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Hello everyone,

Environment: Windows 7 x64 - XBMC 10.1 - Theme Influence - MetaBrowser

User newly migrated from MediaBrowser Wink, I have to organize my movies in a way that I can not reproduce in XBMC.

Let me explain, I want my menu structure for access to films as follows:


Menu Racine XBMC
French Movies
View by Genre
Other Countries Movies
View by Genre
French Movies Already Watched
View by Genre
Other Countries Movies Already Watched
View by Genre

My films are classified in different directories, each corresponding to the main categories, I thought I will use the smart playlist by major category, but apparently we can't display smartplaylist by genre, actore, etc (like the main videodb) No

Other alternatives, I thought I'll create a smart playlist by major category and genre (eg: French Action Movies, French Action Movies Already Watched, etc ...) but the problem we are still limited to a number of sub-menu, that does not match the number of existing genre. Sad

I thought about using the principle of multiple databases via profiles, but it's a bit annoying to deal with logins etc ... Confused

In short do you have a solution to offer me, I'm interested. Nod

Regards,

Stéphane.

PS : As you can see english is not my mother tongue, so if you don't understand, i will understand Laugh
I'm sure I've misinterpreted some of your questions and thoughts.. so before I type any further, let me apologize for any misunderstandings. Confused I too run win/64 on XBMC 10.1 primarily using the skin Transparency! and used to use Mediabrowser, but now use mostly XBMC scrapers and on occasion to make file lists and get season covers, Ember file manager.

For starters XBMC was designed to help organize or make sense of a whole whack of media in various formats, flat file or structured. That's a lot of ground to cover and with that said.. and responding to your inquiry..

-) Setting up a file structure, while convenient for file manipulation isn't the best way to think about how XBMC handles your shares. I like you, have a wide collection across multiple drives and have chosen to create 2 main folders in each drive called 'Movies' and 'TV Shows' with sub folders as 'classics, animation, et on... 32 in all. Each sub folder has a link to the first page under the 'video files' button. I can get to any sub quickly and can add to the path lists of any of the sub folder easily for re-scrapes, deletions, additions.

-) Once you scrape your structure.. you clearly see the advantages of a library collection with all the extra information. Showing your files via genre is easy (although might be a bit more difficult depending on scrapes, but can be edited) Watched or Unwatched, sorted by... this may be skin dependant. But I don't see the difficulty here.

-) Creating Sets is one way of keeping specific videos in clumps....e.g. Like the James Bond collection with nice covers and background art. I use XWMM media manager just for this task.http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...light=XWMM I have created Sets for arbitrary subject matter such as 'mathematics', you can have any number of sets and I suppose with T! you could have a 'set' button on your homepage. http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Movie_Sets

-) SmartPlaylists are great.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWrYO3FuEU4 not only can I create playlists for just about anything in the .nfo field, but you can create playlists for specific folders.. (looks like an unlimited amount) and list according to watched unwatched etc.. and I believe you can add links to the home page. Some skins support more than others... I read something about T! supporting 3 direct links out of the box, and hackable for many more. Note you can have multiple rules with playlists.

-) I doubt multiple profiles will fit in with what you want... but I do see a configurable skin like T! suiting you quite well, along with a bit of custom tweaking to get you were you want to go...

P.S. I'll also note that the latest 'nighties' of XBMC and skins have changed how some of this works and might be a bring better solutions. Quite a lot of new work in the 'sets' area make it much more configurable.

http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=XBMC_Online_Manual
Hi Patk,

PatK Wrote:I'm sure I've misinterpreted some of your questions and thoughts.. so before I type any further, let me apologize for any

misunderstandings.
No problem, my problematic is not very easy to explain.Confused


PatK Wrote:-) Setting up a file structure, while convenient for file manipulation isn't the best way to think about how XBMC handles your

shares.
I've a very simple file structure, 5 Folders: TV Shows, Movies, French Movies, Movies Already Seen, French Movies Already Seen.
All my movies have .nfo file with full metadata (scraped with Metabrowser) With the exception of the watched status who is not stored in my nfo (not supported by mediabrowser and not very well supported by xbmc...)

PatK Wrote:Showing your files via genre is easy Watched or Unwatched, sorted by... this may be skin dependant. But I don't see the difficulty here.
My problem is that i would like to have a display by genre view for each of my smart playlist like the one for the main video library "VideoLibrary,MovieGenres" in skin code)

PatK Wrote:-) Creating Sets is one way of keeping specific videos in clumps....
I already have many sets in my collections (James Bond, Star Trek, Die Hard, ....)

PatK Wrote:-) SmartPlaylists are great.. not only can I create playlists for just about anything in the .nfo field, but you can create playlists for specific folders..
Yes Smart Playlists are great but they do not offer filtered views (like by genre, actor, director, etc...)
For example :
I have a smart playlist who select only french movies (based on the path), and i would like to display a genre filtered view based on this smartplaylist.

Image
!! This is not a screenshot of my system, but an example of the library genre view !!

PatK Wrote:P.S. I'll also note that the latest 'nighties' of XBMC and skins have changed how some of this works and might be a bring better solutions. Quite a lot of new work in the 'sets' area make it much more configurable.
Yes maybe i could try a Eden Build.

Thanks for your answer.

Regards
zestef Wrote:No problem, my problematic is not very easy to explain.ConfusedRegards

Tragically there is no consensus across media players for naming the most common elements in the software.. covers, folders, directories, shares, media, videos, movies.. and confusion and misunderstandings are common.

zestef Wrote:I've a very simple file structure, 5 Folders: TV Shows, Movies, French Movies, Movies Already Seen, French Movies Already Seen.

XBMC doesn't support structured libraries yet, but that doesn't stop us (and the call for it is loud).

zestef Wrote:All my movies have .nfo file with full metadata (scraped with Metabrowser) With the exception of the watched status who is not stored in my nfo (not supported by mediabrowser and not very well supported by xbmc...)

I moved off metabrowser when it went to paid version, I don't see the watched status as an issue... hitting 'W' on the keyboard toggles that status with the movie in focus. Whole directories can be toggled in the same way with individual movies excepted. If that system is cumbersome, then check out Trakt, it puts your collection online for watched/unwatched status.

zestef Wrote:My problem is that i would like to have a display by genre view for each of my smart playlist like the one for the main video library "VideoLibrary,MovieGenres" in skin code)

The smartplaylist can incorporate multiple rules..

Image

zestef Wrote:Yes maybe i could try a Eden Build.

Yes, a lot to gain here... Screen shot of my filemode

Image

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