Support / Documentation / Import Medias

How to import media files, URLs into the server, how to edit their information...

• Media Libraries
• Import Files
• Import URLs
• Find Imported Medias
• Media Detection
• Prepare Medias
• Edit Media Information
• Recommendations

A Media Library is a container within Genialist Media Server for your media files. It can contain any type or category of media files.

The content of each Media Library is stored in a folder somewhere on the machine where the server run.

By default, when the server starts, one single Media Library is opened, which folder is:

• On Windows: c:\users\<your-windows-account>\My Music\gms-library
• On Linux: /home/<your-linux-account>/Music/gms-library

You can create more libraries to separate medias into different groups of medias.

Searches are operating only on a single Media Library (you cannot find medias across multiple Media Libraries).

If you are connected as a user with the Administrator Role, you can create or open another Media Library.

To do so:

• Go to the "Server Settings" page, select "Libraries".
• Click on the "Open Library..." button to select the folder corresponding to the library to open. To create a new library, select or create an empty folder.

Features:

• When the server is restarted, all Media Libraries previously opened are automatically re-opened (if their folder is still accessible).
• A Media Library can be assigned owner users and a private flag. If the flag is selected, this means only the owner users can view and access the library.
• If a user has access to multiple opened Media Libraries, the list of them will show up if the user click on the "Home" button from the home page of any Media Library.

Recommendations:

• Do not store Media Libraries on external storage drives. If a Media Library is open and then the drive letter changes, the content of the library may be lost.

If you are connected as a user with the Administrator Role, you can import media files into one Media Library.

To do so:

• Go to the home page of the library or go to the "Server Settings" page, select "Libraries", then click on the target media library.
• Click on the "Add a File..." to select a file on the server machine and import it.
• Or click on the "Add a Folder..." to select a folder on the server machine and import its content (all its files and sub-folders are scanned for media files).
• In the option dialog box, you can check some options to change the way files are imported.
  In particular, you can force any found video file to be imported as "Home Video" if you select the "Import as Home Video..." option.

You can import online medias from web sites into one Media Library in order to centralize them, for example all the movies you own from Amazon Video...

When you will play them from Genialist Media Server web-site, you will be redirected to the media provider web-site and page, except for YouTube videos which can be played without going to the YouTube web-site.

Genialist Media Server can extract some information (title, year, duration, etc...) from the following list of web-sites:

• YouTube,
• Amazon Video,
• Talk Talk Video,
• Netflix,
• Flixster Video,
• Google Play,
• Disney+ (only Movies work, if you import one TV Show, the behavior is unknown),
• BBC iPlayer (only Movies work, if you import one TV Show, the behavior is unknown).

Please contact us if you would like other sites to be supported.

If you are connected as a user with the Administrator Role, you can import URLs into one Media Library.

To do so:

• Go to the "Server Settings" page, select "Libraries", then click on the target media library.
• Click on the "Add a URL..." to type the URL and import it.

If a media file does not show up in the Home page in the "Recently Added" groups, you can find it in the "Recently Added" playlist.

The following files and folders will be automatically classified into media categories as following:

