Login at Kodi Home

weirdinin · (This post was last modified: 2014-07-29, 15:40 by weirdinin.)

I have some movies that have special characters, like ä and ö, in their title names specified in nfo file. When I updated xbmc movie library, those special characters were just simply dropped off. Why?

For example here's nfo file of the movie Finding Nemo:

Code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>

<movie>

    <title>Nemoa etsimässä</title>

    <originaltitle>Finding Nemo</originaltitle>

    <rating>8.200000</rating>

    <epbookmark>0.000000</epbookmark>

    <year>2003</year>

In xbmc library the title is "Nemoa etsimss". As you see, ä letters are missing.

I tried to edit the title from xbmc gui (added missing characters) and then exported media library as separate files (overwrited existing nfo file). Now that new nfo file look like this:

Code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>

<movie>

    <title>Nemoa etsim├ñss├ñ</title>

    <originaltitle>Finding Nemo</originaltitle>

    <rating>8.200000</rating>

    <epbookmark>0.000000</epbookmark>

    <year>2003</year>

Now when I updated library again with this new nfo file, ä letters are there in xbmc. But I'd like to use ä in nfo files instead of ├ñ.
Should I change something in xbmc or in nfo file, like encoding type?

xbmc log http://pastebin.com/XVYuuga6

**DaVu** · (This post was last modified: 2014-07-29, 16:22 by DaVu.)

Hi weirdinin,

I ran into the same problems as you and I got 2 solutions...first the "dirty" one:

remove the first line inside your *.nfo: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>

This will get you the possibility to use "ä" and "ö" directly. But I remember I ran into other problems by using this solution....if I´m correct, it was related with the android remote app was not able to read those file, but I´m not sure. So I took the second one...

The other one is a bit more work....

- don´t remove the first line in your nfo
- download notepad++ (or similiar...depending on what system you create your nfo....in linux you are able to use "kate"...don´t know for a mac)
- before creating a nfo you have to change the encoding to "Encoding in UTF-8 without BOM" (only for "notepad++"...other editors might have other sections for this, but it should be related)
- create your nfo

You can use "ä" and "ö" directly and the file will be safed in a XBMC readable format automatically. Be carefull...if you close notepad++ and reedit the file, the charakters might look as strange as this " ├ñ". But changing the encoding will get you the normal charakters back.

Hope this will work for you as it does it for me.

Greetings
David

weirdinin · 2014-07-29, 17:41

Thank you for your reply David. I'll try both methods when get back to home from work and will report here. And Xbmc community, thank you again for amazing support.

**Kib** · 2014-07-29, 20:31

How did you create that NFO in the first place?

If you signify the file is utf-8 but encode it in something else you are going to get troubles

weirdinin · (This post was last modified: 2014-07-29, 22:58 by weirdinin.)

@Kib
I let xbmc handle creating of nfo: First I ripped movie and named it as "Finding Nemo (2003).mkv" and put it in a folder "Finding Nemo (2003)"
Then updated xbmc library using the moviedb.org scraper and changed the title name "Finding Nemo" to "Nemoa etsimässä" using xbmc gui (transparency is my skin atm). After that I went to settings > videos > library > export video library.
I exported library as a separate files. And that's how the nfo was created in the folder next to the Nemo movie. Creating nfo files manually would be a tremendous task. xbmc and srapers in the Internet makes it so easy to get metadata nowadays.

If I wanted to change, lets say, the language of the plot of a movie from English to my native language which has those special characters like ö and ä, I'd not get them if I edited the nfo file xbmc made using notepad++. They'd be dropped off when updating the library again. And that's what bothers me. I'd like to change the language of kid's movies to Finnish as children are not that good at English... or maybe this could be a smooth fashion to get them, and myself, to learn some.
Your help's appreciated.

EDIT: tried the second method David suggested and that worked. Do you guys know, what is the default editing type in notepad++ if it's not specified? Don't bother yourself too much though as that question is quite out of focus of the main problem. But hey thank you. I consider my issue as solved!

**DaVu** · 2014-07-30, 16:12

The encoding (once you specified it by selecting the encoding you want) is always the same as the last time you use it. That´s what I just recognized when I re-open notepad++ today. An older version I got (iirc) is always set back to "ansi" if I´m correct.

