[Diaphanous]

This feature would be particularly useful for setting up an organizing a video library with a lot of TV shows. I'm sure many other users have encountered problems setting up their video library because of the way in which their video files are named. With a large library, actually manually changing the name of each episode can be a pain, as can changing the advancedsettings.xml file, if a lot of files are named in different ways.

What I am proposing is simply allowing the user to drag video files directly into the library, without the need to scrape the files, or create .nfo files. Or, rather than dragging the files from an external folder, the files would simply be selected in XBMC and added to a certain part of a library (whether it be movies, or a TV show).

A bonus to this feature would be allowing XBMC to still scrape the information from IMDB, or whatever, and simply select the corresponding video file.

Take for example a show like Scrubs:

Let's say you have Season 7 and want to add it, but the files are poorly and inconsistently named. You simply allow XBMC to scrape the information for Scrubs Season 7, and it creates a folder in your Video library. From there, you noticed that the folder is empty, because XBMC cannot recognize the naming scheme of the files. So, you simply open up the folder containing the video files and drag them into the corresponding Season 7 folder in XBMC. After this you make sure all the episodes are in order - and then you select the "Tag as episodes in season", and XBMC scrapes the information for each episodes, and simply appends it to the video files in the order that they are in.

Of course, this would still work for individual files, i.e. movies and such.

I think this would be a much easier alternative to having to worry about the naming scheme of video files, or anything of the sort. Furthermore, in the event that one is using torrents and seeding video files, it can be an even greater pain in the ass to rename them and get them to work on XBMC, without receiving an error from the torrent client once the path to the file becomes invalid.

[Jezz_X]

I've said it once I'll say it again people who use a mouse for a media center are crazy not to mention using it in non fullscreen

P.S I wouldn't hold your breath on this getting added (but you never know)

[ccMatrix]

I've said it once I'll say it again people who use a mouse for a media center are crazy not to mention using it in non fullscreen

P.S I wouldn't hold your breath on this getting added (but you never know)

Since there are more and more wireless keyboards with a trackball I think people might use it more often - especially if they use the HTPC for other stuff like browsing or sending mail as well.


As for the original posting: I just use my MediaRenamer to rename the files and automatically put them into the right folder. XBMC scans and finds them all of my files without any problems. The only administration thing I sometimes do in XBMC is change the poster for movies or tvshow or select a different fanart for a tvseries if it is new. But that is only minimal. XBMC works perfectly fine if you take care of your files which doesn't have to be much work.

And for your torrent issue: Just copy instead of move the file and there are no problems.

[rwparris2]

especially if they use the HTPC for other stuff like browsing or sending mail as well.

Who are you people?

[Diaphanous]

@matrix - Copying all my video files and renaming them really isn't a viable option, since I have around 1 TB of files and barely any more room left for other stuff.

@Jezz - In addition to dragging and dropping, just being able to browse through the files in XBMC and manually add them to the video library (especially TV episodes) would be much less of a pain then having to worry about renaming files, or editing the .xml file. (I personally use a wiimote to navigate around in XBMC)

[Gamester17]

Whatt I am proposing is simply allowing the user to drag video files directly into the library, without the need to scrape the files, or create .nfo files. Or, rather than dragging the files from an external folder, the files would simply be selected in XBMC and added to a certain part of a library (whether it be movies, or a TV show).

I know one should never say never but I am willing to bet that this will never be added to XBMC

If your files are that disorganized then you really need to a third-party media manager first, see:
http://forum.xbmc.org/tags.php?tag=media+manager

I otherwise google "tv episode renamer" or "tv show renamer" to find some good tools for that

[althekiller]

I'd sooner remove mouse support entirely.

[Diaphanous]

It's not even that my stuff is that disorganized ... I every series organized into different folders, and subfolders. However, since I get some of the shows via torrents, they aren't named in the standard XBMC format; and, since I always seed torrents, renaming files becomes a pain in the ass.

Moreover, since files obtained via torrents aren't always named in a similar way, using regex is just as much of a pain in the ass.

Adding drag and drop support, or just being able to browse certain folders and select episodes to add to the video library makes much more sense than renaming files, or messing around with the advancedsettigns.xml, or even setting up .nfo files.

And for those of you bitching about mouse support - this wouldn't even have to take the form of a drag and drop, but could simply involve navigating through your directories and selecting certain files to the library within XBMC.

[althekiller]

Your proposal sounds klunky in the UI and way more backend work than it's worth. Even a proper feature request on trac would likely end in, "patch welcome."

[AaronD]

This is the first time I've heard a developer all but admit that the phrase "patch welcome" actually means "no, bugger off!"

[althekiller]

What else could it possibly mean?

[kricker]

...especially if they use the HTPC for other stuff like browsing or sending mail as well.

Who are you people?

Me

[kricker]

This is the first time I've heard a developer all but admit that the phrase "patch welcome" actually means "no, bugger off!"

I've always taken that phrase as "It doesn't float our boat, but go for it".

[jmarshall]

If I just write "Patch welcome" then it's generally because it's something that's been discussed to death elsewhere and clearly devs either have no time or motivation to do it. This thus may or may not be truly "welcome" from a devs perspective - certainly welcome from the communities perspective, however.

If I instead write "Patch welcome, and here's how it could be done..." it generally means it really would be welcome by me, as I spent some time trying to push it further. Every now and then, when I write that sort of thing someone actually does it. Unfortunately, not as often as I would like!

And I'd be quite happy if this feature was in XBMC, so "Patch most welcome".

Cheers,
Jonathan

[Gangsta]

sounds like something more suited to one of the media managers or possibly the UMM.

But taking a little bit of time to sort your library a bit better (with 3rd party tools if needed) would pay dividends.

If your approaching 1TB its a nice collection you have, but when you start reaching 5-10TB you will really need to be organised or it will go pearshaped.