File/Folder Type	Condition	Media Category	Supported
Folder	Contains DVD files	Movie	Not supported, please contact us for support information...
	Contains BlueRay files	Movie	Not supported, please contact us for support information...
	Contains picture files (*.jpg, *.jpeg, *.gif, *.bmp, *.png, *.webp and *.tiff files)	Picture Folder	Yes
	Otherwise...	All files and sub-folders are imported recursively.
Video Files
*.3gp File		Movie	Yes
*.avi File		Movie	Yes
*.flac File		Music	Yes
*.flv File		Movie	Yes
*.mkv File		Depends on the media type tag inside the file...	Yes
*.mov File		Movie	Yes
*.mpeg File		Movie	Yes
*.mpg File		Movie	Yes
*.qt File		Movie	Yes
*.mp4 File	Contains iTunes purchaser tag...	Depends on the media type tag inside the file...	iTunes movies and videos are hidden in the web-site by default as they cannot play outside Apple Video software. You can however, make them visible through configuration in the Device Settings page.
	Otherwise...	Depends on the media type tag inside the file...	Yes
*.m4v File	Contains iTunes purchaser tag...	Depends on the media type tag inside the file...	iTunes movies and videos are hidden in the web-site by default as they cannot play outside Apple Video software. You can however, make them visible through configuration in the Device Settings page.
	Otherwise...	Depends on the media type tag inside the file...	Yes
*.webm File		Depends on the media type tag inside the file...	Yes
*.wmv File		Movie	Yes
Audio Files
*.mp3 File		Music	Yes
*.m4a File		Music	Yes
*.wav File		Music	Yes
*.wma File		Music	Yes
Book Files
*.epub File		Book	Yes
*.cbr File		Book	Yes
*.cbz File		Book	Yes
*.pdf File		Book	Yes
Music Lyric Files
*.lrc File	The filename must be the same as the associated Audio File.	Music Lyrics	Yes
Video Subtitle Files
*.ass File	The filename must be the same as the associated Video File.	Subtitles	Yes
*.ssa File	The filename must be the same as the associated Video File.	Subtitles	Yes
*.smi File	The filename must be the same as the associated Video File.	Subtitles	Yes
*.sami File	The filename must be the same as the associated Video File.	Subtitles	Yes
*.sbv File	The filename must be the same as the associated Video File.	Subtitles	Yes
*.srt File	The filename must be the same as the associated Video File.	Subtitles	Yes
*.stl File	The filename must be the same as the associated Video File.	Subtitles	Yes
*.sub File	The filename must be the same as the associated Video File.	Subtitles	Yes
*.ttml File	The filename must be the same as the associated Video File.	Subtitles	Yes
*.vtt File	The filename must be the same as the associated Video File.	Subtitles	Yes

A lot of other media formats can be imported but parsing their content may not be supported. Please contact us for any questions or issues you may have with those.

Genialist Media Server will read the media files and try to extract information from them (ID3 tags stored in *.mp3 files, metadata stored in *.flac, *.m4a, *.mp4, *.m4v, *.mkv, *.webm, and *.wma files).

If no information is found, the server will extract it from the "metadata.cfg" file present in the containing folder (see Edit Media Information).

If still no information is found, the server will extract it from the filename and containing folder name.

You can name your media files appropriately to help the server guess some of the information corresponding to the media category:

• For Music, you can name the file as:
  • <artist> # <title>.<extension>
  • <artist> # <track number> - <title>.<extension>
  Example:
  Prince # Kiss.mp3
  Prince # 01 - Kiss.mp3
• For Movies, you can name the file as:
  • <title> (<year>).<extension>
  Example:
  Thor (2011).mkv
• If one Movie is split in multiple files, you can name them as following (so the server will group them under the same movie):
  • <filename>(<part number>).<extension>
  • <filename>(<part letter>).<extension>
  • <filename>-Part <part letter>.<extension>, where "Part" can be in lowercase, uppercase or mixed lowercase and uppercase
  <filename> can be <title> (<year>).

  Part letters (A, B, C, D... or a, b, c, d...) are equivalent to part numbers starting at 1 (A or a is 1, B or b is 2, C or C is 3, etc...).

  Example:

  Thor (2011)/movie(1).mkv
  Thor (2011)/movie(2).mkv
  ...
  Thor (2011)/movie-part a.mkv
  Thor (2011)/movie-part b.mkv
  ...
• For Movies, you can name the containing folder as:
  • <title> (<year>)
  Example:
  Thor (2011)/movie.mp4
• For TV Shows, you can name each episode file as:
  • <show> # <season number>.<episode number> <title>.<extension>
  • <show> - <season number>.<episode number> <title>.<extension>
  • <show> S<season number>E<episode number> <title>.<extension>, where 'S' and 'E' can be in lowercase or uppercase
  Example:
  The Simpsons # 10.4.mp4
  The Simpsons - 10.4.mp4
  The Simpsons S10E4.mp4
  The Simpsons S10E4 There's No Disgrace Like Home.mp4
• For TV Shows, you can name the containing folder as:
  • <show> # <season>
  • <show> # Season <season>
  Example:
  The Simpsons # 10
  The Simpsons # Season 10

If you are connected as a user with the Administrator Role, you can change information about imported media files or even their category.

