Thank you, T-bird_se.
What is the offline Media Manager for?
Not sure as I never used it,but I think that you can import data for movies still on DVD/Blueray to the DB
Dan can give a better answer
Ah, yes, that sounds plausible...I had hoped that offline Media Manager were something to manage (display their images, information) series, movies stored on external drives also when they are not plugged in.
Many thanks again.
(2015-07-25, 20:45)Dirki Wrote: [ -> ]Ah, yes, that sounds plausible...I had hoped that offline Media Manager were something to manage (display their images, information) series, movies stored on external drives also when they are not plugged in.
Many thanks again.
Yes, Offline Media Manager is to create DiscStub files for offline medias like DVDs.
What you want is a cache of all images like in Kodi. Maybe we add this in a later version.
Thank you, DanCooper,
So, those *.disc files. Should those files be stored in a special folder or can they get into the same one in which the "normal" movies, series are stored in?
<<<What you want is a cache of all images like in Kodi.
Yes, that is right.
Many thanks again
(2015-07-26, 19:03)Dirki Wrote: [ -> ]Thank you, DanCooper,
So, those *.disc files. Should those files be stored in a special folder or can they get into the same one in which the "normal" movies, series are stored in?
<<<What you want is a cache of all images like in Kodi.
Yes, that is right.
Many thanks again
I use a separate "source" for this, but only to be able to filter by source to list all styb files.
(2015-07-21, 10:42)Milhouse Wrote: [ -> ] (2015-07-21, 09:48)P_Jamula Wrote: [ -> ]have substituted the path of Thumbnails
Do not use Path Substitution for thumbnails if your intention is to share thumbnails between clients - it doesn't work (can't work, won't work, will cause problems).
See contents of the orange box on the path substitution (wiki) page for details.
(2015-07-21, 09:48)P_Jamula Wrote: [ -> ]will Kodi get the actor thumbs while adding to library and place them in the thumbs folder?? should this not avoid duplication??
The images in the Thumbnails folder are optimized versions of the original artwork (local or remote) and this artwork is not identical to the original artwork so technically speaking it is not a "duplicate".
Downloading artwork from the internet will eliminate the local storage of original artwork, but will result in a slight delay when the artwork is displayed the first time (it has to be downloaded from the internet). Each of your clients will be downloading this same artwork, whereas with local storage you would only download it once (Ember would do this for you).
With 5 clients, you either download the artwork once (Ember, to local storage) and cache 5 times (each client). Or each of your clients downloads and caches the same artwork (5 downloads, 5 caches). Storage is usually a lot more plentiful than bandwidth.
It's also possible that the internet-based artwork may disappear before all your clients have downloaded and cached the artwork, in which case they'll show a blank image, and this is really the biggest disadvantage of using remote artwork. Given the opportunity you should use local artwork every time.
(2015-07-21, 09:48)P_Jamula Wrote: [ -> ]the other instances are all residing on small (256GB) SSD Windows 7 mini PC's
Why are you using Path Substitution for thumbnails
Thanks a lot for enlightening me. as I said I am not a techie just a user of the technology.
My Requirements:
I live in Pakistan. Here Bandwidth and Storage are at a premium.
What I want to do is scrape all my media (Movies, TV Shows and Music) only once for all info, artwork and thumbnails available at the time I add the content.
I use a NAS so all my content (including the artwork) is in one place to be shared by the 5 instances of Kodi installed in my house.
My Assumptions:
I thought that as Ember creates NFO's with URL's for the cast images that Kodi would read from the NFO and download the images once in the thumbnails folder. then when other instances of Kodi would require the images they would be available in the shared thumbnails folder.
I guess I was wrong in assuming that.
Could you please show me what I need to do to achieve my goals. we normally watch our contents in the evenings when the net is extremely slow and it would spoil the fun of Kodi and the nice skins available for all the artwork work and thumbs if every time Kodi went to the net to bring the images.
would really appreciate your help in this regards..
Just store all your artwork locally (one download by Ember), forget about sharing thumbnails (remove the path substitution from your clients), and then each client will automatically cache the local artwork the first time it is displayed in the GUI (no extra downloads from the internet required).
Storing local artwork is not a big storage overhead, and if each client has a 256GB SSD then the storage required by the cache isn't an issue either, as the cache rarely exceeds a few GB in size (unless full of garbage which can be easily pruned from time to time - see sig).
If you want to pre-load the cache on each client and optimise the Kodi user experience then use the script in my sig, although later versions of Ember may be offering something similar (possibly, someone else can confirm).
