[Livin]

it would be nice if xbmc had a feature where we could tell it to scan the video folders so that instead of navigating the file system it would just give you a list of videos to play.

we could create a folder structure for each movie and or tv show.
xbmc could scan the 2nd level and below to get the videos and display only the playable files.
we could set a pattern match or a "smart" naming scheme so that xbmc knows scarymovie_1.mpg and scarymovie_2.mpg are the same movie just broken into parts.
xbmc could also recognize ifo files as dvd structure and play them intelligently.

so the file structure would look like this...

example using smb shares: 'movies' & 'tv shows'

movies
- harry potter
- harry potter_1.avi
- harry potter_2.avi

- scarface
- video_ts
video_ts.bup
video_ts.ifo
vts_01_0.bup
vts_01_0.ifo
...etc

tv shows
- lost
- lost_s1e12.avi
- lost_s2e1.avi

but the xbmc display would look like this...

movies
* harry potter - part 1
* harry potter - part 2
* scarface

tv shows
* lost - season 1, episode 12
* lost - season 2, episode 1


what do you all think?

i think it would make everything much more used friendly, especially for guests, and all the xbox owners need to do is setup (within xbmc) and keep the naming scheme of the files consistant on the shares.

[jmarshall]

this partly exists already.

if you use the imdb information, then it will do exactly what you want, for videos that are in the imdb. just do a scan (yes, it needs improvement) then switch to title view. what is needed in addition is a database for tv shows as well.

also, the new stacking scheme hasn't been applied yet to the imdb stuff, so that needs to be made a little smarter.

otherwise, i think we're on the way.

[Livin]

cool!

adding a pattern match setting, if that is the stacking scheme, should really help and eliminate the need to imdb if the user does not with to use it... which i do not as it takes so darn long to scan files :nuts: