[TheOneBalance]

Hi,

I've spent the last 2 days try to get a collection of movies, series and personal videos in place and I am almost there but I have to admit defeat near the final hurdle.

I've got a couple of folders of home videos with a around 50 files in each - what I am trying to find is if there is a nice simple way to say "just list the files in a folder", I'm quite happy creating a .nfo file with a folder / subject title or something similar like the tvshows but the episode guide thing seems a huge amount of manual hassle which requires intervention for every new file.I just want to point the system at a folder and in library mode just list the files that are in there, I've no problem adding S0xEx on as that's dead easy but inspite of what I'm reading on countless forum pages it seems that lots of people are tripped up on something that seems like a simple concept.

Any pointers may save what little sanity I have left.

Thanks

[scott967]

I think by definition to see a file in the library, it has to have an entry in the video database. To get that, it first has to be in a folder defined as movies, tv shows or music videos. It seems to me movies is the most obvious answer for home movies. To get a file into the database, you need at least a minimum amount of data on the file. I don't know what the minimum is, but suspect at least a "title". No doubt there are a number of ways to get XBMC to recognize a "title", I recommend using a filename.nfo file for it. I use a Windows program, Media Companion, to do this automatically (see info in the supplementary tools forum). If you have filename.nfo, filename-poster.jpg, and filename-fanart.jpg files in your folder (set to movies as content) you should be good to go.

scott s.
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[pagali]

I don't seem to have any trouble adding folders of home videos to my XBMC installation, and viewing them exactly as the OP describes, just as a list of files in a folder. No NFO files, no special directory structure.

From Video > Files select Add Source. Browse to your folder, make sure the video type is left on 'None'. Name the folder as you wish. Be sure "Exclude selected folder from scans' is checked. OK your way out of the dialog, you're done. Now open that folder from Video > Files and you have your list of files. How they're displayed depends only on how you have them named.

Depending on the skin you use, you can add such folders to your menu or submenus by first adding them to Favorites, then using that link in your menu setup.

Works fine for me. I have several folders of this type for various purposes.

[scott967]

File mode works, though OP specifically mentioned "library mode". A drawback of file mode is you are dependent on the filename being enough to figure out what the video is (assuming file not in the library).

scott s.
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[pagali]

I'm not sure the OP really understands the difference between Library Mode and File Mode, being quite new. That's why I described that File Mode serves quite well and provides the functions he seems to want. He did say he wants "a nice simple way to say 'just list the files in a folder' " What difference does it make what the mode is called if it does what he wants?

As I said, the way the file is displayed can be changed by manually changing the file name.

[Linusorg]

i would rather go for NFO files created for every home-movie, afterwards select the folder as videosource and select as scrapper local NFO only.
you should see the all files were you created a nfo and tools like mediaelch or others can help you setting posters etc for these files.
BR