Btw....

Creating a nfo by hand isn´t much work. For me I create all my nfos for myself. The only things I scrape are TV-Shows, because there were to many nfos to create Wink

(one nfo for the show, one for the season and one for each episode). At this point I´m a bit lazy Big Grin

.

I create a "blanco" nfo and saved it under "movie.nfo". If I want to add a new nfo, I open this one and fill in, what I´m in need of. I wish to have many informations what scrapers don´t provide (movie studios, which kind of sound format and languages, special video format etc....). Creating nfos by hand will give you many possibilities to add metadata for each movie. But I agree...if you want to start now with that it´s hard work. I do this as long as I´m using XBMC. I download posters and fanart manually too. At one point I have to devide which one I want to take. I decide it by downloading for myself and adding those files in the movie folder. So I never have to decide again. Wink

weirdinin · 2014-07-30, 20:31

How extensive are your nfos? I mean if i wanted to make manually nfos, it would take forever. Usually i buy about ten to twenty movies at once and rip them right away. Doing all the metadata would be harder than ripping. Here's an example of one of my movie's nfo:

Code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>

<movie>

    <title>Spirited Away</title>

    <originaltitle>Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi</originaltitle>

    <rating>8.600000</rating>

    <epbookmark>0.000000</epbookmark>

    <year>2001</year>

    <top250>42</top250>

    <votes>242,552</votes>

    <outline>In the middle of her family&apos;s move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches, and monsters; where humans are changed into animals; and a bathhouse for these creatures.</outline>

    <plot>Chihiro and her parents are moving to a small Japanese town in the countryside, much to Chihiro&apos;s dismay. On the way to their new home, Chihiro&apos;s father makes a wrong turn and drives through a lonely land road with dead end at the entrance to a tunnel. Her parents decide to stop the car and explore the area. They cross the tunnel and find an abandoned cultural theme park on the other side with its own town inside. When her parents see a restaurant with great smelling food but no staff, they decide to eat and pay later; however Chihiro refuses to eat and decides to explore the theme park a bit more. She meets a boy named Haku that tells her that her parents and herself are in danger and they must leave the place. She runs to the restaurant and finds that her parents have turned into pigs. Further, the theme park is actually a town inhabited by otherworldly figures such as demons, spirits, and evil gods. At the center of the town is a bathhouse where these creatures go to cleanse ...</plot>

    <tagline>(The tunnel led Chihiro to a mysterious town...)</tagline>

    <runtime>124</runtime>

    <thumb aspect="poster" preview="http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/w500/ydIpyTzCc5iYAqjlbcCmgSckebE.jpg">http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/original/ydIpyTzCc5iYAqjlbcCmgSckebE.jpg</thumb>

    <thumb aspect="poster" preview="http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/w500/avFyz5Bl6F5qRdmyZA2p6Znjede.jpg">http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/original/avFyz5Bl6F5qRdmyZA2p6Znjede.jpg</thumb>

    <thumb aspect="poster" preview="http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/w500/8s9dmrHx3FAuKphPzDqNxuMgEZu.jpg">http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/original/8s9dmrHx3FAuKphPzDqNxuMgEZu.jpg</thumb>

    <thumb aspect="poster" preview="http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/w500/7spSVsnvVM8vNESOuHPgC8YgDX5.jpg">http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/original/7spSVsnvVM8vNESOuHPgC8YgDX5.jpg</thumb>

    <thumb aspect="poster" preview="http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/w500/1pbN4p3uqCBCySyy2nEYsUVYSTM.jpg">http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/original/1pbN4p3uqCBCySyy2nEYsUVYSTM.jpg</thumb>

    <thumb aspect="poster" preview="http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/w500/dL11DBPcRhWWnJcFXl9A07MrqTI.jpg">http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/original/dL11DBPcRhWWnJcFXl9A07MrqTI.jpg</thumb>

    <thumb aspect="poster" preview="http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/w500/fJGWeVHGuLSWbGShaxICAUCzBE5.jpg">http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/original/fJGWeVHGuLSWbGShaxICAUCzBE5.jpg</thumb>

