[Dirki]

How can I display in the "Main Browser" (and "Table") tab the country of production? E.g. "Terminator" - Country: "USA".

And how could I show different ratings, e.g. the rating of imdb and another data base or more?

What are "Home Movies"?

[vbat99]

Thanks for the latest release. Got a question about actors. If using I don't use the XBMC scraper, actors are placed in a single directory. When using the XBMC scraper, actors are put in the .actor folder with the movie. Is this by design? Also, what exactly is this : Filter new movies title during scrape for entries already in Source list, add to Source tag automatically. Thanks again!

Easy one first. - Filter new movies titles during scrape for entries already in the Source List.
If the filename contains any of the entries in the Source List (Movie Preferences - > Advanced tab, Video Source) then this is automatically added to the Source tag in the movie's nfo.
ie: the-terminator-1984-720p-brrip-x264-650mb-yify.mkv - Will find brrip and add this to <videosource>BRRip</videosource> in the-terminator-1984-720p-brrip-x264-650mb-yify.nfo

As for actors. Just tested and there is a glitch. Actors are being saved to a Local Actor's folder as per settings on Movie Preferences - > Advanced tab, and (Oops), also to a .actors folder.
This is definitely a glitch, so I'll add it to the road map. Thanks for spotting this one.

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How can I display in the "Main Browser" (and "Table") tab the country of production? E.g. "Terminator" - Country: "USA".

And how could I show different ratings, e.g. the rating of imdb and another data base or more?

What are "Home Movies"?

1. Currently not implimented to display country in Main Browser, and I do not see code to support this in Table View. There is limited space in Main Browser for this field to be added, but it should be possible to add this to Table View.

2. We only scrape one rating, so there is only one rating to display.

3. Home Movies - Just that. You can add Home movies to Media Companion, filling in basic plot and screen shot. These can then be scraped into XBMC.
(Future release hopefully to have Home or Custom TV, where user can set up chronologically based videos as seasons - episodes - but this is yet to be finalized)

[Dirki]

Many thanks, vbat99.

but it should be possible to add this to Table View.

That would be great.

But if I am right, you can choose between the display of different ratings.

Well, any idea what "Home Movies" are. May be movies created by yourself?

I have done some posts on the Media Companion forum, but it seems this is the right place to post. So I assume, I should repeat those posts here?

Thank you very much again.

[vbat99]

Please, issues or feature requests over on the media companion site.

Discussions on either. I check both xbmc and mediacompanion forums.

[Dirki]

Use "Offline Movie Folders" for movie dummies?

Most of my movies, series are stored on an external Hard Disk, which is plugged in only for watching videos or editing (so whenn XBMC starts, when the HD is not plugged in the movie, series information is lost). Edit: I just saw, when I click on a title the movie information (when the external HD is not plugged in) is not available anymore. How could I manage it?

And I have created dummies (which are stored in one folder), so real files with avi extrension (0 byte) with the names (the same like normal avi, mkv files) of the movies / series I have on my DVDs.

Should I add these folders to "Offline Movie Folders" or "Movie Folders" in the "Folders" tab?

How can I change the program language and the one of the movie information?

[vbat99]

Use "Offline Movie Folders" for movie dummies?

Most of my movies, series are stored on an external Hard Disk, which is plugged in only for watching videos or editing (so whenn XBMC starts, when the HD is not plugged in the movie, series information is lost). Edit: I just saw, when I click on a title the movie information (when the external HD is not plugged in) is not available anymore. How could I manage it?

And I have created dummies (which are stored in one folder), so real files with avi extrension (0 byte) with the names (the same like normal avi, mkv files) of the movies / series I have on my DVDs.

Should I add these folders to "Offline Movie Folders" or "Movie Folders" in the "Folders" tab?

How can I change the program language and the one of the movie information?

Offline movies and Media Stub files are for movies on like optical disc's, DVD, blu-ray etc.
Offline Movies just play a small video stating to load the media.
Media Stub files are the same, but stay on-screen and when the disc is inserted, you can play it immediately. (Media Stub files are supported in XBMC, Offline Movies are a stop-gap measure before media stub files were incorporated into XBMC).

