Finding videos

Once you have entered some videos into AMV Tracker, you will want to be able to easily locate them later, especially as your database grows larger and larger. To facilitate this, AMV Tracker has many quick-and-easy-to-use search options. We'll start by looking at the left side of the main window:

Sub-DBs vs. Custom Lists radio buttons

Sub-DBs radio button

At the very top of the left section in AMV Tracker, you'll see two radio buttons: "Sub-DBs" and "Custom Lists". Whichever one is clicked will determine which videos AMV Tracker can display to you at any given time. By default this is set to "Sub-DBs", and when it is set this way the dropdown box immediately beneath it will be enabled, allowing you to select which specific sub-DB you will be searching through. You can then add other filters as described throughout the rest of this page. This is the setting you will probably use most of the time.

Custom Lists radio button

If, however, you have the Custom Lists button checked, you will not be able to specify the sub-DB to search through, since videos associated with a Custom List can be added from any sub-DB. You will also not be able to specify additional filters. Instead, you'll be shown a list of the Custom Lists you've created below the "Filter by" dropdown, and clicking any one of them will bring up all the video entries associated with that Custom List.

Basic filters

If you have the "Sub-DBs" radio button checked, you will have access to a number of "quick filters" in the "Filter by" dropdown that you can apply to easily identify videos by common search criteria. Below are each one of them in turn (please note, all below filters will only apply to the sub-DB selected in the dropdown immediately beneath the "Sub-DB" radio button):

• Show all: This is the default, and when selected it will display all the video entries in the selected sub-DB.

• Custom list: This will list out all the Custom Lists you have created, and clicking on one will display all the video entries in that Custom List from the selected sub-DB. If a Custom List has video entries from multiple sub-DBs, you can see all the video entries by clicking the "Custom Lists" radio button instead of "Sub-DBs". See the "Custom Lists radio button" section above for more details on this. Selecting this filter will also show a text box that displays the description of the selected Custom List, if you have given it one either on creation or by editing it in AMV Tracker's Settings.

• Date added to database: Gives a range of relative time frames for when videos were added to the database. Clicking any one of the listed options will display any videos added in the stated time frame. If you want to denote a specific date range instead of a relative one, please use advanced filters.

• Editor username: Shows all videos from this editor. If this editor is listed as an "additional editor" on a video entry, that video entry will also be displayed. If you have identified one or more pseudonyms for this editor, video entries listed with such a pseudonym as the primary editor username will also be displayed.

• Favorited videos: Shows all videos which either have the "Favorite" checkbox checked, or unchecked, depending on what you select.

• My rating: Shows all videos which have the selected My Rating.

• Notable videos: Shows all videos which either have the "Notable" checkbox checked, or unchecked, depending on what you select.

• Song artist: Shows all videos which have the selected song artist. Please note that the selected song artist must match exactly what is on the video entry, thus selecting "Linkin Park" would NOT also show video entries that have the artist name entered as "Linkin Park & Jay-Z".

• Song genre: Shows all videos which have the selected song genre.

• Star rating: Shows all videos which have a star rating that falls within the selected range.

• Studio: Shows all videos which have the selected studio.

• Video footage: Shows all videos which have the selected video footage as one of the sources listed on the video entry. This will show multi-source videos, so long as the selected video footage is explicitly listed on the entry.

• Video footage (single source only): Shows all videos which have the selected video footage as the only listed source on that video entry.

• Video length: Shows all videos whose duration (in seconds) falls within the selected range.

• Year released: Shows all videos whose release date falls within the selected year.

Stats for displayed videos and 'mass functions'

This box shows a handful of basic statistics on the videos displayed in the video list, and updates as the makeup of the video list changes.

Below the stats box is a series of five buttons, all of which act on the specific list of videos that are currently displayed/being filtered. Let's walk through what each of them does:

• Play random video: Randomly select a video from this list which is stored locally and play it. If there are no local video file paths specified in any of the filtered video entries (see this for details on how to add a local file path to a video entry), you will get an error message and no action will be taken.

• Open random YouTube link: Randomly select a video from this list which has a YouTube link specified and open that link. If there are no YouTube URLs specified in any of the filtered video entries (see this for details on how to add a YouTube URL to a video entry), you will get an error message and no action will be taken.

• Mass edit: Clicking this button will bring up a new screen which allows you to mass edit the filtered videos. This screen has four buttons at the top:

  1. DL thumbs from YT: Will download thumbnails for all filtered video entries which have a YouTube URL. If a thumbnail already exists for the entry, this will overwrite that existing thumbnail.

