Scanning random TV shows
#1
Hey guys.

I've been troubled with this problem for a while now, and i just can't fix it properly. I have alot of TV shows sorted in folders like this:

/TV Shows

//Discovery Channel

///Man vs Wild
///Mythbusters
///Random Discovery Episodes

Man vs. Wild and Mythbusters shows up perfectly in my library but Random Discovery Episodes don't.

Inside the folder there is alot of random discovery programs, like Mega World - Denmark and stuff, only sorted by names, no additional information about them like season, episodes or anything.


Is there a way i can make that folder show up in my library, or get XBMC to scan them properly?



Question 2:

I have alot of documentarys also, which i would like in my library. Those are sorted like Documentarys\BBC Invisible World\Speed Limits.mkv

For some reason XBMC don't pick those up also. Is there any documentary scraper or something?

Thanks in advance.
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#2
Star 
Most of the shows that are out of place in your library are shows that everyone has trouble dealing with. The Online TV database is the place that has the information for most of your shows...Use this link to search http://thetvdb.com/?tab=advancedsearch and it will have to have the same nomenclature as set-up in the TVDB to be valid. E.G. your BBC Invisible Worlds shows up as "Richard Hammond's Invisible Worlds" and will scrape.

Searching 'BBC' in the TVDB will bring a page of various BBC series. Sometimes going to the web page of the particular series can bring more details in which you could add a custom .nfo

For videos that you do not find in the TVDB (it's a user driven database) you can either add the show to the database and then everyone from that point on will thank-you. Or treat them like home videos, in which you can make up your own custom .nfo or place them all in a folder and set it to exclude the path from library updates and use filemode (so they will not be in your library) to view. I understand that Eden might change how this is done.
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#3
PatK Wrote:Most of the shows that are out of place in your library are shows that everyone has trouble dealing with. The Online TV database is the place that has the information for most of your shows...Use this link to search http://thetvdb.com/?tab=advancedsearch and it will have to have the same nomenclature as set-up in the TVDB to be valid. E.G. your BBC Invisible Worlds shows up as "Richard Hammond's Invisible Worlds" and will scrape.

Searching 'BBC' in the TVDB will bring a page of various BBC series. Sometimes going to the web page of the particular series can bring more details in which you could add a custom .nfo

For videos that you do not find in the TVDB (it's a user driven database) you can either add the show to the database and then everyone from that point on will thank-you. Or treat them like home videos, in which you can make up your own custom .nfo or place them all in a folder and set it to exclude the path from library updates and use filemode (so they will not be in your library) to view. I understand that Eden might change how this is done.

Thanks for the answer PatK, i might consider adding some information to TVDB, but for now i think the best solution would be creating my own .nfo file. Is there a smart application for this, or could you show me an example of one? Also, if i would add a poster, or a fanart. How would i do that?

Thanks again.
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#4
Star 
Creating a .nfo information is in the manual somewhere... http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=XBMC_Online_Manual if you can't find it, grab any .nfo and edit it with something like notepad++ which has an XML user language. Failing that some 3rd party media managers (like Ember or XWMM) make it a bit easier or harder depends on how quickly you pickup new software.

Poster or Covers and Fanart or Backdrops are easy.
Just throw any suitable jpeg (aspect makes a diff) into the folder and call the cover 'folder.jpg' or 'the name of the movie.tbn' and for the backdrop... again throw any jpeg (could be png too) into the folder and call it 'fanart.jpg' or 'the name of your movie-fanart.tbn' the key is the -fanart... and while we're at it...
'the name of your movie-trailer.avi' works for trailers and disc.png works for skins that support a disk image.

If all the pieces are in the folder.... (look and compare a regular XBMC scrap folder to make sure you're not missing anything) and you do a scrape, XBMC will pick up those local instead of exiting to grab from the internet.

http://lifehacker.com/5536963/the-ultima...dia-center
http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=Import_-_Exp..._nfo_Files
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#5
Once i get home for work, i'll try and see how far i can get with your information.

