I have found the tag tool, that comes with the Digital Entertainer software, to be priceless when adding movies and shows to my server. What I really love is the automatic adding of the tags using the Internet Movie Database.

Here are a few examples of what the tool can do, how it works and why everyone should use it.

First, let's say you have copied some home movies to your computer and want to add them to your EVA.

Most video capture programs do not add any tags to the file. If you simply copy the movie to your computer and rescan your shares, you may find that the video either does not show up or may show up with a simple dash (-) where the name should go.

To keep this from happening you would load your video up in the tag tool program and give it some information.

First, I would recommend you name the newly created video file something that you would want to use as the tagged name. Like "ThanksGiving 2007 at Grandmas"

This will help you later in tagging the video. Once you have the video where you want it, run the Tag tool and then click on browse to find the video you created.

Now you can select the video and enter any information into the tag. Notice the photo above says the title is "Untitled" this is where the file name comes in very handy! Just highlight and copy the text under "movie name to search for" on the top right and copy it over the Untitled name.

Then you can enter any more information about the video into the tag as you desire. You want to put in who was at Grandmas? Just put their names into the "Cast" area. If you want to add the year of the video in, put it into the year information.

Once you are happy, just click apply and you will have all the information available to your EVA. Once note though, you have to run a full scan, not a quick scan of your shares, before you will see all the information on your EVA.

I also have a lot of movies on DVD that I like to make available to both my EVA and my TiVos. To do this I have to copy the DVD to my server and then convert them to MPG files that the Tivo can use. When doing this, there is no information in the tag to describe the video or to show a thumbnail of the video on my EVA. Again Tag Tool comes to the rescue.

Let's use my DVD of Harry Potter to show you how easy it is. After you have copied it to an MPG (sorry, won't get into how to do this in this article) you would again run the Tag Tool, Browse and find the movie.

Once you have found it, you will probably see something like this.

This is where the tag Tool really shines! You can use the internet to find everything you need for this movie.

Once you select it you can search the internet either using the Internet Movie Database, Google or Amazon. What I have found is that the internet movie database (imdb.com) seems to work the best.

Simply highlight the movie and click on search internet Movie Database. You should get something like this.

Notice that the back and form fill buttons are grayed out. This is because the search did not come up with all the correct information. No problem though. Notice that the "Popular titles" is shown and you can select the correct name. In this case, all you have to do is click on the "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" link.

Once you do that you will see that the "Form Fill" is no longer grayed out. This is because the tag Tool has found the information it needs.

Now all you have to do is click on the Form Fill button and it will fill in everything you need.

If you are happy with the information you can just click on Apply and you are all set. If you want to edit or change anything, you can and then apply your changes.

Here are a few things I have discovered in doing this that might help you out.

1) I have found the Internet Movie Database to work the best and fastest.

2) The file name is very important. For example underscores between words or extra info at the end of the filename, Date, year, etc. causes the movie to not be found. The simpler the filename the better.

3) You must run a full scan on your EVA after making tag changes before they will show up.

Once you have created all your tags you will find that finding your movies, home made videos or TV shows easier for both you and the rest of your family.