Video Library with MediaMonkey and SQLite

Um einen Überblick über meine mehr als 1000 Videos zu behalten habe ich folgenden Plan:

1. Metadaten - Tagging derVideos
Die Beschreibung der Videos (Spielfilme, Fernseh-Dokus etc.) soll nicht in einer separaten Video-Datenbank erfolgen, sondern als "Tags" in den Video-Files selbst.
Aus dieser Primär-Information in den Tags selbst kann ich dann mit geeigneter Software auch schöne Oberflächgen und ggf. Datenbanken als Sekundär-Information aufbauen.

Ein solches Tagging wird vom Video-Container-Format MP4 bestens unterstützt.

Deswegen habe ich alle meine Videos auf MP4 konvertiert (alt: AVI, DIVX,....).
Video-Codec: AVC High@4.0 1500 bps
Audio-Codec: AAC 160 bps

2. Vewaltung der Videos: MediaMonkey
Mit MediaMonkey 4.0.3.01476 kann ich meine MP4-Videos wunderbar verwalten, soll heissen:

• Ergänzen und vereinheitlichen der Tags
• Suchen anhand von Tag-Inhalten (Titel, Regisseur, Schauspieler,...)
• Synchronisieren der Video-Tags mit einer SQLite-Datenbank

3. Die INI-Datei: "MediaMonkey.ini"
Befindet sich im Ordner:

• c:\users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\MediaMonkey

Dort habe ich im Abschnitt [System] den Ort der MediaMonkey-Datenbank verändert:

• DBName=D:\var\MediaMonkey\MediaMonkey.db

Dann kann ich leichter mit der Datenbank "spielen"

4. Die MediaMonkey-Datenbank
Die MediaMonkey-Datenbank "MediaMonkey.db" ist eine SQLite-Datenbank und steht standardmäßig auch im Ordner:

• c:\users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\MediaMonkey

Ich habe sie verlegt auf den bei meinen Computern üblichen Ort für solche Daten (s.o.).

Nun kann ich diese SQLite-Datenbank auch auf Reisen mitnehmen (z.B. iPad) oder leicht in die Cloud stellen (z.B. DropBox) und mit irgendwelchen SQLite-Apps darauf zugreifen um z.B. gezielt nach bestimmten Videos zu suchen....

SQLiteStudio

Mit dieser Windows-Software kann ich (ohne MediaMonkey) auf die Datenbank mit SQL-Befehlen zugreifen und auch Views definieren...

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Reasons to Jailbrake my Apple iPad: Watching Videos

My usage scenario

This week I had again a little discussion with my colleagues about our iPads (everybody has it).

I complained that I could not view my recorded videos via an USB stick on the iPad during air travel. Which means spontanously copying 3 videos in the early morning onto the USB stick, jump into the taxi cab and up to the airport. I can do this with my Android tablet from Acer, which has a normal sized USB host jack.

My colleague said: you can do this easily with your iPad if you buy a "iPad Camera Connection Kit". The kit contains one adapter for USB and one adapter for SD cards and costs EUR 29.--

Next day I bought that "iPad Camera Connection Kit" It did not work exactely that way:

My experiences with the Camera Connection Kit

1) If plug in a (normal USB 2.0 stick (flash memory), if constantly says: "your device consumes to much power" - (apples says the USB connection is designed to connect to cameras) --> "Gerät kann nicht benutzt werden. Das angeschlossene USB-Gerät benötiigt zu viel Strom."

One of my USB sticks worked with the Apple camera connection kit: Hama 16 GB consuming 100 mA Kinston 1GB using 140 mA did not work TrekStor 4 GB using 200 mA did not work CnMemory 16 GB using 480 mA did not work From the internet I heard the TransCend JetFlash500 32 GB will use only 100 mA -----> I will try that

2) If I use the SD-adapter it works in principle - meaning no power problems, but....

3) The iPad screen now shows me the contens of my SD card, but not all the contents, but only file types Apple wants to play with....e.g. .jpg .mov .m4v .mp4 ....

4) Filenames must look as if they come from a camera i.e. 8 characters including numbering e.g. IMG_001.JPG DSC_011.JPG P1234567.JPG P1234568.MOV P123456X.JPG

4) You then have to import the files form the SD card into the iPad, which means: copy i.e. it takes time and space (much if videos) and it means that the files are copied into the closed space of a certain application (Foto App) that Apple has decided these types of files must go.

My conclusions

The iPad import takes some time to recognize all eligible files on the SD card. This can be confusing, because sometimes a certain file is not shown. but when you try it once more it does show up in the "to be imported" list.

