[christiankyte]

EDIT- Questions Answered. EDIT: More questions came about, changed status
Hello,

I tried searching the forums for an answer to this question but no luck so far.

Anyways, I just got a mySQL Database up and running and successfully syncing all of our XBMC (Soon to be Kodi once a stable version is released) devices. Upon setting this up thumbnails were added into all of my movie folders for cover art and posters when I had to "Export Library" but what I am confused on is when I add a new folder lets call is "Move XYZ" and inside is "Movie XYZ.avi", or whatever the extension might be, I then have one of the XBMC devices scan for new media and update the mySQL database which is then seen by all the other devices perfectly. HOWEVER, it does not place the thumbnails inside that folder Movie XYZ with the video file itself. All of the devices manage to get covert fine but where is it storing these cover art files?

Its not necessary a problem I just don't understand if it is storing them on each device or where it is. Any and all suggestions are much appreciated. Further more Id like to have all the cover art and .nfo data files kept inside Movie XYZ folder along side of Movie XYZ.avi

Ps. I am running 4 FireTV's a few Macs running XBMC and all the content is stored on the Sinology NAS.

Any and all help here would be very very helpful! I know I can simply "Export Library" again but I don't want to have to do that every time.

[Ned Scott]

When artwork is not found then it falls back to a URL that is stored in the MySQL database. It's good to have both, because sometimes the URLs change over time, but it's really rate for that to be an issue for newly added content. It usually takes years for URL issues to happen, if it happens at all. The other good reason to have images with the media is if you've set any custom artwork that might not have a URL to fall back on.

You can generate the missing image files by doing a new library export and just saying "no" when it asks to overwrite old files. That will cause XBMC/Kodi to export only the missing files.

[christiankyte]

When artwork is not found then it falls back to a URL that is stored in the MySQL database. It's good to have both, because sometimes the URLs change over time, but it's really rate for that to be an issue for newly added content. It usually takes years for URL issues to happen, if it happens at all. The other good reason to have images with the media is if you've set any custom artwork that might not have a URL to fall back on.

You can generate the missing image files by doing a new library export and just saying "no" when it asks to overwrite old files. That will cause XBMC/Kodi to export only the missing files.

Thank you! This clears a lot of things up, I appreciate it !

[Milhouse]

You can generate the missing image files by doing a new library export and just saying "no" when it asks to overwrite old files. That will cause XBMC/Kodi to export only the missing files.

Unfortunately in the case of artwork, you're exporting the contents of the thumbnail cache which tends to store artwork at lower quality settings compared with the original artwork (the level of difference depends on the fanartres/imageres settings - lower powered devices will usually cache artwork with much reduced quality levels in order to improve performance).

Exporting artwork is not something I'd want to do once, let alone do repeatedly as I've seen some people say they do. Imagine importing an original image - incurring quality loss during the caching process - then exporting the now cached version, which is then re-imported/cached at a later date incurring yet more loss in quality.

I'm not saying exporting is necessarily a bad idea, just that I think it's important to remember what it is that is being exported, as it's certainly not the original artwork.

[christiankyte]

You can generate the missing image files by doing a new library export and just saying "no" when it asks to overwrite old files. That will cause XBMC/Kodi to export only the missing files.

Unfortunately in the case of artwork, you're exporting the contents of the thumbnail cache which tends to store artwork at lower quality settings compared with the original artwork (the level of difference depends on the fanartres/imageres settings - lower powered devices will usually cache artwork with much reduced quality levels in order to improve performance).

Exporting artwork is not something I'd want to do once, let alone do repeatedly as I've seen some people say they do. Imagine importing an original image - incurring quality loss during the caching process - then exporting the now cached version, which is then re-imported/cached at a later date incurring yet more loss in quality.

I'm not saying exporting is necessarily a bad idea, just that I think it's important to remember what it is that is being exported, as it's certainly not the original artwork.

