Overview

How to import your data from Moving Pictures plugin database to My Films.

Introduction

The Moving Pictures plugin is designed especially for ease of use. MyFilms is designed to allow users who have, and are familiar with movie catalog software, to use their catalog within MediaPortal, as well as to customize almost every aspect of MyFilms to meet their needs or specific setup. Thus it is considerably more sophisticated.  Although MyFilms can be quite simple to setup if you stick to the basics at first, no one ever does! So expect a steep learning curve when you switch from Moving Pictures to MyFilms! 

Methods

You may use either:

• MovingPicturesXML process plugin to export to XML - especially good if you have many DVDs and Blu-rays
• MovPicNFO tool - advantage is it will also export fanart and covers

However, neither method will result in perfect conversion of all your movies. MyFilms supports many fields and features not available in Moving Pictures, so you may end up running several import or update operations to clean up and extend your data (and artwork) before you can gain the full advantage of MyFilms.

In the long run, it may end up taking less time to create a new MyFilms database from scratch (see New Catalogs), and it is certainly easier.

However, if you have many DVDs or Blu-rays, re-importing those can be very tedious so you may wish to use MovingPicturesXML for those.

MovingPicturesXML

1. Export your data from Moving Pictures database in XML format, using the MovingPicturesXML process plugin.
   An updated version for MP 1.3.0 and 1.4.0 is available in this forum thread: Rebuild plugin with updated compatibility parameters
   Note: Save your file to a folder where you wish to store all your movie catalog data including covers, fanart etc.
   
2. In My Films use the Setup Wizard to create a new config using the MovingPicturesXML catalog type
3. Select the exported file as your catalog file.
4. Once you saved in setup, you'll find a file named <exported file>_tmp.xml - this file is AMC compatible imported data
5. Use Setup Wizard again and create a new config of type "ANT Movie Catalog" using the file that was created in Step 4
6. You now have a base config supporting all update features and usage of Ant Movie Catalog

Note: Fanart file naming is not compatible between Moving Pictures and My Films so you will need to download fanart for all your films in My Films.

For further information and support see the Moving-Pictures Movie List to HTML forum thread.

MovPicNFO

This tutorial assumes you have Moving Pictures plugin installed, enabled and the Moving Pictures database is in use.

All movies need to be in their own folder with the folder named after the movie. e.g.

• Movie name = Avatar (2009)
• Folder name = Avatar (2009)

If your movies are all in one folder:

1. Use an application like File2folder to easily create folders for all your movies.
2. Start Moving Pictures with "All movies in there own folder" option selected so your Moving Pictures database will be refreshed after making the new folders.

Download and Install MovPicNFO

Download MovPicNFO

Installation

1. Copy the MovPicNFO.exe to your MediaPortal Program Files directory.
2. Create a shortcut to MovPicNFO.exe on your desktop.

Setup

Start MovPicNFO, click "open" up at the top left, make the text boxes read

• movie info file text box - %Filename%.nfo
• imdb info file text box - imdbid.txt
• watched status file text box - %Filename%.WatchStatus.xml
• "Cover file text box" %Filename%_cover.jpg
• "FanArt file text box" %Filename%_backdrop.jpg

Click on the "Cover & FanArt filename in movie folder" tab, make the text box's read

• "Cover filename text box" %Filename%_cover.jpg
• "FanArt filename text box" %Filename%_backdrop.jpg

Export

Click the "Export working directory" button

The files will be created in the movie folders, this will take about 5 minutes for 800 movies across a 1 gigabit lan.

Import to My Films using NFO

Download and install My Films according to directions - see Getting Started.

Setup

1. Select the Setup Wizard to create a New Catalog
2. Choose "Ant Movie Catalog Xtended (4.1)" as catalog type.
3. Select 'use nfo grabber'
4. On the Import tab, select  "Title Search Handling"  = "File Name" or "Folder Name" (depending on your file naming)
5. Click "Save"  - a pop up will tell you your configuration has been saved.

Warning: DO NOT use "Title Search Handling" = "File Name & Internet lookup" or "Folder Name & Internet lookup".My Films/AMC Updater will try to look up the information on the internet if these are selected.

Import

If you use the Setup Wizard to create a new catalog, it will automatically open Import at the end of setup. However, you can always:

1. Press the 'Import' button to open AMC Updater
2. Check the paths and options to make sure they are the same as you selected in MyFilms setup.
3. Click the "Database Fields" tab. In the "Quick Select" section under "All Items" click the "Select All" button.
   1. Make sure "Use Internet Data For Language Field" is selected (It doesn't use Internet just the script your running)
   2. Make sure "Use Script for Fanart" is selected.
4. Click "File" and "Save" to save any settings you change if you wish to use them for all imports
5. Click the "Begin Import" button 

Note:

1. MyFilms will import the media info data fields for you
2. MovPicNFO supports the following database fields:
    Actors, Category, Certification, Description (Plot), Director, Fanart (Backdrop), IMDB_id, Language, Picture (Imports the cover to the cover path set in MyFilms > Artwork Setup), Original Title (Title), Rating, Source, Studio, Tagline, Writer and Year.

What's Next

Congratulations! You now have at least a working database in My Films saved in the folder you selected for your catalog/XML file (either in Setup Wizard or MyFilms Setup > General Tab)

See Using My Films to learn all the features, and how to update or import new films in real time.  See AMC Upater > Update Movies Tab to learn how to improve your database by globally updating your data to add missing info, auto-detect Editions, Groups (Collections), add local Trailers, and much more!

You can also use and edit your XML database file in Ant Movie Catalog (AMC), or import it to a movie catalog app that supports import from AMC.

Related

• New Catalogs