Kodi Community Forum

Hi, I have several questions relating to stub files.

1. All of my 3D movies are ISO files. I have no SBS or TAB files. I Prefer to back up my media in original quality. How to I handle this with the stub files. Wiki says 3D AND the type of media file are BOTH required.
2. How to I show "Theatrical", "Extended", "Special Edition" Or "Directors Cut" in the filename. I tried (for example "Aliens Directors Cut (1986).bluray.disc" but it doesn't seem to find the title when it is scraped
3. Is there a way to add an extra line to the .disc file. For example, I want to specify the location of the disc, but also that there are 3D, Blu-ray, 4K, DVD, extended, special edition etc versions also available.
4. Windows will not allow : (Colon) in file names. So movies like AVP: Requiem have to be renamed to just "AVP Requiem"
5. I have created about 6,000 stub files. Took me the best part of a year on and off. More than half of those are TV episodes, and each one of those requires its own stub file. Is there a better way to do this?
6. I had my stubs located in the same place as media files, but since Kodi is not the only program used to watch content (Some people just browse with windows and use Potplayer or VLC), I got complaints about "All these .disc files make it hard to find the actual movies". My movies are stored in folders by Genre. I ended up creating a folder called "On Disc" in my source, but the movies don't show up in the same location (of course) when you're browsing the library.. Guess I want my cake and be able to eat it too
7. I have a lot of documentaries. I'd estimate 1 in 25 would pick up the correct name. Many of them are not on TVDB, IMDB etc. I also have a lot of stand up comedy. Same issues.... Wrong names, wrong metadata etc... How to resolve?

I know there are a lot of questions. I did ask some time ago if it was OK to ask multiple questions in a single post and since they are all of one subject - stub files - I'm hoping I'm safe.

Hello @Yanta

Have you read the wiki page for stub files... https://kodi.wiki/view/Media_stubs

1. Why are you using Stub Files if you have the ISO file on your hard disk?
2. Which filename? Inside Kodi as the title, or the actual filename of the media file. Media extensions need to be supported by the skin, so you can't just use any words you want
3. Yes, see the link to the wiki page
4. Yes, correct. Once scraped, the title in Kodi should show the colon, as long as that is how it was entered at the site of the Information Provider.
5. No. But I am assuming you have not ripped these dvd's and you are actually pointing to optical disks. (your comment in item 1 makes me think otherwise though)
6. Again... why do you have stub files if you have the media files saved to your disk?
7. See here... https://kodi.wiki/view/Incorrect_and_mis...vider_site

Yep, no problems with the numerous questions. They are nicely numbered and easy to understand and respond to. We don't like the ones where the seven questions are asked in the one sentence and you can never figure out where one question ends and the next one starts.

Have a read through this guide which explains how to create your Movie and TV Show library... https://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Create_Video_Library

I have a sneaking suspicion that you have created your library incorrectly.

Thanks for your replies.
Sorry, I should have provided some background.

I have 3,000 physical media. This covers Movies, TV, Documentaries, Comedy, Home recordings and Sports.
TV would account for about half that. One season could contain 8 discs (New shows typically are 4), and then there could be up to 24 episodes per season. It's easy to see how the number of stub files adds up.
I have a server running Windows 2012 R2 that has 60TB of storage, which serves my websites, WSUS, various databases that I wrote and maintain, etc
When I purchase content I rip it to the server. With the exception of 3D Movies, everything is ripped to MKV. 3D is backed up directly to ISO files. I never compress, preferring to try and keep everything as close to original quality as possible.
After a period, I will delete the content from the server when I need space for newer content, or when no-one really wants to watch it anymore.
There are 10 PCs here, used by 7 people in the family. Windows 10 mostly, but a couple of Windows 7's, PS3's, DLNA aware TVs, tablets, cell phones and so forth.
Some stuff is recorded to the server using a PVR and various other technologies. I rarely delete anything. So, once it comes off the server it goes on to physical media.
Not everyone has 4K capability, so there will be multiple editions. Originally I was converting Blu-rays to DVDs because not everyone had a blu-ray player in their PC. Over the years, it's gotten quite massive, though I could prune it back a lot now.

So, with that in mind.
1. You're right - Stub files are for the physical media, not the ISOs. Lol. My title was about stub files and the first question I asked was about extracting metadata from ISO files. Silly me.
2. In the Kodi library for content on the server I guess. I could simply use the one line I have in the .disc file, which is why I asked about additional lines.

