- What changed:

Added external_view_count so provider totals from YouTube/Vimeo/etc are 
added to the site’s total without double-counting local plays.
Updated public totals and per-video public view displays to use site 
views + external views.
Changed Upkeeping action to Correct external view counts with a Correct 
Views button.
Expanded provider scraping beyond YouTube with generic 
page/JSON-LD/oEmbed patterns for readable Vimeo, Dailymotion, and 
similar pages.
Improved Add Video:Title no longer has to be manually entered first.
External URL rows now have Fetch Info.
Metadata can fill title, description, duration, source label, and 
external view count.
Save also retries metadata extraction server-side.

Added authenticated metadata endpoint: 
[admin/media_info.php](/Users/tyemeclifford/Documents/GH/mediaplayer/admin/media_info.php).
Updated docs in 
[README.md](/Users/tyemeclifford/Documents/GH/mediaplayer/README.md).

README.md

@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ Styled to match the existing `gate.php` / `index.php` dark theme exactly.
 ### Adding Videos (Admin)
 
 1. Go to `admin/add.php`
-2. Fill in title, description, duration, sort order
+2. Fill in title, description, duration, sort order, or paste an external URL and click **Fetch Info** to auto-fill readable metadata
 3. Upload a thumbnail (JPG/PNG/WebP)
 4. Add one or more video sources. Each source can be either:
    - an uploaded local video file, stored under `media/videos/`
@@ -78,6 +78,8 @@ Styled to match the existing `gate.php` / `index.php` dark theme exactly.
 
 External URLs must use `http://` or `https://`. Uploaded files and remote URLs can be mixed on the same video. Recognized provider URLs such as YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Twitch, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, X/Twitter, SoundCloud, Spotify, Google Drive, Wistia, Streamable, and Loom render through their embed players.
 
+When adding an external URL, the admin form can fetch title, description, duration, thumbnail metadata, and readable provider view counts through oEmbed, page metadata, and JSON-LD. The save action repeats the metadata lookup as a fallback, so blank titles can be filled from supported external pages even if the browser autofill was not used.
+
 If no thumbnail image is uploaded, the add/edit forms can auto-grab one from the first supported source. YouTube and Dailymotion use direct thumbnail URLs; Vimeo, Wistia, TikTok, SoundCloud, and Spotify use oEmbed when available. Local uploaded videos can generate a first-frame thumbnail when `ffmpeg` is installed on the server.
 
 ### Importing YouTube Channels
@@ -88,7 +90,7 @@ Imported YouTube videos use the video's original publish date for the database `
 
 ### View Counts and Public Statistics
 
-Each public player load increments the video's `view_count`, including standalone embeds served through `embed.php`. View counts appear in the admin video list and can be edited per video from **Admin → Edit Video** for older local uploads or manual corrections.
+Each public player load increments the video's site-local `view_count`, including standalone embeds served through `embed.php`. External provider totals are stored separately as `external_view_count`, and public totals add local and external counts together. View counts appear in the admin video list and can be edited per video from **Admin → Edit Video** for older local uploads or manual corrections.
 
 The public display is configurable in **Admin → Settings → Public Display**:
 
@@ -96,7 +98,7 @@ The public display is configurable in **Admin → Settings → Public Display**:
 - show or hide the total public view count
 - show or hide public page statistics on the homepage and catalogue
 
-The admin dashboard also includes **Upkeeping → Restore external view counts**. It checks existing remote-source videos in batches, scrapes readable provider counts when available, and stores the higher value between the provider count and the local database count. YouTube watch pages are supported first; unsupported providers and local-only uploads can still be corrected manually on the edit screen.
+The admin dashboard also includes **Upkeeping → Correct external view counts**. It checks existing remote-source videos in batches, scrapes readable provider counts when available, and adds those provider totals to the media-site totals without double-counting local plays. YouTube has dedicated parsing, and generic metadata patterns cover readable Vimeo, Dailymotion, and similar provider pages when they expose counts. Unsupported providers and local-only uploads can still be corrected manually on the edit screen.
 
 ### Public Search