Thanks again for your time Smile
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#6
this will make it easy for you Nod
http://forum.xbmc.org/showpost.php?p=890800&postcount=5

For me it is much faster and easier to do manually than to learn how to use one of many media manager programs. Last thing I need is another piece of software to fight with Rofl

When you create your own .nfo files you can set the season and episode numbers any way you want to. Just use google for both descriptions (plot) and google images for fanart, etc. You might photoshop some text onto a banner image here and there if you like. I did that so I could just organize my documentaries by category (politics, animals, science, outer space) rather than Hist Channel, Disc. NatGeo etc.
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#7
Hello there

I've been reading all the wikis and tried to follow the post for almost 5 hours know and I don't seem to be able to get it to work Sad

1.) I do have the same TV Show (Richard Hammond's Invisible Worlds) which I'm trying to add to my TV Show Library. I found the fanart and poster stuff on the TVDB database posted here and they are placed in the folder.
- so far I managed at least that the folder "Richard Hammond's Invisible World" shows up under TV Shows.
- The problem is that this folder is empty :mad:
- I've created the following nfo called "tvshow.nfo" after following the guides here:
Code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<tvshow>
  <id>tt1623136</id>
  <id moviedb="tmdb">38675</id>    
<title>Richard Hammond's Invisible Worlds</title>
    <rating>8.4</rating>
    <year>2010</year>
    <top250>0</top250>
    <season>-1</season>
    <episode>-1</episode>
    <displayseason>-1</displayseason>
    <displayepisode>-1</displayepisode>
    <votes>144</votes>
    <outline></outline>
    <plot>Using state-of-the-art technologies, Richard Hammond goes beyond the limits of the naked eye and explores the hidden secrets of the invisible world around us </plot>
    <tagline></tagline>
    <runtime>94</runtime>
<posterURL>http://cf1.imgobject.com/posters/1e7/4c044fff017a3c7e860001e7/richard-hammond-s-invisible-worlds-original.jpg</posterURL>
  <fanartURL>http://cf1.imgobject.com/backdrops/347/4e0607b27b9aa145eb000347/richard-hammond-s-invisible-worlds-original.jpg</fanartURL>
    <mpaa>TV-PG</mpaa>
    <playcount>0</playcount>
    <lastplayed></lastplayed>
    <episodeguide>
           </episodeguide>
    <id></id>
    <genre>Documentary</genre>
    <set></set>
    <credits></credits>
    <director></director>
    <premiered>2003-01-23</premiered>
    <status></status>
    <code></code>
    <aired></aired>
    <studio>British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)</studio>
    <country>United Kingdom</country>
    <language>English</language>
    <trailer></trailer>
<actor>
    <name>Richard Hammond</name>
    <role>Himself - Presenter (3 episodes, 2010)</role>
    <thumb>http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMjEwNzI4MTA4Ml5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTM5Njg1NA@@._V1._SY275_SX400_.jpg</thumb>
  </actor>
  <videooutput>1080p 24Hz</videooutput>
  <fileinfo>
    <streamdetails>
      <video>
        <codec>h264</codec>
        <aspect>16:9</aspect>
        <width>1920</width>
        <height>1076</height>
      </video>
      <audio>
        <codec>dca</codec>
        <channels>2</channels>
      </audio>
    </streamdetails>
  </fileinfo>
</tvshow>
http://thetvdb.com/?tab=series&id=149731&lid=7
- Additionally I've created 3 nfo files for the 3 episodes names like the movie: Richard Hammond's Invisible Worlds S01E01 [1080p].nfo / Richard Hammond's Invisible Worlds S01E02 [1080p].nfo / Richard Hammond's Invisible Worlds S01E03 [1080p].nfo
Code:
<episodedetails xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <title>BBC Invisible Worlds I</title>
  <season>1</season>
  <episode>1</episode>
  <aired>2010</aired>
  <plot>Using state-of-the-art technologies, Richard Hammond goes beyond the limits of the naked eye and explores the hidden secrets of the invisible world around us </plot>
  <displayseason />
  <displayepisode />
  <watched>false</watched>
  <rating />
</episodedetails>

- All this stuff is under the path K:\TV-Shows\Richard Hammond's Invisible Worlds [1080p]

I desperately need the advice of you guys what I'm doing wrong here Sad. I've tried renaming the file, I've tried to scrape it somehow automatically, all of it failed.

