Video Library structure
#1
Background - Because of the craptastic internet available I cant really do much in the way of streaming so I save all of my files to my Windows 7 HTPC for playback. Currently have over 2400 movies saved and the best way to view my library is through Video->Files instead of using the Movies node. My movies folder structure is Movies\Letter\movie so: Movies\B\Batman.mkv. From what I understand the movies node management basically expects all movies to be in one giant folder but due to Windows explorer slowdowns on trying to populate a folder with that much info I had to create the Alphabet sub folder structure; which solved some speed issues I had in XMBC/Kodi. I have looked into the extra node management addons as well as the external file management software(Ember, MediaElch, Filebot, etc) but none seem to be able to change how Kodi defines the library.

Question/Request - Can the Movies node be modifiable in such a away to to read files with the added Alphabetical folder added while including all of the nice extra content you can get from the media scrapers? If I go through the Videos node to read the full folder structure I can play the movies just fine, but dont get the extra scraper info or tagging.

Referencing http://kodi.wiki/view/Naming_video_files/Movies for movie folder structure and naming convention.
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#2
I think there is a little misunderstanding in how the library structure is used. Once all your movies are scraped, they will show as a flat file in the 'Movies' node, they don't have to be in a flat file, and can be spread over many drives.

Sources can be A,B,C, or Action, War, Westerns etc... even 1,2,3 if you like. you can also stack multiple folders into one source, the heir-achy tree can almost be endless (I think I've got 40 sources in my set-up). The best way to handle large amounts of files, is to use, smart playlists, custom nodes, tags and some of the other tools available in filters, search, recently added, dat etc. Not many of us want to pour over 2500 movies just to watch some entertainment, in other words the candy bar is just too big, that's why there is all the rating, genre, dates etc... even a front page random choices in some cases, but it's all tied to a fully scanned library structure.

Of course you can use 'file mode' to access any of the sources and for the most part, as long as the file has been scraped, most of the attributes will show up. But it's more deliberate, less fun and precludes a few key features.

Smart playlists can have rules that specifically use the 'path' contains e.g. D:/Movies/A/

smart playlists (wiki)
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#3
Thanks for your quick reply. My collection started as the dvd backup and kept growing. For me and my family finding what we want to watch via knowing the name of the movie and going to said folder is quicker than waiting for all the movies to load, even if cached, and then scroll through. I dont have an issue with putting time to setup my library and what not but being that I am at such a library volume size the tagging of the files and then putting into different categories and created nested playlists seems a bit cumbersome.

The Flat view from how I understand it is basically the one folder (Movies) which then you can scroll through the listing for said movie.

When looking for a movie I dont really think hey I want to watch Batman so I need to go the Actions category and then scroll down to the B's; neither would my kid where if he wanted to watch Wreck it Ralph, would go find the Anime category, he thinks W. The smart playlist, if using your specific example, still seems like one extra step that has to be taken to find the movie.

I try and stay away from coding as I dont have the patience for it, but work requires Dos/Powershell and some scripting. It seems that expanding the folder read for videos could be allowed to for an additional folder/s function shouldn't be to hard...maybe allowing a duplicate of the Files display. I wouldn't doubt that the code to read Movies and whatever special settings you have made is different then the code used to read File Explorer so "easy" could be a pain in the rear.
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#4
You could add each of your 26 alphabet folders to 'Movies', then you could scrape them. Windows still sees them as 26 directories (fixing your speed problem) but Kodi sees them as one big pile of movies and works as it should.

Or get an OS that doesn't have the problems inherent in windows!
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#5
Thread moved to OS independent - discussions isn't for support requests
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#6
I don't 'get' the problem here.
Say your file structure is:
DriveA > Movies > A,B,C, D etc (ie lots of sub-folders)
DriveB > Movies> > P,Q,R,etc

In kodi you'd normallyset 2 folders as 'movies' content:
ie DriveA\Movies and DriveB\Movies.
You could set all the individual letters folders but I can't see any advantage.

After scanning you just see a flat list containing all of them when you press the Movies button.
Easiest way to jump to a letter is to use SMS jumping with numbers (not sure whether that requires a keymap change, if it does it's trivial). So press '2' for the 'A's. Press '22' for B. '3' for D etc.

Have I missed something?
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#7
You can also create a custom node structure

Movies (parent custom node)
-> A (custom node)
->-> all movies starting with A
-> B (custom node)
->-> all movies starting with B
...
-> Z (custom node)
->->all movies starting with Z
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#8
(2016-12-09, 16:36)jjd-uk Wrote: You can also create a custom node structure

Movies (parent custom node)
-> A (custom node)
->-> all movies starting with A
-> B (custom node)
->-> all movies starting with B
...
-> Z (custom node)
->->all movies starting with Z
I really need to get my head around nodes at some point...
but if you did that you'd jump to eg 'all movies starting with B' and be able to browse them, but when you get to the top / bottom of the list you have to load a new node?
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#9
Each approach has it's pro's and con's.

You can have a big long list of everything then rely on the SMS style entry to jump to B then to M or whatever, that has the advantage of being easily able to jump around when causally browsing, however some really don't like having huge scrollable listings.

Or if you have more structured viewing habits where you might find it better to have the flat listings broken up in chunks. So using the above structure you enter Movies then be presented with individual nodes for each letter of the alphabet, so you could enter the B node and get all Movies beginning with B, however you want to see Movies beginning with M then you need to back out to the A to Z node listing then enter the M node.
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#10
Or you can have both.
Kodi - giving you the moon on a stick.
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#11
Yep you can keep the extisting nodes then add the the custom nodes as an additional browsing methods, in case you're still not following this is what you get using an example for music from zag http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid1965696
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#12
I'll have a mess with those when I've finished the current 'mess with' list. Looks good.
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#13
Some more detail at http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid2222418

It would be pretty easy to adapt for Movies to create similar A to Z nodes for Movie titles.
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#14
Thanks for everyone's help and input. I got a basic working custom Parent Node with sub nodes created and loading the files correctly. Now I am just looking at tweaking the skin settings to add it to the home screen. Using 17 Beta 6 with Xonfluence skin. Any input to condense this or what can be done for it to be easier would be appreciated. I can upload a zip of the folder that contains the xml files if anyone wants.

In Roaming\Kodi\userdata\library\video_flat\movies-z\ have 27 xml files. Created the "Parent Node" of Movies #-Z (movies-z, but shows in Kodi as Movies #-Z) with the add-on "Library Node Editor" and then the 27 nodes for #, A-Z. Index, 0-9, and A to Z in their own xml files. (Able to condense these into one by chance?) Each of the indiv node points to their own folder.

Code:
Index.xml
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<node order="1" type="filter" visible="Library.HasContent(Movies)">
    <label>Movies #-Z</label>
    <icon>DefaultMovies.png</icon>
</node>

Code:
0-9.xml
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<node order="1" type="filter" visible="Library.HasContent(Movies)">
    <label>0-9</label>
    <content>movies</content>
    <order direction="ascending">sorttitle</order>
    <rule field="path" operator="contains">
        <value>D:\Movies\#\</value>
    </rule>
</node>

Code:
A.xml
?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<node order="1" type="filter" visible="Library.HasContent(Movies)">
    <label>A</label>
    <content>movies</content>
    <order direction="ascending">sorttitle</order>
    <rule field="path" operator="contains">
        <value>D:\Movies\A\</value>
    </rule>
</node>
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#15
I don't know the Xonfluence skin, does it have a way to add favourites to the Home window? if so in the list of parent nodes view highlight the new custom parent node open Context menu and create a favourite which you can then add to Home via the skin settings.
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Video Library structure0