KODI only movies from USB
#1
I have tried a number of solutions for giving my parents some movies at their home. Basically I want a solution where I can put a bunch of movies on a flash drive, maybe even cover art if possible, and plug it into whatever, and they can then use a remote to watch the movies. NO INTERNET ACCESS. Then when they watch them all, I would prepare another USB Stick, bring it there, swap out one for the other, and they could then instantly watch those. Want it simple for them. Is there a way in KODI:

1. To lock the interface to only do movies and nothing else
2. To read a USB Stick with the movies dynamically when fired up.
3. To use cover art that is stuck in the folder with the movie?
4. Here's the fun one, play WMV VC-1 files that are 5 - 8GB in size. Assumption here is a Windows system so don't think it's an issue but to date all Linux/Android solutions fail with larger file sizes with WMV.

Thanks.

JR
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#2
Quote:1. To lock the interface to only do movies and nothing else
Yes, there are skins that allow you to add and remove the menu items. There is also a "kiosk" mode which allows you to lock down the interface

Quote:2. To read a USB Stick with the movies dynamically when fired up.
Yes, you can Enable the setting "Update library on startup". Although there may be issues if you use a different USB stick each time. Kodi will see it as a new source, and will need to be setup. Best option is to use the same one or two sticks each time.

Quote:3. To use cover art that is stuck in the folder with the movie?
Yes, as long as it is correctly named and saved. See http://kodi.wiki/view/Artwork

Quote:4. Here's the fun one, play WMV VC-1 files that are 5 - 8GB in size.
I don't know. Maybe you could tell me after you test it.

Hope that helps.
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#3
I'm not going to get into arguments of 'file', source; be understanding that the originals must be at hand, and there is a presumption of home videos here.

Kodi once set-up, will play without an internet connection. Cover art and meta-data can be scraped locally from material supplied in the movie folder. Ensure the set-up can see a USB source (format type might be important) and name all USB sources the same with the identical path (keep subfolders for Movies and TV separate). Set scrapers for local information, and Kodi (settings) to scan for new videos. Each time a new USB has been added, do a library clean-up to eliminate dead links.

1) Eliminate all buttons except for movie button. (a skin with kiosk mode would be best)
2) Scrape on load, <cleanonupdate>True</cleanonupdate> advancedsettings.xml (wiki)
3) Cover art will be used if properly named on scrape Artwork (wiki)
4) Sounds more of a hardware question, what answer are you looking for?

PS: large fast USB3 would be best.
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#4
Thanks folks. This was great information. I've been having a hard time finding a setup that will work for my parents setup. Looks like Kodi may do it. Thinking to maximize the WMV compatibility using some Windows based device would be best. Something smaller probably as I don't need a full PC for the way I'm doing this. Plus support for a remote obviously. Hopefully there are good recommendations I can find thru the forum. Feel free to suggest something here as well as I search. Would go more but $200 or less for the box would probably be nice.

Thanks.

JR
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#5
Best place to start is here... https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=252916

It is updated regularly as new or improved models are released.
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#6
thanks. im looking. saw that page, but all i got for windows from it is get something intel.

jr
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#7
On this forum, we have to exhibit some impartiality from our favourites. But basically any of the top three would be more than suitable, your fear of large WMV VC-1 files that are 5 - 8GB in size is unfounded with most of these devices.
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#8
thanks. i was thinking about the Vorke V1. seems decent if i can get my universal remote to manage it. says it has infrared support but barely mentioned.

jr
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#9
OK, so I ended up with a NUC i3 and Windows 10, but won't talk about the hardware. Smile

Here's my deal. I have under:

C:\Users\kodi\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\userdata

a advancedsettings.xml file containing:

<advancedsettings>
<cleanonupdate>True</cleanonupdate>
</advancedsettings>

Not sure if it is doing anything. Using Aeon MQ 7. Under Settings > Media Settings, both Video and Music libraries are set to update on startup..

So I tried manually creating a video source to d:\movies and labeled it movies-usb. When I put the USB stick in nothing happened. Even if I exited and opened Kodi.


If I go to the Library > Videos, my USB stick is now showing that it's mounted and it sees it as "Lexar". Guess name of drive. So I click into Lexar and shows two folders:

Movies
Music

I right click on Movies
Click Change Content
Set this directory contains to Movies
Set On to Movies are in separate folders that match the movie titles.
Set On to scan recursively.

Also have provider info local only as this will not have network access once I set it up.

