[DiMag]

There is a persisting request, its expression dispersed among several sections of this forum, for a built-in video scraper which takes as argument the filename (appropriately formatted, see below), writes an NFO file, adds content to its tags, adds artwork, and scans the whole to the library. The naming is confusing ---"Custom Video", "Generic Video", "Home Video", "Home Movie", are among the identifications you may encounter---, but once you actually read the posts, you discover a broad consensus as to function and features.

Let us feature specify this scraper as follows:

1. Take the video filename.
   
2. Format it appropriately (in accordance with user-provided settings): say capitalize words,
   
3. Format it appropriately, II: Convert _ or ~ to :, make it possible to use other special characters (such as /, |, ") which would be illegal as part of the filename.
   
4. Write an NFO file with the resulting library title.
   
5. Add mediainfo data (codec, resolution, runtime, etc).
   
6. Unless it already exists, add a screenshot to be user as poster. (The precise runtime point at which to take the screenshot can be customized in settings.)
   
7. Fill the NFO with all content (plot, outline) and filing (sets, tags, genres) related data the user has provided in a same-name xml file. Ideally one (or many) user customizable templates should be made available.
   
8. The above assumes no scrapable metadata exist for the video file in question. But what if some do exist? Ideally there should be a possibility to chain third party scrapers.
   
9. Equally useful would be the possibility to add URL references then let Artwork Downloader get them on disk.
   
10. The scraper must come in two versions, one for single file videos (what XBMC calls "Movies"), the other for episodic content videos (what XBMC calls "TV shows"). Say "Generic Movies" and "Generic TV shows".
    

The necessity for this scraper results from XBMC's limitations to three basic video file types --- movies, tvshows, musicvideos ---, whereas in the real world there are many video files which fall outside this tripartite schema. Thus it can be argued that a generic video scraper, and moreover a scraper for which no metadata sites need exist, should have been in XBMC from the start. Indirect evidence thereof is provided by the fact that as aforesaid, demand for this kind of scraper has been persistent

So has, however, been rejection of it by developers. Their arguments fall into three categories.

Firstly, they are of the sort familiar to viewers of the British TV series "Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister", where an Oxford educated Permanent Undersecretary routinely blocks change with eloquent, and linguistically beautiful, speeches such as "careful consideration shall reveal that it is already being taken care of by existing institutional arrangements", or "it is an idea worth considering, but surely its time has not yet come". No comment to that.

Secondly, they point to the existence of a third party scraper called JustTheFilename. This is indeed an excellent tool, but as a basis for developing the scraper I am asking for. Once you put it to use, its limitations become obvious. As Tacitus said about Galba, I say about JustTheFilename "omnium consensu, capax imperii nisi imperasset".

Thirdly, I could make the argument (on behalf of the developers, who apparently missed it) that the job as specified above is better done by an external library management tool. And to this (hypothesized) reply, I have the following rejoinders:

Firstly, it is not sure this tool currently exists. The only one which to my knowledge does partly the job as specified above is Media Companion (MC), which has included a so-called "Home Movies" feature since its version (I believe) 3.5.1.5 (at this writing, it is at v3.5.2.0). I have only good things to say about MC's "Home Movies" feature ---I use it practically every day---, and yet it is IMO incomplete in two important regards. (A) It does not allow for user customization of the NFO file it produces. For a tool geared toward generic and custom videso, this omission is rather crucial. (B) It produces single file (movie) NFOs, not episodic (tvshow) ones. Given that many, perhaps most, of the generic/custom videos you wish to include in your library are likely to be of the episodic type ---think of the many multi-part documentaries or online lectures, or the videos you made of your girlfriend turned wife turned mother of your children (Eva, Our First Holiday, Our Marriage, Eva Pregnant)--- this omission too is rather crucial.

Secondly, and on the supposition that MC shall (quite probably, as I might say) quickly redress these omissions, shouldn't the fact that MC has demonstrated that there is need for a generic scraper alert XBMC's team to the possibility that there is something missing from XBMC?