    <thumb aspect="poster" preview="http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/w500/gxQy1SkDVLdOW1vbZw1Qcenz3A9.jpg">http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/original/gxQy1SkDVLdOW1vbZw1Qcenz3A9.jpg</thumb>

    <thumb aspect="poster" preview="http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/w500/6MV7Xcms3hxFLhsoK10rxb6KA4F.jpg">http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/original/6MV7Xcms3hxFLhsoK10rxb6KA4F.jpg</thumb>

    <thumb aspect="poster" preview="http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/w500/5AmPwHdLW93rvYD4tIynE2Qm3dk.jpg">http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/original/5AmPwHdLW93rvYD4tIynE2Qm3dk.jpg</thumb>

    <thumb aspect="poster">http://slurm.trakt.us/images/posters_movies/2459.1.jpg</thumb>

    <thumb aspect="poster">http://www.movieposterdb.com/posters/04_12/2001/0245429/l_1785_0245429_2f696a83.jpg</thumb>

    <thumb aspect="poster">http://www.movieposterdb.com/posters/10_04/2001/245429/l_245429_29f4003c.jpg</thumb>

    <thumb aspect="poster">http://www.movieposterdb.com/posters/10_04/2001/245429/l_245429_37ecbddb.jpg</thumb>

    <thumb aspect="poster">http://www.movieposterdb.com/posters/08_03/2001/245429/l_245429_d98867d1.jpg</thumb>

    <thumb aspect="poster">http://www.movieposterdb.com/posters/08_03/2001/245429/l_245429_24ebc066.jpg</thumb>

    <thumb aspect="poster">http://www.movieposterdb.com/posters/08_03/2001/245429/l_245429_7cc3a417.jpg</thumb>

    <thumb aspect="poster">http://www.movieposterdb.com/posters/06_06/2001/0245429/l_116894_0245429_128cf639.jpg</thumb>

    <thumb aspect="poster">http://www.movieposterdb.com/posters/13_05/2001/245429/l_245429_b4ad0fdd.jpg</thumb>

    <thumb aspect="poster">http://www.movieposterdb.com/posters/10_04/2001/245429/l_245429_7841ee71.jpg</thumb>

    <thumb aspect="poster">http://www.movieposterdb.com/posters/08_03/2001/245429/l_245429_07747d8d.jpg</thumb>

    <thumb aspect="poster">http://www.movieposterdb.com/posters/08_03/2001/245429/l_245429_aa45200b.jpg</thumb>

    <thumb aspect="poster">http://www.movieposterdb.com/posters/05_09/2001/0245429/l_54985_0245429_c32de0de.jpg</thumb>

    <thumb aspect="poster">http://www.movieposterdb.com/posters/08_03/2001/245429/l_245429_f716b7af.jpg</thumb>

    <thumb aspect="poster">http://www.movieposterdb.com/posters/05_12/2001/0245429/l_69934_0245429_86dbd738.jpg</thumb>

    <thumb aspect="poster">http://www.movieposterdb.com/posters/05_09/2001/0245429/l_54986_0245429_1489c823.jpg</thumb>

    <thumb aspect="poster">http://www.movieposterdb.com/posters/05_07/2001/0245429/l_26172_0245429_59304dfe.jpg</thumb>

    <thumb aspect="poster">http://www.movieposterdb.com/posters/12_10/2001/245429/l_245429_cda85034.jpg</thumb>

    <thumb aspect="poster">http://www.movieposterdb.com/posters/06_09/2001/0245429/l_130830_0245429_4b8d4b4f.jpg</thumb>

    <fanart>

        <thumb dim="" colors="" preview="http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/w780/qLLJU7yCi1qmyZjz60Xr0Vyxiqr.jpg">http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/original/qLLJU7yCi1qmyZjz60Xr0Vyxiqr.jpg</thumb>

        <thumb dim="" colors="" preview="http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/w780/mnpRKVSXBX6jb56nabvmGKA0Wig.jpg">http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/original/mnpRKVSXBX6jb56nabvmGKA0Wig.jpg</thumb>

        <thumb dim="" colors="" preview="http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/w780/g05ZFUUrJM8KsmpsGj8NnF5IyHv.jpg">http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/original/g05ZFUUrJM8KsmpsGj8NnF5IyHv.jpg</thumb>

