How do I delete movies from my movie library?

[syoung27]

Hello, new to Windows 7 Media Center and these forums. I have begun backing up my movies onto an external hard drive, and have encountered a slight annoyance: I have a few "movies" showing up in my movie library that don't have any files associated with them, and I'm not even sure how they got there in the first place. I'd like to take them off the list, but can't figure out how. I would also like to know how to remove movies from the library for future reference as well. I've attached a picture to demonstrate my issue. Thank you!

 

[not so gray matter]

This may help you:

I think I remember getting around this by using Windows Media Player, as Media Center just seems to just sit over top.

Delete the existing library contents in Windows Media Player.
Use More Options > Library > Monitor Folders, configure and import again.
Once you've got the library in Windows Media Player the way you want it, Media Center should clone what is there.

 

[Brash]

Hello, new to Windows 7 Media Center and these forums. I have begun backing up my movies onto an external hard drive, and have encountered a slight annoyance: I have a few "movies" showing up in my movie library that don't have any files associated with them, and I'm not even sure how they got there in the first place. I'd like to take them off the list, but can't figure out how. I would also like to know how to remove movies from the library for future reference as well. I've attached a picture to demonstrate my issue. Thank you!

Answer: Go back into that Movie section and do nothing... just let it sit there on that screen... and go to sleep or go shopping or something.
See, the way WMC works is that it scans files extensively... I think for the purpose of scouting out protected files... If you read their Terms and Conditions and agreed to them you end up giving them the right to do that... Anyhow, you don't need to worry though. They don't understand how to regulate content made by people at home whom rip dvd's into an avi.. So what's the point? Because microsoft has to appease the major tv and movie companies to get them interested in bringing safe content to their product... so they do that to make it look like something is being done.
So we must suffer as it does it's thorough scans.

And, as you can guess, this takes a while.. So you basically have to wait for the background scanning process to eventually make it up the directory structure and figure out that that movie no longer exists... or to figure out a file has been moved or renamed... in which case you will then see duplicates until the scan has figured it out...
What is even more annoying is that you can delete a movie straight from there and it may leave an empty icon/picture like it is still there... until the scan catches up with it's own deletions... lol

Anyhow. There is your answer:

Stay in that section... The moment you leave it to go to anothere section or if you play anything or do ANYTHING THAT TAKES YOU OUT OF THE MOVIE SECTION.. IT STOPS IT'S SCAN.

I think I have about 400 movies.. and it probably takes about 2-4 hours for it to run it's course... it starts over from the begining everytime you reenter.

You can test what I say by simply entering and staying there for like a few minutes, exit back to the main section, wait 5 seconds and then reenter it to find it may have updated a few files in that time. If you leave it there before going to bed everything will be done by the next day. But you must leave it in that screen that is in your photo... and you won't know if anything has changed until you exit it and reenter. So don't be tempted to keep exiting if you want it to ever finish.

 

[syoung27]

Thanks to both the responses. I will definitely give each of them a try and report back. I've been using XBMC in the meantime, which does a great job a recognizing file structures, but I'd like WMC to be there for me as well. I'll let you know.

 

[Brash]

My advice is to just do what I do.... give up on that section... as nice as it is to have those large movies listed with covers it just is toooooooooooo slow... Because of this I use their Video Library section (next to pictures) for all downloaded movies... Why? because it's instant with any changes you make.

Also, you still can do covers, but they are just smaller.


If you browse there microsoft makes the assumption that you are just going to look at family videos and not copyright content so they don't do their rigorous scans. lol

There is also another advantage to that section.. it maintains directory structure!! So you can have a folder for Drama, one for Horror, Comedy... and so on so you can find your stuff faster..

In the Movies section (one in your picture) it has no structure so when you eventially have hundreds of movies it takes FOREVER to navigate... especially if you attempt to put TV episodes. Holy god... Never do that! Never do TV episodes for that section.. it'll be your worst nightmare.

Look at my picture below. My video library is almost as nice

 

[syoung27]

Alright, so I solved the problem. Apparently, somehow, WMC was cataloging files in my recycle bin outside of my external HDD - I'm not exactly sure how because I never saw those files in there, even when looking for hidden files, and the file path didn't make any sense (i.e., "Computer --> G: --> $Recycle --> Recycle Bin), and that led to my actual recycle bin on my computer. That might not make sense, and it still doesn't to me. Once I emptied the recycle bin the problem was solved.

I am curious as to your suggestion Brash. I tried using that, and I get the smaller images, but I don't know how to play them. My files are ripped into the VIDEO_TS format, and when I try to choose "Play All" for a folder I get sound with no image, and if I try to play a single file within the folder it doesn't move to the next folder. What I've actually done is installed a plug-in for XBMC into WMC because XBMC does recognize file structure, and works wonderfully. It would be nice to only use WMC though so I can get remote controller compatibility, and especially since I put TV shows on my drive I'd love a working file structure.

Thanks for the help everyone!

 

[Brash]

actually, i don't know. I think i haven't played a video_ts in there before. I don't like vob's becuase they are usually divided up and huge..so everything I use is avi/mpg/mkv/ogg becuase they save much more space.

sorry.