[sanjonny]

I did something wrong...but thankfully I backed up. I installed to my old ember directory (right over version 4 something.) I then ran the program and it said updating database. Then it asked if I wanted to overight locked nfos or something to which I said no. When i started, I used my old link which ran with the command "C:\tivo\Ember Media Manager\Ember Media Manager.exe" -profile "Default" and it resulting in none of my info being there. So i figured maybe the commands have changed so I just started by clicking on ember media manager.exe and when that opened it asked if I wanted to open the default profile which I said yes. 
Wnen it opens there is no files and no sources. Looking quickly at settings it looks like they are the same as i had them set in general but I am not sure. I checked my profile directory and it looks like all my temp stuff is there (its huge) and the profile directory seems to have my old db info. the only thing i notice is in my dbs it has the writes I performed before upgrading myvideos42.emm and then myvideos46.emm which is small (452k) and a myvideos46.emm_tmp which is (67,877k) matching my pre update. So i am guessing it didnt finish its upgrade? Is it possible the upgrade didnt go right or what do I need to do next. I did move the base install from what was called "c:tivo\Ember Media Manager BETA\" before install to "c:tivo\Ember Media Manager" stripping off the Beta part and was wondering if that might be the problem or what I should do now.
I do have a zip of the prior install from a few days ago I can use too, if that is what is needed. 
I know in the past we were supposed to install to a new dir and copy over the profiles and temp directory but I thought this was supposed to be upgraded in place, so I can do what you suggest. If my only option is to restore from the few days ago backup that is fine, i just will lose some scrape info but the nfos will be there so it should be all good. What should I have done and what should I do now that something went wrong?

[sanjonny]

I did something wrong...but thankfully I backed up. I installed to my old ember directory (right over version 4 something.) I then ran the program and it said updating database. Then it asked if I wanted to overight locked nfos or something to which I said no. When i started, I used my old link which ran with the command "C:\tivo\Ember Media Manager\Ember Media Manager.exe" -profile "Default" and it resulting in none of my info being there. So i figured maybe the commands have changed so I just started by clicking on ember media manager.exe and when that opened it asked if I wanted to open the default profile which I said yes. 
Wnen it opens there is no files and no sources. Looking quickly at settings it looks like they are the same as i had them set in general but I am not sure. I checked my profile directory and it looks like all my temp stuff is there (its huge) and the profile directory seems to have my old db info. the only thing i notice is in my dbs it has the writes I performed before upgrading myvideos42.emm (67877k) and then myvideos46.emm which is small (452k) and a myvideos46.emm_tmp which is (67,877k) matching my pre update. So i am guessing it didnt finish its upgrade? Is it possible the upgrade didnt go right or what do I need to do next. I did move the base install from what was called "c:tivo\Ember Media Manager BETA\" before install to "c:tivo\Ember Media Manager" stripping off the Beta part and was wondering if that might be the problem or what I should do now.
I do have a zip of the prior install from a few days ago I can use too, if that is what is needed. 
I know in the past we were supposed to install to a new dir and copy over the profiles and temp directory but I thought this was supposed to be upgraded in place, so I can do what you suggest. If my only option is to restore from the few days ago backup that is fine, i just will lose some scrape info but the nfos will be there so it should be all good. What should I have done and what should I do now that something went wrong?

adding to my own issues and maybe fixing the problem myself, I just backed up those two files, myvideos46.emm and myvideos46.emm_tmp and then renamed the large tmp file to just myvideos46.emm and the info showed up in emm. I checked and the sources are there in the settings too. I have not tried anything as I want to make sure this is a fix, or maybe make sure something in the coversion didnt get screwed up, so I will wait to here back, but it does appear to have had some problem in conversion. Thanks in advance for your help!

[ratzofftoya]

Hi there! Very general question for you folks. I use Emby as a server. It seems to grab things like fanart when a new file is detected. I'm about to start (again, after about 5 years off) using Kodi as a frontend. Will something like EMM enhance my Kodi experience, or is Emby doing basically everything I need?

