Kodi Community Forum

> PASTEBIN LINK <

(please help)

I am having a terrible time trying to add some TV shows to my library. A little background, I am using the latest version of XBMC (August 11th build), and the latest version of Media Companion.

The problem persists whether I use Media Companion to tag my shows or not. It also occurs on a number of TV shows(I have tested 7 already).

Folders are set up like this:

W:\Television\Cougar Town
-----------------\Cougar Town S01E01 Pilot 720p WEB-DL h.264.mkv
-----------------\Cougar Town S01E01 Pilot 720p WEB-DL h.264.nfo
-----------------\Cougar Town S01E01 Pilot 720p WEB-DL h.264.tbn

as well as:

W:\Television\30 Rock 720p WEB-DL DD5.1 AVC
-----------------\Season 1
-------------------------\30 Rock S01E01.mkv
-------------------------\30 Rock S01E01.nfo
-------------------------\30 Rock S01E01.tbn

No matter how I name the files/folders the TV shows are not added to the library. When adding say, Cougar Town, I set content to TV Shows, scraped by TVDB.com, automatic scan, folder contains single show. (I have also tried every possible option scenario when setting content).

The dialog box then tells me that it is scraping the TV shows. It will say "Pilot" followed shortly by "1x1 Pilot" and so on.

It then compresses the database and all is supposed to be good to go. However, when then going to TV Shows the new show is not there??

When trying to add 30 Rock it doesn't even attempt to scrape the episodes, it simply goes to "Compressing Database" and thats it.


I have tried deleting all NFOs created my Media Companion from the television show folders, and even scraping new shows that Media Companion hasn't even touched. I have also used different naming formats (S01E02, 01x02, 1x2, etc. etc.) all nothing..

I have searched the forum as well as Google for the past two days and have found nothing that will cure this problem. I have deleted my video db file from the AppData folder as well as deleted the Cache folder all together. Also, I tried 5+ versions of XBMC and 2 other verions of Media Companion, still no go!

Would someone please help me

Try getting rid of the nfo files. You shouldn't need them, and they may be overriding the scraper.

bmillham Wrote:Try getting rid of the nfo files. You shouldn't need them, and they may be overriding the scraper.

Like I said above, I already tried. Also tried folders that were never scraped with XBMC or Media Companion. But thanks though!

Sorry, I missed that...

I did notice that for 30 Rock you have the folder named with the resolution, etc. As an experiment, I tried renaming one of my TV Show folders from Star Trek to Star Trek.S01.720p.WEB-DL.DD5.1 and scraping fails on it.

bmillham Wrote:Sorry, I missed that...

I did notice that for 30 Rock you have the folder named with the resolution, etc. As an experiment, I tried renaming one of my TV Show folders from Star Trek to Star Trek.S01.720p.WEB-DL.DD5.1 and scraping fails on it.

Just changed the folder name to "30 Rock" and tried scraping with NFO's in the folders and with them deleted and it still failed both times. It just says "Compressing Database" for a second or two and thats it.. :confused2:

Is there a 30 Rock folder that contains nothing, or only some episodes?

If so, try deleting the 30 Rock folder from XBMC in library mode.

(scroll down to 30 Rock, hit C and select "Remove from Library". )

Then do an Update Library and see what happens.

It never adds 30 Rock or anything to the library. It doesn't even look like it is scraping episodes. On a few shows, like FlashForward or Cougar Town it scraps the episode but still does not show anything in the library.

Thanks for trying to help, this is a pain.

Try the same on FlashForward. That's the one I noticed in you log that got me thinking it's the folder names.

Another thought, are you using a central database, or a local one? If you are using a local database, try renaming your userdata folder, and running xbmc and letting it scape again. I had problems like this when I was first setting up for scraping. It seems that xbmc puts the file in the database, even if it doesn't scrape right sometimes.

Other than that, I'm out of ideas....

I just renamed my userdata folder and tried to scrape FlashForward, another show I havn't messed with yet(Veronica Mars), and also 30 Rock again and still no go. The TV shows both tried to scrape the episodes(with the exception of 30 Rock that did nothing..)

Thanks for trying to help. Anybody else have any ideas??

Well, I tried one more thing, and am now at a complete loss as to what to have you try next.

I just created a 30 Rock directory structure identical to yours (using an avi file renamed to match your 30 Rock file) and it scraped perfectly!


