FileName Display instead of Metadata

[howieg]

My files are organized by Folder and Filename so I wish to display the filename not the meta (title by default) . There seems there may have been a way in a prior release since I found this

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How To Change VLC to disply filename

Menu Tools -> Preferences (Show settings = ALL) -> Input/Codecs? Then at the very bottom of the right panel set the option "Change title according to current media" to "$F" or "$u" (without quotes {f= file name and path u= file name only}). Save, exit and restart VLC. ....

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This no longer seems to work but seems to be what I am asking for.

Thanks
Howie

[Lotesdelere]

$F works for me.

[howieg]

Sometimes it flashes in the playlist but then goes back to the metadata, but does work on the title of the frame... do you know how to get the playlist to use the formatting??

Howie

[Rincewind]

Still not working ($F or $U) in v2.2.5

[Rincewind]

Appears to be fixed in 3.3.0 (nightly build 2 Aug 2017) and defaults to $F

[Davidpriddy]

This is also an issue on the VLC app for Apple TV, I've dumped VLC and gone strictly to Plex and will never look back. None of this junk all over screen, VLC is the only program I've ever seen this do it with before and I've used many.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

This is also an issue on the VLC app for Apple TV, I've dumped VLC and gone strictly to Plex and will never look back. None of this junk all over screen, VLC is the only program I've ever seen this do it with before and I've used many.

Very useful post.

[Aeneas]

Entering $u to replace the default $Z (broadcaster Title field) at
/vlc/Tools/Preferences/All/Input-Codecs/Change title according to current media/
does work to display the full filename of the current file playback
without the full path -- just the filename is best with reduced clutter.

Also, Bugs in displaying the full pathname ($F) displays some garbage
hex quoting of the ascii characters.
The filename usually contains the Title plus Date/Time information suffix,
which assists user for series based viewing.

$u should be the vlc installation default.
The help page URL where these $ variables are defined
should be displayed more readily by the help/mouse-hover system.

[judess69er]

hey i have a brilliant idea... how about you just add this to the preferences... honestly to the average user MetaData is just a unnecessary redundancy that gets in the way like a kids skateboard left out in the hallway for you to slip on in the morning and bust your assbone...

[Aeneas]

Windows platform file Metadata is critical to recognizing the video file contents
of all files Saved on the users' PC/Laptop.
Windows Explorer has fantastic features which can display the metadata
in all files in the Recorded TV and the Videos directories in columnar form
with powerful mouse-hover capabilities over elaborate data columns
like "Program description".
This is especially powerful when used with Windows Media Center (WMC)
video file save capabilities.

There is no application in the Linux or Apple worlds which possesses
anywhere near the power of Windows Explorer in this and numerous other respects,
such as using the Windows Explorer Search box for a name buried in the metadata
like "Sean Connery" or "Jennifer Lawrence" or "NFL" or "Soccer" or "comedy" , etc.
Those who are using WMC should select at least the following columns
within the Windows Explorer display of Recorded TV and Videos directories
which contain video files:

Name
Size
Date Created
Date Modified
Broadcast Date
Length
Program description
Channel Number
Station call sign
Station name
Type
Title
Episode Name

[judess69er]

exactly its a unnecessary redundancy for the average user that simply refers to the Name of the File to know what the hell they want to watch, i get the need for MetaData when using Critic sites but its very much a nuisance for using a Video Player on your computer

one example would be i have an anime called Naruto Shippuden every file is sequentially numbered and every episode is named correctly but the Metadata all appear as "Encoded With MiniCoder" when loaded into the playlist, from what i apparently hear this is a common issue that annoys the living hell out of a lot of people and requires a lengthy processing to fix... now most people would logically think "well why cant i just fallback on the name of the file to sort our videos like how we sort them in our 10 terabyte hard drives" Alphabetically...

[Aeneas]

In episodic TV and with movies etc the metadata item "Broadcast Date"
states the year/month/day date the saved video file content first aired.
For example, it says "9/5/1990 12:00AM" for the movie Goodfellas.
That Broadcast Date column allows the user to recognize what
the playback sequence of the episodes should be.

This is easy to see in Windows Explorer and clicking on the "Broadcast Date"
column header allows the user to Sort the saved video files in Broadcast Date order.
This //Windows 7 64//Windows Media Center(WMC)//CableCard//metadata//
capability is hard to re-implement on other platforms.

Microsoft must be required to implement WMC in Windows 10, whose features
do not improve on Windows 7 in any significant ways.

An old laptop with HDMI is the best platform for WMC,
and with i5-3xxx//i7-3xxx or later cpu will run Windows 7 64 and are available cheap.
Old Laptop with HDMI (usually means Dell) can be moved around to any room with a HDMI TV.