        <thumb dim="" colors="" preview="http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/w780/gCRduJf7RfE84vXp53ahAxuymm0.jpg">http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/original/gCRduJf7RfE84vXp53ahAxuymm0.jpg</thumb>

        <thumb dim="" colors="" preview="http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/w780/xvUABSNLKsnOrEXZfZtZk3gYeLM.jpg">http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/original/xvUABSNLKsnOrEXZfZtZk3gYeLM.jpg</thumb>

        <thumb dim="" colors="" preview="http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/w780/iti9sHasN7x71TKIvNFIwPfimpI.jpg">http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/original/iti9sHasN7x71TKIvNFIwPfimpI.jpg</thumb>

        <thumb dim="" colors="" preview="http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/w780/jrrwiLbxbWrRyRHJe0R6DZTITQj.jpg">http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/original/jrrwiLbxbWrRyRHJe0R6DZTITQj.jpg</thumb>

        <thumb dim="" colors="" preview="http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/w780/44lovmMWS17Ip3wtMBQeTLsbflE.jpg">http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/original/44lovmMWS17Ip3wtMBQeTLsbflE.jpg</thumb>

        <thumb dim="" colors="" preview="http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/w780/qY7898l0SSeSqyvdWYkOgXN4GYu.jpg">http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/original/qY7898l0SSeSqyvdWYkOgXN4GYu.jpg</thumb>

        <thumb dim="" colors="" preview="http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/w780/eK2JNUPCCTgwhBPaFdgmSPuEAIn.jpg">http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/original/eK2JNUPCCTgwhBPaFdgmSPuEAIn.jpg</thumb>

        <thumb dim="" colors="" preview="http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/w780/i7XIqVb1rfdaHOnVofoCwpBITlt.jpg">http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/original/i7XIqVb1rfdaHOnVofoCwpBITlt.jpg</thumb>

        <thumb dim="" colors="" preview="http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/w780/c1YAclkcsL6XTKybSxodHLRylXc.jpg">http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/original/c1YAclkcsL6XTKybSxodHLRylXc.jpg</thumb>

        <thumb dim="" colors="" preview="http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/w780/oYWek8uDEhNWCDeqeAHaPOTVzBA.jpg">http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/original/oYWek8uDEhNWCDeqeAHaPOTVzBA.jpg</thumb>

        <thumb dim="" colors="" preview="">http://slurm.trakt.us/images/fanart_movies/2459.1.jpg</thumb>

    </fanart>

    <mpaa>Rated PG</mpaa>

    <playcount>1</playcount>

    <lastplayed>2013-11-25</lastplayed>

    <id>tt0245429</id>

    <genre>Animation</genre>

    <genre>Adventure</genre>

    <genre>Family</genre>

    <genre>Fantasy</genre>

    <genre>Mystery</genre>

    <country>Japan</country>

    <set></set>

    <credits>Hayao Miyazaki</credits>

    <director>Hayao Miyazaki</director>

    <premiered>1601-01-01</premiered>

    <status></status>

    <code></code>

    <aired>1601-01-01</aired>

    <studio>Studio Ghibli</studio>

    <trailer>plugin://plugin.video.youtube/?action=play_video&amp;videoid=_jGXcSBcvQQ</trailer>

    <fileinfo>

        <streamdetails>

            <video>

                <codec>mpeg2video</codec>

                <aspect>1.777778</aspect>

                <width>720</width>

                <height>576</height>

                <durationinseconds>7472</durationinseconds>

            </video>

            <audio>

                <codec>dca</codec>

                <language>eng</language>

                <channels>6</channels>

            </audio>

            <subtitle>

                <language>fin</language>

            </subtitle>

        </streamdetails>

    </fileinfo>

    <actor>

        <name>Daveigh Chase</name>

        <role>Chihiro</role>

        <thumb>http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTcyMDAyMjA4NF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNjg1ODkzMg@@._V1_SX1024_SY1024_.jpg</thumb>

    </actor>

    <actor>

        <name>Suzanne Pleshette</name>

        <role>Yubaba</role>

        <thumb>http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTYxOTA5NTg3M15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwMzY0MDA0._V1_SX1024_SY1024_.jpg</thumb>

