A Video database
Fast video cataloger (https://videocataloger.com) lets you build a quick and searchable database out of video metadata. The video database allows you to get a quick overview of lots of videos without the need to have the actual large video files available. It also lets you quickly search and browse for videos in your database. You can download the software from here; https://videocataloger.com/download/.
Adding video and extracting metadata
When you add a list of videos to fast video cataloger it will get metadata for the videos in a number of ways.
First, you have the option to add your own metadata. Enter any keywords, actors or other metadata in the “add video” window. Entering it here allows you to easily set shared metadata to a number of files. You can add more metadata later if you want to but this is a quick way to add the info you might already know about a batch of videos you are adding to your video catalog.
When you start adding the videos, Fast video cataloger will automatically scan through the video and extract thumbnails and store them in with your video catalog.
After scanning your video for thumbnails the program will search for an nfo file. If it finds an nfo file, it will read it and add the video metadata to your catalog. nfo files are expected to have the same name as the video file but with the .nfo extension.
Fast video cataloger will also scan the video folder for cover art and companion images based on the setting in preferences.
What is an Nfo file?
An nfo file is a plain text file. The metadata in the nfo file is stored as xml data. You can easily view the content in any plain text editor like notepad. In windows, nfo files are normally associated with system information. Therefore if you double-click an nfo file you will open the wrong program, right click and select open with and choose notepad.
What video metadata is read from an nfo files?
nfo files can contain a lot of different metadata. Fast video cataloger scans the nfo file for a description of the video which is used for video description, keywords that will be used to tag the videos and links to be stored in as a video link.
How to get nfo files?
Nfo files can be generated from a number of different programs like Kodi home theater, Plex Media Server and many more. If you are moving from any of these popular programs or are using them together with fast video cataloger you can easily export nfo file and get your video metadata into fast video cataloger.
Where does fast video cataloger store video metadata?
Fast video cataloger always stores its metadata in the catalog database file. I.e. it never stores video metadata in the video file. The reason is speed and the fact that there is no standard for how to store metadata in video files. Some file formats do not allow it, some do, and it all depends on the video file container. Another good reason to not store the metadata in the video file is that it might already contain metadata that you do not want to overwrite.
How to Search metadata
Meta data is included in your search. If you have not done so before try the smart Ctrl+i search to quickly find what you are looking for.
What about extracting existing metadata from the video file?
So someone looking at indexing camera video clips can access the metadata written into the file by the camera or something like Adobe Bridge. Also will the program read an XMP file to extract keywords etc.? These are also XML files.
In 5.x it only extract meta data from .nfo files next to the video file. In 6.x it will extract meta data embedded in video files, if that option is checked in the preferences on the index tab.
Hi, does FVC also scan the NFO files for the Studio/Producer (e.g. Netflix, Amazon,… -> tag) and actor names, or only the data mentioned in the text above?
And what is the tag for keywords used in the xml file? I checked the kodi wiki but didn’t find any entry here.
The tag for keywords is simply ““, its documented here: on the Kodi wiki
We do not extract Actor names or studio producer.