2.) Additionally I ran into another problem which is actually really similar to the first problem:
- I have several IMAX movies from different years (all scrapable through IMDB) in a folder under the following path: K:\TV-Shows\IMAX Documentary [1080p]
- All Movies are storred within the same folder with custom season and episode numbers (I thougth this would work)
Example (I have 7 of those movies, this would be my personal episode 7):
Code:
IMAX - Volcanoes of the Deep Sea S01E07 [1080p]-fanart.jpg
IMAX - Volcanoes of the Deep Sea S01E07 [1080p].tbn
IMAX - Volcanoes of the Deep Sea S01E07 [1080p].nfo
IMAX - Volcanoes of the Deep Sea S01E07 [1080p].mkv
- The nfo file looks like this:
Code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!--YAMJ XML Generated by YANFOE Movies Edition (1.0) - 21.09.2011 20:10:18-->
<movie>
  <id>tt0331068</id>
  <id moviedb="tmdb">13444</id>
  <title>Volcanoes of the Deep Sea</title>
  <year>2003</year>
  <releasedate>14.09.2003</releasedate>
  <rating>7.1</rating>
  <votes>166</votes>
  <plot>Alvin, a deep-sea mechanized probe, makes a voyage some 12,000 feet underwater to explore the Azores, a constantly-erupting volcanic rift between Europe and North America.</plot>
  <tagline>12,000 feet down, life is erupting</tagline>
  <runtime>40</runtime>
  <posterURL>http://cf1.imgobject.com/posters/ba6/4bc93d3d017a3c57fe019ba6/volcanoes-of-the-deep-sea-original.jpg</posterURL>
  <fanartURL>http://cf1.imgobject.com/backdrops/ba2/4bc93d3d017a3c57fe019ba2/volcanoes-of-the-deep-sea-original.jpg</fanartURL>
  <country>USA</country>
  <language>English</language>
  <genre>Documentary / Short</genre>
  <credits>Alex Low,Stephen Low</credits>
  <director>Stephen Low</director>
  <actor>
    <name>Ed Harris</name>
    <role>Narrator</role>
    <thumb>http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMjE4NDM4ODc2OV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNzA5NjQ5MQ@@._V1._SY275_SX400_.jpg</thumb>
  </actor>
  <actor>
    <name>Richard Lutz</name>
    <role>Himself (as Dr. Richard Lutz)</role>
  </actor>
  <videooutput>1080p 24Hz</videooutput>
  <fileinfo>
    <streamdetails>
      <video>
        <codec>h264</codec>
        <aspect>16:9</aspect>
        <width>1920</width>
        <height>1080</height>
      </video>
      <audio>
        <codec>dca</codec>
        <language>en</language>
        <channels>6</channels>
      </audio>
    </streamdetails>
  </fileinfo>
</movie>
- The whole folder is not being scraped at all. I don't have a tvshow.nfo created for it yet since I haven't even figured out how I can get the "real" TV Show mentioned under 1.) to work.
- I know I could simply let them scrape as individual "Movies" and it would work.... but I don't want that, I'd like it to display under TV-Shows in a folder where all of them are accessible through the library.

It would be great if somebody could point out what I do wrong here. Greatly appreciated!
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#8
Looks like you have used the example (I posted a link above) episode .nfo file correctly. However, I believe you have mismatched movie and tvshow .nfo files. Thus they are not working together.
Go back and utilize the simple tvshow.nfo template in the link. You can use this for ANY type of .avi, .mkv, etc. file. You are creating your own infos rather than relying upon sraping therefore you can set up anything you like as a "TV Show" so long as you give them seasons and episodes. Doesn't even matter if you give them ALL s1e1 it will still work. So yes, you can set your IMAX us as a television show with episodes.

Now, structure the other files just like I show in the example... You have a "-fanart" in there. That is correct if you are listing it in your movie library. For some reason TV shows is slightly different:
C:\TV\
TV.Show.Title\
Season.01\
-----^-TV.Show.Title.s1e1.Episode.Name.mkv
-----^-TV.Show.Title.s1e1.Episode.Name.nfo
-----^-TV.Show.Title.s1e1.Episode.Name.tbn
Season.02\
fanart.jpg
folder.jpg
season01.tbn
season02.tbn
tvshow.nfo
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#9
outatouch0 Wrote:However, I believe you have mismatched movie and tvshow .nfo files. T

Hey there. Thanks for your reply. I'm gonna try this once I get home today. I think I tried to apply too many things at once from all the available sources.

So for the the IMAX movies, I won't have to name them with S01E01 etc.? Does this mean I should do the following:
1. Create a tvshow.nfo according to your template
2.) Create the episode nfo's named the same as the movie where I include only the template you provided? I don't really know if the tags you put in there <displayseason />
<displayepisode /> are important? They don't have the syntax as the other regular tags so should I just leave them as they are?

thanks
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#10
ecopsorn Wrote:I think I tried to apply too many things at once from all the available sources.
It happens, it means you are trying and therefore learning.

ecopsorn Wrote:So for the the IMAX movies, I won't have to name them with S01E01 etc.?
NO, if you want anything to be listed under your TVShows Library you must use s1e1 (or some other accepted season/episode naming convention). You might not even have to change the filename of the IMAX movies. Just name the .nfo file the same name as the IMAX movie filename. You can even leave the seasons and episodes all at 0. You just need those .nfo files to get them to show up in the library.

