How can I tell if a folder is being included in Channels?

I have various types of videos in various directories.
For example I have a music in a folder called media/music
I have Channels configured in local content -> videos to include that dir

But, when I search for an item there, for example a video named "Jorma Kaukonen - Hesitation Blues.mp4", I type "Jorma" into the Channels search field but it doesn't show anything.

So, can I see a list of everything Channels found from a given folder? Should that search be able to work? Thanks.

--Peter

Not sure if the search is supposed to work, but this Channels Support - Import Your Own Movies and TV Shows might help.

"When imported, videos will use their filename as the title for each video. The parent directory’s name will be used as the group name."

Yes, that's the feature I'm using.
I had 3 different directories under local content -> video sources.
Seems like Channels is only partially reading from the first one, and not at all from the other two.
I removed two of them, just leaving my "sports" directory.
Selected local content -> maintenance -> scan sources
Here is the contents of the sports dir:


And only 3 videos are shown under "videos" after the scan completes:

So for some reason Channels isn't indexing all the videos in the import your own movies feature.
--Peter

Take a look at the dvr log, it should say what it imported.
DVR web admin UI Support > Logs
You need to create folders in media/media/Sports to create the groups.

Notice it picked up the folder NFL Kickoff 2015 as one group

Think of it like importing TV Shows, where each folder is the show name.

Refer to this Channels Support - Import Your Own Movies and TV Shows for help
Note: Individual videos can not be imported into Channels. Your imported video folder must contain folders of videos to create Video Groups.

I'm not going to copy and paste everything, you have the link now,

Oh interesting. And odd. What if I have 1000 concerts by 1000 bands. Create 1000 directories?
Or I guess on directory inside the directory I point channels at...

Depends on how you want to see it in Channels.
By artist, band, genres, etc.
Once you customize things with the metadata editor and art picker, you get a better idea.

Thanks. Doesn't seem logical to me but I can work with it.

1 Like

So I think I have everything being imported now, but I don't understand what Channels is doing w.r.t. showing the items.
For example, I have structure media/misc, then containing directories of various items (like an apple development course):

I would expect when browsing via channels to see for example "Introduction to macOS and cocoa", and then in that group the individual videos.

But for some reason Channels is showing some items as a group and then videos in the group, but others it's putting right at the top when I browse my videos, not putting them in a group:

Why isn't that "1. Introduction to MacOS X and Cocoa Touch" within the "introduction to macOS and cocoa" group, or even the "misc" group, rather than being at the top level?

/videos/group name/video.mp4

This is what your paths should look like. And you should import /videos.

Nested directories under the group name directory are not considered. It just takes the directory name, makes it a group, and everything under it is placed in that video group using the video file name as the title of the video.

Hmm ok thanks. My algorithm would have been:
For any folder, find any videos anywhere below it in the tree, and put them in the group with the name of the folder.

It does this, but there is only one level of hierarchy. We can’t make groups that have groups that have groups that have groups, etc.

I'm just suggesting everything in a tree roll up to the top level directory (which is the group)

Hmm it should actually do that. We’ll check it out.

It's actually picking up every folder as a group currently.

Video\Video Group 1\Group 1 File 1.mp4
Video\Video Group 1\Group 1 File 2.mp4
Video\Video Group 1\Video Group 1-1\Group 1-1 File 1.mp4
Video\Video Group 1\Video Group 1-1\Group 1-1 File 2.mp4
Video\Video Group 1\Video Group 1-1\Video Group 1-1-1\Group 1-1-1 File 1.mp4
Video\Video Group 1\Video Group 1-1\Video Group 1-1-1\Group 1-1-1 File 2.mp4

Video\Video Group 2\Group 2 File 1.mp4
Video\Video Group 2\Group 2 File 2.mp4
Video\Video Group 2\Video Group 2-1\Group 2-1 File 1.mp4
Video\Video Group 2\Video Group 2-1\Group 2-1 File 2.mp4
Video\Video Group 2\Video Group 2-1\Video Group 2-1-1\Group 2-1-1 File 1.mp4
Video\Video Group 2\Video Group 2-1\Video Group 2-1-1\Group 2-1-1 File 2.mp4

Video\Video Group 3\Group 3 File 1.mp4
Video\Video Group 3\Group 3 File 2.mp4
Video\Video Group 3\Video Group 3-1\Group 3-1 File 1.mp4
Video\Video Group 3\Video Group 3-1\Group 3-1 File 2.mp4
Video\Video Group 3\Video Group 3-1\Video Group 3-1-1\Group 3-1-1 File 1.mp4
Video\Video Group 3\Video Group 3-1\Video Group 3-1-1\Group 3-1-1 File 2.mp4

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