Connect an 8TB external hard disk drive to it and then program
the WMC scheduler to start recording programs with your favorite sport,
or programs with your favorite actor/actress, awards shows, or whatever
from all TV channels to which you have access.
As the saved files in the directory accumulate, use the "Program description"
column in Windows Explorer with mouse-hover
to see what is in each saved file.

[judess69er]

yes... exactly now say it with me "Unnecessary Redundancy"

that's the exact description of what metadata is... no more no less, because everything is already sorted Alphabetically it is literally a Redundancy... redundancy is the duplication of critical components or functions of a system with the intention of increasing reliability of the system,

it isn't a critical component required for the basic operation of playing a media file

for people who don't feel like suffering through the annoyance that is MetaData there should be an option to fall back on Normal Alphabetical sorting by the name of the file...

[Aeneas]

If you watch only a few movies, or series episodes per month,
then the cable company's set top box or DVR should suffice.
Windows Media Center and the Metadata which describes the content
in each saved file saved by the WMC Scheduler is for
a person, or family, who want to set up the WMC Scheduler engine
to record numerous movies and episodes and events and then pick and choose
when and where to watch them or peek at parts of them,
before deleting each saved file.

Of course, anyone who just wants to Sort on the Name can do that
in //Windows 7//Windows Media Center//Windows Explorer// ,
since Name is in all Windows Explorer displays as the default --
just click on the Name column header, and it is done.
You can even reverse sort, by clicking on the Name header again.
Simple.

[judess69er]

yea that's great and all... but the problem is that VLC Playlist automatically overlays MetaData sorting and it doesn't seem like there is a way to disable it

[Aeneas]

Disable metadata ?
Then how would you search for your favorite Jennifer Garner movie
that you recorded from all the saved video files on your hard disk ?
On what platform are you running ?

[judess69er]

hmm how would i search for my favorite movie ...by its title ...like any other normal human being

windows 7 why? has the touchscreen start menu finally been burnt from windows 10?

[Aeneas]

If you have a favorite actor/actress, and want to record and then
playback some of the movies which she is in,
should you have to remember all titles she was in
and enter them to the Windows Media Center Scheduler ?

Or just tell the WMC Scheduler to record movies with her name
in the Program Description, then pick and choose which ones to watch
once they are recorded from the Cable TV system with the metadata ?
(last I checked, Satellite TV companies had not implemented CableCard support,
to allow PC/Laptop recording and playback of encrypted content).
Assuming //Windows 7 64//Windows Media Center//Windows Explorer// platform.

[judess69er]

like i already said... i understand the use for MetaData and like i keep repeating over and over again its a REDUNDANCY that should be allowed to be turned on and off at the users discretion

currently it seems that VLC's Playlist loads the Filename first and later after everything is loaded into the playlist it automatically overlays MetaData Labels... its no big feat to include a bool setting in the preferences for enabling and disabling it...

[Aeneas]

As I have stated, it is not always clear from the title or filename of
a saved file why it was recorded.
For instance, if the recording scheduler recorded some show I normally
do not watch, like the nighttime so-called comedy shows, I might be
inclined to quickly delete the file.

However, a quick glance into the Program Description field would tell me
that a guest in which I have an interest, and which I programmed the
WMC Scheduler to record any program that he was in,
was scheduled to be on that program that night,
I might just in time refrain from deleting the recording
and watch the portion which involved the guest in which I had an interest.

On the other hand, if a show which appears every day has a Broadcast Date
which is not today's date, that tells me that it is a re-run,
which makes it a candidate for immediate deletion.

Thus, this Metadata information is absolutely Not redundant.

Could be that Metadata is a feature lacking from some of
the Internet TV Streaming transmission companies like Hulu etc,
and thus they have instructed their advertising workers
on various forums to criticize this critically important data.

Again, Microsoft must be required to port Windows Media Center
to Windows 10 and future OSes, so that everyone can exploit this data,
as intended by the US 1996 Telecom Act.

[judess69er]

quite literally the function of MetaData falls under the Category of a Redundancy... In engineering, redundancy is the duplication of critical components or functions of a system with the intention of increasing reliability of the system, usually in the form of a backup or fail-safe, or to improve actual system performance

literally MetaData is a Duplication of the already existent "File Name" with the intention of increasing reliability of the system... it is quite literally a Redundant system, its like when you overlay a host onto an IP to make it easier to reference but in the case of MetaData 50% of the time its helpful and the other 50% of the time its been written by a noob and its completely incorrect or its just all the same Metadata copy and pasted on every episode, so for these cases it would be extremely helpful if we could disable the MetaData Overlay in VLC's Playlist and just use the files name directly

like i get you can use URI to see the File Path but that's a whole lot more information then just the File's Name

[Aeneas]

Again, this is advertiser/public relations nonsense --
how would you deal with the situation where you buy several audio CDs,
but do not know which track is which ?
Is the labeling metadata on each album/CD important in knowing which track to play
or which album/CD the specific track is even on ?
Often, it is that one track which is the reason you bought the album.

