Feature suggestion with vtx files

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pandach
Posts: 8
Joined: 04 Oct 2020, 15:26

04 Jan 2021, 05:55

Hello,

i rather randomly discovered just now a hidden feature of .vtx files - when you move them into a different folder than the original video file you can still play the video by double clicking on the thumbnail because the full path is stored within the vtx file!

That is actually pretty sweet as allows me to keep vtx files separate from the mp4 on a different drive (the drive with some of my movies isn't always mounted on the computer), however I have a couple suggestions:

- in Videonizer, could you add the ability to add .vtx files as if they were video files (currently the vtx files can be imported but as pictures which is no use to me as they are grouped by folder and one loses all the meta info) - basically instead of the video file we have just the vtx and then to access the video file one can open the vtx and then play it. that would be really super super useful for me.

- also in the vtx thumbnail display program, would it be possible to have an option to show at bottom of the screen as an overlay the full path of the video file? given that is stored in the file already that should be pretty easy

- lastly, is there any way to edit the path stored in the vtx file? vtx seems a binary format, i need to change the drive letter for a bunch of my files - can just recreate thumbnails for them but would be nice if there was a way to change it manually

thanks!
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admin
Site Admin
Posts: 1373
Joined: 03 Jun 2014, 22:14

04 Jan 2021, 10:55

Hello,

Thank you for your request.
- in Videonizer, could you add the ability to add .vtx files as if they were video files (currently the vtx files can be imported but as pictures which is no use to me as they are grouped by folder and one loses all the meta info) - basically instead of the video file we have just the vtx and then to access the video file one can open the vtx and then play it. that would be really super super useful for me.
Need to analyze. But please explain - why not to add the video file itself to Videonizer?
- also in the vtx thumbnail display program, would it be possible to have an option to show at bottom of the screen as an overlay the full path of the video file? given that is stored in the file already that should be pretty easy
In Videonizer? Or in the external Pictures Thumbnails Viewer (PTV) which comes with the VTM? Or in both? I can add such an option. Currently (in PTV) you can move the mouse cursor to the right part of the screen (to the very right and the middle part of the screen) and an info panel will pop-up.
- is there any way to edit the path stored in the vtx file?
Yes, you can press F5 in the viewer, or the context menu item named "Locate video".
- vtx seems a binary format, i need to change the drive letter for a bunch of my files - can just recreate thumbnails for them but would be nice if there was a way to change it manually
You can use Files->Move to Folder menu item in the main context menu. You can select what to move (Video/Audio, Screenlists, Photos), preserve folder structure or not. Links in your screenlists should be updated automatically during the movement.
pandach
Posts: 8
Joined: 04 Oct 2020, 15:26

05 Jan 2021, 14:10

- in Videonizer, could you add the ability to add .vtx files as if they were video files (currently the vtx files can be imported but as pictures which is no use to me as they are grouped by folder and one loses all the meta info) - basically instead of the video file we have just the vtx and then to access the video file one can open the vtx and then play it. that would be really super super useful for me.
good question.

first reason is because the video files are on external drives (90% of them i rarely need so don't need to have them take up space) while I want to keep the vtx on main hard drive. If I added the video files instead whenever i rescan folders for files that have moved / been added i would need to mount also the external drives otherwise the files won't be detected.

Second reason is that I have my video files on the drive basically in one big folder without any organized structure, but would like to organize the vtx files in slightly more structured fashion (genres/directors/key actors) - sure I can use videonizer for that but in a lot of cases when I'm just looking for a specific file it's too much hassle to fire up the main program and it would be much easier to go through the file explorer. Basically I want to use vtx as sophisticated shortcut links :-)
In Videonizer? Or in the external Pictures Thumbnails Viewer (PTV) which comes with the VTM? Or in both? I can add such an option. Currently (in PTV) you can move the mouse cursor to the right part of the screen (to the very right and the middle part of the screen) and an info panel will pop-up.
ohh, more hidden features! or maybe i just didn't read the manual :-) having the filepath displayed at bottom would be marginally more useful for me but this feature already does 95% of what I need and is great.
- vtx seems a binary format, i need to change the drive letter for a bunch of my files - can just recreate thumbnails for them but would be nice if there was a way to change it manually
You can use Files->Move to Folder menu item in the main context menu. You can select what to move (Video/Audio, Screenlists, Photos), preserve folder structure or not. Links in your screenlists should be updated automatically during the movement.
thanks yeah i saw that but for various reasons i've found it a lot more convenient to do file moving through the standard file explorer, which is why i've been looking for a way to edit the vtx locations and also (a previous feature request of mine) have ability to dump a database entry with all tags and ratings for a given video file into a small file next to each video file, so that I can then move the video files physically anywhere then reimport all the metadata into database)

anyway thanks for the detailed reply, would be great if you could implement the first point above in a future version.

cheers
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