The iPad import looks only into the DCIM folder, other folders are ignored (?)

Files need to be renamed into non-descriptive 8 character names

The iPad import ignores file types like: .mp3 .avi

The iPad import copies the files to: /var/mobile/Media/DCIM ==> this takes time and eats-up precious iPad storage

 

Jailbreake & iFile

iFile has build-in viewers for fotos, videos etc.

If you want to use different Apps for viewing, you can copy your media files to the wanted application. Or you can put shortcuts there. Example to follow...

SD Cards work very well with the Camera Connection Set, but this Adapter is restricted to One SD Card at a Time, consequently you can Not copy Files from one SD Card to an other- Say in Order to do back-ups of photos durring a vacation or so.

The USB adapter of the Camera Connection Set offers in Prínciple more Flexibility, since you can Plugin a USB Hub....but such an USB hub needs to be "active" meaning powered by at least 2.1 Amp....

 

AcePlayer

has: E3DE36E4-2781-4B9E-B698-9D7748922BFB

Put your videos into the subfolder "documents"

CineXPlayer

has 926AE9Fe-8D65-40E2-A719-B492305C22D2

Put your videos into the subfolder "Documents"

SongBird

xxxx

 

 

 

 

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Wichtige Projektdaten in die Cloud

Gestern schmierte mein T400 wegen Überhitzung durch Lüfterausfall wiederholt ab.

Ich konnte als Workaround eine externen Lüfter (Notebook Cool Pad) darunter stellen, möchte aber zur Sicherheit meine T400-Arbeiten zunächst (bis zur Reparatur) auf einem meiner anderen Computer fortsetzen.

Lösung: Aktuelle Daten in die Cloud!

1. Versuch: Microsoft SkyDrive

Kostenloser Speicherplatz: 7 GB (früher 25 GB - leider)

Installieren "Windows Live Essentials"

Eine Windows Live ID hatte ich schon

Den SkyDrive-Folder geich auf: \var\SkyDrive

Funktioniert auf Anhieb super.

SkyDrive ist nicht nur eine "Online-Platte" auf die ich als Laufwerk von verschiedenen Rechnen zugreifen kann, sondern ich kann auch Offline arbeiten und alle Computer mit der gleichen Windows Live ID werden ständig und automatisch synchronisiert.

iPad und Android werden ebenfalls unterstützt

2. Versuch: Telekom Mediacenter

 

Kostenloser Speicherplatz: 25 GB

 

 

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After the first year of test usage, what functions of iTunes Match make sense for me?

iTunes Match: The First Year

Since one year I now have my iTunes match subscription (without automatic prologation).

My onriginal and primary intent was to "legalize" my somewhat grown collection of single MP3 songs.

I also wanted to try iTunes match and gather experience, which functionality might be useful for me for the next years (switching from "Test Mode" to "Production Mode").

iTunes Match: Experience with Functionality

• Legalize old MP3 Collections: Works good
• Purchase some "missing" songs for my collection: Yes I did this a few times (iTunes Store)
• "Upgrade" MP3 songs from my CD collection to AAC digital quality: works good
• "Upgrade" MP3 songs from Vinyl records to digital quality: did work only for a very few number of songs
• Backup: Apples iCloud as a safe backup for my songs (5000 songs, 25 GB): This is a very valuable Funktion, since it's a near real time remote backup i.e. in Apple's "iCloud" (precondition: you must use iTunes as your song library!)
• Remote access to iCloud: see below

iTunes: Access to Songs in iCloud

Remote Access: When I'm away from home, I have easily access to my songs with Apple mobile devices like iPhone and iPad.

For my mobile notebook computer (Windows 7) I decided not to make a local copy of all of my song files (5000 songs, 25 GB), but to try a connection via the internet to my iCloud. This was not so easy. The documentation for this sceario is difficult and sometimes wrong. Apple repeatedly ignores Windows Notebooks when talking about "mobile devides" - focussing on iPhone and iPad only....

What worked for me is:

1. Installing iTunes latest version on my mobile Windows 7 notebook.
2. Connected iTunes to the Apple Store: This made available my purchased songs (quite a few) but not all the other songs I have in iCoud
3. Only after I activated "Turn On iTunes Match" in iTunes (Menue: Store > iTunes Match) I could see all my songs in iTunes on my mobile Windows notebook. iTunes did not ask for an extra subscription of iTUnes Match, but automatically used my exisiting iTunes Match account.
4. This is not "Steaming Audio". the songs from iCloud are effectrively downloaded and replay starts early (AAC and MP3 ?)

iCloud Control Panel for Windows

I also installed iCloud Control Panel 2.1.1 for Windows on my mobile notebook, but am not sure, if this was necessary for the access to the songs in iCloud - since Apple only talks about "Fotostreams", "Favorites" and "Outlook" - what I realy do not need in the Cloud.