I have no idea how you could get around this except for how you currently are doing it. Ie: have movies on external drive loaded into XBMC Library.
At least this way, it does tell you it's not available if the drive isn't connected.

As for Program language, are you talking about Media Companion in Different languages, or scraping movies in different language?

[Dirki]

Thank you very much, vbat99.

Offline movies and Media Stub files are for movies on like optical disc's, DVD, blu-ray etc.
Offline Movies just play a small video stating to load the media.
Media Stub files are the same, but stay on-screen and when the disc is inserted, you can play it immediately. (Media Stub files are supported in XBMC, Offline Movies are a stop-gap measure before media stub files were incorporated into XBMC).

So, if I see it right, using Media Stubs has the advantage (over using such dummies) to get this message to insert the DVD, medium and to easily start it after and you can label the kind of medium (DVD, Blu-Ray). So I just would have to rename the avi extension to disc and add the folder in the "Media Stubs" tab and Media Companion automatically would scrape the movies / series like common movie / series files.

I have no idea how you could get around this except for how you currently are doing it. Ie: have movies on external drive loaded into XBMC Library.
At least this way, it does tell you it's not available if the drive isn't connected.

OK, so there is no way that Media Companion could show movie information of those "offline" movies / series.

As for Program language, are you talking about Media Companion in Different languages, or scraping movies in different language?

Both ones, actually (for the GUI's language I could not find the option). I suppose, you can change the language for the movies here - http://i.imgur.com/bLYH6Nr.png - e.g. using the German (".de") mirror or Italian or here - http://i.imgur.com/T91ETwO.png.

How can I make MC show movies / series only, which are stored in a special folder (e.g at this time I do not want to see Christmas movies displayed)? Or could I show the name of the folder (the movie, series is stored in) in the browser's column or the table tab?

Or could one temporarily grey out or fade out all the files stored in special folder(s)?

How can I (re)scrape a special (single) folder (instead of all of the folders entered in the "Folder" tab?

Many thanks again.

[vbat99]

Thank you very much, vbat99.

Offline movies and Media Stub files are for movies on like optical disc's, DVD, blu-ray etc.
Offline Movies just play a small video stating to load the media.
Media Stub files are the same, but stay on-screen and when the disc is inserted, you can play it immediately. (Media Stub files are supported in XBMC, Offline Movies are a stop-gap measure before media stub files were incorporated into XBMC).

So, if I see it right, using Media Stubs has the advantage (over using such dummies) to get this message to insert the DVD, medium and to easily start it after and you can label the kind of medium (DVD, Blu-Ray). So I just would have to rename the avi extension to disc and add the folder in the "Media Stubs" tab and Media Companion automatically would scrape the movies / series like common movie / series files.

Basically, yes. Though I do not know how this would work for media on a removable device, as the Media Stub files do not point to a video file.
Media stub files are basically a shell with minimal xml data for the specific movie they portray. They are scraped by Media Companion just like an actual video file, with a nfo containing the movie data the Stub file relates to.

I have no idea how you could get around this except for how you currently are doing it. Ie: have movies on external drive loaded into XBMC Library.
At least this way, it does tell you it's not available if the drive isn't connected.

OK, so there is no way that Media Companion could show movie information of those "offline" movies / series.

I think the answer is No, but not exactly sure what your asking. If your asking the Media Companion retains a list of all movies on an external drive, but that the external drive is disconnected, then Media Companion can not read the relevant movie's nfo file, or display the artwork.

As for Program language, are you talking about Media Companion in Different languages, or scraping movies in different language?

Both ones, actually (for the GUI's language I could not find the option).

Unfortunately, Media Companion has only been coded in English. It is not a multi-language program.

I suppose, you can change the language for the movies here - http://i.imgur.com/bLYH6Nr.png - e.g. using the German (".de") mirror or Italian or here - http://i.imgur.com/T91ETwO.png.

This is a Catch issue. IMDB uses Geo-ip location services to serve it's website in the language of your location. BUT, Scraping Movies, it seems to only give back English data. This is something I have attempted to by-pass, but it has never worked correctly.

