[PassamaCodi]

Hi,

according to the Estuary menu, it should be possible to treat multiple files for one movie as just one item?

This would be practical for typical home movie cases, where the digicam or smartphone often creates a new numbered file once the maximum file size is reached.
But in Kodi, I want all video files (which are typically recorded for a single event) in that folder to show as one movie (just one widget item) in the preview shelve.
So when I select that movie for playback, I want it to play all files right away. Not showing me the individual files in a new screen. Just treating it like a single movie and playing them one file after the other.

But it didn't seem to work this way.
I created a movie.nfo in a folder and put all video files for that event into that folder.
But Kodi still keeps showing multiple widget items with the same movie title in my widget poster (but each with its own generated thumbnail for a file).

What am I doing wrong?

Do I really have to use movie sets for this? Would this even give me what I want? Or will it just open a new window with a set of widget items for each file, once I click the "movie set item"?

[PassamaCodi]

I've tried to define a movie as a set, but I don't know how to view it in Amber.

The documentation is not very clear:
https://kodi.wiki/view/Movie_sets

Do I just have to add that "<set>" node (uncluding sub-nodes) directly under the "<movie>" node of my .nfo file?

[Karellen]

Do I just have to add that "<set>" node

Check the Sample file here... https://kodi.wiki/view/NFO_files/Templat...e_Template
Expand it to view it. You will see how the Set tags are used about half way down.
Also take note of the <sorttitle> tag which can be used to order the movies in the set. But this will also affect the order in all movie listings.

[PassamaCodi]

Do I just have to add that "<set>" node

Check the Sample file here... https://kodi.wiki/view/NFO_files/Templat...e_Template
Expand it to view it. You will see how the Set tags are used about half way down.
Also take note of the <sorttitle> tag which can be used to order the movies in the set. But this will also affect the order in all movie listings.

OK, I found it, added the <set> node right after the <tag> node as in the example, but still not seeing the set under my Movies view.

But looking at the documentation in https://kodi.wiki/view/Settings/Media/Vi...movie_sets, it seems sets wouldn't give me what I want, anyway. I would end up with just another display of the collection when clicking the set.

So what I'm really looking for, is something like the "Combine split video items" option, but for widget items, not just the files view.
I want all files of the same movie to show as a single item in the shelves under "Movies". And when clicking the item, I want it to play all files of that movie as if it were just one file.

How do I achieve that?

Cameras and smartphones usually split files into multiple files like "DSC001.avi", "DSC002.avi" and so on.
If DSC001 and DSC002 are in the same movie folder "Wedding 2020", and a movies.nfo with <title> node "Wedding 2020" is placed in that folder, I want there to be just one item (with auto-generated thumbnail) in my Movies view.

[Karellen]

I want all files of the same movie to show as a single item in the shelves under "Movies". And when clicking the item, I want it to play all files of that movie as if it were just one file.

Ok, that is different. You want Split Video Files / File Stacking ... https://kodi.wiki/view/Naming_video_files/Movies
I don't deal with widgets much, but I am sure that once Kodi stacks the files as one movie, then the Widget will only see one movie.

[TimeZone]

Cameras and smartphones usually split files into multiple files like "DSC001.avi", "DSC002.avi" and so on.

Actually you are almost there. Following the naming convention in the link posted by Karellen, just rename your files to "DSCpart001.avi" and "DSCpart002.avi". This is the only change you need to do, it seems you have correctly set up everything else. Remember to keep "Combine split video items" and "videos are in seperate folders" on.

If you have a lot of files to rename, I would advice you use Bulk Renamer (Free for Windows). Then use find and replace DSC00 with DSCpart00. You will figure out how to rename the rest if you succeed in renaming just one.

[PassamaCodi]

Okay, thanks to you both!
Finally got some time again after a long working week.

With your help (renaming files for file stacking), I've finally now gotten so far that only one widget item is shown.

But it then crashes on playback with a negative smiley bluescreen, and Kodi reboots.

Only error seems to be this in my kodi logfile:

INFO <general>: VideoInfoScanner: Starting scan ..
INFO <general>: VideoInfoScanner: Finished scan. Scanning for video info took 00:00
ERROR <general>: CDVDInputStreamStack::Read - failed to seek into next file
INFO <general>: Skipped 6 duplicate messages..
INFO <general>: CDVDVideoCodecFFmpeg::Open() Using codec: H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10

I've tried everything, and now have my files 00051.MKV, 00052.MKV, ... all renamed to MVpart001.MKV, MVpart002.MKV, ...

