[Scotty]

Hullo!

So ... after copious amounts of reading over 2 years or so, I'm going to have to admit defeat and await the inevitable correction from one of your good selves that I've missed something blindingly obvious. I am simply unable to get sorttitle to work! It's bothered me for years but I put up with it, however, the missus bought me the Bond boxset + Skyfall for my birthday and the scatter across the library has tipped me over the edge!

I'm t'rying to sort movies by the 'sorttitle' tag, however, I don't want to use sets (i.e. you just see them all at the top level of the library, but all Bond films would appear together, e.g. sorting on Bond1, Bond2, etc.. Here's a sample movie.nfo entry:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<movie xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<id>tt0123456</id>
<title>Real Title</title>
<originaltitle>Original if applicable</originaltitle>
<sorttitle>SeriesName2</sorttitle>
<year>1234</year>
... rest of nfo ...
</movie>

I've used Ember for all nfo files, so, assuming the above is valid (looks it from checking the wiki) I expect I've missed a setting somewhere. I use a Wall view in Backrow (if that matters?). I've tried toggling every setting that looks as if it could be at all related, but to no avail. I should add that I've had this problem over all main versions, going back as far as Camelot (probably farther back, I just can't be sure); I've also rebuilt the library several times (usually with each new release) so it isn't that the tags have been added since the library was last built.

Help!

[Sharpe]

Hi Scotty

I also use ember (and BackRow -heh) and this works for me - so it is doable.

Using ember v1.3 rev 9 and Frodo on windows.

Using this example and checking the nfo these are the tags

Code:

<title>Rocky</title>
<originaltitle>Rocky</originaltitle>
<sorttitle>02</sorttitle>

If I manually change the sort title and then sorting by "title" in xbmc it places the movie to the relevant position in the library based on sort title.

#oh yeah and I don't have group by sets enabled

[Prof Yaffle]

Have you enabled "group movies into sets" or the equivalent on your skin? This works fine on Confluence for me:

Code:

<movie>
    <title>Back to the Future</title>
    <originaltitle>Back to the Future</originaltitle>
    <sorttitle>Back to the Future1</sorttitle>
    <set>Back to the Future Trilogy</set>

Code:

<movie>
    <title>Back to the Future Part II</title>
    <originaltitle>Back to the Future Part II</originaltitle>
    <sorttitle>Back to the Future2</sorttitle>
    <set>Back to the Future Trilogy</set>

Code:

<movie>
    <title>Back to the Future Part III</title>
    <originaltitle>Back to the Future Part III</originaltitle>
    <sorttitle>Back to the Future3</sorttitle>
    <set>Back to the Future Trilogy</set>

[Scotty]

Using this example and checking the nfo these are the tags

Code:

<title>Rocky</title>
<originaltitle>Rocky</originaltitle>
<sorttitle>02</sorttitle>

If I manually change the sort title and then sorting by "title" in xbmc it places the movie to the relevant position in the library based on sort title.

Thank you for your example! I'm confused, though, if you had "02" (rather than say Rocky2) in the sorttitle, would it not put it right at the top of the library (i.e. before Alien, Aladdin, etc.!). Or was this just a made-up example?

Regardless, I just checked (from the movie library view) and I can't find any option to sort by "title" - the closest sort in Backrow (standard?) is to sort by "Name". That is the sort I was using already, and does not pick up the tag.

Many thanks for the assistance, Prof Yaffle, however, I'm not wanting to use sets at this time.

[Sharpe]

Yeah "02" was just an example to see if I could change the order - which it did.

Sort by "title" is this part of BackRow - sort by "name" suggests to me that you're not in library mode but file mode and it can't read the sorttitle flag in file mode.

[Scotty]

OK, so an even dumber question that I first thought ... if all movie files are scraped (which they have been) and I'm accessing them via the MOVIES menu (which I am), what more do I need to do to enable the library? :? Have I really missed something this fundamental for so long?!

[Sharpe]

Dunno maybe....how exactly are you accessing your movies?

[Scotty]

Movies option from main menu - nothing fancier than that!

P.S. Your 'American Reunion' is out of order!

[Sharpe]

Thanks

Ok so let's see if it's a skin issue - can you check with Confluence and see if you can get it working by accessing the movie library in Confluence?

If it works correctly in Confluence then it might be caused by having BackRow's custom movie library source settings different - check in BackRow's skin settings under the "Home" heading and confirm that "Movies Button Links To Library" is checked.

If it's not and say for example it's set to a custom folder then that's file mode.

If it is ticked it might still be an old skin setting from a previous version hanging around - you can clear that by selecting "Reset Skin" under the "General" heading - but note that this will reset any custom skin settings you might have selected back to default.

[Scotty]

Doesn't work in Confluence, either, and the Backrow settings are as you describe they should be. Reset skin has no effect on the problem. I've also noticed that it's using 'original' titles, e.g. Live Free or Die Hard, not Die Hard 4 as per my Title edits in Ember:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<movie xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<id>tt0337978</id>
<title>Die Hard 4.0</title>
<originaltitle>Live Free or Die Hard</originaltitle>
<sorttitle>Die Hard 4</sorttitle>
...
</movie>

Are the nfo files not being picked up correctly? Some issue with leading spaces? Didn't think ember had problems in this regard, but there's many versions!

[Glorious1]

Are you refreshing the movie after editing the NFO <sorttitle> tag? If I understand correctly that is the only way to get XBMC to re-read the NFO, short of going through the process of changing the "content" of the source and then setting it back again.

[Scotty]

I've had the problem for several years, over which time I've done many clean installs, All movies are added with the nfo edited for the sorttitle before being picked up by xbmc. However, if my skin isn't offering the same sort option as others using the same skin (i.e. title) then I'm willing to believe I'm somehow not in library mode. Though, I've no idea why not!

[Sharpe]

It might help if you go through step by step the way you set your movie sources up - what folders, How they are stored, what formats you're using, how you set your content etc ---basically as much as you can then maybe something might jump out?

[Scotty]

Well, I removed the offending films from the library last night and then updated the source to pick them up again ... and now they're ordered correctly. I still only get the option to sort by name, not 'title' as per your screenshot, oddly, but it seems to work now. Which is ... disturbing, given I've changed nothing new since they were added to the library last time round. While I'm happier now the original problem has gone, I'm still confused as to why my skin is giving me different options to other users!