In this case what would you suggest I do since I am using a MySQL? Just allow it to only use the web links and delete all of the saved thumbnails off of the server. In that case should I leave the .nfo files too or no? Honestly I don't really know if I still need those.

Further more do you have any suggestions on how to speed up the updating process. I have about 550 movies and another 2500 TV show files. Right now it's taking about 15-20 minutes to do an update when I only downloaded one new file.

[Milhouse]

In this case what would you suggest I do since I am using a MySQL? Just allow it to only use the web links and delete all of the saved thumbnails off of the server. In that case should I leave the .nfo files too or no? Honestly I don't really know if I still need those.

I would recommend using a media manager such as Ember to download original artwork alongside your movies/tvshows.

However if you're comfortable with scripts, you can download your original artwork (as long as it's still available) automatically using the script in my sig + mklocal.py (see link in sig for further discussion). It's an alternative to exporting artwork from the cache, and will instead store the original artwork locally rather than the reduced quality cache version.

Further more do you have any suggestions on how to speed up the updating process. I have about 550 movies and another 2500 TV show files. Right now it's taking about 15-20 minutes to do an update when I only downloaded one new file.

Not really sure why it should take so long, can only assume it's because you've got a slow internet connection? I only use local artwork and local NFOs and adding new movies only takes 60-90 seconds, even on a Raspberry Pi. Adding a new episode for a tvshow takes less than 10 seconds (on a Pi).

[christiankyte]

Further more do you have any suggestions on how to speed up the updating process. I have about 550 movies and another 2500 TV show files. Right now it's taking about 15-20 minutes to do an update when I only downloaded one new file.

Not really sure why it should take so long, can only assume it's because you've got a slow internet connection? I only use local artwork and local NFOs and adding new movies only takes 60-90 seconds, even on a Raspberry Pi. Adding a new episode for a tvshow takes less than 10 seconds (on a Pi).

Everything is saved on a synology NAS and we have, proven via tests, 50 Mb down speeds. I'll lookaround and see if anyone else is having similar problems. Since everything is now working off of the database on the NAS can I uninstall xbmc and reinstall it while preserving the database. Yes?

[Milhouse]

Everything is saved on a synology NAS and we have, proven via tests, 50 Mb down speeds. I'll lookaround and see if anyone else is having similar problems.

Still no idea about the performance issues, probably best to capture a debug log and start a new thread (with a more appropriate title etc.)

Since everything is now working off of the database on the NAS can I uninstall xbmc and reinstall it while preserving the database. Yes?

It will preserve the metadata (database), yes. It won't preserve your artwork, unless you have that stored alongside your movies/tv shows.

Should you rebuild a client, the texture cache for a new client will start from empty and will be re-populated over time as you navigate through the GUI, displaying your artwork. If your artwork is remote (ie. hosted on an internet website) there's every chance some of the artwork will no longer be available when you attempt to view it on the client. In such cases you'll see nothing displayed on the client, and will have to replace that artwork manually with something else. Most tools/addons that find artwork for you won't help as they'll see you already have an artwork url defined and won't attempt to replace it, even though the url is no longer valid.

When you start using a MySQL setup with multiple clients, perhaps adding a new client here and there long after you first scraped the library, a reliance on remote artwork becomes a highly risky proposition as more artwork referenced by your library will drop offline over time (either replaced, or web sites/api's redesigned or no longer available). Eventually you may find a chunk of your library is referencing remote artwork that no longer exists, ie. your library has slowly rotted over time because you are using remote artwork.

Remote artwork is something you can get away with on a local database (non-MySQL) setup as whenever you scan, you cache, so your metadata and thumbnail cache should - in theory - always be in sync. I say in theory because there are exceptions, such as when you need to blow away the thumbnail cache due to corruption, in which case when you start re-caching your artwork you can find that some of the artwork is no longer available.

IMHO if you want an easy life, don't use remote artwork, and certainly not with a MySQL setup.