Up till now, I've been using a WDTV Live Hub, with my library on a NAS, each movie in its own folder, organized as follows:
\Movies\3 Days of the Condor (1975)\3 Days of the Condor (1975).iso
\Movies\Bourne Identity, The (2002)\The Bourne Identity (2002).iso
\Movies\Bridge Too Far, A (1977)\A Bridge Too Far (1977).iso
Notice that for titles beginning with an article ('A', 'The'), the folder name is adjusted accordingly, so that movies are listed in correct order when viewed by directory (TCMD)/folder (Explorer).
For multi-CD sets:
\Movies\Apollo 13 (1995)\Apollo 13 (1995) CD1.iso
\Movies\Apollo 13 (1995)\Apollo 13 (1995) CD2.iso
And for movie sets:
\Movies\Back to the Future Trilogy\Back to the Future (1985)\Back to the Future (1985).iso
\Movies\Back to the Future Trilogy\Back to the Future Part II (1989)\Back to the Future Part II (1989).iso
\Movies\Back to the Future Trilogy\Back to the Future Part III (1990)\Back to the Future Part III (1990).iso
For TV shows (though I rarely watch TV shows):
\TV\Dragnet (1951)\Dragnet (1951) S1D1.iso
. . .
\TV\Dragnet (1951)\Dragnet (1951) S2D4.iso
While I have a small collection of BDs, none of them have been ripped yet. As of now, all the rips are from DVD (well, music is from CD), and the .iso structure works very well on the WDTV -- it plays just like a physical DVD, giving menus from which to select audio, special features, etc.; and for TV, to select an episode.
Now, I've just built an HTPC and installed Kodi/XBMC, and I have a few questions on using with Kodi:
1. Would there be any advantage (or any disadvantage) to using an alternate format (mkv?), rather than .iso?
2. How to organize TV shows if using .iso (multiple episodes per disc/file), since all the examples seem to be based on an individual file per episode?
3. How to organize files such as audio books, demonstration/how-to videos, instructional videos, lectures, and so on? These have no place from which to scrape information, artwork, etc. I presently have them all as .mp3 and .mp4 files, and sometimes there is a mixture of .mp3/.mp4 within a single series of lectures, for example.
4. What weather options are available? I understand the background of why Underground Weather has been removed, but the only general (non-country specific) weather add-on in my new Kodi installation is Yahoo, which is totally useless to anyone outside the U.S., since there seems to be no way to display in metric.
Thanks for any input.
2. Would be something like Dragnet (1951).s01e01e02.iso. Also
Quote:Note: When you use a single video file for multiple episodes you can now tell XBMC when each episode starts using episode bookmarks.
(2015-01-21, 23:53)helta Wrote: [ -> ]2. Would be something like Dragnet (1951).s01e01e02.iso. Also Quote:Note: When you use a single video file for multiple episodes you can now tell XBMC when each episode starts using episode bookmarks.
Thank you. So, a single disc .iso which contains, for example, seven episodes, would be named:
Dragnet (1951).s01e01e02e03e04e05e06e07.iso
Or, would it be a range:
Dragnet (1951).s01e01e07.iso
(2015-01-21, 23:47)Positron Wrote: [ -> ]Up till now, I've been using a WDTV Live Hub, with my library on a NAS, each movie in its own folder, organized as follows:
\Movies\3 Days of the Condor (1975)\3 Days of the Condor (1975).iso
\Movies\Bourne Identity, The (2002)\The Bourne Identity (2002).iso
\Movies\Bridge Too Far, A (1977)\A Bridge Too Far (1977).iso
Notice that for titles beginning with an article ('A', 'The'), the folder name is adjusted accordingly, so that movies are listed in correct order when viewed by directory (TCMD)/folder (Explorer).
For multi-CD sets:
\Movies\Apollo 13 (1995)\Apollo 13 (1995) CD1.iso
\Movies\Apollo 13 (1995)\Apollo 13 (1995) CD2.iso
And for movie sets:
\Movies\Back to the Future Trilogy\Back to the Future (1985)\Back to the Future (1985).iso
\Movies\Back to the Future Trilogy\Back to the Future Part II (1989)\Back to the Future Part II (1989).iso
\Movies\Back to the Future Trilogy\Back to the Future Part III (1990)\Back to the Future Part III (1990).iso
For TV shows (though I rarely watch TV shows):
\TV\Dragnet (1951)\Dragnet (1951) S1D1.iso
. . .
\TV\Dragnet (1951)\Dragnet (1951) S2D4.iso
While I have a small collection of BDs, none of them have been ripped yet. As of now, all the rips are from DVD (well, music is from CD), and the .iso structure works very well on the WDTV -- it plays just like a physical DVD, giving menus from which to select audio, special features, etc.; and for TV, to select an episode.
Now, I've just built an HTPC and installed Kodi/XBMC, and I have a few questions on using with Kodi:
1. Would there be any advantage (or any disadvantage) to using an alternate format (mkv?), rather than .iso?
Re-encoding to MKV may take time that you do not need to spend. The ISOs may work just fine as they are.
However, if you care at all about subtitles, you may want to check your ISO's that need external subtitles to see whether KODI can properly display *.srt files for them.
If you don't care about subtitles then you can ignore the rest of this post.
I cannot get Gotham 13.2 to display *.srt files for on-disk DVD backups (same directory structure as ISO) when there is no subtitle of any kind on the original DVD. However, if there is a subtitle of any language on the original DVD then external subs display (they have to be manually selected for every movie, every time you play it, but they work).
