[Soxbrother]

Hello,

I'm trying Kodi out for the first time.

So if Kodi scans your "tv shows" files, the folders have to be named properly.

For example : TVShow Name\Season 1\TVShow.Name.S01E01.mkv

Currently mine are named :
For example : TVShow Name - Season 1\TVShow.Name.S01E01.mkv

It does not work with the way it's named currently and I have to rename all folders like in example 1.

Why is this ? Why does kodi feel the need to scan folder names ?

Why can't Kodi work like mediaportal for scanning files ?

The way I see it is that Kodi scans 3 things, to come up with the correct tv show,season and episode :
1st scan = Foldername=TV Show Name
2nd scan = Season nr.
3rd scan = episode nr.

In Mediaportal you add a folder and it scans every file in that folder, regardless what the folder is called.
And always results in the correct tv show.
Offcourse you have to name all your files like : TVShow.Name.S01E01.mkv

Difference in Kodi is that with using it's naming conventions,
you can just name your episode like for example : 1x01, episode 1 or e01 or whatever, as long as there's an episode number in the title

So my question is : Can I in any way use Kodi without having to create season folders and rename all of my TV Show Name folders ?
I mean if Mediaportal (mptvseries plugin) can scan everything without looking at folder names, why couldn't Kodi do the same ?

Can any Kodi experts help me with this ?

Thanks in advance.

[DarrenHill]

Naming video files (wiki).

It ties in with the scraper used (thetvdb.com for the default TV shows). The folder name is used to tie the actual series to the metadata in the scraper database, then the file names do likewise for the individual episode metadata.

You could look into other scraper options, but there's no guarantees that they'll work any differently.

[trogggy]

Your structure should be fine if you put all the 'TVShow Name - Season x' folders in a suitable properly named 'TVShow Name' folder, and set the content of the folder one level up from that one to 'tv shows'.

There's no requirement to use season folders, and if you do it doesn't matter what you call them.
The only folder name that's scanned AFAIK is one for each tv show (and not even that if you're using .nfo files).

[Soxbrother]

Thanks for the quick replies.

So I guess I'll have to create a "few" folders then, too bad.
I'm going to try to delete the seasons folders and see what it will do.

I've even tried some different naming of the folders, like :

e.g. TV Show Name - S1 or TV Show Name 1

but it was a no go

I can maybe make folders like :
e.g. TV Show Name - Season 1\TV Show Name\TV.Show.Name.episode nr.ext

But I thought I've read in the wiki something about complex sub-folders, causing problems and mistakenly picking up as false TV show matches.

[trogggy]

You need a folder named like the tv show for each show.
Your episodes have to be in that folder or in sub-folders (1 level down only) inside it.
You set content on the folder 1 level up from the individual tv show folders.

The only namings that matter are the tv show folders and the episode numbers.

[Prof Yaffle]

As Trogggy said, use this if you want to name your season folders according to the show:

TVShow Name
----TVShow Name - Season 1
--------TVShow.Name.S01E01.mkv
--------TVShow.Name.S01E02.mkv
--------TVShow.Name.S01E0n.mkv
----TVShow Name - Season 2
--------TVShow.Name.S02E01.mkv
...

... as only the top-level folder is used for the series name. You can call the subfolders Dave, Hans, Pablo and Jelle for all it matters. Once a file is stored under "TVShow" then "SxxExx" or "SxE" format is used for the episode number - no further parsing of the series name AFAIK.

[Soxbrother]

Currently my folders are :

F:\SERIES\TV Show Name - Season 1\

Earlier today I've tested :
F:\SERIES\TV Show Name\Season 1\
and that worked prefectly. ( I've added F:\SERIES as the source )

@ troggy : I'm now going to try to remove the season folders as a test :
like this : F:\SERIES\TV Show Name\s01e01.ext

@ Prof Yaffle : I'm also going to try if this works :
F:\SERIES\TV Show Name - Season 1\TV Show Name\s01e01.ext
Probably too many levels down ?

I'll post the results here.

[Soxbrother]

@ Prof Yaffle : I'm also going to try if this works :
F:\SERIES\TV Show Name - Season 1\TV Show Name\s01e01.ext
Probably too many levels down ?

I'll post the results here.

Works, but instead of adding F:\SERIES as the source,
I have to add each individual folder.

[trogggy]

Earlier today I've tested :
F:\SERIES\TV Show Name\Season 1\
and that worked prefectly. ( I've added F:\SERIES as the source )

Yes, it follows the convention.

@ troggy : I'm now going to try to remove the season folders as a test :
like this : F:\SERIES\TV Show Name\s01e01.ext

Will work.

@ Prof Yaffle : I'm also going to try if this works :
F:\SERIES\TV Show Name - Season 1\TV Show Name\s01e01.ext
Probably too many levels down ?

Won't work. You have no 'TVShow name' folder in the level below SERIES (assuming that's where you're setting content) and your episodes are too far down the chain.

[Soxbrother]

@ troggy : I'm now going to try to remove the season folders as a test :
like this : F:\SERIES\TV Show Name\s01e01.ext

I'll post the results here.

Not sure what I'm going to do,
the easiest way is to just add F:\SERIES as the source and be done with it I guess.

Won't work. You have no 'TVShow name' folder in the level below SERIES (assuming that's where you're setting content) and your episodes are too far down the chain.

Indeed.
I needed to add the individual folders to get it to work.

I've hoped to be able to keep the TV Show Name - Season 1 naming,
but since that can't work the way I want, I'll have to start renaming everything I have

[trogggy]

F:\SERIES\TV Show Name\s01e01.ext
or
F:\SERIES(or whateveryouchoose)\TV Show Name\whateveryoulike\whateveryouwant.s01e01.ext

Those are basically your choices.

[DarrenHill]

Basically each individual TV show (as defined in the database the scraper is using) needs is own folder named the same as that database entry. That is the folder that should have the "folder contains a single TV show" flag set. You can access that flag via the context menu of the folder and then set/change content.

Within that folder you can either just dump all the individual episode files or have sub folders for seasons, specials etc which then contains those episode files.

[Soxbrother]

Thanks everyone for the help !!!

The reason why I name the folders like I do,
is because when I connect a HDD with my series,
that I can immediately see what seasons are on it.

After renaming all those folders for Kodi and connecting a HDD,
I won't see right away what seasons are on it unless I go inside the "TV Show Name" folder.

Who knows, maybe in a future version all will be possible.

[PH-SYM]

Can't you just create an (empty) textfile in the root of the HDD like "Showname seasons 1 to 5.txt" in addition to the folder structure that Kodi needs?
That way both you and Kodi can see what's on the HDD.

Alternatively, you can label your HDD's so you don't even need to plug it in to know what's on it.

[Soxbrother]

My naming convention is this now :

F:\SERIES\TV Show Name - Season 1\TV Show Name\s01e01.ext

I took another look at the wiki page and I found out that I could get it to work like this :

Source = F:\SERIES\ ------- ---> content set to none
TV Show Name 1 - Season 1\------------> content set to tv show
TV Show Name 2 - Season 1\------------> content set to tv show
TV Show Name 3 - Season 1\------------> content set to tv show
etc....