I'm just wondering if custom metadata fields that can be displayed as columns in the lister could be added as a feature at some point?
The problem I'm having is that I have many different file-types that don't all support the same metadata fields. For example, I have copies of bluray movies I ripped in MKV that don't support any metadata fields that would be helpful for categorizing a movie. The fact that not all video formats support the directors metadata field, among many others, makes creating a video database impossible with directory opus alone. In addition, there are many times I simply want to categorize documents and work pictures with metadata fields that are more specific to my use case. For example, I would like to label photos of graphics cards with the component type, the brand, ect.
Being able to add custom Metadata fields would solve all of these issues. I have used RegEx to create custom columns for some of my folders but in my experience on working with databases, using RegEx relies on storing all the file data in the name field and then parsing that data into columns, is extremely ill advised. One of the first they'll teach you in database management is to never store more then one type of data in a single field as this means that any program accessing that data then has to be able to parse through all the data and select the correct information each time it is accessed. This is overly complicated and prone to issues when data should always be one type of data per field.
The problem with custom metadata is (correct me if this is not correct) it needs to be stored in a ADS.
While these are nice in that they allow storing of extra data. They are problematic as they are easily lost when a file is copied around. Often the data loss is silent due the tool or target not supporting the ADS and not being aware of it. Also not everything can read an ADS, so you might not have access to the data in an app you might like. I find they are just not supported enough to be reliable.
In this regard the file name solution is better, as this wont changed file is moved around. Another solution is to create a data file that sits near the file. If all of your movie files each have their own folder, storing a data file in that folder is IMO the best solution.
I have lost data stored ADS's more than once. I try to avoid them now.
Note, There are some file types that allow for custom tags in the metatdata. But I have assumed this out of scope for the discussion as you are wanting to add metadata to files that don't support it.
I'd honestly be willing to take the risk of potential metadata loss if that is a problem (and of course tackle how that could be solved as well).
If I loose the metadata of a single file that isn't a huge deal, I can always re input it. I've already had that happen to me a few times thanks to window's poor handling of certain file type's metadata. It's a much larger hassle to go and change every filename and then make a regex expression for the different name structures I have. I'm talking about weeks and weeks of work. It's an even bigger hassle in the future as well. Any change you make will have you going back on a per file basis and redoing everything. You can use an advanced renamer to automate some of it but I've found it's still a lot of grunt work.
I'm up for any solution that would make the situation better.
I hear you. I'm sure many people would like custom metadata fields.
Do you keep all your files in one big folder, or one folder per video? I would suggest sticking each video in a folder and then creating a data file in the folder. There are a few tools out there that will help with this. Once you have a data in each folder, its rather simple to rename all you folder/files if your patterns change.
Also you can easily load data from the file, or create custom columns in dopus for the data.
Having the metadata in a data file can also be faster then loading metadata from a video file. Depending on where the file stores the metadata within the file it might need to load the whole video to read it.
...for the same reason, i.e. organizing movies, mostly MKV and few MP4s.
I recently wrote a program for own use to extract some metadata from offline and online databases like IMDB, TMDB, RT, etc. which can fetch and store various information like director, actors, ratings, links to those database portals, embed the poster, etc. Everything stored in MP4 and MKV metadata. I prefer it this way like my tagged audio, metadata should be self-contained in the file.
MP4s are somehow better supported by Windows and DOpus, e.g. embedded image, Windows-supported fields are shown, but MKV support is basically non-existent, neither in Thumbnails view, nor in filetype-specific tooltips nor in metadata pane. MKV tagging is superior to MP4 imo and I'd prefer it, but even MP4 etc. does not show custom fields I've added, like my own rating vs public rating, one link to IMDB page, one to TMDB, etc.
It'd be very easy for me to trigger a ffmpeg, mkvpropedit and whatnot to fetch this information and store back if DOpus had support like "script columns" scripts (which I absolutely love). Would it be somehow possible to reuse script columns support for something like "script fields"? I'd love to see them available both in metadata & tooltips but metadata would be higher priority for me. Small delays while extracting the info are perfectly fine for me.
I get MKV thumbnails here. I think support is built in to Windows 10 these days. But if you've installed something that messes with the registry or splitter/codecs then it could have broken things, perhaps.
My bad, on second read I haven't put it clearly MKV thumbnails are also shown on my computer but the embedded cover art is not shown, at least not as MP4 cover art is shown, i.e. MP4 automatically shows from multiple embedded cover Front one as it should, MKV shows another cover art if at all. But it's not related to original feature request anyway.
I was looking for custom metadata for images, such as the generated data from Stable Diffusion and other AI image generating tools. I would like to be able to read the text parameters baked to the JPEG files that is generated.
MKV thumbnails are also shown on my computer but the embedded cover art is not shown, at least not as MP4 cover art is shown, i.e. MP4 automatically shows from multiple embedded cover Front one as it should, MKV shows another cover art if at all. But it's not related to original feature request anyway.
