5 installed
Run
```
AMCUpdaterSetup.msi
```

Interface

The AMC Updater interface consists of seven tabbed windows:

A description of the main purpose of each tab displays at the top.
Mandatory options are highlighted with red symbols
Tool tips describe options and functions

Note: The settings selected on the Database Fields, Scan Paths and Filters and Options tabs apply to both Import and Update Movies operations.

For detailed info on settings and operations see the sub pages for each tab listed under Related pages.

AMCU Settings

The settings you select in My Films Setup on the Import tab under AMCU Updater Options, are automatically synced/saved to your AMC Updater settings file for that configuration, e.g.

*MyFilmsAMCSettings_xxxx.xml*

- where xxxx is the name of your My Films config. Thus you will have a separate AMCU settings file for each configuration, stored in the MediaPortal Program data or User data folder.

On the File Menu in AMCU:

Load config file - load a previously saved config file such as a custom settings config file you wish to use again
Save config file - backup your current AMCU settings file to a .sav file prior to customizing it.
Save config file as - save your custom settings to a .xml file so you can 'Load' it again in future.
Note: this will not alter any desktop shortcuts for the default AMCU config file for your MyFilms config. You must either edit the shortcut, or create a new one to you new custom config settings xml file.

You can revert to the AMCU default settings any time by using the (re)Create AMC Updater Default Settings, on the Import Tab in My Films Setup.

Tip: You can modify settings in AMC Updater and run an import or update without saving them permanently. For example if you wish to add a few films using a different grabber script, but wish to leave the default script set for future imports/updates.

Custom Settings

AMCU Settings are extremely flexible:

Settings are per config - thus you can select different settings for different types of videos, such as videos you do not wish to lookup on the internet. Simply create a new config in MyFilms Setup using the Setup Wizard for each type of video. MyFIlms automatically creates a desktop shortcut for AMCU Settings for each config (and automatically removes it when you delete that config)
Settings can be changed per import without altering your defaults or saved settings - you may customize any settings in AMCU and import movies based on those settings.
Multiple custom settings can be saved - you don't have to create separate configs. You can save and reload custom settings for each import (e.g. one for main movies, another for documentaries, etc.). Thus if you customize many settings and may wish to reuse that configuration later, you don't need to remember all the settings.
Different Import Behaviour in MyFilms - even though import within MyFilms uses your default AMCU settings file for the config you use in MyFilms, you can choose whether or not you wish to Import if no auto match or not. This is the same setting that displays on the Import tab in MyFilms Setup.

You can customize AMCU settings and save them to a new settings file so that you can run AMCU with different settings for different functions as required:

Change your settings in AMCU the way you wish
Save your settings to a new AMCU settings file
Select your new settings file in My Films setup on the Import Tab under AMCU Config File
(re)Create AMC Updater Default Settings if you wish to update your AMCU desktop shortcut to use the new settings for the current config.

What's Next

Once you are familiar with AMC Updater, you are ready to Import Movies.

References

Seitenhierarchie