I'm quite sure I'm going to get flamed for asking something most of you know about, but I've been using XBMC for about 5 years, read the latest wiki pages and FAQs and Google'd, and I still can't find the answer. In short, I've typically had my movie files set under multiple roots, with movies under \Movies being primarily ISOs with a single file in each folder using the moviename (year) directory format. My MP4 and compressed MKV files have been under another root \Compressed, and in some cases I've only got a movie in 1 format but I'm increasingly having many in multiple formats and I'm having trouble keeping track of them all. I presume if I use the filename (year) format I can put the ISO and other files in the same folder, but I'm sure I'd end up with duplicates when I browse my Movie library in XBMC.
Can you suggest a folder organization\library setup combo which will allow me to browse all my movies and then allow me to select which version to play if there are multiple versions? Thanks so much for any help as I try to take my XBMC knowledge to the next level and start using more of this incredible application.
Mark
The feature simply doesn't exist yet. If you scan in two copies then you will always get two copies in XBMC's library.
There is no need to organize your files that way, but no harm in it either. You could dump them all in one Movies folder.
If you have duplicates in different formats, like Avatar (2009).iso and Avatar (2009).mkv, it would be easiest to just decide which one you like best and remove the other from your library. If you don't, they should end up with the same name in your library, but you could look at the format flags or filename in the XBMC display to tell which is which and select it.
If you combine your duplicates into a common folder, you just have to tell XBMC in the source settings that each movie is NOT in its own folder.
Out of interest, why do you keep movies in different formats ? Would you ever watch the version in the crappy old format ?
(2013-07-11, 20:17)Glorious1 Wrote: [ -> ]There is no need to organize your files that way, but no harm in it either. You could dump them all in one Movies folder.
Actually, putting them in a single folder with the year in brackets is the
recommended way.
(2013-07-11, 21:25)Kibje Wrote: [ -> ]Out of interest, why do you keep movies in different formats ? Would you ever watch the version in the crappy old format ?
(2013-07-11, 20:17)Glorious1 Wrote: [ -> ]There is no need to organize your files that way, but no harm in it either. You could dump them all in one Movies folder.
Actually, putting them in a single folder with the year in brackets is the recommended way.
That's something I wonder more than often. Even the most crappy device nowadays can play almost anything
I have multiple copies of a few movies... take Avatar for example. I have a bluray compressed MKV of it, and a 3D version. I don't mind them both displaying, because I've gone into the NFO file for each and specified the displayed titles:
Avatar (2009)
Avatar (3D) (2009)
Both are in their own folder, on different hard drives. It's a quick one-time thing to edit the NFO file. (XBMC adds the year itself) I use Notepad++ Free, easy to install and use. But even plain old Windows Notepad will do it. Then just Refresh the title.
<title>Avatar (3D)</title>
(2013-07-11, 21:25)Kibje Wrote: [ -> ]Out of interest, why do you keep movies in different formats ? Would you ever watch the version in the crappy old format ?
The reason is there are occasions, albeit increasingly rare ones, where I want to burn a physical disc and I use the ISO for that. Or I sometimes find the my ripper, usually due to an upgrade, messes up the remuxed audio to create noise in one of the channels on playback and I have to re-rip. There are several other similar reasons, but I generally only keep ISOs for "good" movies I know we'll watch many times versus the one-offs I expect myself or a guest may watch once in their life.
I'm getting some good tips here, all, and I appreciate it. I'm going to start experimenting with some of these on a test system before I try my full library. I really do wish it would scrape one entry to display and then allow easy submenu selection of the different formats like the menu that crops up when you select a BD iso.
burntoc, you could get something similar to what you want by making the various formats of a movie into a Movie Set. Then you only see it once in the library, but when you click on it you will see the different versions to choose from.
You could do that manually by adding to the NFOs a 'set' tag, such as:
<set order="2">Avatar</set>
Each format will be in the set "Avatar", you just give them different numbers in the set tag. The actually title of each movie <title></title> can be anything.
I think there is an interface in XBMC to set up sets also but I don't use it so am not familiar with it.
Add all files and you'll get duplicates, then use Edit Title on the Context menu to change the displayed name to something you find easy to distinguish between them.
If you're not sure which is which then use Movie Info on the Context menu to show the path that the entry is scraped from.
(2013-07-12, 15:07)Glorious1 Wrote: [ -> ]burntoc, you could get something similar to what you want by making the various formats of a movie into a Movie Set. Then you only see it once in the library, but when you click on it you will see the different versions to choose from.
You could do that manually by adding to the NFOs a 'set' tag, such as:
<set order="2">Avatar</set>
Each format will be in the set "Avatar", you just give them different numbers in the set tag. The actually title of each movie <title></title> can be anything.
I think there is an interface in XBMC to set up sets also but I don't use it so am not familiar with it.
This sounds like the perfect option for me. I played with some of the other items last night and I just couldn't get to my liking. I prefer not to see the duplicates until I select the movie, and this sounds really promising. I'll give it a whirl.
(2013-07-12, 16:30)burntoc Wrote: [ -> ] (2013-07-12, 15:07)Glorious1 Wrote: [ -> ]burntoc, you could get something similar to what you want by making the various formats of a movie into a Movie Set. Then you only see it once in the library, but when you click on it you will see the different versions to choose from.
You could do that manually by adding to the NFOs a 'set' tag, such as:
<set order="2">Avatar</set>
Each format will be in the set "Avatar", you just give them different numbers in the set tag. The actually title of each movie <title></title> can be anything.
I think there is an interface in XBMC to set up sets also but I don't use it so am not familiar with it.
This sounds like the perfect option for me. I played with some of the other items last night and I just couldn't get to my liking. I prefer not to see the duplicates until I select the movie, and this sounds really promising. I'll give it a whirl.
It looks like sets and tags are similar, and they can enable the actual selection behavior as desired, but unfortunately I can't browse with a similar view to the standard library view. I have to always go into the Tags view and then it appears the layout selection is more limited, and it just displays folders for thumbnails rather than a cover (presumably because it assumes there would be different movies within a set with different covers). I really hope they add this type of functionality into Gotham - it would make browsing large libraries much cleaner I think. Nonetheless, I am always amazed by what is already being built by this great team.