    </actor>

    <actor>

        <name>Susan Egan</name>

        <role>Lin</role>

        <thumb>http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTAzMjYzODI5ODJeQTJeQWpwZ15BbWU3MDI3MTM0Mzk@._V1_SX1024_SY1024_.jpg</thumb>

    </actor>

    <actor>

        <name>David Ogden Stiers</name>

        <role>Kamajii</role>

        <thumb>http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTMxNDQxOTQyOF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwMTIzNzM3._V1_SX1024_SY1024_.jpg</thumb>

    </actor>

    <actor>

        <name>Lauren Holly</name>

        <role>Chihiro&apos;s Mother</role>

        <thumb>http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTIzMDMwOTkzM15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNzE4OTc1MQ@@._V1_SX1024_SY1024_.jpg</thumb>

    </actor>

    <actor>

        <name>Michael Chiklis</name>

        <role>Chihiro&apos;s Father</role>

        <thumb>http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BODAwODY0NjYwNl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMDA3MjQ0Ng@@._V1_SX1024_SY1024_.jpg</thumb>

    </actor>

    <actor>

        <name>John Ratzenberger</name>

        <role>Assistant Manager</role>

        <thumb>http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTYwNjY3ODI4Nl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNDc3OTYyMQ@@._V1_SX1024_SY1024_.jpg</thumb>

    </actor>

    <actor>

        <name>Bob Bergen</name>

        <role>No-Face</role>

        <thumb>http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTM0MDU4NTI3NF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNjAxNDk5Nw@@._V1_SX1024_SY1024_.jpg</thumb>

    </actor>

    <actor>

        <name>Rodger Bumpass</name>

        <role>Additional Voices</role>

        <thumb>http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTk2MzAyODc1OF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTUxOTMwOA@@._V1_SX1024_SY1024_.jpg</thumb>

    </actor>

    <actor>

        <name>Paul Eiding</name>

        <role>Additional Voices</role>

        <thumb>http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTk5Mjk1NDIzMV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMTU3NzQwMw@@._V1_SX1024_SY1024_.jpg</thumb>

    </actor>

    <actor>

        <name>Jack Angel</name>

        <role>Additional Voices</role>

        <thumb></thumb>

    </actor>

    <actor>

        <name>Jennifer Darling</name>

        <role>Additional Voices</role>

        <thumb></thumb>

    </actor>

    <actor>

        <name>Tatsuya Gash├╗in</name>

        <role>Aogaeru, Assistant Manager</role>

        <thumb></thumb>

    </actor>

    <actor>

        <name>Koba Hayashi</name>

        <role>Kawa no Kami</role>

        <thumb></thumb>

    </actor>

    <actor>

        <name>Rumi Hiiragi</name>

        <role>Chihiro</role>

        <thumb></thumb>

    </actor>

    <resume>

        <position>0.000000</position>

        <total>0.000000</total>

    </resume>

    <dateadded>2013-10-04 19:31:06</dateadded>

</movie>

and that's done using themoviedb.org scraper. There are sound formats, studios, rates, plots, actors, thumbnails... pretty much everything I could possibly hope. So I think it would be righteously me to ask you to explain again why do you do them manually?
Some foreign movies or independent movies do need to be done manually since sometimes metadata doesn't exist at all. But all hollywood movies at least are totally scrapeable stuff. Don't get me wrong here. Everyone does what suits best. Your way isn't bad at all... but I find it very time consuming.

When it comes to fanart I first scrape all images but afterwards I delete those I don't like. And if all atomatically downloaded images are bad, I google some stuff and download images to the same folder with the movie. But that's something that comes along when xbmc is used.

It's nice to know how other users use xbmc. There's always something to learn. So thanks for sharing.

**scott967** · 2014-07-30, 20:59

I make tons of nfos. For movie/tv I use Media Companion which does the scraping for me (don't know abut non-English language though). But for music video I have lots of east-Asian media and scraping only gets about 5% hit rate, so I have an nfo script that I use with music tagging software. I have no problem with UTF-8 encoded nfos for these. But XBMC won't read UTF-16 encoded nfo so watch out for that. (My music tagger uses UTF-16 since that is specified in ID3 2.3 tag format so that creates an additional work-step.)

scott s.
.