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iPad vs. Android Tablets

I have both, an

• iPad 2 ( Display 2048x1536)
• Android 4.0 Tablet: Acer Iconia Tab A500. (Display WXGA 1280x800)
• Android 4.0 Tablet: Asus Transformer Pad Infinity TF700 (Display 1920x1080 "Full HD")

Vergleich iPad vs. Android Tablet

	iPad	Android Tablet	Comment
Very easy usage	++	(-)	personal taste
Stylish appearence (e.g. thin etc)	++	+	Asus is equally thin
Display resulotion	++	++	I personally could live with 1280x720 HD
Charging with 5V (via USB power adapter / PC / external battery)	+	--	importatnt for mobile usage
Icons per Screen	20+4	56	ridiculous iPad restriction, but not decisive for me
USB-Host- for external devices (flash drive, card reader, 3G,..)	--	++	I love USB flash drives to quickly interchange my large video files
Open file system (E.g.: One video file stored on the device can be played by different Video-Apps installed)	--	++	I want to try (and even use in parallel) different Apps for the same purpose i.e. working with the same files
Support of Adobe Flash within the Web Browser	--	++	My QNAP NAS has a flash-based Web interface. This can be used on Android "as is". Wheras on iPad I need an extra App (if available)
Quantity of usefull Apps	++	+	Android is getting much better, but iPad is unbeaten

Durch das konsequente Abschotten gegen Industriestandards, die das Nutzen von vorhandenen Lösungen per Standard-Architekturen (z.B. Web-Browser mit Adobe Flash, externe USB-Geräte,...) ermöglichen, ist Apple gezwungen für jedes und alles eine individuelle propieträre Sonderlocke als "App" anzubieten. Womit die Chance besteht, eine eigenlich über Standards mögliche Funktionalität in propietärem Gewand "schicker" darzubieten.

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Vinyl LPs digitized and uploaded to iTunes Match

I already have converted all my od Vinyl LP records to MP3 - his has been done by a service from the german AWO.

Problems with these MP3 audio files:

• They are proberly named, but they do not have MP3 tags
• The quality is sometimes not that good

The idea is to put them into my iTunes Library and go through the process of iTunes Match in order to replace most of them without costs by high quality AAC audio files from the iTunes Store.

In order to do this an gain al the advantages from iTunes Match two things are necessary:

• Put these old MP3 files in exactly the folder structure that I use for my iTunes, as the eventually replaced and better AAV files will be downloaded from the cloud into that folder structure i.e. Folder "Artist" --> Folder "Album" --> Audio file (with filename = song title)
• Create ID3 tags with "Artist", "Album" and "Title", as iTunes Match will use these when downloadin from the cload and iTunes Match will not use the tags contained in their AAC audio files (take special care if "Album Artist" ist used)

Creating ID3 Tags with MP3Tag

After I have put my MP3 audio files into folders by Arstist and sub-folders by Album, it's easy to create the ID3 tags with the excellent software tool MP3Tag:

• Navigate to a album folder
• select all files in that folder
• enter artist name and album name once for all the songs and save.
• Click "Convert" in the menu bar and choose "Filename - Tag" with a "Format String" of "%skip% %title%"

 

Copy the MP3 files to my local iTunes Library

xxxx

iCloudStatus =

• Waiting,
• Uploaded
• Matched
• Duplicate

KInd = .....

• Matched AAC Audio File
• MPEG Audio File
• .....

 

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External Enclosure for a Mobile 2.5" Disk

For working with my tablet computers I need more storage space than the buildin stargae of 32GB or 64 GB. So I decided to use a mobile hard disk of 500 GB or 750 GB or 1 TB. Now I am looking for a suitable external enclose and the disk itself.