ecopsorn Wrote:Does this mean I should do the following:
1. Create a tvshow.nfo according to your template
YES
ecopsorn Wrote:2.) Create the episode nfo's named the same as the movie where I include only the template you provided?
You can use the templates just as they are without filling in any information and they will work to get them in your library. Of course they won't be very useful as far as metadata goes. The intent is to fill in the data between the tags for any information you care to add or leave blank anything you like. All three examples below work:
<tagline>This is Optional</tagline>
<tagline></tagline>
<tagline> />
The first one will display "This is Optional" the last two are simply blank and will display no data.
I think you can also add <tags> as you wish but I haven't tried it myself.
ecopsorn Wrote:I don't really know if the tags you put in there <displayseason />
<displayepisode /> are important? They don't have the syntax as the other regular tags so should I just leave them as they are?
Good eye there (see above). The source of my template is Sick Beard. I do not know what those are for so I leave them as they are (blank). They can probably be deleted but... It is not broken so I don't fix it Wink

ecopsorn Wrote:thanks
Very welcome, I am glad to help and to give back help freely given to me by others that came before me.
My first HTPC build
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#11
Hi there

I'm almost there Nod
The biggest mistake I did was the naming! I had a space between the end of the movie name and the season/ episode numbering. That's why the movies didn't get picked up in the first place: (don't ask me why but it started to work as soon as I changed all the names)

Wrong:
Code:
Richard Hammond's Invisible Worlds S01E01 [1080p].mkv

Right:
Code:
Richard Hammond's Invisible Worlds S01E01.[1080p].mkv

The stuff with the tvshow.nfo worked great. I've deleted all the tags that I didn't really need, I couldn't break what didn't work anyway right? Big Grin

so the tvshow.nfo looks like this now (I've added the fileinfo tags since I like to know such stuff):
Code:
<tvshow xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <title>Richard Hammond's Invisible Worlds</title>
  <rating>8.4</rating>
  <plot>Using state-of-the-art technologies, Richard Hammond goes beyond the limits of the naked eye and explores the hidden secrets of the invisible world around us</plot>
  <genre>Documentary</genre>
  <premiered>2003-01-23</premiered>
  <runtime>94</runtime>
  <studio>British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)</studio>
  <country>United Kingdom</country>
  <language>English</language>
  <videooutput>1080p 24Hz</videooutput>
  <fileinfo>
    <streamdetails>
      <video>
        <codec>h264</codec>
        <aspect>16:9</aspect>
        <width>1920</width>
        <height>1076</height>
      </video>
      <audio>
        <codec>dca</codec>
        <channels>2</channels>
      </audio>
    </streamdetails>
  </fileinfo>
</tvshow>

The episode details look like this:
Richard Hammond's Invisible Worlds S01E01.[1080p].nfo
Code:
<episodedetails xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <title>BBC Invisible Worlds I</title>
  <rating>8.4</rating>
  <season>1</season>
  <episode>1</episode>
  <aired>2010</aired>
  <plot>Using state-of-the-art technologies, Richard Hammond goes beyond the limits of the naked eye and explores the hidden secrets of the invisible world around us </plot>
</episodedetails>

I've added a fanart.jpg and a folder.jpg as well. So basically everything is working now for the Richard Hammond's TV Show.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For the IMAX Documentary, I've applied the same rules and things I've learned from you and it worked smoothly. There is now just one thing I'd like to get to work:

--> Individual fanarts for the different IMAX movies.

1.) I do have one "fanart.jpg" in the folder. This fanart is kind of a collection artwork fanart where all the IMAX movies are just shown as cover arts. I like this very much because as soon as I click on my new TV Show folder "IMAX Documentary Pack", this fanart is shown.
2.) I have individual *.tbn files which show up correctly as well (I choose DVD covers for this)
3.) Here's the problem. When I scroll on my XBMC through the various IMAX movies, I keep getting the "fanart.jpg" displayed for all movies. What I'd like of course are individual fanarts for each movie.
--> In the wiki I haven't found how to do this for TV Shows
--> I've tried to apply the same rules as for movies, naming the file the same as the movie with the fanart tag behind, but this didn't work:
Code:
IMAX - Blue Planet S01E01.[1080p]-fanart.jpg

