[dishwater63]

Sorry to just dump a bunch of randomness into one post, but I figured this was the best/easiest way to kill a bunch of birds with one nice size stone. Ok, let's begin:

1) I'm on XBMC 12.3. Will upgrading to Kodi 14.0 break anything? I already backed up my settings. I'm assuming I just install Kodi, boot it up, and away I go?

2) I have my media folders broken down by what they are, not just movies and TV. So, for example, I have G:\Movies, G:\IMAX, and G:\Anime. However, under my movies section of xbmc, it mixes IMAX movies in that are in the IMAX folder. I tried to make another custom folder on xbmc (running aeon nox) and point it to the G:\Movies folder, which works, but it doesn't display it correctly. It doesn't display like the default Movies folder. You have to click on the movie folder, then highlight the movie within it before it shows the background image, the plot, etc.

3) Is there a file renamer for music, similar to filebot? I've searched and searched and haven't found anything. I want to rename all my music properly so that I can add it to xbmc correctly. Currently, my music folder is just a list of folders. It doesn't display any metadata about the artist.


I think that's it for now. Thanks to any and all who respond.

[zerocool_ie]

1) I'm on XBMC 12.3. Will upgrading to Kodi 14.0 break anything? I already backed up my settings. I'm assuming I just install Kodi, boot it up, and away I go?

It will ask you to copy your settings to the Kodi folder during the install, say yes

3) Is there a file renamer for music, similar to filebot? I've searched and searched and haven't found anything. I want to rename all my music properly so that I can add it to xbmc correctly. Currently, my music folder is just a list of folders. It doesn't display any metadata about the artist.

Try MediaMonkey, it's awesome

[Powerhouse]

I'll help, a little anyway.

1. Yes Kodi will break stuff, wait for 14.1 to break less stuff (or by waiting, more add-on's will be migrated to Kodi), either way, if you are worried, wait for 14.1. You could install Kodi over the top (since you made a backup), and see for yourself what doesn't work. So if you need to go back, you can.

2. You need a good scrapper to avoid having to separate your stuff into separate folders (I use MediaElch for this). By using a scrapper, you can assign Genre's to Movies and TV Shows like 'Anime', 'Martial Arts', 'Cartoons'. By doing it this way, you never have to sort your media into separate folders again (and hope that the skin you use supports your folder structure).

3. Music is a tough one, but basically use MusicBrainz Picard to scan and organize your music (XBMC 13.2 and Kodi have built in support for MusicBrainz tagging). This can rename, sort, put into folder, etc all your music. There currently isn't any music metadata Scrapper, but there are several projects that are working on this.

Hope this helps you out a bit.

[dishwater63]

The Music Brainz suggestion was very, very helpful. Thanks! That'll get me on the right track.

Can you go into a little more detail on this?

2. You need a good scrapper to avoid having to separate your stuff into separate folders (I use MediaElch for this). By using a scrapper, you can assign Genre's to Movies and TV Shows like 'Anime', 'Martial Arts', 'Cartoons'. By doing it this way, you never have to sort your media into separate folders again (and hope that the skin you use supports your folder structure).

Let's say I get rid of my separate folders and I keep all movies under G:, which would be a mix of regular movies, IMAX, and anime. Now, how would xbmc/kodi separate out these items into their respective folders on the main screen? I want a "Movies" selection that brings up just movies, then I want a "IMAX" section that has just IMAX movies, etc and so forth.

To make things even more confusing, I'd like to have another folder called "Collections". This folder will contain very long running series, like James Bond and, oh God, I don't even want to get into how many Godzilla movies there are. In the Collections folder, there would be subfolders named Godzilla and James Bond and that's where they would have all their movies. Having all my movies in one pot is just too cumbersome. It takes me the better part of the evening to scroll through the G section.

Anyway, I hope some of this is doable. I don't mind getting away from the folder structure if and only if it works for how I want things to be. Sorry I'm piling all this on you, but you responded, haha, so here it is.

Thanks again with what you've provided so far. I'm gonna wait on the jump to Kodi. Hell, it's why I'm still on 13.2. Didn't see a reason to upgrade. Everything I need it for works.

[dishwater63]

Sorry for the bump, I'm only going to do this one time, but can anybody help my with my issues? It's mainly just organizing the folders.

[helta]

I want a "Movies" selection that brings up just movies, then I want a "IMAX" section that has just IMAX movies, etc and so forth.

You need to A) Use a skin that allows for custom home screen items. B) Setup smart playlists based upon the "path" (aka folder) so that you have a playlist for your Movies path, and one for your IMAX path. C) Setup those playlists to show up on your home screen (see section A).

This folder will contain very long running series

Movie Sets

[trogggy]

I'm gonna wait on the jump to Kodi. Hell, it's why I'm still on 13.2. Didn't see a reason to upgrade. Everything I need it for works.

If you're happy with 13.2 then fine, but to take the pain out of switching - when you decide to - you can install helix in portable mode and mess with it until it's running how you like. That way the whole installation is in one discrete folder. It has no implications for your 13.2 installation - you can even run them at the same time if you want to compare settings.

[dishwater63]

I'm gonna wait on the jump to Kodi. Hell, it's why I'm still on 13.2. Didn't see a reason to upgrade. Everything I need it for works.

If you're happy with 13.2 then fine, but to take the pain out of switching - when you decide to - you can install helix in portable mode and mess with it until it's running how you like. That way the whole installation is in one discrete folder. It has no implications for your 13.2 installation - you can even run them at the same time if you want to compare settings.

Oh man, I didn't know that! Thanks!

[dpar]

Install the Aeon Nox skin. Create smart playlists using the "path" option, which will allow you to choose your separate folders like "Anime, "IMAX", etc for a playlist. Customize your main menu items to point to the playlists you created,

If you do that you will have all of your media in different sections exactly the way that you want them.

Of course you can do this with any skin that allows custom Home menu items, but I like Aeon Nox myself.

[dishwater63]

Install the Aeon Nox skin. Create smart playlists using the "path" option, which will allow you to choose your separate folders like "Anime, "IMAX", etc for a playlist. Customize your main menu items to point to the playlists you created,

If you do that you will have all of your media in different sections exactly the way that you want them.

Of course you can do this with any skin that allows custom Home menu items, but I like Aeon Nox myself.

See, here's the thing: I'm already running Aeon Nox. It's the first thing I did when I originally set up XBMC over a year ago. Somehow, and for some reason, my Movies folder was pulling in in my IMAX movies even though it was pointing directly to G:/Movies. The folder for IMAX was under G:/IMAX. So recently I rebuilt the Movies custom path, which it now seems to be working fine, but now the file view is a little screwed up. For one, it's showing the ExtraFanart folder before the list of episodes.

I think what I'm going to do is just start from scratch. I haven't edited that much, so I'm going to upgrade to Gotham, redo Aeon Nox, and go from there. If after all that things are still weird, I'll come back here.

Thanks for everybody's help.