Video Metadata

By the time your video files are placed in the respective video folders, metadata and poster image of the videos are collected automatically from the Internet, except for home videos whose metadata must be edited from scratch on your own.

DSM admin or users belonging to the administrators group can edit and correct video information; non-admin users can only view video and media information.

Edit Video Metadata

You as DSM admin or users belonging to the administrators group can edit video info if you would like to revise the metadata on your own, or if you have found mistakes in the metadata automatically retrieved from the Internet.

You can also take advantage of systems' metadata-loading feature to auto fill in the metadata or modify incorrect video information. To make sure correct metadata obtained from the Internet can be properly applied to the fields of video info, please follow the naming rules for video files here.

Note that the information auto-fill service is not available for home videos.

To edit video info:

  1. Go to any video tab on the left panel, and select the video you want to edit.
  2. Click the Action drop-down menu, and click Edit video info.
  3. In the window that appears, make changes to the information in the text field as needed, or do the following depending on the category you selected:
  4. Under the Poster tab, if the original poster image is not the one you are looking for (For Home Video, the poster would be the video thumbnail), simply type in the web address at which your desired image can be found at the URL field. The image will be loaded to replace the original one.
  5. Click OK to save the changes.

Note: You can update video info from time to time with the Re-index button at Settings > Video Folder. However, if Lock status in the Video Info tab is locked, video info will not be updated automatically when it is searched and retrieved over the Internet (not applicable to Home Video and TV Recording).

To search video metadata from the Internet (not applicable to Home Video and TV Recording) or from existing videos:

  1. Follow step 1 to 3 of To edit video info to continue.
  2. In the window that appears, enter keywords of the movie, TV show, or home video title, TV show season or episode number in the corresponding fields, select display language for video info, and press Enter on your keyboard or click Search. Videos matching the search criteria will appear below.
  3. Browse through the search result, select one correct item from the list, and click Apply. The metadata of the selected video will be applied to the fields at the Video Info tab.
  4. Click OK to save the changes, or click Reset to restore the original data if you have found the applied metadata is not the one you are looking for, and make another search with the Search Internet button again.
  5. Note: If the video info language selected here is different from the one currently applied and if video info in the selected language is available over the Internet, the selected language will be applied to the metadata of the video in question. However, if later on you want to change the video info language of movies or TV shows stored in the corresponding folders all together at a time at Settings > Video Folder > Edit > Video Info Language, the language setting will not be applied to the files whose language has been adjusted via the Search Internet function. You need to manually change them one by one on this interface.

Correct Video Metadata

You can correct video info if you have found the metadata retrieved from the Internet is not exactly correct as well.

The difference between the options Edit video info and Correct video info on the Action drop-down menu is that the latter is available only when a movie, TV show episode, or TV recording program contains more than one video file. For example, if a three-hour movie comprises three video clips, one-hour long per clip, you can modify the metadata of the clip(s) which has/have errors, and the modified information will be applied to the other clips grouped under this movie.

Please note that only when changes are made to the following fields of Movie/TV Show/Home Video will the corrected video clip be classified to another video. Otherwise, the clip which has been revised will still belong to the same movie, TV show episode, or home video.

View Media Info

You can view media info by selecting any video, clicking the Action drop-down menu and clicking View media info.