I cannot test in Helix (14.0) because I'm waiting for 14.1 before I take the plunge, sorry.
If *.srt files will not work on ISOs without original subtitles, then re-encoding those titles only as MKV will allow the external subs to work properly...if MKVs are not illegal to make in your home country, that is.
-Wapitikev
(2015-01-22, 07:21)Wapitikev Wrote: [ -> ]Re-encoding to MKV may take time that you do not need to spend. The ISOs may work just fine as they are.
However, if you care at all about subtitles, you may want to check your ISO's that need external subtitles to see whether KODI can properly display *.srt files for them.
If you don't care about subtitles then you can ignore the rest of this post.
I cannot get Gotham 13.2 to display *.srt files for on-disk DVD backups (same directory structure as ISO) when there is no subtitle of any kind on the original DVD. However, if there is a subtitle of any language on the original DVD then external subs display (they have to be manually selected for every movie, every time you play it, but they work).
I cannot test in Helix (14.0) because I'm waiting for 14.1 before I take the plunge, sorry.
If *.srt files will not work on ISOs without original subtitles, then re-encoding those titles only as MKV will allow the external subs to work properly...if MKVs are not illegal to make in your home country, that is.
-Wapitikev
Thank you. Good information. Subtitles are not a concern here, and the ISOs do work fine, but are there other reasons that some prefer another format, such as MKV?
For example (if my understanding is correct), with MKV files, there would be a separate file for each feature, such as the main movie, and each individual special feature. Therefore, when selecting the movie, Kodi would immediately begin playing the movie, as opposed to ISO, where selecting the movie takes you to the DVD menu. But, then how would one access the special features (which are in additional MKV files)?
Also, assuming one had both the main movie and each of the special features in MKV files, would there be any space savings compared to the ISO?
And most importantly, with MKV, is there any quality loss as compared to the ISO?
You can use
MakeMKV to re-encode the video into an mkv container with no loss of quality. For special features use the
VideoExtras addon. I'm not sure if this is common on all systems, but on mine the mkv files tend to load just a little faster than iso's. I would suggest you setup a small test source with both file formats and see which you like best. If you want to preserve all the files on the BD, mkv's will require more post-processing work than the iso's (organizing and naming of files mostly).
(2015-01-22, 20:51)Positron Wrote: [ -> ]For example (if my understanding is correct), with MKV files, there would be a separate file for each feature, such as the main movie, and each individual special feature. Therefore, when selecting the movie, Kodi would immediately begin playing the movie, as opposed to ISO, where selecting the movie takes you to the DVD menu. But, then how would one access the special features (which are in additional MKV files)?
Also, assuming one had both the main movie and each of the special features in MKV files, would there be any space savings compared to the ISO?
And most importantly, with MKV, is there any quality loss as compared to the ISO?
Special features outside of .iso require some work. You are right that you would need additional .mkvs of each special feature, and then use an addon for Kodi called VideoExtras. Not all skins support this addon equally. Most, but not all, of them do.
Space saving would occur if you chose to encode the titles. This aligns with your quality loss question as well, and is entirely subjective. You can pull up a lot of hits with a google search on that subject. Personally, I no longer encode anything and just use MakeMKV to do lossless rips of the titles. Hard drive space is cheap.
Thank you all for the helpful information; it has helped me decide to keep my existing .iso files, since my collection is already ripped in that format. There would little to gain (for me), but a lot of work involved in converting.
This answers questions #1 and #2. Having scanned the movies on one NAS drive, I have another question, but was unable to edit my original post, so will place the question here:
5. Kodi is correctly sorting titles beginning with 'The', so that "The Bourne Identity (2002).iso" is appearing under the 'B's, and not under the 'T's; but, it is not likewise sorting titles beginning with "A ...", so "A Bridge Too Far (1977).iso" is appearing under the 'A's. Can it be made to sort so that such title would appear under the 'B's?
That is typical behavior for Kodi. The optional setting says "ignore articleS when sorting (e.g. "the")", but it is really only ignoring "the". It's a minor annoyance for me, as I only have a few titles that start with "A...".
(2015-01-22, 22:50)Positron Wrote: [ -> ]5. Kodi is correctly sorting titles beginning with 'The', so that "The Bourne Identity (2002).iso" is appearing under the 'B's, and not under the 'T's; but, it is not likewise sorting titles beginning with "A ...", so "A Bridge Too Far (1977).iso" is appearing under the 'A's. Can it be made to sort so that such title would appear under the 'B's?
This thread is a little old, but may still work-
113815 (thread)
(2015-01-23, 01:00)wgstarks Wrote: [ -> ]This thread is a little old, but may still work- 113815 (thread)
Thank you; that thread looks promising. But, where is the
advancesettings.xml file? I could not find it either in the application directory or in the /user directory.
It has to be created by you. Check the wiki in my signature.
(2015-01-23, 01:54)thrak76 Wrote: [ -> ]It has to be created by you. Check the wiki in my signature.
Thank you. Apologies for not checking first. After posting, I did search the wiki and find the article for that file. I created it in \Users\<UserName>\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\userdata\ (Windows 8.1) (or should it be in the application directory?) with the following content:
Code:
<advancedsettings>
<sorttokens>
<token>a</token>
<token>an</token>
</sorttokens>
</advancedsettings>
but it didn't work. Refering back to the wiki, I see the filename should be
advancedsettings.xml, rather than
advancesettings.xml as in the linked thread. After correcting the filename, it now works as advertised. Thank you! Question #5 solved.