I have saved some tv series' to my hdd using the following file structure
/tvseries/myseries/season1/disk1/video_ts
/tvseries/myseries/season1/disk2/video_ts
/tvseries/myseries/season1/disk3/video_ts
/tvseries/myseries/season2/disk1/video_ts
/tvseries/myseries/season2/disk2/video_ts
/tvseries/myseries/season2/disk3/video_ts
&
/tvseries/anotherseries/anothrseries s1e1 episodetitle.mkv
/tvseries/anotherseries/anothrseries s1e2 episodetitle.mkv
:
etc
I specified the directory tvseries contains "tv shows" and "selected folder contains a single tv show" however "myseries" was not scraped correctly and i can't watch this series while anotherseries was OK.
Any idea what i have done wrong?
yes, that naming won't work. see the wiki, you need episode and season numbers in there.
Thanks spiff.
I just read on the wiki that there is a way to tell xbmc what episodes are contained within a file using multiple <episodedetails> </episodedetails> XML blocks in succession within the .nro file itself. But doing so, the consequences are not 100% clear to me. Is this approach valid for DVD disks in VOB file (non ISO) format? If so, and i do use this approach, i assume the episodes will be shown individually within "TV shows" and when playing a particular episode, the appropriate disk is selected for playback and its dvd menu is launched requiring i then select the episode of interest, is this correct? Do i need to specify <epbookmark>?some time marker like 0?</epbookmark> in such a case as the episodes are not normally separated in time (unless "play all episodes" is selected within the dvd menu which can be easily forced via internal dvd commands) but separated via IFO pointers to segments of VOB files.
Obviously I can pull each episode out from the DVD and place it in to a mkv container file using the same "series s1ex title.mkv" file and directory convention as my other series' but i'd still like to understand more of this <episodedetails> approach.
nickr, It is an inro file.
".nro" = typographical error !!... instead think ".nfo" file as in the file that contains the exported database :S
Well, i decided to discount writing series specific ".nfo" files using the <episodedetails> and <epbookmark> xml approach so instead pulled the episodes out from the series1 DVD format and into individual series1 ".mkv" files. This proved to be a little time consuming but the episodes themselves did scrap correctly. Unfortunately i now have issues how to reference the "extras" that exist on the last DVD within series1. The scraper does not find or categorize these extras and i'm not sure how they should be named and handled.
So how should i handle the special features "extras" contained on the last DVD within series1 so that it shows at the end of the series1 listing?
You need to find out if the extras are on thetvdb at all. If they are, you will find them under the "Special" season.
In XBMC this season is called season 0.
Use the same solution you used for the rest of the episodes but make sure they are Season 0
Thanks for the heads up, ill have a look tomorrow.
I guess doing it this way will result in the extras belonging to season 0 as xmbc will display.
The extras will no longer belong to the season they were derived from.
It's not a big problem but is there a simple way around this so i see something like the following..
1x01 first season 1 episode
1x02 second season 1 episode
:
1x023 last season 2 episode
season 1 extra
2x01 first season 2 episode
:
2x022 last season 2 episode
season 2 first extra
season 2 second extra
2x01 first season 3 episode
:
:
You will see that special episodes are shown in that way as well, if theTVDB knows where they should go.
XBMC will show them both in season 0 and in the season they belong to - IF they belong to another season.
What series are we talking about? I'll be able to give you a real world example.
The series i'm having problems with is "The Big Bang Theory" of 2007 and i've looked into it some more based on the feedback i've received.
The file names that i used for season 1 are "BigBangTheory S1E1 - Pilot.mkv" to "BigBangTheory S1E17 - The Tangerine Factor.mkv" (which scrape OK) while the season 1 special feature is called "BigBangTheory S0 -Quantum mechanics of the Big Bang.mkv" (which wont scrape).
Note that i didn't use a preceding "The" within the filenames nor spaces between the series title words though the episodes were contained within a Season"n" directory placed within a "Big Bang Theory" directory. TheTVDB.com scraper seemed to work rather well, likely due to the fact that TheTVDB.com references both "The Big Bang Theory" and "Big Bang Theory"
IMDB only seemed to reference "The Big Bang Theory" so if i had used a scraper for this site, i might have had more issues.
TheTVDB.com references the BBT episodes 1-7 with special features listed under
specials which does not contain the "Quantum mechanics of the Big Bang".
IMDB seems to have the extras listed but these are freestanding (with little art) and seemingly not associated with the episodes but "Quantum mechanics of the Big Bang" is to be found.
I guess different regions may have different special features as the Season 2 special features of "Gag reel", "Physics to the stars" and "Testing the infinite hilarity hypothesis" are not listed on TheTVDB.com or for that matter on IMDB.
This seems to explain why i don't get the metadata and art work for this specific "DVD season 1 & 2 special feature" from TheTVDB as they simply do not exist.
I'm not into special features in a big way and it's not a problem for me to not include such but if someone was keen to have them included, where would they go/what would they do from here
If the special episode you want to include is not available on theTVDB scraper source you have two options to get it to scrape.
1) Add them to theTVDB as a new special episode. If the specials season is locked, find the thread on their forums that explains why that has happened.
2) Name your files with an episodenumber not available on theTVDB (eg. S0E08.avi) and create a custom NFO for them that provides the information you want to see.
If they aren't on thetvdb.com then you should add them. It is a community effort.
At some stage, i'll dig up these DVDs as i've packed many up after ripping and placed them in the attic for safe keeping.
At that time, i can also look into the process of updating TheTVDB.com after rechecking this specific DVD and pulling some fan art and poster art related to the special features from the box set.
Thanks to all for the help..