Kodi Community Forum - Question about folder structure for TV Shows

Hi,

I have done some searching, and I couldn't find any results that answered my specific question below (although a lot about naming conventions, which I do know and follow... but as you'll see below, I want to see if I can break in a specific scenario)...

I have XBMC Eden (a very recent nightly, post RC1) running with no issues on Windows 7 64bit, talking to a mySQL db on another server.

No issues in terms of 'setup.'

My question is this:

If I have my TV Rips/digital backups setup with following naming convention, everything is fine:

Code:
M:\My Videos\Television\Series\SHOW NAME 1\SHOW NAME 1 - Season 1\SHOW NAME 1 - S01E01 - ep name.avi

M:\My Videos\Television\Series\SHOW NAME 2\SHOW NAME 2 - Season 1\SHOW NAME 2 - S01E01 - ep name.avi

However, if I want a given show to be added (let's say show 3) in the mix as follows:

Code:
M:\My Videos\Television\Series\SHOW NAME 1\SHOW NAME 1 - Season 1\SHOW NAME 1 - S01E01 - ep name.avi

M:\My Videos\Television\Series\SHOW NAME 2\SHOW NAME 2 - Season 1\SHOW NAME 2 - S01E01 - ep name.avi

M:\My Videos\Television\Series\SIMILAR SHOWS\SHOW NAME 3\SHOW NAME 3 - Season 1\SHOW NAME 3 - S01E01 - ep name.avi

M:\My Videos\Television\Series\SIMILAR SHOWS\SHOW NAME 4\SHOW NAME 4 - Season 1\SHOW NAME 4 - S01E01 - ep name.avi

Then Shows 3 and 4 are not seen in the Library....

An example of Shows 3 and 4 can be something like (for example), something like the reality home improvement shows by Mike Holmes... So he has shows called "Holmes on Homes" and "Holmes in New Orleans"... So putting those shows under the "\Series\Mike Holmes Shows\" subfolder structure results in the shows not appearing in library...

Is there ANY way to help XBMC identify this structure?

Thanks in advance everyone!

There's 2 reasons you haven't received help. The first one is you have not supplied a debug log. The second is some may think you're suffering from a severe case of OCD.

XBMC does not need nor like media folders broken down into microcosms of minutia.

\TVSeries\Show Name\Season X\Showname SXXEXX.ext

The show name does not go in the season folder name.
http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=TV_Shows_%28...Library%29

Hi edrikk,

I am guessing that the reason you use "complete" info in every folder and file is to make it have a full representation of it's origins (so to speak)...if you copy a file out of your structure you still can reconstruct which series and season it comes from.

As Dobyken pointed out this isn't needed for XBMC's scraping, but shouldn't hinder it either (the fact that your first two shows in the example scrape ok show that it should work).

The movie scraper has a setting "Scan recursively" which does exactly what you need for your structure - it scans for files which are levels below your initial starting point for the source. The wiki states that recursive scans are standard for the TV show scrapers which would mean that the structure you mentioned should work flawlessly. That fact that it isn't scraped not could either mean that your naming does pose problems after all (the file and folder naming that is, not the structure itself), or that the recursive scanning doesn't work.

I would try the following:

Keep your nested structure but rename one of the files to have the following structure:

(\Show Name 1\...) (these are your already scraping shows)
(\Show Name 2\...)
\Show 3 Group\Show Name 3\Season 1\Show Name 3 - S01E01 - ep name.avi

apart from that you need to supply logs

cheers

Dobyken Wrote:There's 2 reasons you haven't received help. The first one is you have not supplied a debug log. The second is some may think you're suffering from a severe case of OCD.

XBMC does not need nor like media folders broken down into microcosms of minutia.

\TVSeries\Show Name\Season X\Showname SXXEXX.ext

The show name does not go in the season folder name.
http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=TV_Shows_%28...Library%29

Thank you for your response, and your diagnosis of my OCD.

Apparently you assume that XBMC is the center of the universe, and the only application that runs on a server, and not that other programs rely on/work best given a certain folder structure.

Regardless of what XBMC likes, the structure (with show name going into the season folder name) is picked up perfectly fine by XBMC (and the other programs which rely on that).

As I mentioned, the issue is if you set the media root to be 2 levels up from "Show Name" then that show is not picked up.

MEDIAROOT\Show Name\Show Name - Season X\media
MEDIAROOT\Show Group Name\Show Name\Show Name - Season X\media

In the above example, the first line will be in the Library, the second wont be.

I'll try to get a log when I'm back in front of the box.

taalas Wrote:.....

I would try the following:

Keep your nested structure but rename one of the files to have the following structure:

(\Show Name 1\...) (these are your already scraping shows)
(\Show Name 2\...)
\Show 3 Group\Show Name 3\Season 1\Show Name 3 - S01E01 - ep name.avi

apart from that you need to supply logs

cheers

Thank you taalas, I will try your suggestion, and respond (with a log) as soon as I get back to the Box...

It's strange because if I move the files out of the "Grouping" folder and into the 'root' folder, they're scanned and placed in the Library correctly (this is with Recursive scan turn *on*)!