The only differences are avi vs. mkv and that I'm using smb instead of a direct path.

Sorry I don't have any real answers for you :-(

This is very odd. The only thing I could think of is that somehow maybe my TVDB scraper got messed up? I went into the Addon Manager and tried to uninstall and reinstall it but that didn't seem to do anything.

I'll wait a day or two and see if anyone else has any ideas. Otherwise I guess I will delete my XBMC installation and start over from scratch.

Are you running Ubuntu and updating and compiling yourself?
I'm running Ubuntu.

I had a problem where the projectM visualization wasn't working for me. The fix was just to do a sudo make uninstall and then sudo make install.

If you are on Ubuntu, maybe this will work for you. If you are on Windows, maybe try uninstalling XBMC and reinstalling.

Good luck, hopefully someone will figure this out for you!

If using this excellent app has taught me anything it is that succesful scraping stems from accurate naming. Accurate naming in relation to the scraper source always provides me with prefect scrapes. In your instance the names of the shows are inaccurate to the xbmc scrape, but obviously not for Media Companion.

I would suggest that you completely uninstall/reinstall xbmc, correct the naming of your folders to the actual name of the shows (in the example given the show name is 30 Rock - not 30 Rock 720p WEB-DL DD5.1 AVC or any other derivative), similarily so with your other shows as well. Then abandon Media Comapnaion and let xbmc natively scrape the information. You will notice that your thread has been ignored by the devs, because Media Companion is a wholly 3rd party app and totally unsupported. Therefore should you wish to continue using Medai Companion, I would suggest seeking advice from there as opposed to here.

Most if not all scraping issues arise from unusual/incorrect/unrecognised naming formats. I personally see no need for 3rd party scrapers xbmc does that job quite efficiently, providing as I say that your naming convention mirrors exactly that of your scraper source - if it doesn't then it is more than likely that the information does not exist, then you either have to add to the source (theTVDB, or themoviedb) or create your own personal nfo's.

These are purely my own humble opinions/suggestions, no doubt there are others who will swear blindly by 3rd party scrapers - I just don't see the benefit.

steelman1991 Wrote:If using this excellent app has taught me anything it is that succesful scraping stems from accurate naming. Accurate naming in relation to the scraper source always provides me with prefect scrapes. In your instance the names of the shows are inaccurate to the xbmc scrape, but obviously not for Media Companion.

I would suggest that you completely uninstall/reinstall xbmc, correct the naming of your folders to the actual name of the shows (in the example given the show name is 30 Rock - not 30 Rock 720p WEB-DL DD5.1 AVC or any other derivative), similarily so with your other shows as well. Then abandon Media Comapnaion and let xbmc natively scrape the information. You will notice that your thread has been ignored by the devs, because Media Companion is a wholly 3rd party app and totally unsupported. Therefore should you wish to continue using Medai Companion, I would suggest seeking advice from there as opposed to here.

Most if not all scraping issues arise from unusual/incorrect/unrecognised naming formats. I personally see no need for 3rd party scrapers xbmc does that job quite efficiently, providing as I say that your naming convention mirrors exactly that of your scraper source - if it doesn't then it is more than likely that the information does not exist, then you either have to add to the source (theTVDB, or themoviedb) or create your own personal nfo's.

These are purely my own humble opinions/suggestions, no doubt there are others who will swear blindly by 3rd party scrapers - I just don't see the benefit.

Thanks, but I have already tried to scrape 30 Rock with the folder named simply "30 Rock" (same with FlashForward and Cougar Town). I have tried to scrape using both the Media Companion NFOs as well as no NFOs at all. No NFOs and properly named folders & files, so the problem seems to stem from XBMC and not Media Companion. I will wait another day to see if anyone else chimes in with an answer before completely uninstalling.

wait are you adding each folder as a source and selecting folder contains 1 show?

why not remove all instances of TV shows from XBMC and add your source as

W:/Television
set it to scan recursively and use folder names for look ups.

also how are you files named?

I was having problems in the begining with my Tv shows and scraping because of folder names and file names. I used Sickbeard and it renamed all my Tv.shows and added NFO files and I have ZERO problems

here is how I have my tv shows set up

so it would like like this in the command line w:/Tv.Shows/Weeds/Season1/Weeds.s01.e01.-.Lets.get.High.mkv


-=Jason=-