This is an example:
<discstub>
  <title>Aliens (1986) Extended, Theatrical, Home Edit</title>
  <message>Case 1 Row 1 Slots 27-30 - Media: 4K, Blu-ray, DVD</message>
</discstub>

3. I cannot use additional <message> lines. They are ignored/Not displayed.
4. I used the example of a colon, but it applies to any special characters, Eg ?,  / ,  > (Eg Face/Off, Why Him?)
5. Yes, I am using the .disc file for what they are intended for - to Point to physical media. Not for content on the server.
6. Refer to 1 and 5.
7. OK, Looks like I have some research to do with the .NFO files.

God I hope I haven't created it incorrectly I have spent the best part of a year in my spare time setting this up.

Thanks
Tanya

Ok, that is a lot clearer now. I was dreading telling you that you had wasted a year on doing the wrong thing.

1. So the Media Flags are skin dependent. Here is the wiki page... https://kodi.wiki/view/Naming_video_file..._.2F_Flags
2. There are a number of ways to adjust the name of a movie. Easiest would be to highlight the movie, call up the Context Menu, select Manage, then select Edit Title
3. As far as I can see, you can add lots of lines to the disc file, but you have to let Kodi scroll the lines. The box won't enlarge to accommodate the extra lines. See image...


And this is the code I used for that disc file...

cpp:
<discstub>

  <title>Alternative Title</title>

  <message>Message to be displayed

Message on line 2

Message on line 3

Message on line 4</message>

</discstub>

4. Same answer as 2. above
5. Ok. Still same answer though. No shortcut route. I am sure you are already copying and pasting an existing disc file and changing the relevant data.
6. Kodi always recommends using Movie Folders. See folder layout image here... https://kodi.wiki/view/Naming_video_file...6_Filename
7. The NFO Files are pretty easy. Remember to read the first page of NFO Files and it can point you to software that will help automate the task.

Oh, and I do hope you have some sort of backup regime...

Look at Import-Export in My Signature below...

I'm somewhat paranoid about backups. My server backs up my Kodi set up everyday. I think I tend to go overboard with backups, rather than not enough.

OK, what I was doing with the messages was this...

<discstub>
  <title>Aliens (1986) Extended, Theatrical, Home Edit</title>
  <message>Message line 1</message>
  <message>Message line 2</message>
  <message>Message line 3</message>
</discstub>

Ok, I'm still confused by my Question 2. The skin I am currently using is called Rapier.

Where do the media flags like "Directors Cut" come from if they are not part of the file name?
Looking at an MKV with Media Info I see no tags or metadata that shows that the movie is a "Directors Cut".
The penny is just not dropping.

Great that the stub file message is figured out now. Do I assume correctly everything is answered except item 2 below?

(2018-03-20, 02:37)Yanta Wrote: [ -> ]2. How to I show "Theatrical", "Extended", "Special Edition" Or "Directors Cut" in the filename. I tried (for example "Aliens Directors Cut (1986).bluray.disc" but it doesn't seem to find the title when it is scraped

If you are using Rapier, then it would be best to ask @Gade how it is handled. But if you are simply wanting to show, within Kodi, the title like Aliens - Directors Cut, then you need to manually modify that in some way. The TMDB does not list its movies that way, and it doesn't really care about Uncut, Directors Cut, Theatrical Release, DVD Release, or any other version you can think of. That is more of a personal requirement, so you have to modify it on your own Kodi.

There are a few ways to do that...
1. As I described above using the Context Menu. Rapier has this ability.
2. Using Chorus2 Web browser and simply editing the title. (even easier than item 1)
3. Using a Combination NFO... https://kodi.wiki/view/Nfo_files#Combination_nfo

As far as I am aware, there are no Media Flags that show Release Versions of a movie. But that is skin dependant and hopefully @Gade can advise.

Just had a look at Rapiers wiki page and there is a list of all recognised media flags... https://kodi.wiki/view/Add-on:Rapier#Pro...g_of_files

The questions were

Multi line messages - Resolved.
Getting metadata from ISOs. Resolved - I can add .3d. to file name to detect that ISO is a 3D movie. I can also manually rename my files within the library to better suit my tastes, but according to the Rapier Wiki, none of the other things I want are supported by the skin. BTW: filebot uses the {vf} binding to accomplish the same thing - I guess I was hoping for something like that.

Advice on location of .disc files (Mixed with media files, separate locations, better alternatives):
I fear the statement about "You did it wrong" is starting to look correct. I use the "2.2 Filename Only" method, and as the Wiki says, the folders (Which are named by Genre) are very cluttered. And since it looks like I might now be creating NFO files on top of the stub files, it's going to get worse.

