By simply pointing at folders containing existing movies, TV shows, or videos, you can organize them into your Channels library.

Table Of Contents

• About Personal Media
• Video Guide
• Personal Media Sources
  • Adding a Personal Media Source
• Movies
  • Filename and Folder Conventions
• TV Shows
  • Filename and Folder Conventions
  • Inherited Metadata
  • Specials
• Videos
  • Video Groups
  • Filename and Folder Conventions
  • Inherited Metadata
• Automatic Tagging
  • Content Types and Automatic Tagging
  • Examples
• Helpful Tips
  • Fixing an Incorrect Match
  • Removing Imported Folders
  • Maintenance

About Personal Media

Simply add a new Personal Media Source within Channels DVR Server, select the folder for your content, and Channels will do the rest.

Movies and TV shows will be automatically matched and have metadata and artwork automatically applied.

Home movies, internet videos, or any other kind of videos can also be organized into your library allowing you to manage their metadata and artwork with the tools provided.

Video Guide

Personal Media Sources

Channels imports your personal media through Personal Media sources. Visit Settings > Sources in your Channels DVR Server web admin to manage your Personal Media sources.

Adding a Personal Media Source

1. Select the Add Source button in the Personal Media section.
2. Choose the type of content you are importing.
3. Select the Add Folder button to view your file system.
4. Pick the folder to import from.

Once you have created a new Personal Media source, Channels will begin scanning it for content immediatly.

Learn more about how to organize your Personal Media sources below, to get the best results from our automatic indexing.

Movies

Channels will organize your movies into your library by fetching metadata and artwork.

Filename and Folder Conventions

Channels will do its best to match your movie files based on their filenames. Channels supports many filename formats for movies, but the best way to name your movie files is to include the title of the movie along with the year in parenthesis.

Jurassic Park (1993).mkv

Movies can be in folders beneath the folder you choose for the Personal Media source. The indexer will read through your folders recursively. Below are some examples of folder structures that work.

• /USB_DRIVE/movies/Jurassic Park (1993).mkv
• /USB_DRIVE/movies/Adventure/Jurassic Park (1993).mkv
• /USB_DRIVE/movies/Jurrassic Park Collection/Jurassic Park (1993).mkv

In these cases, you would choose /USB_DRIVE/movies as the folder for your Personal Media source.

TV Shows

Channels will organize your TV shows into your library by fetching metadata and artwork.

Filename and Folder Conventions

Channels will do its best to match your TV show files based on proper directory structure and filename conventions. TV episodes you want imported need to be nested under a folder using the name of the show they are related to. Channels uses this folder name to learn the title of the show in order to match the files and organize them properly into your library.

For example: /The Office/The Office - S01E01 - Pilot.mp4

When indexing this episode, Channels will see that it is Season 1, Episode 1, of The Office. It will use this information to properly organize your episodes.

Episode files can be nested under season folders and indexing will work as well: /The Office/Season 1/The Office - S01E01 - Pilot.mp4

Below are some examples of different folder structures and naming conventions that can work.

• /USB_DRIVE/tv/The Office/Season 1/1x01.mkv
• /USB_DRIVE/tv/The Office/s01e01.mp4
• /USB_DRIVE/tv/Seinfeld/02x05.mp4

In these cases, you would choose /USB_DRIVE/tv as the folder for your Personal Media source and it would import all of the TV shows in the /USB_DRIVE/tv folder.

Inherited Metadata

Newly imported episodes will have metadata automatically applied from its associated TV Show.

These metadata items are inherited from its TV show:

• Genres
• Labels
• Categories

Specials

Specials are supported and should be placed in a Specials folder under the show’s folder. When number 0 is used for the season number, it will be organized into the Extras group when browsing the show.

/tv/The Office/Specials/0x1.mkv

You can also use the Episode number of 0 to indicate a special for a specific season. This organize the episode into the appropriate season and mark it as an Extra.

/tv/The Office/Season 2/2x0.mkv

Videos

Video based Personal Media sources are used for content that can not be automatically indexed like movies and TV shows. The types of content you might use Videos for are: home movies, music videos, concerts, old sporting events, internet videos, etc.

While Videos do not get metadata automatically, they do get organized and titled based on their folder structure and filenames.

Video Groups

Videos are imported into your Channels library via Video Groups. Video Groups are determined based on the folder containing your videos. For example:

• /USB_DRIVE/videos/Home Movies/Summer Vacation 2019.mp4
• /USB_DRIVE/videos/Home Movies/Christmas 2021.mp4

These two videos would be added to your Channels library under a Video Group named Home Movies as videos with the titles Summer Vacation 2019 and Christmas 2021.

In Channels, Video Groups have some of the same basic properties of a TV show that groups its episodes.

Filename and Folder Conventions

Since videos have no source to fetch metadata from, Channels will use the folder name and filename to determine the title of the videos.

Here are some rules:

1. The folder containing video files will be used to create the Video Group and the folder’s title will be used to name the Video Group.
2. Video filenames will be used automaticall as their title in your Channels library.
3. Once a Video Group has been created, subsequent videos imported will inherit properties from the Video Group to save you from having to manage their metadata after each import.

For example: /Concerts/Phish - MSG 2021.mp4

When indexing this video, Channels will create a video named Phish - MSG 2021 and place it in a Video Group named Concerts.

Below are some examples of different folder structures and naming conventions that can work.

• /USB_DRIVE/videos/Music Videos/Nirvana - Nevermind.mkv
• /USB_DRIVE/videos/Music Videos/Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer.mkv
• /USB_DRIVE/videos/Music Videos/Beastie Boys - Sabotage.mkv
• /USB_DRIVE/videos/NFL Classics/Super Bowl III: New York Jets vs Baltimore Colts.mp4

In these cases, you would choose /USB_DRIVE/videos as the folder for your Personal Media source and it would import all of the videos /USB_DRIVE/videos folder creating Video Groups for each folder appropriatly.

Inherited Metadata

Just like TV shows, a newly imported video will have metadata automatically applied from its associated Video Group.

These are the metadata items that are inherited from its TV show:

• Genres
• Labels
• Categories

Helpful Tips

Fixing an Incorrect Match

There may be times that Channels will match your movie or TV show incorrectly. To fix it, find the content in your library in Channels DVR Server and choose the option Fix Incorrect Match. It will prompt you with alternate choices for your movie or TV show.

Find the match and click it to set your content.

In the case where the options aren’t correct, you can use the search bar to enter another title to help get better options.

Removing Personal Media

You can remove imported personal media by deleting the Personal Media source. By removing the source, the content that was scanned in from it will be removed from your library. The actual files will not be deleted.

Maintenance

You can force a new scan of your local content by using the Scan Sources option in the Personal Media section of Settings > Sources.

You can force content that you may have deleted outside of Channels to be removed from your Channels library by using the Prune Deleted option in the Personal Media section of Settings > Sources.