Nothing happens or ever shows the movies under the Movies area. if I drill into the flash drive in Kodi under Change Content, it shows images and background and stuff when I'm in those items folders, but obviously not how it's supposed to work. Any thoughts?

I can provide pics if anything would help.

Should be noted that since adding in the Aeon theme haven't seen the manual option anymore under Video to add a local or remote share or anything.

Thanks.

JR
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#10
Once you right click and set the content etc it should give you the option to scan stuff to the library when you ok out of that screen.

If not try right clicking again and see if the scan to library option is there.

Local (USB) sources are a little different to network ones in that you don't need to add then add sources (basically mount them) as that's done on insertion. Setting the content should trigger a scan of you accept one.
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#11
I've manually triggered a scan, nothing.

If I select Scan to Library it says no video files were found.
Note these are WMV files so not sure if it doesn't find those by default?

As for network sources, can't figure out how to do those anymore since enabling Aeon but that's a different topic for a different day.

Thanks.

JR
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#12
Kodi should support wmv - Features and supported formats (wiki). You can confirm by paying them via file mode.

How are your movies name and what is the file structure?
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#13
You had mentioned a couple years ago "In the files view, set the content type via the context menu for the folders on the drive and then you'll get the offer to update the library with the drives content. USB drives don't show up under add videos, but the above way works. " Not sure I understand the context, however here is my file structure:

Lexar USB Stick
- Movies
- Movie 1 (2016)
- extrafanart <- Folder from emby
- extrathumbs <- Folder from emby
- disc.png
- fanart.jpg
- logo.png
- poster.jpg
- Movie 1 (2016).wmv
- Movie 1_Subtitles_8_english.srt
- Movie 1_Subtitles_10_english.srt

Then I have Movie 2 and move 3, etc in the same format under movies. In the file explirer it only shows the extrathumbs folders and the wmv file. Not all the images or the subtitles.

EDIT: As a side note, if I go all the way into the video folder and right click on the wmv file and chose to add it to the library directly, a dialog pops up asking what I want to name it, preset with the name of the wmv file. Clicking done, it keeps popping up the same screen over and over again.

Thanks.

JR
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#14
Lexar USB Stick
- Movies
- Movie 1 (2016)
- extrafanart <- Folder from emby
- extrathumbs <- Folder from emby
- disc.png
- Movie 1 (2016)-fanart.jpg
- logo.png
- Movie 1 (2016)-poster.jpg
- Movie 1 (2016).wmv
- Movie 1 (2016).nfo
- Movie 1_Subtitles_8_english.srt
- Movie 1_Subtitles_10_english.srt

No .nfo file Indicates no scrape, which means it's not in the library, or you haven't exported your library to separate files yet; consequently plugging into a new hardware will never see meta-data that isn't there.
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#15
Wait, all is coming clear. So in Kodi I can manually navigate to the movie folders and it pulls up image art for backgrounds and box art, however because there is no NFO file in each folder it just says NOPE!!!!!! I'm not gonna show this movie!!!!!? Being dramatic but I'm seeing in the logs similar things now that I enabled debugging.

Code:
19:27:07.344 T:6372   DEBUG: VideoInfoScanner: Scanning dir 'D:\Movies\' as not in the database
19:27:07.346 T:6372   DEBUG: CVideoDatabase::GetMovieId (D:\Movies\STB (2016).wmv), query = select idMovie from movie where idFile=3
19:27:07.346 T:6372   DEBUG: VideoInfoScanner: No NFO file found. Using title search for 'D:\Movies\STB (2016).wmv'
19:27:07.347 T:6372   DEBUG: ADDON::CScraper::FindMovie: Searching for 'STB' using Local information only scraper (path: 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Kodi\addons\metadata.local', content: 'movies', version: '1.0.0')
19:27:07.347 T:6372   DEBUG: Previous line repeats 1 times.
19:27:07.347 T:6372 WARNING: No information found for item 'D:\Movies\STB (2016).wmv', it won't be added to the library.

Sooooooo, what do I have to do? Is there a layout for this nfo file I need to now create for each individual movie? Or can I do something with this metadata.local file? Also any way to pull this info dynamically? Obviously since I use Emby because it supports Xbox 360 playing with my media center, which Kodi doesn't, I have the metadata pulled into the system there, just probably a different format. Since I have the system set not to query a third party database because this box will not be online when I finally set it up for real, is there a way to have a local virtual of Kodi or something that could pull the nfo data for each file and then just use that?

Thanks.

JR[/code]
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