If everyone used Kodi exclusively I could switch to 2.1 - Movie Folder and Filename - But in a mixed environment that's even worse.

I take everything you've told me and get back to work.

Thanks for your kind and patient assistance.

(2018-03-20, 14:39)Yanta Wrote: [ -> ]Getting metadata from ISOs. Resolved - I can add .3d. to file name to detect that ISO is a 3D movie. I can also manually rename my files within the library to better suit my tastes, but according to the Rapier Wiki, none of the other things I want are supported by the skin. BTW: filebot uses the {vf} binding to accomplish the same thing - I guess I was hoping for something like that.

Hi Yanta.

I hope a can answer your Rapier related questions. Karellen has already answered most and I'll probably repeat some of his answers here.

Follow the above link for correctly naming of files.

Tags like "Director's Cut", "Special Edition", "Theatrical Version" is not supported by any skin or scraper that I know.
So to get that correctly shown in Kodi, you'll have to manually edit the title.


What do you want to do which is not supported by Rapier? Please repeat, because I'm a bit lost here.

Thread moved to video support

Right now I got bigger problems.

I reinstalled Kodi last night from scratch, as I have done dozens of times. Configured the skin and Kodi's general settings, downloaded all my add-ons and then added my movies and TV-Shows. Movies went fine, but my TV Shows all got added to the library under a single TV Show - "Professor T", with some 2,500 files added to two seasons all with the same name in German, and all Epiisode 1. No matter what I tried I could not get rid of it.

When I went into Videos>TV Shows, all the seasons for each of the TV Shows were there, but when selecting TV shows from the menu bar at the bottom all I could see was Professor T. So I am starting again.

Anyway - off topic. Getting back on topic....

TL;dr - Your skin is excellent and I can work around the rest.

My second post pretty much describes my environment. I have several versions of many movies; 3D, 4K UHD, 1080p, Extended/Directors Cut/Special editions, and several I have integrated deleted scenes into for my own use. All my 3D files are ISOs. I don't use SBS or TAB (OU). Reading your Wiki I can add .3D. and .bluray. to the files names to get the metadata onto the skin. Cool!

The rest I have to achieve by manually editing the library entries. That's about 500 movies. That is nothing compared to the thousands of .disc stubs I spent many months creating.

About 10% of my movies got the wrong metadata. Some are completely ambiguous. I'm sure you've seen the post about Split here where there were 9 movies called Split released in 2016. These are all things that need to be fixed manually. Nothing to do with your skin.

Documentaries are the most challenging - most of them are independent and are not listed on any provider, so not scrapable.

In an ideal world additional tags might be supported, like the edition, and run time shown when the movie is highlighted, without having to play it or use the information option from the context menu. I'd like to be able to show the information in place of the plot - Is that a Kodi issue or a skin issue? - I'm too new to this to know

But right now - Everything I want can pretty much be achieved with manual editing of the titles.

The only issue there really is no solution for is the fact that this is a mixed environment - Kodi is not used exclusively on every PC... Obviously (They are used for may things), so a lot of times people just browse the folders and use PotPlayer to play the media. Having all the .NFO and .DISC files in the same location drives them nuts.... The only thing I've come up with is to move the .DISC files to a folder called "Offline Media", which works fine in Kodi but it's not intuitive.

I can hide the files with the +S +H attributes, but then Kodi doesn't see them when scanning the folders.

(2018-03-22, 03:04)Yanta Wrote: [ -> ]I reinstalled Kodi last night from scratch, as I have done dozens of times. Configured the skin and Kodi's general settings, downloaded all my add-ons and then added my movies and TV-Shows. Movies went fine, but my TV Shows all got added to the library under a single TV Show - "Professor T", with some 2,500 files added to two seasons all with the same name in German, and all Epiisode 1. No matter what I tried I could not get rid of it.

What version of Kodi are you using where this problem occurred?

Do you have the correct Source/TV Show Folder structure in place? https://kodi.wiki/view/Naming_video_file...how_Folder

Krypton 17.6

Same folder structure I've been using for the last year.

\\server\tv-Shows\Series-Name\Season X

Literally: T:\12 Monkeys\Season 1, T:\12 Monkeys\Season 2, T:\12 Monkeys\Season 3

Filenames: 12 Monkeys -S01E01 - Splinter.mkv

I've re installed Kodi dozens of times; always the latest version available at the time.

It's currently scanning TV Shows again.