[Arparso]

Doesn't this run the risk of downloading the wrong artwork (if names accidentally match up) or will it just not download anything for movies without IMDB ids?

I doubt it, if you've ran it before and it didn't download anything, I highly doubt background mode will change the searching and download method.

I haven't yet run it before - at least not until completion as I always cancelled the scanning process before. Guess I'll need to try and see if it downloads anything it's not supposed to.

A feature to exclude certain folders or sources similar to trakt.tv would still be highly appreciated, especially for my Raspberry Pi. Scanning the library to pick up previously downloaded artwork already takes long enough - scanning through dozens of additional movies when that's just not required will be painfully slow.


update:
No, sadly that didn't work. Artwork Downloader will indeed download artwork for movies without IMDB ID, if the name somehow matches the name of an actual IMDB movie. E.g. it matched on of my movies with the name "Crystal" to a Michael Cera movie named "Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus" and started downloading extrathumbs and extrafanart.

[CaptainKen]

Doesn't this run the risk of downloading the wrong artwork (if names accidentally match up) or will it just not download anything for movies without IMDB ids?

I doubt it, if you've ran it before and it didn't download anything, I highly doubt background mode will change the searching and download method.

I haven't yet run it before - at least not until completion as I always cancelled the scanning process before. Guess I'll need to try and see if it downloads anything it's not supposed to.

A feature to exclude certain folders or sources similar to trakt.tv would still be highly appreciated, especially for my Raspberry Pi. Scanning the library to pick up previously downloaded artwork already takes long enough - scanning through dozens of additional movies when that's just not required will be painfully slow.


update:
No, sadly that didn't work. Artwork Downloader will indeed download artwork for movies without IMDB ID, if the name somehow matches the name of an actual IMDB movie. E.g. it matched on of my movies with the name "Crystal" to a Michael Cera movie named "Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus" and started downloading extrathumbs and extrafanart.

Just to clarify we're assuming that you have your folder structure similar to this. Then you pick and choose which folders that will be part of library.


Given that, have you consider using a program like Ember Media Manager to do your artwork scraping and nfo creation. Then as long as every movie has it's own nfo, there's no way to AD to mistakenly identify a movie and download the wrong artwork.

[Arparso]

Yes, my folder structure is similar to this and I'm using TinyMediaManager to create my NFOs and download Posters and Fanart, where it's possible. Everything that's not in IMDB (or themoviedb) I created my own NFOs and basic artwork for. Then I add them in XBMC using the local information scraper and manage the different types of media through smart playlists and custom home menu buttons (so home movies don't end up in the same collection as hollywood movies do).

All of that works just fine.

Problems arise, when I want advanced artwork for my movies: clearart, logos, discart, landscape thumbnails, etc. TinyMediaManager doesn't download these yet and even if it would, XBMC doesn't pick them up by default and only adds poster and fanart to the database when scraping new movies from the hard drive. Even if I would download all this artwork outside of XBMC I'd still have to run Artwork Downloader to make all this artwork show up in XBMC (or add every image manually for every movie).

... and that's where the missing exclude options makes problems. Artwork Downloader will pick up all the downloaded advanced artwork for my IMDB movies just fine, but it'll also scan my home movies and download artwork for some of them, where the name matches up to something in the IMDB database.

A "simple" exclude option for AD like "Do not scan folder 'Y:\Home Movies' and its subfolders" would fix that immediately. The trakt.tv addon has such an option, so it's definitely not impossible to implement.

[Glorious1]

Hopefully there will be a solution like you are looking for, but a workaround is to switch to a media manager that DOES download all the extra artwork. You can even use such a media manager to make NFOs for your home movies etc.

Unfortunately, you still need Artwork Downloader to get that art into XBMC, but you can set it to never download or always use local or whatever it is, and then you never need to worry about it making incorrect matches for stuff that is not in the databases.

[Arparso]

Any Media Manager you can recommend? I've tried Ember in the past, but wasn't really happy with it, especially speed-wise.

Unfortunately, you still need Artwork Downloader to get that art into XBMC, but you can set it to never download or always use local or whatever it is, and then you never need to worry about it making incorrect matches for stuff that is not in the databases.

No, that doesn't work. If I disable downloads, it just won't do anything and skip all movies and tv shows entirely - ignoring all local artwork in the process as well, even though the "use local artwork" option is set. In order to import the local artwork I have to enable downloads as well.

I also tried to setup a second profile with just the regular movies and tv shows and run Artwork Downloader on that. This of course works, but doesn't do anything for the master profile, where logos and clearart still won't show up (because each profile has its own separate media database).

[Ic3y]

A couple things to try:

1) Configure Artwork Downloader setting to use Local Files. Also check that extra images (discart, clearlogo, etc.) are enabled.

2) Go the "Files" view. Highlight your Home Movies folder (or whatever), pull up the context menu, select "Set/Change Content", then select "Exclude selected folder from scans" option.

3) If you have the artwork already, try using ExtendedInfo Script to update the library with the extra art.

Good luck !

-Nik

[CaptainKen]

Any Media Manager you can recommend? I've tried Ember in the past, but wasn't really happy with it, especially speed-wise.

Unfortunately, you still need Artwork Downloader to get that art into XBMC, but you can set it to never download or always use local or whatever it is, and then you never need to worry about it making incorrect matches for stuff that is not in the databases.