My requirements for the external disk enclosure

• Form: usable for 2.5" disks of 9.5 mm height
• Size: Super Slim i.e. max. 13 mm high
• Limitation of disk storage capacity: 1 TB or even better if no limitation at all
• Controller: SATA-300
• Data connection to computer: USB 2.0 or better (say: eSATA or USB 3.0)
• Normal power supply: via USB data connection (5 V, 500 mA = 2.5 Watt)
• Extra power supply by 5V DC-In

My shortlist

• Raidsonic MB668U3-1SB http://www.testberichte.de/p/icy-dock-tests/mb668u3-1sb-testbericht.html
• Raidsonic MB668US
• Raidsonic MB668U
• Raidsonic IB-250StU3
• Raidsonic IB-266StUS-B
• CnMemory Core 1,6 mm
• igozz slim 1TB

My elaluation

Raidsonic MB668U3:

13mm, 5V DC-In, unlimited disk capacity, USB 3.0

Raidsonic MB668US-1SB:

Same as above, but USB 2.0 only and capacity limit 750 GB

Raidsonic MB668U:

Same as above, but withaut eSATA

Raidsonic IB 250StU3:

USB 3.0, not limitation for disk capacity, no eSATA, Height: 12mm or 17mm

Raidsonic IB-266StUS-B:

This is the box I am using already for my TV recordings, 500 GB limitation, eSATA, DC-In

CnMemory Core

Abmessung: 122,5 mm x 77,5 mm x 14 mm

igozz slim 1TB

Requirements for the Hard Disk

• Serial ATA
• Height 9.5 mm
• Electrical engergy consumption less than 2.5 Watt

Shortlist for the Hard Disk

• Western Digital Scorpio Blue SATA II 500GB (WD5000BEVT)
• Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD10JPVT (1 TB)
• Seagate Momentus 7200
• Western Digital WD7500BPKT Scorpio Black 750 GB interne Festplatte (6,3...
  4.5 von 5 Sternen (40)

Evaluation

WD7500BPKT:Scorpio Black:

• Kapazität: 750 GB
• Schnittstelle:Serial ATA-300
• 7200 rpm
• Bauhöhe: 9.5 mm
• 16 MB Cache
• Leistungsaufnahme: 3.3 Watt

Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD10JPVT (1 TB)

• Kapazität: 1 TB
• Schnittstelle Serial ATA-300
• 5400 rpm
• Bauhöhe 9.5 mm
• 8 MB Cache
• Leistungsaufnahme 2.5 Watt

My Decision

• Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD10JPVT (1 TB) --> needs 2.5 Watt only
• Raidsonic MB668U3: --> slim 13 mm, DC-In, no limitation on storage capacity

 

 

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Video Format AVI DivX Xvid MP4

What I did the last 10 years: Standard Definition

The source of my videos is recording German TV stations via a DVB-T receiver i.e. in MPEG2 format and TS container (TS =Transport Stream = Generic PES container). The MPEG2 profile is MP@ML (720*576).

With a tool called TMPGEnc Xpress. I did my cutting and then saving in a compessed DivX format. (AVI container, MPEG-4).

Weaknesses

I am experiencing two main weaknesses with this "old" solution:

1. Tagging my videos with metadata (like title, artists, director, genre, year, etc.) is not broadly supported with AVI
2. High Definition TV

Metadata Tags Support depends on Container: AVI or MP4 or MKV

With my old AVI videos I used "TagTool" which came with my media player Netgear EVA8000.

This works well. but is a restricted proprietory solution. The EVA8000 can read the tags and builds up a Video library from that, which I can use (browse) on my TV screen when I switch to the EVA8000 as my video source. But I didn't find other "open" media library software that supports these AVI tags.

My Choice of container: MP4

MP4 is a "modern" (2012) container for videos with a lot of advantages for my use scenarios:

• MP4 is newer than the AVI container and hence better supported by Software
• MP4 is compatible with Apples devices (iPad, iPhone)
• MP4 supports tagging

Transition to MP4

• With MediaCoder I am doing two things:
  • repacking of my old AVI videos into MP4 containers - leaving the video stream and the audio stream as it is ("copy"). This is very quick and as a first step enables MP4 Tagging
  • converting to AVC (H.264) video and AAC audio. This is very slow, but in the long run required for the furture
• MediaMonkey
  
  • Builds up a library of my videos in a SQLite database - which I can access even outside of MediaMonkey
  • Copies library data into the MP4 tags ("synchronize") making my videos self contained and independent of MediaMonkey
• AVIDEMUX
  
  • Video cutting even with MP4

Recording from TV

TV recorder use the TS format, but often split their files into pieces (e.g. each of 1 GigaByte).

Joining such pieces is easy: copy /b piece1 + piece2 + piece3 outputfile

Future Scenarios: High Definition

In my old solution I am recording TS MPEG2 TV broadcasts in MP@ML (720*576). I used two tools for cutting (and after that converting to AVI):

1. ProjectX --> does not support HDTV
2. TMPGEnc Xpress --> does not run on Windows 7 --> New version 5: "TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works".

For the moment I am trying out "MediaCoder"...