Don't know what's going wrong here.

[TimeZone]

With your help (renaming files for file stacking), I've finally now gotten so far that only one widget item is shown.

Well, that is good progress.
 

Only error seems to be this in my kodi logfile:

It would be better posting the entire Kodi debug log , there is very little info to go on with this.
Am assuming these files were playing just fine before stacking and the playback problem started after stacking. Am also assuming that you did not stack all your files into a single movie. I don't think Kodi specifies the maximum number of files you can stack but I would rather play safe with less than 5 files.

Hypothetically, if these are wedding videos and they are many recorded within several hours, you could split them into 2 or 3 movies depending on how many individual files there are and how easy it is to categorize the files.
Example
Wedding Video Part A (this is a movie entry and a folder with its on NFO file and with clips from wedding beginning to vows)
    MVpart001.MKV 
    MVpart002.MKV
    MVpart003.MKV
Wedding Video Part A (another movie entry and a seperate folder and NFO, contains clips from vows to the end)
    MVpart001.MKV 
    MVpart002.MKV
    MVpart003.MKV

There shouldn't be a problem with your widget showing the 2 entries, but if you still want Part A and B in a single entry, you can merge them in a single Smart playlist with Rule: Title contains Wedding Video Part.

[Karellen]

I'd just use MKVToolNIx and stitch them all into one file.

[PassamaCodi]

There shouldn't be a problem with your widget showing the 2 entries, but if you still want Part A and B in a single entry, you can merge them in a single Smart playlist with Rule: Title contains Wedding Video Part.

Wait a minute...you can achieve the same with smart playlists? One playlist per movie, that produces one single widget item? And plays right-away once you click it (not opening a sub-menu with all the parts)?
Can I then also have playlists of playlists, so I can define one playlist for each shelve, containing all the movie-playlists?
Just a thought, might be easier...or harder, if I need to manually create all the playlist thumbnails...

[PassamaCodi]

It would be better posting the entire Kodi debug log , there is very little info to go on with this.
Am assuming these files were playing just fine before stacking and the playback problem started after stacking. Am also assuming that you did not stack all your files into a single movie. I don't think Kodi specifies the maximum number of files you can stack but I would rather play safe with less than 5 files.

Hypothetically, if these are wedding videos and they are many recorded within several hours, you could split them into 2 or 3 movies depending on how many individual files there are and how easy it is to categorize the files.
Example
Wedding Video Part A (this is a movie entry and a folder with its on NFO file and with clips from wedding beginning to vows)
    MVpart001.MKV 
    MVpart002.MKV
    MVpart003.MKV
Wedding Video Part A (another movie entry and a seperate folder and NFO, contains clips from vows to the end)
    MVpart001.MKV 
    MVpart002.MKV
    MVpart003.MKV

I'll check the log.
My movie only has 5 files.

[PassamaCodi]

Yeah, there's probably tools for each video format.

But then, I'd have to get a new tool for every format.

Hopefully, MKVTool4Nix

• runs in command line
  
• allows you to recursively go through all folders
  
• can be instructed to produce one file per folder, and delete to original ones
  
• doesn't combine files at a loss of quality, and doesn't do any re-encoding etc.
  

[PassamaCodi]

OK, got the Debug Log now. Anything helpful here?

[MOD EDIT]
Log URL: https://paste.kodi.tv/luhacikeka.kodi

This seems to be the main problem:
ffmpeg[(nil)X]: [mpegts] max resync size reached, could not find sync byte
?

[PassamaCodi]

Seems the problem doesn't occur for every movie.
Just created another one with just 2 files. Didn't crash there...

[TimeZone]

Wait a minute...you can achieve the same with smart playlists? One playlist per movie, that produces one single widget item? And plays right-away once you click it (not opening a sub-menu with all the parts)?
Can I then also have playlists of playlists, so I can define one playlist for each shelve, containing all the movie-playlists?
Just a thought, might be easier...or harder, if I need to manually create all the playlist thumbnails...

No, you cannot achieve all of that with a Smart playlist. You can have playlist of playlists but they don't play the video directly upon clicking, they open the playlist under them.

Next time, kindly paste your log here http://paste.kodi.tv/ to keep the discussion thread clean and also for easy log reading.