  2. Generate thumbs: Will generate a random thumbnail image for all filtered videos which have a local file path specified. PLEASE NOTE: This can take a long time, especially if the filtered list is large.

  3. Delete: Will delete all filtered videos from the selected sub-DB.

  4. Help: Brings up a screen that explains the functionality of the Mass Edit window.

  Below this are a bunch of text edit boxes and dropdown menus (henceforth referred to as "edit areas"), with corresponding radio buttons to the right. Each field that can be mass edited is included here, allowing you to edit the field and specify (based on the selected radio button) how you want the field to be actioned, on all the filtered videos. Not every edit action applies to every type of field. Below are the meanings of each edit action:

  • No action: Nothing will be done to this field, even if you e.g. type something in the corresponding text box, select something in the corresponding dropdown, etc.

  • Overwrite: Whatever you put in the corresponding edit area will overwrite that field on all filtered video entries. (For example, if you type "Hello!" in the "Comments" box and select the Overwrite radio button, all filtered videos will have their Comment field updated to read "Hello!" If there was data in any of the Comment fields before, it will be replaced with "Hello!")

  • Add to: Whatever you put into the field will be added to the corresponding field on all filtered videos. If the field is a text field, your changes will be added to the end of the text field on all videos and will appear after any already-existing text. For tags, they will simply be added to the list of selected tags for all filtered video entries.

  • Clear field: All data in the corresponding field will be cleared for all filtered videos, regardless of if you changed the value(s) in the corresponding edit area.

  • Set checked/set unchecked: The corresponding checkbox will be checked or unchecked, accordingly, on all filtered videos.

  • Update: Essentially the same as "Overwrite", but terminology was changed to make more sense for the two fields that this applies to (My Rating and Star Rating)

  • Remove tags: (Tags fields only) Will remove any of the selected tags from all filtered videos (if they exist on those videos).

• Add to Custom List: Add all filtered videos to a Custom List.

• Export filtered videos: Export all filtered video entries to a .csv file.

Advanced filters

There are instances where you might want to get more specific with the videos (or types of videos) you are searching for that goes beyond what the basic filters can provide. This might include inputting specific date ranges to find videos released in a certain timeframe; or it could mean using looser constraints on text fields to find a broader range of videos; it could also mean combining filters using boolean logic to expand or narrow your search in very particular ways. Luckily, advanced filters can do all of this.

Advanced filters can be found on the right side of the main window:

As you can see, you can add up to six advanced filters at a time. To add a filter, click the "Add filter" button at the top. Doing so will bring up another screen that presents a dropdown allowing you to select any field found on a video entry. From there, and depending on the type of field it is, you will be shown multiple radio buttons and (in most cases) an edit area where you can either type in text, select a value from one or more dropdown menus, or enter a tag select screen to choose tags to search for. The radio buttons in all cases will determine the logic that AMV Tracker uses to search for matches based on that criteria.

You can add up to six filters in this way. As you add the filters, the text boxes will display the field, search parameters, and your customized input so you can see exactly what each filter in turn looks like. Clicking the "EXCLUDE" checkbox next to any filter will find all video entries that DON'T match the given filter rule.

You can also select AND/OR logic here by choosing one or the other from the dropdown right below the "Add filter" button. "Match ALL filters" means that all your selected filters must be found to be True in order for a video to be displayed once the filters are applied. "Match ANY filters" means that as long as any one of your rules returns True, the video will be included in the search results. You can see how AMV Tracker will consider the filters (along with any which have the "EXCLUDE" checkbox checked) by looking at the "Filter logic" text box at the bottom of the box -- you cannot edit this directly, it is only there to show you what the logic will look like.

Once you have added all the filters that you want, click "Apply filters" and AMV Tracker will display the videos that meet your provided filter criteria. Click "Clear filters" to reset all filters in AMV Tracker and un-filter your video list.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Advanced filters can be combined with basic filters! If you have already selected a basic filter on the left, and you enter and apply one or more advanced filters on the right, the right-side filters will only be searching through the list of videos that is shown by the basic filters (and vice versa, if you enter advanced filters first).

There is one other powerful function here, called Iterative filters. Normally, when you press the "Clear filters" button, all filters are un-applied on the left and right sides. However, clicking "Iterative filters" will keep your filtered list intact, and will allow you to add more advanced filters to continue reducing your list of videos, in case (for example) six filters wasn't enough, or in case you want to combine AND and OR logic. You can use iterative filters as many times as you want.