Emby is doing essential the same thing on its own (though there are some settings you can play with in it that can make it act a bit differently).  EMM is really more if you want to be able to manipulate your media NFO and related files like artwork outside of your primary library/player program.

Personally I use it so I can choose my artwork and lock everything in manually.  I really don't like the auto artwork that Kodi, Emby and all the others choose on their own.

Gotcha. And so you have Emby/Kodi scraping turned off automatically and every time you download something, you grab the the corresponding art and lock it all in via TMM?

[ss4johnny]

I am getting some errors when scraping a TV show for the first time that "String was not recognized as a valid DateTime."

This is the log of the first one

https://paste.kodi.tv/ixohibopib.kodi

and then I deleted that and tried it with another TV show that has the same problem (only two shows are having this issue for me). This is the log of the second one.

https://paste.kodi.tv/adibecayak.kodi

This one also has a box come up that that says

"Unhandled exception has occured in your application. If you click Continue, the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue. If you click Quit, the application will close immediately.

String was not recognized as a valid DateTime."

When I click on Continue, it just hangs for a while and then I force quit. There is also a details button that has the following output.

https://paste.kodi.tv/egixixaduj

[sirjaymz]

When using the Rename module, specifically for movies,
the  File Pattern I have set is "$T ($Y)-$R" (minus the quotes)
The Single Movie File Preview is "The Avengers (2012)\The Avengers (2012)-1080p" (minus the quotes)

However, when you apply this to a rename of a file, it comes back as "The Avengers (2012)\The Avengers (2012)-1080" (minus the quotes) (without the p)

Can this be resolved to ensure that the renaming includes the 'p' ?

Thanks.

[komplex]

When using the Rename module, specifically for movies,
the  File Pattern I have set is "$T ($Y)-$R" (minus the quotes)
The Single Movie File Preview is "The Avengers (2012)\The Avengers (2012)-1080p" (minus the quotes)

However, when you apply this to a rename of a file, it comes back as "The Avengers (2012)\The Avengers (2012)-1080" (minus the quotes) (without the p)

Can this be resolved to ensure that the renaming includes the 'p' ?

Thanks.

Just use $T ($Y) - $Rp

[sirjaymz]

When using the Rename module, specifically for movies,
the  File Pattern I have set is "$T ($Y)-$R" (minus the quotes)
The Single Movie File Preview is "The Avengers (2012)\The Avengers (2012)-1080p" (minus the quotes)

However, when you apply this to a rename of a file, it comes back as "The Avengers (2012)\The Avengers (2012)-1080" (minus the quotes) (without the p)

Can this be resolved to ensure that the renaming includes the 'p' ?

Thanks.

Just use $T ($Y) - $Rp

Thanks - wasn't thinking clearly.

EDIT: -It Seems that if the file is a 1080p, it will actually append the 'p' at the end of the $R. So it will make a the $Rp = '1080pp'
But if the file is a 2160p, it does not append the 'p' with the $Rp. By doing what you suggest, all my files that are 1080, are labeled as '1080pp' now.

[komplex]

EDIT: -It Seems that if the file is a 1080p, it will actually append the 'p' at the end of the $R. So it will make a the $Rp = '1080pp'
But if the file is a 2160p, it does not append the 'p' with the $Rp. By doing what you suggest, all my files that are 1080, are labeled as '1080pp' now.