To do so:

• For some medias, you can click on the "File Properties..." button from the toolbar to change their information.

  Before version 0.9.16: In Music or Playlist pages, you need to expand the main toolbar, then click on the "Edit" button to reveal the toolbar button for each music or media track:

  

For any file or folder, the information is saved into a file named "metadata.cfg", in the folder containing the media file (if the file is a folder, "metadata.cfg" goes into the folder itself).

This file can be edited with any text editor software. It will be re-used if the media file is re-imported in the same library, or another media library or even another Genialist Media Server.

For the following files, the information is also saved into the file itself:

File/Folder Type	Condition	How information is saved...
Folder	Contains picture files only (*.jpg, *.jpeg, *.gif, *.bmp, *.png, *.webp and *.tiff files)	Thumbnail images are saved into "../=Html/i-<filename>.jpg" file. Information is saved into "metadata.cfg".
*.avi File		Thumbnail is saved as "=Thumbs/TN_<filename>.jpg" file. Information is saved into "metadata.cfg".
*.mp3 File		Title, artist, album, album artist, genre, thumbnail, etc... are saved into file...
*.m4a File	Contains iTunes purchaser tag...	Thumbnail is saved as "=Thumbs/TN_<filename>.jpg" file. Information is saved into "metadata.cfg".
	Otherwise...	Title, artist, album, album artist, genre, thumbnail, etc... are saved into file.
*.mkv File		Title, artist, album, album artist, genre, thumbnail, etc... are saved into file.
*.mov File		Thumbnail is saved as "=Thumbs/TN_<filename>.jpg" file. Information is saved into "metadata.cfg".
*.mp4 File	Contains iTunes purchaser tag...	Thumbnail is saved as "=Thumbs/TN_<filename>.jpg" file. Information is saved into "metadata.cfg".
	Otherwise...	Title, artist, album, album artist, genre, thumbnail, etc... are saved into file.
*.m4v File	Contains iTunes purchaser tag...	Thumbnail is saved as "=Thumbs/TN_<filename>.jpg" file. Information is saved into "metadata.cfg".
	Otherwise...	Title, artist, album, album artist, genre, thumbnail, etc... are saved into file.
*.epub File		Thumbnail is saved as "=Thumbs/TN_<filename>.jpg" file. Information is saved into "metadata.cfg".
*.cbr File		Thumbnail is saved as "=Thumbs/TN_<filename>.jpg" file. Information is saved into "metadata.cfg".
*.cbz File		Thumbnail is saved as "=Thumbs/TN_<filename>.jpg" file. Information is saved into "metadata.cfg".
*.pdf File		Thumbnail is saved as "=Thumbs/TN_<filename>.jpg" file. Information is saved into "metadata.cfg".
*.wma File		Thumbnail is saved as "=Thumbs/TN_<filename>.jpg" file. Information is saved into "metadata.cfg".
*.wmv File		Thumbnail is saved as "=Thumbs/TN_<filename>.jpg" file. Information is saved into "metadata.cfg".

• For Music:
  • Choose "Various Artists" in the "Album Artist" field for music albums that are compilations of songs from various artists...
  • If a song features multiple artists, choose the main artist in the field "Album Artist" and use the text " ft. " to separate the artist names in the "Artist" field...
  • The artist mentioned in the "Remixers" field will have the music song or video added into its own "Featured In" album...
• For TV Shows and Movies:
  • If the wrong information has been found, you can refine the search by editing the file information and entering the release date or year when the media was released or selecing the language or subtitle language of its media files.

    Then, you can hit the "Find Information" button in the toolbar so the server searches the information again.