Kodi Community Forum

Hi folks,

I discovered that XBMC was available for mac last night (how long has that been the case?) and was excited to test it on my macbook pro and be met by generally a very nice feeling media frontend.

I'm going to install it on the mac mini under the tv later tonight but wanted to ask if there was a way to reduce a slight headache that i have with my media files.

Up until now i've been using frontrow to playback my files, namely ones that itunes/quicktime don't natively support so i've been using perian to load the files (mkvs etc) into quicktime, waiting for it to finish caching the file and then saving the file as a reference file. This mov file can then be added to itunes and used within frontrow.

Frustratingly now I have the problem that when importing the media directory I get duplicates of the tv shows and films I have. Its less of a problem with the tv shows as although the total count is double the size you can only see individual episodes. The movies however show up twice, one for the original file, one for the reference file. The latter can't be ran as its a .mov file that only works via quicktime using perian.

Anyways i wondered if there was a way i could filter out say *.mov from all the files i import for tv and movies. I can remove the files from the library but whenever i refresh the folder to look for new media it just re-adds the duplicates back in again.

Hope its possible. Great to have this software on a machine that has the power for the modern HD formats.

Cheers

Hi and welcome to the forums.

Yes, it should be possible to do what you want using the <excludefromscan> advanced setting.

You will need to create a file ~/Library/Application Support/XBMC/userdata/advancedsettings.xml and put something like this in it (totally untested):


EDIT: Another option, if all your movs are in one folder is to specifically exclude that folder from the scan which you can do from the GUI.

Thanks for the tip. I'll give it a go in a moment. Sadly to keep the mov/mkv's portable they have to live in the same directory. If i totally adopt XBMC (which i most likely will do) then i will be able to remove the mkvs to another folder. But in the transition i'd like to be able to fall back to frontrow if i need to.

I've got remote buddy and am presuming i'll be able to use that to launch xbmc with the mac remote!?

I'm having some trouble at the moment with installing it on the mac mini. I just tried installing it as the htpc user which doesn't have the required permissions. So I had to authenticate which i did do, but then the installer failed to do something with User i think. I then switched to the user who has permissions and tried installing and that also failed. I've rebooted and am going to try again. Hopefully thats not fatal. I'll start another thread on that if it is a problem.

If i get it working i'll give your recommendation a try.

I'm a bit confused. According to the info I added

<video>
<excludefromscan>
<regexp>[Ee][Xx][Tt][Rr][Aa][Ss]*.*</regexp>
</excludefromscan>
</video>

which didn't match or was ignored.

Should I change video to advancedsettings?

The file needs to be enclosed with <advancedsettings> tags
http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=Advancedsettings.xml#Layout

Btw what version are you using?
This was added to SVN after the 8.10 stable release.

I don't know. This stuff really doesn't seem to be working:

I now have this file <complete file):

<advancedsettings>
<video>
<excludefromscan>
<regexp>[Ee][Xx][Tt][Rr][Aa][Ss]*.*</regexp>
</excludefromscan>
</video>
</advancedsettings>

as advancedsettings.xml.

I restarted XBMC. I have gathered all movie info via XBMC companion. I see a bunch of blank entries in the library list all for extras.

What am I doing wrong?

Are you saying I need to use a later build? I will try that.

If you actually told me what version or build you are using I could recommend something.

I was using Atlantis (release). I then picked the 'Experimental' version from Sourceforge. But no luck with that one, either.

Suggestions?

What is this "experimental version"?

Do a full Debug Log, paste it to pastebin and link to it from here.

That will tell us:

1. What version you are using.
2. Whether the advancedsettings.xml file is being read.

Cheers,
Jonathan

Experimental version is the title at Sourceforge. No idea what that means.

Now I used 16953. This stuff stacks differently which confused me initially and showed less Extras but they were stacked.

I do not know how to get the debug log. Can you advise?

With pastebin, do you mean pastebin.com?

See my sig. And yes, pastebin.com or any other paste site.

There are now at least four links like this in the thread:

For troubleshooting and bug reporting please make sure you read this first.

rernst Wrote:Experimental version is the title at Sourceforge. No idea what that means.

Now I used 16953. This stuff stacks differently which confused me initially and showed less Extras but they were stacked.

I do not know how to get the debug log. Can you advise?

With pastebin, do you mean pastebin.com?

Ok, I figured the debug log out. Log coming up shortly.

rernst Wrote:Ok, I figured the debug log out. Log coming up shortly.

Ok, guys, I got it. I read the debug log.

I fear the instructions on where to placed the advancedsetting.xml are misleading. I placed it into

C:\Program Files\XBMC\userdata

whereas they go into

C:\Documents and Settings\userid\Application Data\XBMC\userdata

This was absolutely not clear to me.

The doc reads:

>>> The "advancedsettings.xml" file, which does not exist by default, may be created by a user in their "\UserData\" folder. <<<

It fails to mention the Application Data folder (of course, a user would look in the installation folder).

Unless he read up as instructed:
http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=The_UserData_Folder

http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=XBMC_for_Win...ecific_FAQ