About VsMetaFileCodec

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NOTE

Synology has deprecated VideoStation (faka DS Video). Therefore, it does not really make sense to further develop this repo. So, please consider it being deprecated. In case you need this for last-minute actions to get your videos archived and need therefore this code, please feel free to hand-in your suggestions. I'll archive this repo by end of 2024.

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Summary

NAS manufacturer Synology provides, for its network attached storage devices (NAS), a video content manager called Video Station. The application enables the NAS to stream videos over your LAN. Information about these videos are stored in a local Postgres database and optionally by files with extension .vsmeta. The format is proprietary. The tool provided here is able to read and write vsMetaFiles. The structure has been elaborated by reverse engineering and resources found here. Many thanks to Carlos Ballesteros Velasco.

Prerequisites

Once a video is written into a directory, Video Station looks for .vsmeta files if these conditions are met:

• The folder is part of a Video Station library.
• At least once, an export of metadata has been triggered. This can be done at the library settings of Video Station.
• The .vsmeta file has the same name as the video, appended by .vsmeta. Example: The video is called video.mpg, the metadata file shall be named video.mpg.vsmeta.
• The .vsmeta file is available when Video Station indexes the video file first time.
• The content type (movie, series, other) is equal to the type specified in the .vsmeta file.

Limitations

• Media type 'others' is currently not supported.
• All known fields are supported in this version (See list below).

How to use the code

Here's an example piece of code. Other examples can be found in the unit test classes. Please refer also to search_check.py.

    import os
    from datetime import date 
    from vsmetaCodec.vsmetaMovieEncoder import VsMetaMovieEncoder
    from vsmetaCodec.vsmetaInfo import VsMetaInfo
    
    class writeVsMetaForMovie():

        def test_encodeTemplate4(self):

            writer = VsMetaMovieEncoder()

            info = writer.info
            info.showTitle = 'Kino - Filme'
            info.episodeTitle = 'Nach der Hochzeit'
            info.episodeReleaseDate = date(2021, 3, 8)
            info.chapterSummary = 'Um die drohende Schließung seines indischen Waisenhauses abzuwenden...'

            writeVsMetaFile(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__)),'videp.mp4.vsmeta'), writer.encode(info))

The code will be available on PyPI soon and can be installed with command pip install vsMetaCodec.

Field mapping

Here's how to use the vsMetaInfo class for the different media types.

Series

To encode the episode of a series, use the vsMetaInfo class with a vsMetaSeriesEncoder. Have a look at the test classes to see how it works best. The table below describes how to set the vsMetaInfo properties.

Field in Video Station	vsMetaInfo property	Remark
TV Show Name	showTitle	assign any tv show name as text of type 'str'
Episode Title	episodeTitle	assign any text of type 'str'
Publishing Date	episodeReleaseDate	assign any date of type 'date' or 'str' in ISO format
Season	season	type int: If not set, defaulted with publishing year of episode.
Episode	episode	type int: If not set, defaulted with week no. x 10 + weekday no. (Monday=1)
Publishing Date (Episode)	tvshowReleaseDate	assign any date of type 'date' or 'str' in ISO format
Poster (of Serie)	posterImageInfo.image	assign a jpg-image as bytestring (the md5-hash is calculated automatically)
Locked	episodeLocked	assign 'True' if 'VideoStation' may not alter the vsmeta file content
Summary	chapterSummary	assign any text of type 'str'
Classification	classification	assign any text of type 'str'
Rating	rating	assign any float value in the range of 0.0. to 10.0 or -1.0 for unknown
Cast	list.cast[]	append 'actor names' of type 'str' to the list
Genre	list.genre[]	append 'genres' of type 'str' to the list, e.g. 'Drama', 'Action'
Director	list.director[]	append 'director names' of type 'str' to the list
Writer	list.writer[]	append 'author names' of type 'str' to the list
Poster (of Episode)	episodeImageInfo.image	assign a jpg-image as bytestring (the md5-hash is calculated automatically)
Background (of Serie)	backdropImageInfo.image	assign a jpg-image as bytestring (the md5-hash is calculated automatically)

Movies

To encode a TV film or movie, use the vsMetaInfo class with a vsMetaMoviesEncoder. The property names might be confusing, don't think too much about it - just use them as listed below.

Field in Video Station	vsMetaInfo property	Remark
Title	showTitle	assign any title text of type 'str'
Short Title	episodeTitle	assign any short title text of type 'str'
Publishing Date	episodeReleaseDate	assign any date of type 'date' or 'str' in ISO format
Season	season	N/A - not used, set to 0
Episode	episode	N/A - not used, set to 0
Publishing Date (Episode)	tvshowReleaseDate	N/A - not used, set to 1900-01-01
Poster (of Serie)	posterImageInfo.image	N/A - not used, set to VsImageInfo()
Locked	episodeLocked	assign 'True' if 'VideoStation' may not alter the vsmeta file content
Summary	chapterSummary	assign any text of type 'str'
Classification	classification	assign any text of type 'str'
Rating	rating	assign any float value in the range of 0.0. to 10.0 or -1.0 for unknown
Cast	list.cast[]	append 'actor names' of type 'str' to the list
Genre	list.genre[]	append 'genres' of type 'str' to the list, e.g. 'Drama', 'Action'
Director	list.director[]	append 'director names' of type 'str' to the list
Writer	list.writer[]	append 'author names' of type 'str' to the list
Poster (of Movie)	episodeImageInfo.image	assign a jpg-image as bytestring (the md5-hash is calculated automatically)
Background (of Movie)	backdropImageInfo.image	assign a jpg-image as bytestring (the md5-hash is calculated automatically)

Media type 'other'

This media type is not supported, and probably won't. It is intended for private videos or artwork, which will be edited most likely manually at uploading.

Screenshots of the property screens for the media types

Here are the screenshots of the supported media types in German English (I did not have English screenshots at hand - please add them if you have).

How to contribute

You're welcome to contribute, but please be aware of ...

• You should provide a unit test for your changes with a good coverage. To do this, install nose2 and coverage and execute the tests with:

  $ python -m venv venv
  $ source venv/bin/activate
  $ pip install nose2
  $ pip install coverage
  $ nose2 --verbose
  test_encodeTemplate2 (testvsmetaSeriesEncoder.TestVsMetaEncoder.test_encodeTemplate2) ... ok
  test_encodeTemplate3 (testvsmetaSeriesEncoder.TestVsMetaEncoder.test_encodeTemplate3) ... ok
  test_encodeTemplate4 (testvsmetaSeriesEncoder.TestVsMetaEncoder.test_encodeTemplate4) ... ok
  (...)

• I won't react immediately with checking your pull requests in, but will try to do it within some days.

References

• Synology Video Station:
  • Help in Support Center
  • Product Page