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I was shocked to find out that I had nearly 2GB of actors thumbs spread throughout my media collection.
So my idea is... ( I searched but haven't seen this mentioned )
Would it be possible to set a default .actors folder/archive for XBMC to pull from when scraping servers locally which would allow us to dump all the thumbs there instead of spreading them to each individual movie folder requiring hundreds if not thousands of duplicates? It would then be possible to create a master .actors list which could be updated or patched incrementally and maintained for quick updates.
What would be the complications in something like this other than same named actors and the possibility of long file list read times?
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This is a great idea - the less duplication the better!
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Milhouse
Retired Team-Kodi Member
Posts: 17,855
+1
Separate .actors folders within each movie (in my case, sets) introduces significant duplication.
A single ".actors" folder in the root of each library would be sufficient for my needs, eg.
\share1\Videos\.actors
\share1\Videos\Movies SD
\share1\Videos\Movies HD
\share1\Videos\Documentaries
\share2\Videos\.actors
\share2\Videos\Movies SD
\share2\Videos\Movies HD
\share2\Videos\Documentaries
The best solution for my library setup would then be for XBMC to look in the movie folder for an .actors folder (ie. as it does now) and then if the .actors folder is not present to look in each parent folder until an .actors folder is found, or all parent folders are exhausted.
Texture Cache Maintenance Utility: Preload your texture cache for optimal UI performance. Remotely manage media libraries. Purge unused artwork to free up space. Find missing media. Configurable QA check to highlight metadata issues. Aid in diagnosis of library and cache related problems.
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I would love to see this idea come to fruition.
I am sure its not as simple as having "one .actors folder" how would you decipher one "bob smith" from the other 300 of them that are also actors.
There would really need to be some form of data file assigned to each actor as well as a thumb to tell xbmc which movies each actor is in and that
sounds like a lot of work that someone would have to volunteer to undertake if its even possible.
Mind you i am no programer so maybe its simpler than i think it would be?
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Maybe the developers can look into how MediaBrowser is doing this? I know that MB has one Actors folder situated in its %appdata% folder
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hyde01
Senior Member
Posts: 108
Has there been any development with this?
I am ready to import my movie collection of around 200 movies and will run media companion first, before doing that I will add each movie in its own folder, but I really don't want to have same actors placed in different movies.
Is there anyway to keep a single .actors folder? I guess the only way to do this if I keep all movies in the root folder then they would all use a single .actors folder, but then it creates a mess if you use the folder via media browser, etc..
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So I'm wondering the same thing, anything new about this?
As for the problem with keep track of the 300 Bob Smiths wouldn't it be possible to do it the same way as with movies and use their IMDb-id??
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Yea, this would be great. Less clutter and it could actually really simplify process of updating actors thumbs.
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It's kinda crazy.
XBMC tries to centralize its whole database and have a unique file (nfo, thumbs, fanarts...) in the folders where needed, but keeps its genres and other files in one folder, but it wants a actor folder for every movie and tv series.
I'm in for a centralized approach!
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+1
I vote for this too
a dedicated folder, the way MCM collects the info for its "single folder option" would be great:
with first letter subfolders
e.g. :
[chosenpath]\A\Aaron....
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Its a little irritating if you do a duplicate search on your library and find you have nearly 2Gb of duplicates... All actor images...
Why dont we have a single Actors folder?
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XBMC is a community project. If noone in the community is interested in doing something, it doesn't get done. Simple as that.
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This would be a great change. What is the behavior in the music library for artists thumbs? I've only had XBMC for a week now, so don't know. If there are duplicates there too, then it would be good to consolidate that also.
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ivan
Junior Member
Posts: 41
OMG! this is what I need!
I have decided to manually sort all my movies - with custom actrs images - its a big project, I know...but I'm just not happy with online scrapers.
Single .actors folder would be great!
Is there any progress on this issue?