[GreyHairedGamer]

Hey guys,

Before I launch into sounding stupid, I'm just letting you all know I'm a super n00b when it comes to XBMC. I'm one of those guys who practically IS a computer...but I'm just having a difficult time with this software, and I'm not sure why. Let me start with the most basic of questions...how do I get the information scraped about my movies and TV shows to show up in the menus? And how do you get a menu that looks like it flips like you are looking on a library shelf?

Now...I've built my own HTPC and it's really nice. I've put all my media on a 3TB WD Live NAS device, and I've been using Media Companion to catalog and scrape all my shows. I've gone in and added my video sources (although this may be where I'm having problems) as instructed. And I've been trying to get things as organized as possible and following guides that I've found on Lifehacker and elsewhere...it's just that nothing I've done winds up looking like they do in the pictures in those guides. LOL I have setup the Aeon Nox skin right now, but I have several others that I have installed.

When I go into XBMC to start trying to watch a show or a movie, I still seem to be just navigating menus and finding the shows I want to watch. If I had wanted that, I would have stuck with using my PS3 as my media player, but obviously I want something beautiful and easy for my wife to use.

So without any screenshots or anything to share, anyone have any clue what I'm doing wrong? There may be some gaps in these guides that assume you know more than you do...and with an awful lot of the computing world, that works fine for me. In this case..not so much.

Thanks in advance everyone!! Any advice is much appreciated.

Bob

[whitebelly]

Add your video source and designate its content as MOVIES.
Scan source into the video library
You should now have a nice MOVIE interface with options on how to present the content.

If you want a different experience, load new SKINS via the ADD ONS feature.

[artrafael]

Based on your description, it seems you really don't have your media scanned into your library. Otherwise, you would be able to view your movies/shows by categories such as title, genre, director, actors, year, studio, etc. On your home page, if you navigate to the VIDEOS item, do you see the items | Files | Library | Add-ons | displayed on the row just below it? If you don't see Library, that confirms you don't have a video library. If that's the case, see this wiki article and read through each of the links on the right side of the page: http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Add...he_library

[GreyHairedGamer]

Thanks for the tips, guys! I'll try this stuff out as soon as I get back to my PC and let you know. :-)

Bob

[GreyHairedGamer]

Well...I seem to have already run into a problem. I can't seem to find where to "set content" for setting the content type of the video sources I'm adding.

According to the directions you sent me, it should pop up and ask me to set the content after I name the source and click OK, but it doesn't. It simply goes back to the file list. The instructions also say that setting the content type should show up in the contextual menu....also doesn't.

So, I'm starting to get a little frustrated here. LOL Do I have a bad version that's missing features? These seem like pretty basic things to be missing, and kind of odd that they aren't there.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks!
B

[artrafael]

Assuming you already have your media files named correctly (per the wiki article) and organized and placed in the appropriate directory(ies)...

VIDEOS > Files > Add Videos... > Browse > navigate to and select the parent folder for your movies or shows > OK. You should then see a "Set content" pop-up window and, from there, you can set your folder's content to to "Movies" or "TV shows", select a scraper (a default is pre-selected for you, based on your content type selec.tion) and click OK. You will then be asked if you want to scan your folder's contents into the library. Respond YES.

[Ned Scott]

Make sure not to use UPnP for a file sharing, since XBMC won't scan UPnP sources to the library.

[whitebelly]

Yeah, your NAS should be set to SMB or NFS sharing of your content folders before you add your source, and when you add the source use the SMB or NFS choices after you select BROWSE. Navigate till you see your folder, and select it, then select OK.

Hang in there, don't get frustrated, you'll figure it out.

[GreyHairedGamer]

Make sure not to use UPnP for a file sharing, since XBMC won't scan UPnP sources to the library.

THIS! This was the problem. Is this spelled out anywhere in the setup instructions anywhere? This is why I wasn't getting anything to show up. I have a WD Live NAS, and I always just use it in UPnP mode, rarely as NFS. But that's it....problem solved. Thanks Ned!!

Now...a quick followup. Since all I was trying to do was test that I would get it to work, my files are not 100% setup and named properly on the server. Can I delete the database and start over? I mean, I'm sure I can, I'm just wondering the best way to go about it. Do I just delete the source or is there somewhere else to purge the database?

Thanks for all your help guys! Glad it turned out to be a simple problem, but I'm surprised this doesn't come up as an issue more often if it's not spelled out to be really obvious that it MUST be an NFS or SMB share.

Thanks,
Bob

[Ned Scott]

Sure, delete the MyVideos75.db file in userdata (wiki)/Database/

XBMC will create a blank one the next time it restarts, and you can have a clean library slate.