Same thing is true with recording TV programs --
again, often the reason a movie was recorded is because of some actor/actress
or maybe even a general subject matter which can be expressed with a Keyword,
which Windows Media Center Scheduler will key on,
e.g. "mafia", "bribes", or "detective" or "musical" or "romantic" or "eastwood", etc.

US Congress Energy and Commerce committees should convene an oversight hearing
on the 1996 Telecom Act and ask Microsoft point-blank why they have not
included Windows Media Center in Windows 10.
If they need to fix the law, then they should focus on that.

In addition, this legislation should require that the HDMI specification,
and its related specification EIA/CEA-861B,
which is the main audio/video output signal from the cable set top box stb/dvr devices,
must include Closed Captions (CC).

Currently, the only output signal from the STB which contains Closed Captions
is the old original Composite Video signal, which is around 720x480 video resolution
and is disappearing from some of the newer STB/DVR devices.
Currently, the EIA/CEA-861B specification explicitly refuses to support Closed Captions.

Closed Captions sends the text with the video signal and allows a family with 1 Deaf person
and 4 Hearing people to select whether to activate it on individual TV devices,
rather than permanently superimpose the text on the video picture (open captions).

[judess69er]

like i keep repeating over and over again like a broken record player, Let the User Choose whether or not they wish to use the MetaData Overlay in the playlist instead of forcing everyone to deal with it the 50% of the time it doesn't work as intended

[Aeneas]

After looking into this Metadata issue some more, I discovered
that some TV recording platforms save the video file without any metadata
contained in the saved file.
They then go onto an Internet site to look up information about the video file
based on the filename title.
This can result in Wrong information being found and also
introduces a privacy issue since your viewing request of information
about a particular Saved file
is sent to a remote website over the Internet.
It appears that even well known services like Tivo do this.
That is Not the correct implementation of Metadata.

The whole idea of the 1996 Telecom Act is to allow PC equipment
like //Windows 7 64//Windows Media Center//CableCard//Silicondust//
to look at the same information data that the your cable company is sending
to their own Set Top Box ithrough their Coax Cable in realtime --
some of which you can look at by switching to a channel and
then pressing the Info button on the handset to display information
about the program being transmitted on that channel at that time.

What Windows Media Center does is cull that Metadata data into a buffer as
you are watching that channel and then, if you tell WMC to Record,
WMC will insert that Metadata into the file which WMC Saves onto your Hard Disk.
Thus, this data is always correct, always accessible, does not require your private
information to be sent to a remote website, and is able to be displayed
immediately in columnar form by Windows Explorer.

It may be that Microsoft WMC is the only correct implementation of Metadata
available, which is all the more reason why Microsoft must be required to port
Windows Media Center to Windows 10.

[1010011010]

Aeneas I think 99% of people who use VLC player these days dont record with WMC dont buy several audio CD's for one track etc, most people these days DOWNLOAD a mp3 ripping it from youtube or some website, maybe getting a FLAC from one of the many well known sites ; 99% of videos we watch on VLC are encoded by people that rip them from bluray / DVD or TV then RE-ENCODE THEM using faulty metadata.. Most of the metadata you are talking about is FETCHED from the internet NOT actually encoded directly into each track/stream.. They reencode them with something like 'ripped bu $upr1337haxor' as the metadata tile, so when your watching the video it says some bullcrap instead of the filename and honestly I think you are completely missing the point that the PLAYLIST STILL USES THE METADATA which makes the playlist completely useless for files with incorrect metadata.

i.e. when the entire season all has 'ripped bu $upr1337haxor' in the metadata you obviously know that every file comes up being called the wrong (and the exact same) thing, so how is that helpful at all?? Of course if it only showed file names you still have the option to right click go media information and LOOK for yourself at the metadata if you want to know what it actually contains but 99% of people use filenames for sorting and filenames for FILES and not the metadata which is quite often either something random or just plain wrong.

I totally agree with judess69er that metadata should be able to be disabled completely so the 99% of us that find its functionality completely useless don't have to use it, and the 1% that want to see the metadata can easily still right click and show media information.