The only thing I can think of is to set everything back using $T ($Y) then set it to $T ($Y)-$R and select only your 4k movies and run the renamer then go back and set it to $T ($Y)-$Rp and select everything but your 4k movies and rerun the renamer. See if that helps

[Mychale]

Hello all, 

I'm new to this EMM program, but it's been recommended by others as the go to for managing my media library for Kodi better that Kodi itself if I want to control the artwork and stuff.  So I jumped in, re-scraped my library and all seems fine.  The only small issue I have at the moment is some movies are getting the "original title" from IMDB and I have checked everywhere in the settings to set it to use the English "Main Title" only.  This is only happening to a small handful of movies, eg: spaghetti westerns, Godzilla movies, etc.  Is there a way to set EMM to just return the English main title instead of the Original title that they have listed?   I checked all the file sources and it shows en-US as the language, then I checked the settings and all I can find is a check box for "Use original title as title" and it is clearly UNchecked, so I don't know where to look any further.

Thank you for all your hard work and I'm looking forward to using EMM 2.0 when it comes out.  This year maybe?

~Mychale

[pstrg]

[File renaming]

$C adds director to a file name; if there's more than one, director's names are separated by spaces and hyphen, e.g. Director1 - Director2.
Is there any (hidden?) setting to change that to a semicolon, e.g. Director1; Director2 ?

[defrost]

G'day Dan and thanks for your work.

I'm using your Feb 2020 x64 build, several instances of the latest general public release of KODI (x64 computer, android gadget, android TV) and the experimental "external database" feature of KODI.

The Kodi instances all refer to media files on a NAS box and to a MariaDB 5.5.57 SQL Server hosted on the NAS box .. and these all run happily with a single unified database that provides the same TV and Movie listings as well as per account "watched" statuses echoed across the Dining Room + Family Room + Office + Portable devices.

The Kodi advancedsettings.xml file that I use across all locations / devices is pictured here (as per Kodi guides here on the Kodi pages)

https://i.imgur.com/dxdNXsQ.png

. . . also pictured is the Ember Media Manager | Settings | Kodi Interface dialog showing the same IP:Port User:Password settings used by Kodi for the Kodi database.

Try as I might EmberMM won't connect - "There was a problem communicating with host".

I realise that as of now an external database is kind of non standard / experimental with Kodi but I believe it is intended to be mainstreamed in the near future releases.

In theory it shouldn't be altogether difficult for Ember to support a generic MySQL interface (if that's where the issue lies).

If this is supposed to work and I'm doing it wrong I'd appreciate any hints.

If it's currently not supported then so be it - I appreciate the work you've done on the tool you've made and hope this might be supported in future.

Thankyou.

[ReXX]

G'day Dan and thanks for your work.

I'm using your Feb 2020 x64 build, several instances of the latest general public release of KODI (x64 computer, android gadget, android TV) and the experimental "external database" feature of KODI.

The Kodi instances all refer to media files on a NAS box and to a MariaDB 5.5.57 SQL Server hosted on the NAS box .. and these all run happily with a single unified database that provides the same TV and Movie listings as well as per account "watched" statuses echoed across the Dining Room + Family Room + Office + Portable devices.

The Kodi advancedsettings.xml file that I use across all locations / devices is pictured here (as per Kodi guides here on the Kodi pages)

https://i.imgur.com/dxdNXsQ.png

. . . also pictured is the Ember Media Manager | Settings | Kodi Interface dialog showing the same IPort Userassword settings used by Kodi for the Kodi database.

Try as I might EmberMM won't connect - "There was a problem communicating with host".

I realise that as of now an external database is kind of non standard / experimental with Kodi but I believe it is intended to be mainstreamed in the near future releases.

In theory it shouldn't be altogether difficult for Ember to support a generic MySQL interface (if that's where the issue lies).

If this is supposed to work and I'm doing it wrong I'd appreciate any hints.

If it's currently not supported then so be it - I appreciate the work you've done on the tool you've made and hope this might be supported in future.

Thankyou.

Your doing it wrong.
Ember does not talk to the database. It talks to one of your Kodi instances.

That instance is then updating the database.

[defrost]

Your doing it wrong.

You're sure about that? 

I (incorrectly) hoped that EMM might support SQL i/o as outlined for future Kodi releases .. I suspect that if and when EMM does support such a feature the setup will look more or less as it does now with a toggle for { MySQL | JSON } comms.

