[Milhouse]

Most artwork doesn't get downloaded anywhere else, except extrafanart/extrathumbs.

Not true if "use local files" is enabled.

[aptalca]

A couple of questions:

1) The use local files option. Does that download the artwork into where the media files are stored, or does it cache the artwork and put it into the Thumbnails folder, or both? I am assuming it's just the former.

2) Why is there a different naming convention? When kodi exports metadata to separate files, it stores the media named as filename-fanart.jpg but it seems the artwork downloader uses just fanart.jpg

After i ran the artwork downloader, I noticed duplicate images on my nas for each movie. Some images differ. So in that case, Is kodi now displaying the newly downloaded image or the one I had from before? I selected the option with no overwrite, so I am guessing the older image, but then why did the artwork downloader still download a new image when I had one already?

This addon really confuses me and the wiki description or the first post description is not totally clear. I don't have too much time to dig through the database and do additional testing to figure out the answers to my questions, that's why I'm asking here.

Thanks

[Milhouse]

1) Yes.

2) filename-fanart.jpg works no matter how the user has structured their files, fanart.jpg only works if you have one movie per folder. "fanart.jpg" is probably the naming convention used by the add-on author.

Most likely the newly downloaded image - you'll need to view the metadata to be sure. You said you had duplicate images, are the filenames different?

[aptalca]

I thought the add-on authors were team-xbmc members so that's why I'm surprised that it uses a different naming convention.

My movies are all in individual folders. The duplicate image filenames are different. The original kodi exported ones are filename-fanart.jpg and the new ones are fanart.jpg

EDIT: I just checked one of the movies and it is still using the old image. It seems the artwork downloader downloaded a new fanart to disk but did not update the url in the database

[Glorious1]

A couple of questions:

1) The use local files option. Does that download the artwork into where the media files are stored, or does it cache the artwork and put it into the Thumbnails folder, or both? I am assuming it's just the former.
. . .
This addon really confuses me and the wiki description or the first post description is not totally clear.

You're right, it is confusing. And Milhouse's answer ("Yes") confuses me too.
Because when you turn on Settings > Advanced > Use local files, it does NOT download anything. It SAYS it is downloading, but it is just taking your locally stored artwork and caching it in Kodi's database. Which Kodi actually does fine for itself without Artwork Downloader for poster, fanart, and extrafanart, but seems to require Artwork Downloader when it comes to banner, clearart, clearlogo, etc. At least, that's the way it seems to work for me.

[Namoi]

Well, yes it is confusing and i agree too because we assume "downloading from the net", but in this case it downloads them from the local path (which also could be a remote server), so in a way it makes sense.

[Milhouse]

I thought the add-on authors were team-xbmc members so that's why I'm surprised that it uses a different naming convention.

It's not so much different, it's one of the supported naming conventions. It just so happens that the library export uses the other naming convention (the one least likely to cause problems). And the author has only coded up the more restrictive (but also easier to code) convention, and presumably it's the convention he uses so he's happy - he's under no obligation to support both, though of course it would be nice!

My movies are all in individual folders. The duplicate image filenames are different. The original kodi exported ones are filename-fanart.jpg and the new ones are fanart.jpg

That's why you can't use AD with "Use local files" enabled if you have multiple movies per folder - I'm pretty sure this has been pointed out at least a dozen times throughout this thread.

EDIT: I just checked one of the movies and it is still using the old image. It seems the artwork downloader downloaded a new fanart to disk but did not update the url in the database

I suspect you didn't have "Overwrite all existing artwork" enabled - without this option AD will not update the database with the new url when a url already exists in the database. So by enabling "Use local files" you've dumped a load of fanart.jpg files into your file system, but because you already had artwork defined in the database they're not being used. You're probably quite lucky, as you can now just delete all the fanart.jpg files you don't need and no major harm done.

If you want to update your local artwork, you'll need to disable "Use local files" and enable "Overwrite all existing artwork", then run AD. Once AD is finished, you can export your library which will write the now compressed and lower quality artwork from the texture cache into your file system with filenames that include the moviename prefix (although I'm not entirely sure what "Export" does if an artwork file already exists - will it overwrite? Let us know). Of course your library will still be referencing the remote artwork, which will only be fixed when you re-scan your library from scratch, so simply exporting the library won't cause your library to start using the local artwork.

However if you want to convert the now remote artwork that AD has found into local files by downloading the original quality artwork, then you might want to consider using mklocal.py (see thread in my sig) - it's admittedly more complicated to run than AD as it's a command line script, but it will download the original quality artwork, supports both filenaming conventions, and will associate your library with any type of local artwork you care to mention (discart, clearart, logo etc. etc.).

[Milhouse]

You're right, it is confusing. And Milhouse's answer ("Yes") confuses me too.
Because when you turn on Settings > Advanced > Use local files, it does NOT download anything. It SAYS it is downloading, but it is just taking your locally stored artwork and caching it in Kodi's database.

AD will download and create artwork files if the artwork doesn't already exist locally, otherwise it will use the local artwork file and store the url (local path) in the library (assuming a url doesn't already exist, or if "Overwrite all existing artwork" is enabled).

Of course the filename being written/read is always of the fanart.jpg convention, so if you have multiple movies in a folder and enable "Use local files" there's a risk they will all end up using the same fanart.jpg artwork, particularly if you also enabled "Overwrite all existing artwork", which could be disastrous for your multiple-movies-in-a-folder library.

AD does not touch the texture cache - that is updated only when the new artwork is displayed in the GUI.

Which Kodi actually does fine for itself without Artwork Downloader for poster, fanart, and extrafanart, but seems to require Artwork Downloader when it comes to banner, clearart, clearlogo, etc. At least, that's the way it seems to work for me.