(2015-07-27, 21:52)Milhouse Wrote: [ -> ]Just store all your artwork locally (one download by Ember), forget about sharing thumbnails (remove the path substitution from your clients), and then each client will automatically cache the local artwork the first time it is displayed in the GUI (no extra downloads from the internet required).
Storing local artwork is not a big storage overhead, and if each client has a 256GB SSD then the storage required by the cache isn't an issue either, as the cache rarely exceeds a few GB in size (unless full of garbage which can be easily pruned from time to time - see sig).
If you want to pre-load the cache on each client and optimise the Kodi user experience then use the script in my sig, although later versions of Ember may be offering something similar (possibly, someone else can confirm).
Thank You so much for your advice.
I am still a bit confused though..... I have tested Ember by downloading actor images (which are stored in .actor sub folder). however, in the NFO it still includes the URL for the images.
does this not defeat the purpose of scraping all info once for the various content??
again apologies if this is a silly question... but I really need to understand these things properly.....
Thanks again..
(2015-07-28, 08:11)P_Jamula Wrote: [ -> ]Thank You so much for your advice.
I am still a bit confused though..... I have tested Ember by downloading actor images (which are stored in .actor sub folder). however, in the NFO it still includes the URL for the images.
does this not defeat the purpose of scraping all info once for the various content??
Yes - not sure why Ember does that.
(2015-07-28, 09:22)Milhouse Wrote: [ -> ] (2015-07-28, 08:11)P_Jamula Wrote: [ -> ]Thank You so much for your advice.
I am still a bit confused though..... I have tested Ember by downloading actor images (which are stored in .actor sub folder). however, in the NFO it still includes the URL for the images.
does this not defeat the purpose of scraping all info once for the various content??
Yes - not sure why Ember does that.
It that a Problem? I thought Kodi use always the local images if they are available.
I know, there is a broken setting to disable the URLs in NFOs, but the settings was originally designed for YAMJ.
(2015-07-28, 09:56)DanCooper Wrote: [ -> ] (2015-07-28, 09:22)Milhouse Wrote: [ -> ] (2015-07-28, 08:11)P_Jamula Wrote: [ -> ]Thank You so much for your advice.
I am still a bit confused though..... I have tested Ember by downloading actor images (which are stored in .actor sub folder). however, in the NFO it still includes the URL for the images.
does this not defeat the purpose of scraping all info once for the various content??
Yes - not sure why Ember does that.
It that a Problem? I thought Kodi use always the local images if they are available.
I know, there is a broken setting to disable the URLs in NFOs, but the settings was originally designed for YAMJ.
I would think that when the actor images would be downloaded the NFO would point to the local downloaded images and not a URL. this would definitely save time and bandwidth when Kodi is adding the contents to it's library.
(2015-07-28, 10:29)P_Jamula Wrote: [ -> ] (2015-07-28, 09:56)DanCooper Wrote: [ -> ] (2015-07-28, 09:22)Milhouse Wrote: [ -> ]Yes - not sure why Ember does that.
It that a Problem? I thought Kodi use always the local images if they are available.
I know, there is a broken setting to disable the URLs in NFOs, but the settings was originally designed for YAMJ.
I would think that when the actor images would be downloaded the NFO would point to the local downloaded images and not a URL. this would definitely save time and bandwidth when Kodi is adding the contents to it's library.
No, this do not save time when Kodi is adding the movies to library. Kodi use the local donwloaded actor thumbs, even there is an URL in NFO.
Link to local artwork in NFO make only sense if you want to use a
common actor thumbs folder for ALL movies. But this is a pending idea/feature request and not actually implemented in Ember.
(2015-07-28, 10:37)DanCooper Wrote: [ -> ] (2015-07-28, 10:29)P_Jamula Wrote: [ -> ] (2015-07-28, 09:56)DanCooper Wrote: [ -> ]It that a Problem? I thought Kodi use always the local images if they are available.
I know, there is a broken setting to disable the URLs in NFOs, but the settings was originally designed for YAMJ.
I would think that when the actor images would be downloaded the NFO would point to the local downloaded images and not a URL. this would definitely save time and bandwidth when Kodi is adding the contents to it's library.
No, this do not save time when Kodi is adding the movies to library. Kodi use the local donwloaded actor thumbs, even there is an URL in NFO.
Link to local artwork in NFO make only sense if you want to use a common actor thumbs folder for ALL movies. But this is a pending idea/feature request and not actually implemented in Ember.
Thanks for the prompt reply.
maybe Milhouse can tell us if Kodi takes in the Thumbs from the .actors sub floder even though the NFO has URL for the image.
I am not familiar with Kodi's inner workings.