Thanks again for your great help, would be awesome if this last puzzle piece gets owned as well Big Grin
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#12
Glad to hear it! It's fun when it finally comes together isn't it? Now that you have 'unlocked the mysteries' of the .nfo files you can do pretty much anything with your library.
ecopsorn Wrote:For the IMAX Documentary, I've applied the same rules and things I've learned from you and it worked smoothly. There is now just one thing I'd like to get to work:
--> Individual fanarts for the different IMAX movies.
1.) I do have one "fanart.jpg" in the folder. This fanart is kind of a collection artwork fanart where all the IMAX movies are just shown as cover arts. I like this very much because as soon as I click on my new TV Show folder "IMAX Documentary Pack", this fanart is shown.
2.) I have individual *.tbn files which show up correctly as well (I choose DVD covers for this)
3.) Here's the problem. When I scroll on my XBMC through the various IMAX movies, I keep getting the "fanart.jpg" displayed for all movies. What I'd like of course are individual fanarts for each movie.
--> In the wiki I haven't found how to do this for TV Shows
AFAIK, that is the intended behavior of xbmc. I wish there was a way to make that happen too. Maybe someone else knows the secret! lol

ecopsorn Wrote:--> I've tried to apply the same rules as for movies, naming the file the same as the movie with the fanart tag behind, but this didn't work:
Code:
IMAX - Blue Planet S01E01.[1080p]-fanart.jpg
Thanks again for your great help, would be awesome if this last puzzle piece gets owned as well Big Grin

I was going to say try .-fanart.jpg but...
Here is how my movies folders look:
C:\MOVIES\
Movie.Title.year\
-----^-Movie.Title.year.mkv
-----^-Movie.Title.year.nfo
-----^-Movie.Title.year.tbn
-----^-Movie.Title.year-fanart.jpg

Maybe the '[' brackets are confusing the system? IDK. Just in case, here is a sample of one of my movie .nfo files. You can try it as a troubleshoot to rule your .nfo out as the problem?
Code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<movie>
    <title>Hanna</title>
    <originaltitle>Hanna</originaltitle>
    <rating>7.000000</rating>
    <epbookmark>0.000000</epbookmark>
    <year>2011</year>
    <top250>0</top250>
    <votes>30,975</votes>
    <outline></outline>
    <plot>Hanna is a teenage girl who has the strength, the stamina, and the smarts of a soldier. These come from being raised by her father, an ex-CIA man, in the wilds of Finland. Living a life unlike any other teenager, her upbringing and training have been one and the same, all geared to making her the perfect assassin. The turning point in her adolescence is a sharp one; sent into the world by her father on a mission, Hanna journeys stealthily across Europe while eluding agents dispatched after her by a ruthless intelligence operative with secrets of her own. As she nears her ultimate target, Hanna faces startling revelations about her existence and unexpected questions about her humanity.</plot>
    <tagline>Adapt or die.</tagline>
    <runtime>111</runtime>
    <thumb></thumb>
    <fanart>
        <thumb></thumb>
    </fanart>
    <mpaa>Rated PG-13</mpaa>
    <playcount>0</playcount>
    <lastplayed></lastplayed>
    <id>tt0993842</id>
    <genre>Action</genre>
    <genre>Adventure</genre>
    <genre>Drama</genre>
    <genre>Foreign</genre>
    <genre>Thriller</genre>
    <genre>Crime</genre>
    <genre>Mystery</genre>
    <country>United States of America</country>
    <country>United Kingdom</country>
    <country>Germany</country>
    <credits>Seth Lochhead</credits>
    <credits>David Farr</credits>
    <director>Joe Wright</director>
    <premiered></premiered>
    <status></status>
    <code></code>
    <aired></aired>
    <studio>Holleran Company</studio>
    <trailer>plugin://plugin.video.youtube/?action=play_video&amp;videoid=1zd4zGt13IE</trailer>
    <fileinfo>
        <streamdetails>
            <video>
                <codec>h264</codec>
                <aspect>2.352941</aspect>
                <width>1920</width>
                <height>816</height>
                <durationinseconds>6650</durationinseconds>
            </video>
            <audio>
                <codec>dca</codec>
                <language>eng</language>
                <channels>6</channels>
            </audio>
            <subtitle>
                <language>eng</language>
            </subtitle>
        </streamdetails>
    </fileinfo>
    <actor>
        <name>Saoirse Ronan</name>
        <role>Hanna</role>
        <thumb></thumb>
    </actor>
    <actor>
        <name>Eric Bana</name>
        <role>Erik Heller</role>
        <thumb></thumb>
    </actor>
</movie>
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#13
outatouch0 Wrote:Glad to hear it! It's fun when it finally comes together isn't it? Now that you have 'unlocked the mysteries' of the .nfo files you can do pretty much anything with your library.

Yeah it's great what you can do with this software!

The fanart thing for the TV-Shows is no big deal. I keep it as it is right now and will probably later make a specific thread to ask this question once I feel the need.
Thanks again and have fun Big Grin
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Scanning random TV shows0