Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Currently, HandyMKV generates final output filenames based on the source disc title, but it lacks the ability for the user to specify a custom name. This leads to a manual, post-processing step where I have to rename each file, which can be time-consuming and inefficient. A DVD main feature might come out as 'C4.mkv" instead of something meaningful like "Gladiator.mkv"
Describe the solution you'd like
I would like to request the addition of a feature that allows users to define a custom filename or a filename template for the final output file before the encoding process begins.
This could be implemented in several ways:
- A simple prompt or flag: either right as the tool kicks off or at least before the Handbrake step begins, the tool should prompt for a final file name. Prompting could be controlled by an optional, opt-in configuration item, preserving backwards compatibility. Additionally, if a file name is passed via a flag (such as
-oor--output), the prompt would by bypassed. - Use the disc name as a default or base: this could certainly be hit or miss, but using the disc name as a base would be better than nothing. for discs where multiple titles are ripped (such as TV shows), it could be formatted as
DISCNAME_1.mkv, DISCNAME_2.mkv, etc. - OMDB lookup: This is the most involved but also most comprehensive. If the disc is a blu-ray, it may have a metadata file at /BDMV/META/DL/bdmt_eng.xml that contains some of the metadata; if it does not exist, or if the disc is a dvd, HandyMKV could use what metadata it does have to query OMDB to determine the name and date of the movie, and provide a well-formatted file name to match (such as
Movie Title (YYYY).mkv.
Note: The OMDb API requires a personal API key, which is free for non-commercial use with a daily limit of 1,000 requests. The tool's documentation or configuration could provide a clear way for users to enter their key.
Describe alternatives you've considered
The only current alternative is to manually rename the final file after the entire HandyMKV process is complete. This is the problem the feature request aims to solve. Automating this step would greatly improve the tool's usability.
Additional context
This feature would streamline the workflow for anyone using HandyMKV to digitize their physical media library, making file organization much easier and eliminating a repetitive manual step.
It should be pretty simple to implement some type of prompt before processing begins. Maybe right after you select the tracks you want you can either choose to name the output files or you can just hit 'N' in order to skip.
I will also look into the bdmt_eng.xml thing you mentioned but I don't know how uniform the contents of such xml files is. There is also the question of whether such a file is there at all. I will look into this.
This is certainly an issue that I have thought about myself. But the question I always come back to is how confident I feel when it comes to what the names of the files should be. For example, if the content is broken up into episodes, a lot of time the order of the tracks is not guaranteed to be correlated with the order of the episodes.