[YodellingYogi]

Hello all!

Been lurking, reading, searching and more reading, but as a complete XBMC novice i have some (no doubt stupid and obvious) questions. My apologies in advance if this info is elsewhere, i'm just a bit overwhelmed at the mo.

My setup: installed XBMC on Win XP desktop to 'get the hang of it'. Ultimate plan is to build a high-performance HTPC and run XBMC on Ubuntu.

MUSIC: Artist name / (Year) Album / xx - Title.mp3. All ID3 tagged, art embedded + every folder also has a folder.jpg.
FILMS: All in one folder / Title (year).avi
TV: Show / Show - Season x / Show 00x00 Title.avi

OK so that gives you an idea of my organisation, which i hope is on the right track. Now, my stupid questions.

Q1 - I am using external HDDs for my media. Do i need to import all these files onto my PCs hard disk for XBMC to manage them, and are there any advantages with this?

Q2 - When i start scraping all the fan art, .nfo files for my TV shows and films, where will/should those .nfo/image files be actually stored? Does XBMC store them in a central directory (is that the library?) or does it store them with your media files (in my case, on the extenal HDD)? If there is a choice, which is better?

Thank you if you even read all this, and thank you even more if you are thinking of answering!

Has anyone written XBMC For Dummies yet? If not, they should!

YY

[natethomas]

The very best thing to do is read the quick start guide first.

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=XBM...tart_Guide

Unless I'm missing something, your folder structure looks fine. XBMC does not need any nfos, and, unless they are created correctly, including nfos with the files can DRAMATICALLY screw up the initial XBMC scrape of your files. Once your files have been scraped, everything will be stored in a central sql database, though you can export all the info to nfo files if you like.

External drives work just as well as internal drives. No need to mess with anything there, if you don't want to.

I think that should cover everything. If you need more help, definitely check out the wiki, do a quick search, or feel free to ask.

[YodellingYogi]

The very best thing to do is read the quick start guide first.

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=XBM...tart_Guide

Unless I'm missing something, your folder structure looks fine. XBMC does not need any nfos, and, unless they are created correctly, including nfos with the files can DRAMATICALLY screw up the initial XBMC scrape of your files. Once your files have been scraped, everything will be stored in a central sql database, though you can export all the info to nfo files if you like.

External drives work just as well as internal drives. No need to mess with anything there, if you don't want to.

I think that should cover everything. If you need more help, definitely check out the wiki, do a quick search, or feel free to ask.

Thanks Nate, i did have a read of that Quick Start before posting, and have now re-read it and is starting to slowly sink in.

I was confused by the term "adding your (Music/Videos etc) to the Library", because it seemed that you were physically moving your files (ie from my external HDD onto the PC's hard disk in XBMC folders or something ..), which worried me. But i see now (i think) that "adding your files" just means "telling XBMC where your files are", and that it only all the .nfo files, fan art etc which will be stored in the XBMC database, once you've scraped them. Right?

This also means that when i stop using by interim setup and get a proper HTPC, i'll need to do all my scraping again, right? Or is that where "export all the info to nfo files if i like" comes in handy, because then i have the proper .nfo files on my external HDD and wont need to scrape again when i use a different computer - in which case, what about images? Do .nfo files include images? I thought it was just text metadata (show name, actors etc).

[htpc guy]

When scraping with XBMC it loads all of the data to the XBMC database. Exporting your library creates the needed .nfo files inside the movie/tv show folders. The initial scrape will take a considerable amount of time depending on the size of your collection. After everything has been exported and you have a proper setup, putting them back into the library will be a piece of cake. What would have taken hours before will happen in a matter of minutes.

[YodellingYogi]

When scraping with XBMC it loads all of the data to the XBMC database. Exporting your library creates the needed .nfo files inside the movie/tv show folders. The initial scrape will take a considerable amount of time depending on the size of your collection. After everything has been exported and you have a proper setup, putting them back into the library will be a piece of cake. What would have taken hours before will happen in a matter of minutes.

Great, i'll make sure i export the library into .nfo files before i start using my new (yet-to-be-built) HTPC.

Does an .nfo file also contain artwork? Or does the export function export them as well? Otherwise, i guess i'll rescrape those onto the new computer (but it should be quicker i guess because this time i'll already have accurate .nfo files at least).

[natethomas]

It exports nfo files, jpg files, tbn files, and png files as needed. After the first export, everything should work perfectly on new installs.

[Harro]

FILMS: All in one folder / Title (year).avi

One suggestion would be to have your film as this FILM/Movie Name (year)/moviename.avi
So Folder = Film
---------------Folder=Movie name (year)
-----------------------------------------moviename.avi

It will scrape so much better with the movies have their own folder.
Once you first scrape your movies look through the library in XBMC under movies to make sure all are correct and have all the fanart or posters you like. If they are correct you then can use XBMC to export video library under setting as separate or single. Choose separate and XBMC will generate the nfo's, artwork and actors thumbs for each movie under their said movie name folder.

[YodellingYogi]

Thanks Nate and Harro, you've really helped.

One question -- i've done a bit of 'test scraping' (a few of my TV shows and Films but not all of them), but now i'm thinking of re-organising my files somewhat (putting films in their own folders, which seems to be recommended) and i'd like to start again from scratch. How can i clear the current XBMC database of the scraping i've already done?

Also, next time i scrape, is there any way for me to choose the fan art i prefer - the XBMC way seems to just give you what it wants to without any choice of art?

Thanks again!

[YodellingYogi]

It will scrape so much better with the movies have their own folder.

Any suggestions for programs that can automatically put all of my films (currently in one big folder) into their own individual folders ?

I have several hundred and it will be tedious to do manually ..

[mwkurt]

Hello,

This is what most of us have used to put all of our movies into individual folders.

http://community.mediabrowser.tv/permali...ia-browser

(sorry for the MB link)

Mark

[tcman47]

Hello,

This is what most of us have used to put all of our movies into individual folders.

http://community.mediabrowser.tv/permali...ia-browser

(sorry for the MB link)

Mark

wow, thanks , was looking for something like this to do my music.

[Skram0]

Any suggestions for programs that can automatically put all of my films (currently in one big folder) into their own individual folders ?

I have several hundred and it will be tedious to do manually ..

If you switch to TV shows, check out TVRename. I like this to rename all the shows and episodes to a standard format.