• MediaCoder is slow in encoding vieos (even MPEG2 --> Xvid takes more than an hour)
• MediaCoder can quickly copy strems from an AVI containter to an MP4 container ( 1 minute)
• MediaCoder is not good for video cutting

 

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Independent Mangement of my Playlists

How I organize my songs and playlists

My Playlists (Audio) are in part very valuable for me and I want to keep them for long time periods (10 years and more).

Therefore I decided years ago to keep my playlists independently from any music player software (Winamp, iTunes, Songbird) in separate M3U files.

All my songs I keep in a single folder with sub-folders by artist - and sometimes by album as well. That "Song Folder" resides on a NAS storage (QNAP).

My M3U playlists are placed in the root of my "Song Filder". In order to by able to easily move the "Song Folder" to some new place when the neccessity arises over time, I use relative paths within my M3U playlists.

Over time I did use different music playing software. At the moment I use iTunes. So that player software must have the ability to import M3U playlists, as iTunes does (Menu: File - Library - Import Playlist...)

Checking and Fixing of my Playlists

Playlist Creator 3.6.2

When I for some reason started to rearrange the file structure of my songs (did that last time because of iTunes Match), some songs in my M3U playlists pointed to non existing files - aka "broken links".

In the past I used "Playlist Creator 3.6.2" to fix this. With this wonderfull piece of software I can open such a M3U playlist and Playlist Creator immediately displays the playlist with the "broken" song entries marked in red. Great!

I then used to go into my file explorer and look there for the new place where that "lost sheep" may be (reasons could be I have moved the song into a sub-folder or I have changed the spelling of the song's filename or....).. Once I have found the song file, I easily could move that from the file editor into the playlist by drag and drop.

So far so good.

Problem with Playlist Creator was: it does not support audio files in Apples m4a format - meaning I could not drag-and-drop such files into playlists. But I now have more and more such files from Apples wonderful iTunes Match service that I started to use in 2012.

listFix()

Searching the internet for a tool simmilar to Playlist Creator, but able to use m4a files within playlists, I found listFix()

http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/listfix/index.php?title=Main_Page

listFix solves my original problem (support of m4a files) and adds an additional benefit:: When I right click on a "bronken link" song in a playlist, the menue offers a "Find Closest Matches". ListFix() then searches the entire Musik Folder and offers a little list of songs with equal or simmilar file names / file paths...I can click on my choice and voila, my playlist is fixed.

Further Thoughts

So I finally found a solution to fix "dis-order" in my playlists. But wouldn't it be much better just to avoid such a "dis-oder"?

The root cause of this kind of problem is my choice of M3U playlists for long-time storage. In M3U playlists the physical path and file name is stored. If that path/file name ever changes in the future, I have to repair it, very often in multiple places, since one song often appears in more than one playlist.

Idea: Use a database oriented software as a Media Library (song library) , were a can rename song files or move song files into other folders within that Software, in order to allow that software to keep track of my changes and to reflect them automatically in all impacted playlists. Leaving the ultimate possibility to export such "managed playlists" to static M3U playlists at whish - may be for long-time archiving.

When time permits, I will look at: (my short list) for such a database feature::

• iTunes
• CoolPlayer
• Foobar2000
• MediaMonkey ------------------ My second try --- work in progress
• Helium Music Manager: ----- My fist try ------- looks quite good for my purpose
• Musik Cube

Helium Music Manager

• Backend is a a SQLite database
• Yes, m4a files can be dragged and dropped on playlists
• Yes, I can import my existing M3U playlists
• Yes, I can export my Helium playlists again to independent M3U playlists
• Yes, I can rename music files within Helium and Helium updates all affected playlists accordingly

MediaMonkey

• Backend is a SQLite database
• .... tests next weekend....

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Lightroom publizieren von Fotos in Online Foto-Diensten z.B. Picasa

Meine Lightroom 4 Version unterstüzt "von sich aus" das Publizieren von Fotos auf Flickr und Facebook.

Für Picasa, was ich im Moment nutze, weil mir dort die Beschriftung der Fotos mit Metadaten so gut gefiel, muss in Lightroom erst ein sog. Plugin installiert werden.

Ich habe dafür das Lightroom-Plugin jf.Picasaweb gefunden. Der Autor Jeffrey Friedl hat eine ganze Website mit Lightroom-Plugins: http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/picasaweb

Der Lightroom-Anfänger muss sich nun erst mit der technischen Frage beschäftigen, wie man so ein Plugin grundsätzlich in Lightroom installiert. Wenn das gelungen ist, erhebt sich die einegntliche Frage: Wie muss diese nette Plugin den konfiguriert und bedient werden, um schlussendlich mehrere Bilder auf seiunen Picasa-Account in ein Album zu publizieren....?

 

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