From the two images you posted, you can attempt to scrape from a different IMDB mirror, or the second image is to select the movie's rating relevant to your country.

Alternatively, Select using the XBMC TMDB scraper. with this scraper you can select your preferred language, and as long as the movie has data for the selected language, this will be scraped.

How can I make MC show movies / series only, which are stored in a special folder (e.g at this time I do not want to see Christmas movies displayed)? Or could I show the name of the folder (the movie, series is stored in) in the browser's column or the table tab?

Or could one temporarily grey out or fade out all the files stored in special folder(s)?

Use Profiles. Basically setup another profile, and have only the special folder listed in this profiles Movie Folders.
Then you can switch between profiles.
This would be the only option.

Many thanks again.

Happy to help.

[Dirki]

Basically, yes. Though I do not know how this would work for media on a removable device, as the Media Stub files do not point to a video file.
Media stub files are basically a shell with minimal xml data for the specific movie they portray. They are scraped by Media Companion just like an actual video file, with a nfo containing the movie data the Stub file relates to.

These files I would store on the internal drive, they (almost) do not need space.

Actually I had thought using external drvies for videos would be very common, but obviously it is not...or I guess, they are switched on all the time.

I think the answer is No, but not exactly sure what your asking. If your asking the Media Companion retains a list of all movies on an external drive, but that the external drive is disconnected, then Media Companion can not read the relevant movie's nfo file, or display the artwork.

So, you cannot store all of the movie information in another folder (on the internal drive) than that one the movies / series are stored in.

Did I understand it right, you have to enter the path to the folder *.disc files are stored in and then MC scrapes all of the files in the folder automatically like it does with normal video files? Or do you have to enter each single disc file and scrape it manually? I cannot find a way to automatically scrape all of the files in the Media Stubs folder.

[vbat99]

Basically, yes. Though I do not know how this would work for media on a removable device, as the Media Stub files do not point to a video file.
Media stub files are basically a shell with minimal xml data for the specific movie they portray. They are scraped by Media Companion just like an actual video file, with a nfo containing the movie data the Stub file relates to.

These files I would store on the internal drive, they (almost) do not need space.

Actually I had thought using external drives for videos would be very common, but obviously it is not...or I guess, they are switched on all the time.

XBMC users have a variety of different methods. External Storage, Network Attached Storage(NAS - I believe this is very common due to some user's large library, as well as access from any network connected PC or Player) or Local Storage.
And I would guess those with External Storage would have them connected at time of starting XBMC.

I think the answer is No, but not exactly sure what your asking. If your asking the Media Companion retains a list of all movies on an external drive, but that the external drive is disconnected, then Media Companion can not read the relevant movie's nfo file, or display the artwork.

So, you cannot store all of the movie information in another folder (on the internal drive) than that one the movies / series are stored in.

The movie data, ie: nfo, artwork etc has to be stored with the movie files. This is XBMC requirement for local information.

Did I understand it right, you have to enter the path to the folder *.disc files are stored in and then MC scrapes all of the files in the folder automatically like it does with normal video files? Or do you have to enter each single disc file and scrape it manually? I cannot find a way to automatically scrape all of the files in the Media Stubs folder.

Recommended way, would be to have a separate folder for Media Stub files. Add this folder to list of Movie Folders. Create the Stub file(s) in Media Companion, you can create many. Then in Main Browser, do a Search for new.

Media Companion is coded to recognise .stub extensions, and scrape the meta-data and artwork as if they were a valid video file.

[Dirki]

Sorry for my bad understanding.

Add this folder to list of Movie Folders. Create the Stub file(s) in Media Companion, you can create many.

Do I manually have to create each single file, one by one (so create the first file for the first movie, then the second file for the second movie etc.) or can I just rename the extension of the dummies to .stub and then let MC automatically scrape al ofl the movies (the .stub files) in one single step (like it does for real movies)?

Using Media Stubs does not work for series?

[vbat99]

Sorry for my bad understanding.

