[ArcherBulls]

Hello,

First I wanted to say thanks so much for this great product. I have just started useing it but really enjoy it.
I am running Ubuntu 12.04 with a 'fresh' install I started last week and XBMC 11.0.

The issue I am having is that I have many MKV movie files that will not show in the library in XBMC. I have google'd the crap out of it but can not find any good answer. I have tried renaming the file and many other 'tricks' but no luck. I also converted the file to AVI and then it showed up. Sadly I can not take the time to convert all my digital media over to AVI's so I would like to solve this issue. From what I have read XBMC should have no issues doing this. Also, the movies play with no issues if I use 'Movie Player' from my OS.

As a side note, this media was something I got through couchpotato so there is a slight chance that is messing it up. I will be hooking up my ext drive tomorrow and can try some media from a windows computer to see if that makes any difference.

Thanks in advance for the help!
~Archer

[jmarshall]

Do they show up in the files listing? If not, it's permissions.

[ArcherBulls]

Correct, they do not show in files as well. What should the permissions be set to?

[artrafael]

Read-only for other users at the very least.

[ArcherBulls]

As far as I can tell I have permissions correct. I am a nix noob though.. as an example:
-rw-rw-rw- 1 server sudo 10882627420 Nov 12 2011 Cars (2006)
or
-rw-rw-rw- 1 server sudo 10882627420 Nov 12 2011 Cars (2006)

Username is 'server' as noted.

Am I doing something wrong?

---

As I dig a bit deeper into the issue it seems to be an issue with the folder permissions and not the actual files.

Folder that I can see the movie:
-rw-rw-rw- 1 server sudo 8535171955 Jan 13 17:01 Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Folder I cant see the movie:
drwxrwxrwx 2 server server 4096 Jul 12 04:43 Up (2009)

So now I just have to find out how to change it.

P.S. I have tried going in and changing permissions 'gksu nautilus' and still no luck.

[ArcherBulls]

Im still not sure what I am doing wrong....
This one does not show up in XBMC:
-rwxr-xr-x 1 server sudo 10882627420 Nov 12 2011 Cars (2006)-1

And this one does:
-rwxr-xr-x 1 server sudo 8535171955 Jan 13 17:01 Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Exact same permissions.... Ugh...

[artrafael]

All the examples you listed have at least Read-only permission for Owner, Group and Others, so you should be able to access the files.

When you converted some of the MKVs to AVIs (and the AVIs showed up), did you place the AVI file for a given movie in the same parent folder as the MKV file? Or are the converted AVI files in their own folders (different from the MKVs)?

[ArcherBulls]

Thanks for continueing to work on this with me. I am about to hit the sack and work 12 hours tomorrow. I am going to try another MKV to AVI transcode tonight to play around with it more later.

[artrafael]

What I'd like to see is:

• An AVI and MKV of the same movie located in the same directory.
  
• The owner and permissions of both files are identical.
  

Go to XBMC Videos > Files mode and see if both files or just the AVI version are listed. If it's still just the AVI, at least we can be pretty certain the problem is not due to folder or file permissions.

[ArcherBulls]

Results of the test.

Converted 'Cars' from MKV to AVI. Set converted file to be put on 'desktop' when done.

Opened XBMC and added my desktop as a souce.
Cars.avi - works

Moved it to /home/server/Movies where the cars.mkv is.
Rescaned Movies souce folder in XBMC
Cars.avi - works
Cars(.mkv) - not showing up

-rwxr-xr-x 1 server sudo 10882627420 Nov 12 2011 Cars
-rw-rw-r-- 1 server server 28341780 Jul 15 00:45 Cars.avi

(I only did a few mins of the conversion as I forgot to start it before work this morning)

Changed the permissions:
-rw-rw-r-- 1 server sudo 10882627420 Nov 12 2011 Cars
-rw-rw-r-- 1 server server 28341780 Jul 15 00:45 Cars.avi

Now they match except for Group. Scaned for new content and still not working. The cars.avi is still showing up though.

Changed the group:
-rw-rw-r-- 1 server server 10882627420 Nov 12 2011 Cars
-rw-rw-r-- 1 server server 28341780 Jul 15 00:45 Cars.avi

Cars(.mkv) is still not showing up
cars.avi is showing up and playing.

HAHAHAHAHAHH>..... so after all that. I figured it out.

*face keyboard* I am going to post it as a new one so the solution is easier to find for others looking.

---

**Solution**

XBMC was not seeing the files because they did not have the correct extension.

All I had to do was:
Press Alt+F2 to access the "Run Applications" dialog and enter "gksu nautilus" (not sure if its needed, I just wanted to do this under root)
Nav to the files I wanted, and added '.mkv' after each of the file names.

They now correctly show up in XBMC.

I did not even think about this because having come from a windows machine where they are now hidden, I assumed they were as well but other programs could see them. I also assumed because I could open them in Ubuntu and it opened with mplayer that there were no issues with the filename.

Thanks for all the help guys!