Support Articles
Personal Media
With Channels DVR Server, you can import your own movies, TV shows, and videos right from your hard drive.
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
- Movies
- TV Shows
- Videos
- Automatic Tagging
- Helpful Tips
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.
Note: Learn more about editing the metadata of items in your library.
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
- Select the Add Source button in the Personal Media section.
- Choose the type of content you are importing.
- Select the Add Folder button to view your file system.
- 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.
Movie Extras
Channels for Apple TV and iOS support importing and displaying movie extras.
Movie extras of different types like trailers, deleted scenes, behind the scenes footage, and more.
When your movie has extras, they will be displayed in an Extras row below Credits. You can simply select one to watch it.
Note: Trailers are not displayed in this list and instead are used to display the Trailer button on the movie’s page (the popcorn button). Only a single trailer is used, and Channels will choose the first one it finds within your extras.
Filename and Folder Conventions
You can have as many extras per type of extra that you want, and you can provide a custom title for each extra, using the organization conventions.
Extra Type Definitions
The following types of extras are supported. The table below details the suffix and directory names that will be used to organize them. These are case sensitive.
| Suffix | Directory Name |
|---|---|
| behindthescenes | Behind The Scenes |
| featurette | Featurettes |
| interview | Interviews |
| deleted | Deleted Scenes |
| gagreel | Gag Reels |
| scene | Scenes |
| short | Shorts |
| trailer | Trailers |
| other | Other |
| extra | Extras |
| special | Specials |
Inline
You can place extras in the same directory as the movie file itself. For example:
/Movies
The Avengers (2012).mp4
The Avengers (2012)-trailer.mp4
The Avengers (2012)-A Visual Journey-featurette.mp4
The Avengers (2012)-Avengers Assemble-featurette.mp4
The Avengers (2012)-Directors Roundtable-interview.mp4
The Avengers (2012)-Meet the Cast-interview.mp4
The Avengers (2012)-gagreel.mp4
The base name of the extra has to match the movie file’s base name in order to pair them to the movie. The extra type suffix is always appended to the end of the filename before the extension.
You can optionally apply descriptive text in between the two, which will be scanned in and used as a title for presentation in the UI.
Subdirectories
You can also organize your movies into their own directories, with their extras grouped inside it to keep your main movies directory a little cleaner.
For example:
/Movies
/The Avengers (2012)
The Avengers (2012).mp4
The Avengers (2012)-trailer.mp4
The Avengers (2012)-A Visual Journey-featurette.mp4
The Avengers (2012)-Directors Roundtable-featurette.mp4
The Avengers (2012)-Meet the Cast-interview.mp4
The Avengers (2012)-Avengers Assemble-featurette.mp4
The Avengers (2012)-gagreel.mp4
Extra Directories
You can also place extras into their own directories, which can be useful if you have a lot of extras for a particular movie. The directory name must match the the table names listed above.
Note: Only use descriptive text in the filename when using this strategy, as the extra type is derived from the directory name.
When your movies are contained in their own directory, you can combine both strategies.
For example:
/Movies
/The Avengers (2012)
The Avengers (2012).mp4
The Avengers (2012)-trailer.mp4
The Avengers (2012)-gagreel.mp4
/Featurettes
A Visual Journey.mp4
Avengers Assemble.mp4
/Interviews
Meet the Cast.mp4
Directors Roundtable.mp4
Scanning Extras In
After you have added extras to your movie directories, refresh your movie’s metadata via your Channels DVR Server’s web admin. Your extras will be detected and displayed on the movie’s page at the bottom in the Extras section.
If you your files already follow these naming conventions, you may already see your extras after updating to the latest pre-release.
Managing Extras
You can not remove extras from within Channels or Channels DVR Server. To remove an extra, you will need to delete the file from your file system and refresh your movie’s metadata.
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.
Note: Channels supports many filename formats for TV shows, but it’s important to fulfill at least 2 rules:
- The parent folder containing the episode files must be named after the title of the show.
- Episode files must have season and episode number indicators in them.
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
Protip: You may find that the Channels does not find a match for a special. In this case, use the Fix Incorrect Match function to try to find the match.
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.
Protip: You can edit the metadata or edit the art of your imported videos.
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:
- 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.
- Video filenames will be used automaticall as their title in your Channels library.
- 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.