Correct, AD is really of benefit when finding and associating the non-standard artwork types - banner, clearart etc.

[Milhouse]

Well, yes it is confusing and i agree too because we assume "downloading from the net", but in this case it downloads them from the local path (which also could be a remote server), so in a way it makes sense.

It's the "Use local files" setting that dictates if AD actually downloads anything (and also if it uses any already existing local artwork). It's this dual behaviour (download if not exist, use local files if they exist) from a single setting that I find particularly confusing, not to mention inflexible - what if you to only want AD to associate existing local artwork, but you don't want AD to download anything new? Not possible.

The "Enable downloading" option that you see in Movies, TV Shows and Musicvideo is really just enabling that media type - on or off - and doesn't have anything to do with actual downloading. Consider it somewhat badly named.

I have "Enable downloading" enabled in Movies, and "Use local files" is disabled, so AD doesn't download *anything* for me. It does however find new remote artwork, and stores these remote artwork urls in my library.

Since I'm using moviename-prefix and want locally stored artwork (in original and not cached quality), I then use mklocal.py to actually download the new artwork alongside my movies, and then fix the library replacing the remote urls with the new local urls. Not really a solution if you don't want to use a script, but it's the solution I use.

[scott967]

If you have mulitple Kodi installs you can run a single mySQL db that feeds all, but I prefer having each install use its own SQLite database so AD is good at quickly adding all the art to the db that the scanner doesn't look for (I also use nfos so I don't have to rescrape everything).

scott s.
.

[aptalca]

My movies are all in individual folders. The duplicate image filenames are different. The original kodi exported ones are filename-fanart.jpg and the new ones are fanart.jpg

That's why you can't use AD with "Use local files" enabled if you have multiple movies per folder - I'm pretty sure this has been pointed out at least a dozen times throughout this thread.

Actually what I meant was, I do have each movie in their own separate folder. Yes, you're right that the addon makes it clear that you need to have the movies in separate folders.

EDIT: I just checked one of the movies and it is still using the old image. It seems the artwork downloader downloaded a new fanart to disk but did not update the url in the database

I suspect you didn't have "Overwrite all existing artwork" enabled - without this option AD will not update the database with the new url when a url already exists in the database. So by enabling "Use local files" you've dumped a load of fanart.jpg files into your file system, but because you already had artwork defined in the database they're not being used. You're probably quite lucky, as you can now just delete all the fanart.jpg files you don't need and no major harm done.

The main reason I used AD is because the PTVL addon was not finding my fanart and it was suggested that I use AD. Now I realize that PTVL is looking for the fanart in the naming convention that AD uses, not the way kodi exports (At least I figured out that issue).

You are correct that the overwrite option is turned off and that should be why the url's haven't been updated. However, I sort of expected AD to not download the new fanart because I had local fanart present (albeit with a different naming convention). Oh well. In this case it worked out for me because I was able to figure out the bug in PTVL.

If you want to update your local artwork, you'll need to disable "Use local files" and enable "Overwrite all existing artwork", then run AD. Once AD is finished, you can export your library which will write the now compressed and lower quality artwork from the texture cache into your file system with filenames that include the moviename prefix (although I'm not entirely sure what "Export" does if an artwork file already exists - will it overwrite? Let us know). Of course your library will still be referencing the remote artwork, which will only be fixed when you re-scan your library from scratch, so simply exporting the library won't cause your library to start using the local artwork.

However if you want to convert the now remote artwork that AD has found into local files by downloading the original quality artwork, then you might want to consider using mklocal.py (see thread in my sig) - it's admittedly more complicated to run than AD as it's a command line script, but it will download the original quality artwork, supports both filenaming conventions, and will associate your library with any type of local artwork you care to mention (discart, clearart, logo etc. etc.).

The export option asks you in the beginning whether you want to overwrite or not (for all, not for each movie separately). I rescraped my library many times, when I installed on new htpcs or when I updated kodi to new versions, etc but have been using the same artwork for years :-) Once a month or so, I export with no overwrite, so all the new artwork gets written to disk. I'm a little sentimental so I don't like to change artwork over time.

For now I'll keep both images so PTVL will work properly, but the last question is, if I have both fanart,jpg and filename-fanart.jpg, which one gets scraped by kodi (if I were to scrape library from scratch)?

I'll check out the mklocal.py

Thanks so much for the clarification

[Milhouse]

Actually what I meant was, I do have each movie in their own separate folder. Yes, you're right that the addon makes it clear that you need to have the movies in separate folders.

Ah, my apologies for the misread.

The export option asks you in the beginning whether you want to overwrite or not (for all, not for each movie separately).

Thanks for clearing that up. The Export facility is not actually something I've used before (never had the need) and given the potential for devastation it's also something I steer well clear of.

if I have both fanart,jpg and filename-fanart.jpg, which one gets scraped by kodi (if I were to scrape library from scratch)?

I'm afraid I don't know the answer to that one. Try removing one movie from your library, then re-scan and see which artwork filename is associated with the movie.

[vbat99]

I tried the export/import of kodi once when changing from pi b+ with raspbmc to pi2 openelec, and i felt it took as long to import as to do a full scan new content.

Never again.

And the naming threw me also.

[vbat99]

Can't remember if had to run AD afterwards, can't remember if import picked up the AD artwork. Ie clearart, logo etc

[Milhouse]

Can't remember if had to run AD afterwards, can't remember if import picked up the AD artwork. Ie clearart, logo etc

The import wouldn't - it only loads the "standard" artwork types (poster, fanart, thumb) and will ignore types such as discart, clearart, logo etc. To load the the non-standard artwork you need AD (or mklocal.py).