Need Help Getting Thumbnails to Display
#1
I have a bunch of video files for which I already have thumbnails (from another MC app), along with some thumbnails for actors.

I've researched via the forums and found what I think are the best ways to make use of them.

For videos:
I've placed each thumbnail in the same directory as the corresponding movie file, and named each thumbnail nnnn.tbn, where nnnn is the name of the video file (e.g. the thumbnail for "My_Movie.mpg" is "My_Movie.tbn").

For actors:
I've placed all the actor thumbnails (with .jpg extensions) into a folder. I then populated the "strThumb" field of the "Actors" table in the "MyVideos34.db" database with a link to the thumbnail file. So the strThumb field for the record for Tom Cruise contains something like "file://C:\thumbs\TomCruise.jpg

These methods seem to solve half the problem. The thumbnails are now AVAILABLE, but they don't actually display by default.

For videos, the Library views will first use the skin's default thumbnail (a picture of a video camera) for each movie's thumbnail. These update to be stills from each movie as XBMC scans each video file and grabs a frame.

If I play the movie, after I've stopped playing it and returned to the Library view, the still frame XBMC grabbed is replaced with the "MyMovie.tbn" thumbnail I created.

For actors, the Library views will again use the skin's default thumbnail. I can right-click on any of these thumbs and choose the "Set Actor Thumb" option. From there, I have the option to choose the "Remote Thumb" which shows the image whose path is in the strThumb field for that actor's record in the database.

So in both cases, I can get the thumbnails to display by taking an individual action for each video/actor. But this is very tedious - I'm hoping to find a way to get the thumbnails to all display automatically without taking an individual step for each video/actor.

Does anyone know of an easy way to get this to happen - ideally for both Video and Actor thumbnails?

In the absence of anything simpler, I suppose I could programatically calculate the CRC-based name for each thumbnail and copy it to the right subdirectory under "C:\Users\Me\AppData\Roaming\XBMC\userdata\Thumbnails\Video".

But I haven't had much luck finding a source to explain how to do the CRC calculation though - I'd be grateful if anyone knows of one (though again a simpler solution would be even better!).

Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for any suggestions.
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#2
the easiest method i found was to let xbmc do all the work for you, and it gets the information spot on 99% of the time., It downloads all actor thumbs fanart and dvd covers and movie or tv show info. If your not sure how to use xbmcs in built scrapers then may i suggest you take the time to read the wiki as it will explain it all far better than i could..
XBMC Frodo 12 - Windows 7 - Asrock Ion 330HT - Aeon Nox
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#3
i'm familiar with how the scrapers work, and they do seem mostly reliable. but i do have all these thumbs 100% correct already, and i can ALMOST get them to load automatically, so i'm hoping i'm just missing a step. anyone got any ideas for me?
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#4
im having the same problem. my actor thumbnails wont display unless i right click each one and set it to use the remote one.

were you able to get them to update for all actors?

also, what is the point of the actors listed in the nfo file as well as the .actors folder which contains the actor thumbnails? the nfo points to the IMDB thumbnail so why have them stored locally? If it is because of quicker access, then why are they stored with each movie and not a central repository? if i am a big steven segal fan, do i really need a copy of his thumbnail for each of his movies?

disclaimer: i am not a segal fan
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