2017-10-30, 00:23
I have a collection of movies and for the past 5-6 years I've been using Western Digital's (WDTV Live) TV box for my movies. Using it as a means to organize my movies with poster artwork and film info. I LOVED using it because of the ease of WDTV's UI and setup. When retrieving movie information it would auto-create metadata files, movie artwork, and an XML file with the movie info. I would delete the Metadata file, swap out the auto generated poster artwork for my own fanart, and edit the XML files to match my movie genre folders. Plus all you had to do for sub folders is literally label a jpeg file "folder" and throw it in that parent folder and it would generate a thumbnail image for it, simple as that.
Even though the WDTV box still works, its definitely showing its age. From lengthy boot up times, information taking forever to compile, and just a generally slow and dated interface, I knew I wanted to upgrade. I haven't found any specs on it, but I bet the thing has a Wireless N/G antenna, and maybe half a gig of RAM. Plus I just recently discovered that Western Digital officially stopped selling them in 2014 and dropped support for them, which means no patches or updates anymore. That's when I did some research into a new streaming box and stumbled upon Kodi. After thorough research over several days, I downloaded Kodi on my main computer and tested it out. Unfortunately Western Digital and Kodi don't generate metadata info the same way, so I can't just transfer my library from one source to the other. I believe they use the same source for information (The Movie Database), but WDTV generates 3 separate files whereas on Kodi you have to "Export a Library" and it generates a single .NFO file for each video that you can edit with third party software if needed. I now have to manually reconfigure my entire film collection and I'm hoping some of the more veteran Kodi users might have a solution for me. All I need help with is the following.
Obviously I need a TV box that runs Kodi, and there are dozens of these things out there, I don't need a lot of frills, just one that will run smoothly and run basic Kodi and Netflix. I'm open to suggestions.
I want to know if there is a way to batch edit a group of films to all be the same genre, instead of having to edit each movie .NFO file one by one.
Lastly, I want to know if there is a way to create new "genre" sub-folders. I noticed that Kodi has some preset folders for genres, but I have more specific folders like "War" and "Disaster" films.
Any help is much appreciated. I feel like a dunce just now finding out about Kodi, and it's been around since 2002! Really is a fantastic piece of software, and a bit intimidating coming from that dinosaur of a box that was WDTV Live.
Thanks!
Even though the WDTV box still works, its definitely showing its age. From lengthy boot up times, information taking forever to compile, and just a generally slow and dated interface, I knew I wanted to upgrade. I haven't found any specs on it, but I bet the thing has a Wireless N/G antenna, and maybe half a gig of RAM. Plus I just recently discovered that Western Digital officially stopped selling them in 2014 and dropped support for them, which means no patches or updates anymore. That's when I did some research into a new streaming box and stumbled upon Kodi. After thorough research over several days, I downloaded Kodi on my main computer and tested it out. Unfortunately Western Digital and Kodi don't generate metadata info the same way, so I can't just transfer my library from one source to the other. I believe they use the same source for information (The Movie Database), but WDTV generates 3 separate files whereas on Kodi you have to "Export a Library" and it generates a single .NFO file for each video that you can edit with third party software if needed. I now have to manually reconfigure my entire film collection and I'm hoping some of the more veteran Kodi users might have a solution for me. All I need help with is the following.
Obviously I need a TV box that runs Kodi, and there are dozens of these things out there, I don't need a lot of frills, just one that will run smoothly and run basic Kodi and Netflix. I'm open to suggestions.
I want to know if there is a way to batch edit a group of films to all be the same genre, instead of having to edit each movie .NFO file one by one.
Lastly, I want to know if there is a way to create new "genre" sub-folders. I noticed that Kodi has some preset folders for genres, but I have more specific folders like "War" and "Disaster" films.
Any help is much appreciated. I feel like a dunce just now finding out about Kodi, and it's been around since 2002! Really is a fantastic piece of software, and a bit intimidating coming from that dinosaur of a box that was WDTV Live.
Thanks!