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fuaho
fuaho
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Best practices for massive offline media import into LR 3.3....???

Jul 23, 2011 5:20 PM

I have hundreds of DVDs with thousands of images on them. I've imported a few disks just to test the program/workflow.

 

Once a disk has been imported, there is no longer any reference to it. The thumbnails all have a filename and path starting with G:\ (my BD drive) but the disk's ID data does not exist anywhere that I've been able to find.

 

I have a program called, "Advanced Disk Catalog" which will read all the folders and subfolders and files from a disk, as well as the disk ID just by inserting the disk and clicking a single button. Unfortunately, however, it does not create thumbnails.

 

Before I begin importing large numbers of disks and manually entering the disk ID for every one (in keywords and sublocation fields of the metadata), I'm wondering how others have handled this. Seems a waste of my time to have to modify the metadata for every single disk when, obviously, it can be read by software. Will LR do this?

 

Or...???

 

TIA,

705 Views   8 Replies   Latest reply: fuaho, Jul 26, 2011 9:21 AM
 
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  • fuaho
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    1. fuaho,
    Jul 24, 2011 2:23 PM   in reply to fuaho
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    Is anyone working with DVDs offline, or just external hard drives? Seems unusual to go a full day in a forum without some response.

     

    TIA,

     
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  • DdeGannes
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    2. DdeGannes,
    Jul 24, 2011 3:11 PM   in reply to fuaho
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    I have not seen any posts concerning working with photos on DVD disks. Maybe you can share a bit more info o what is happening. As far as I am aware if the disks are off line then you can only work in the Library mode.

     
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  • fuaho
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    3. fuaho,
    Jul 24, 2011 6:31 PM   in reply to DdeGannes
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    After I "Add" photos from a DVD in Library Mode the thumbnails are all referenced to my G:\ drive. However, LR does not appear to capture or use the Disk ID information. All my disks are in chronological order and use the 110724_2111, e.g., yymmdd_hhmm format as an ID. I would expect LR to know that the disk is coming from a DVD and utilize the ID information as a way to indicate which disk to insert when I want to work on an image.

     

    In other words, if I do a search for "Costa Rica, green heron" the returned thumbnails should indicate that the original is on 060226_2300. I would then find and load that disk into the BD burner and LR would open the image for me to work on or print. This does not happen. The returned thumbnails only indicate "G:\CostaRica\Birds\IMG_2377.CR2. There is no way to tell what DVD that image is on.

     

    What I have been doing is including the disk information in the keyword metadata for all the images on that disk. This way, whatever image I click on shows me which disk it is on. However, this requires manual intervention on every single disk import.

     

    Since I know that other software can read and use this information, I'm wondering if there is a setting to do this in LR and if not, why not. I can't be the only new user of LR with a massive archive of photographic material on DVDs. How do others do this??

     

    TIA,

     
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  • PhotoGAP
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    4. PhotoGAP,
    Jul 24, 2011 7:51 PM   in reply to fuaho
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    What do others do?

     

    Eventually, a few of your DVDs will deteriorate, at which time it would be advisable to migrate your entire archive over to new media. With 1+ TB drives available now, at such low prices, I thinks it's been an easy decision for many folks to go that route, especially since each has the capacity of hundreds of DVDs. Then, most, if not all, of your archive is in one place that's easy for LR to interact with.

     
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  • Ian Lyons
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    5. Ian Lyons,
    Jul 25, 2011 12:37 AM   in reply to fuaho
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    In other words, if I do a search for "Costa Rica, green heron" the returned thumbnails should indicate that the original is on 060226_2300. I would then find and load that disk into the BD burner and LR would open the image for me to work on or print. This does not happen. The returned thumbnails only indicate "G:\CostaRica\Birds\IMG_2377.CR2. There is no way to tell what DVD that image is on.

     

     

     

    I can't remember the details, but do recall an issue way back in early days of Lr whereby it couldn't use the disk ID on Windows platform. The issue was Windows specific as Mac users didn't have the problem. If memory serves me correctly it was identified as a limitation of Windows rather than a platform specific bug. Sorry I can't provide more details.

     
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  • kwdaves
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    6. kwdaves,
    Jul 25, 2011 5:22 AM   in reply to Ian Lyons
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    I don't know why this is a problem for Lightroom, but on my Windows 7 machine the disc ID or "name" shows up after the drive letter in Windows Explorer. For example, a disc named "Images 1" when burned would show up as "DVD RW (G) Images 1" in Explorer on my machine.

     
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  • fuaho
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    7. fuaho,
    Jul 25, 2011 7:04 AM   in reply to kwdaves
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    @kwdaves:

     

    I agree that it appears to be a LR spcific problem, not Windows. As I mentioned, "Advanced Disk Catalog" and other Windows-based software can read the disk ID and integrate it into their databases with no problems. Perhaps this should be a LR feature request?

     

    @PhotGAP:

     

    Thanks for your input. I already have thousands of images on 1- and 2-TB eSATA, RAID10 drives. However, the time and additional storage that would be required to copy all my DVDs is counterproductive and would need even more "hands on" attention before I could begin the LR import workflow.

     
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  • fuaho
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    8. fuaho,
    Jul 26, 2011 9:21 AM   in reply to fuaho
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    After some messing about, this is the solution that works for me:

     

    From Library, select "Import..."

    Insert DVD containing images.

    When it appears in the Source column, select it and check "Include Subfolders."

    Without waiting for it to create thumbnails, select "Import."

    Let LR create all the thumbnails. (Get up, stretch your legs, get coffee, make a phonecall, write checks, etc...)

    Use ctrl A to select all images.

    In Metadata window, type the Disk ID in the Sublocation field. Press Enter

    "Set Metadata on Multiple Photos" will appear. Click on "Apply to Selected."

     

    You will now have a way to back track to the disk where any image resides.

     

    I find it easiest to add keywords immediately after changing the sublocation.

     

    Hope you find this useful! 

     
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