No, that doesn't work. If I disable downloads, it just won't do anything and skip all movies and tv shows entirely - ignoring all local artwork in the process as well, even though the "use local artwork" option is set. In order to import the local artwork I have to enable downloads as well.

I also tried to setup a second profile with just the regular movies and tv shows and run Artwork Downloader on that. This of course works, but doesn't do anything for the master profile, where logos and clearart still won't show up (because each profile has its own separate media database).

The Ember Media Manager v1.4 beta does all the other artwork!
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=191781

No idea what's going on with AD not using local files correctly as mine works perfectly in that regard.

[Arparso]

1) Configure Artwork Downloader setting to use Local Files. Also check that extra images (discart, clearlogo, etc.) are enabled.

It is configured that way. See my AD settings:

watch gallery

Please note that when disabling downloads for TV shows it won't scan the TV shows at all and thus not pick up any local artwork. When enabling downloads it WILL pick up the local artwork, but will also download stuff for the movies/shows I want to exclude from this process.

2) Go the "Files" view. Highlight your Home Movies folder (or whatever), pull up the context menu, select "Set/Change Content", then select "Exclude selected folder from scans" option.

Tried it, but doesn't work. This option only prevents scans for new content when updating the library, but AD still scans all the movies currently in the library.

3) If you have the artwork already, try using ExtendedInfo Script to update the library with the extra art.

Never heard of it, but judging from the release thread it only applies to movie sets!? Gonna try it anyway, but only tomorrow after I've slept a bit

The Ember Media Manager v1.4 beta does all the other artwork!
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=191781

No idea what's going on with AD not using local files correctly as mine works perfectly in that regard.

Mine does, too... but only if I also enable downloads, which will download extra fanart and other stuff for some of my home movies and misc media, because it mistakes them for some IMDB movie. As far as I can tell there is no way of importing ONLY local assets. Using Ember won't help me there.

The only workaround I have at the moment is to remove all irregular movies and tv shows from the library, run AD to download all the artwork either from the web or the local assets from my hard drive and then add all the irregular movies and tv shows back again. This is really cumbersome and painfully slow on my Raspberry Pi.

I see 3 possible solutions:

1) add an option to AD to exclude certain folders from scanning and downloading, similar to the trakt.tv addon
2) add an option to AD to only import local assets and not download anything
3) make XBMC itself import all of the advanced local artwork when updating the library and not just posters and fanart

.. for 2) and 3) I'd need to get my artwork through an external app such as Ember (or the next version of TinyMediaManager, because support for ClearArt, DiscArt, Logos, etc. has been announced already). Still - one of these needs to happen to solve my problem and none of them seem particularly hard to implement.



PS: Thanks for all the help and suggestions, guys! Really appreciated! I'm not really used to getting that many helpful comments... at least not in the usual forums I visit.

[AnthonyJS02]

I have no idea if this really works but can you add a non working id number in the imdb field? Like just bunch random characters? Then it may not search or is it all based off title?

[Surlias]

Artwork Downloader is randomly overwriting existing artwork. How can I ensure this doesn't happen anymore? I have all of my movies in their own folders, I have "use local files" enabled, and I definitely don't have "overwrite local files" enabled in Artwork Downloader's configuration settings.

Would setting my artwork files to "Read Only" prevent this from happening? If not, is there any other way?

[voyagerxp]

Can i get some help, when i wanted to get clear logos for tv series on Aeon Nox 4 4.1.9 with Artwork Downloader i used to just press up in my tv library and click Get Artwork and it would look and add art automatically but don't see that option in Aeon Nox 5. I now have to do this by selecting tv show information and going to +, Artwork downloader. But this only works one show at a time, is there another way?.

[wgstarks]

Can i get some help, when i wanted to get clear logos for tv series on Aeon Nox 4 4.1.9 with Artwork Downloader i used to just press up in my tv library and click Get Artwork and it would look and add art automatically but don't see that option in Aeon Nox 5. I now have to do this by selecting tv show information and going to +, Artwork downloader. But this only works one show at a time, is there another way?.

You can go to "Apps" and select "Artwork Downloader" and it will update all the art for all your videos.

[Surlias]

Can i get some help, when i wanted to get clear logos for tv series on Aeon Nox 4 4.1.9 with Artwork Downloader i used to just press up in my tv library and click Get Artwork and it would look and add art automatically but don't see that option in Aeon Nox 5. I now have to do this by selecting tv show information and going to +, Artwork downloader. But this only works one show at a time, is there another way?.

Another option is to add Artwork Downloader to your favorites menu, which can be accessed quickly by pressing 'S'

[voyagerxp]

Can i get some help, when i wanted to get clear logos for tv series on Aeon Nox 4 4.1.9 with Artwork Downloader i used to just press up in my tv library and click Get Artwork and it would look and add art automatically but don't see that option in Aeon Nox 5. I now have to do this by selecting tv show information and going to +, Artwork downloader. But this only works one show at a time, is there another way?.

Another option is to add Artwork Downloader to your favorites menu, which can be accessed quickly by pressing 'S'

This way works but it goes through my whole library which is not what i wanted.

[wgstarks]

This way works but it goes through my whole library which is not what i wanted.

I'm not sure exactly what you want. You can either get artwork for your videos one at a time by navigating to the video or you can run the app and get artwork for all your videos. This functionality has not changed in the last couple of years that I've been using it.