Add this folder to list of Movie Folders. Create the Stub file(s) in Media Companion, you can create many.

Do I manually have to create each single file, one by one (so create the first file for the first movie, then the second file for the second movie etc.) or can I just rename the extension of the dummies to .stub and then let MC automatically scrape al ofl the movies (the .stub files) in one single step (like it does for real movies)?

Media Companion gets the movie title from the filename. If you have dummy files already in a folder with <movietitle>.<extn> were {b]extn[/b] is a valid video file extension, ie: mp4, mkv, avi etc, then Yes, Changing the extension to .disc would work. Only thing missing would be the file format, ie: DVD, HDDVD, Bluray etc, as well as any custom message within the stub file.
If the stub file is created in Media Companion, it contains the following

Filename: Dukes Of Hazzard.dvd.disc

Code:

<discstub>
  <title>Dukes Of Hazzard</title>
  <message>Insert Media to Continue</message>
</discstub>

When in XBMC and you select one of these, it displays the Title, and the message. Now, the message can be customised by the user.
If the above code is not in the .disc file, then XBMC displays the Filename, with a default message.

Using Media Stubs does not work for series?

Media Stubs is only for Movies. http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Media_stubs

Hmm, just spotted a small bug. If scraping with XBMC TMDB, Media Stub files will not scrape. Seems I need to clean off the media format from the filename for TMDB, ie: dvd, bluray etc.

Hope this helps.

[vbat99]

Thanks for the latest release. Got a question about actors. If using I don't use the XBMC scraper, actors are placed in a single directory. When using the XBMC scraper, actors are put in the .actor folder with the movie. Is this by design?

Just did some research into this.

If under General Preferences you have "Save actors to .actors folder" selected, and you have Local actors folder set in Movie Preferences -> Advanced tab, then when scraping movies, actors are placed in both locations.
Unselect General Preferences -> "Save actors to .actors folder", and actors will only be saved to a Local actors folder.

Choice is yours, either location, both locations.

[Dirki]

Thank you very much, vbat99.

And sorry again for bad understanding: I add the folder containing the disc files to "Movie Folders" or to "Offline Movie Folders" (which panal should I use?) in the tab "Folders", click "Save & Refresh" and press "Refresh" in the Main Browser. Nothing is scraped. What am I missing?

Is it possible (or necessary) to add that folder (where I store the disc files in) to the tab "Media Stubs" (after renaming these file extension to .stub or not, so leaving the extension disc). I cannot manage it to add it to that tab (to (Offline sub's folder").

If the stub file is created in Media Companion, it contains the following

When the stub files are created in Media Companion, do I have to create each file manually? Or can MM scrape it like normal movies?

Sorry again for my bad understanding.

Well, obviously I had missed to press "Search" in the Movie Browser (instead of "Refresh"). But whatfor is the "Offline Movie Folder" when you have to add the offline movies (I assume the *.disc files are offline movies, respectively representing them) to the "Movies Folder"?

[vbat99]

If you have a folder that contains files ending in .disc then add these to the Movie Folders list, NOT, the offline folders list.

If you use Media Companion to create the .disc files, then make sure you have entered the folder you wish these saved to, in the Media Stub Tab. This is the field marked "Offline Stubs Folder". If in Media Companion you Browse to the folder you wish to save the .disc files into, on the Media Stub Tab, this folder will be automatically added to the "Movie Folders" List.

Stub files should be in the format
Dukes Of Hazzard.dvd.disc
I am not certain if the dvd part Has to be present, but I believe this is the indicator to XBMC of the type of media that requires playing.
"Refresh" only adds movies that have nfo's already. Once you have .disc files and the folder these are contained in added to Movie Folders, click "Search"

---

I suggest having a play, starting in the Media Stub's Tab, and adding a folder.
Then enter a Movie Name, select a disc Format, and then click "Save Media Stub File"

Now Go to the Main Movie Browser Tab, and click "Search".

Note: If using XBMC TMDB scraper, Stub files will not be scraped. Instead you will get a error log appear. This is a Bug I have fixed today, so it is not available in Media Companion 3.596b.