It appears to be less the case that I'm doing it wrong and more the case that my not unreasonable expectations exceed the currently implemented capabilities.

Ember does not talk to the database. 

Currently, no, it does not - I tracked back through the thread and saw mention that it uses JSON control of a Kodi instance.
It'd be nice to see database support in the future if Dan has the time as it'd avoid this double handling:

It talks to one of your Kodi instances.
That instance is then updating the database.

Mind you, as of now, with my particular setup using an external database (rather than the regular internal Kodi database) I'm not sure that is true.

I started a local Kodi instance (using the external SQL DB) in parallel with EMM  and gave Kodi permissions in its setup to allow external control (port 9090, Kodi|Kodi), then mirrored those settings in the EMM Kodi module tested the connection and got the response that EMM was reading the Kodi sources . . . 

Several hours later it was still hung at that point and cycling through the "reading Kodi sources" message.


It would be useful to hear whether anyone has any direct experience of getting EMM Kodi module syncing working with a Kodi instance using an external database.

[T-bird_se]

Your doing it wrong.

You're sure about that? 

I (incorrectly) hoped that EMM might support SQL i/o as outlined for future Kodi releases .. I suspect that if and when EMM does support such a feature the setup will look more or less as it does now with a toggle for { MySQL | JSON } comms.

It appears to be less the case that I'm doing it wrong and more the case that my not unreasonable expectations exceed the currently implemented capabilities.

Ember does not talk to the database. 

Currently, no, it does not - I tracked back through the thread and saw mention that it uses JSON control of a Kodi instance.
It'd be nice to see database support in the future if Dan has the time as it'd avoid this double handling:

It talks to one of your Kodi instances.
That instance is then updating the database.

Mind you, as of now, with my particular setup using an external database (rather than the regular internal Kodi database) I'm not sure that is true.

I started a local Kodi instance (using the external SQL DB) in parallel with EMM  and gave Kodi permissions in its setup to allow external control (port 9090, Kodi|Kodi), then mirrored those settings in the EMM Kodi module tested the connection and got the response that EMM was reading the Kodi sources . . . 

Several hours later it was still hung at that point and cycling through the "reading Kodi sources" message.


It would be useful to hear whether anyone has any direct experience of getting EMM Kodi module syncing working with a Kodi instance using an external database.

ReXX is 100% correct
Ember never talks directly to any DB, it connects to Kodi and it's Kodis setup that's used to communicate to the DB it uses, it's done by json
So Ember doesn't care where or what DB Kodi is using or located, that's a task for Kodi itself

[redglory]

Your doing it wrong.

You're sure about that? 

I (incorrectly) hoped that EMM might support SQL i/o as outlined for future Kodi releases .. I suspect that if and when EMM does support such a feature the setup will look more or less as it does now with a toggle for { MySQL | JSON } comms.

It appears to be less the case that I'm doing it wrong and more the case that my not unreasonable expectations exceed the currently implemented capabilities.

Ember does not talk to the database. 

Currently, no, it does not - I tracked back through the thread and saw mention that it uses JSON control of a Kodi instance.
It'd be nice to see database support in the future if Dan has the time as it'd avoid this double handling:

It talks to one of your Kodi instances.
That instance is then updating the database.

Mind you, as of now, with my particular setup using an external database (rather than the regular internal Kodi database) I'm not sure that is true.

I started a local Kodi instance (using the external SQL DB) in parallel with EMM  and gave Kodi permissions in its setup to allow external control (port 9090, Kodi|Kodi), then mirrored those settings in the EMM Kodi module tested the connection and got the response that EMM was reading the Kodi sources . . . 

Several hours later it was still hung at that point and cycling through the "reading Kodi sources" message.


It would be useful to hear whether anyone has any direct experience of getting EMM Kodi module syncing working with a Kodi instance using an external database.

EMM uses built-in kodi's JSON-RPC to upadate DB.