[guill69f]

Hi,

First post on this forum. I'll start to stay that I have been a kodi user for about 3 years, and came across EMM these past days and since then it has much increased my user experience. This software is fantastic.
Some questions below though, but first a few words on my set-up: i have an HTPC with 3 drives containing different media types, the machine runs the latest LibreElec version. On the other side I have a Win10 machine on which EMM is installed.
Movies and TV shows paths in EMM are pointing to the corresponding folders on the HTPC, and everything has been freshly scraped.

Question #1 on collections: the collections are using the poster of one of the movies in the collection.
I understood that EMM can also handle movie sets with dedicated artwork, so i followed the instructions of the post nailed at the top of the forum, read a few other posts on the topic and went ahead. While EMM scraped movie sets and retrieved movie collections artwork, it didn't work so well on the HTPC side: all movie posters disappeared and the movie sets artwork freshly scraped aren't showing up (i can find the files though on the newly created "MovieSetArtowrks"): what did i miss?

Question #2: i assume that EMM allows movie themes download because they can be played while browsing through the media in the library. What add-on or skin should i use for that? I have been using Estuary up until today (just installed Estuary Mod for Kodi 17), and google told me there is a TvTune add-on that should enable theme playing, but i don't find it, is there anything else I should use instead?

Question #3: overall, my use of EMM is as follow: i update my library when i have new media on the HTPC, do the scraping with EMM (HTPC is configured to read "local information"), and once artwork files are on the HTPC, that's it. I have locked MPAA ratings after i aligned them on the US standards, in order to create then video playlist for children, so that they aren't changed if for any reason I scrape the whole library again. So under the present config, there is no auto sync between EMM and the HTPC; am i missing the point with EMM then?

Thanks for your help; and let me know if i need to clarify anything here!

[DanCooper]

#1: You need the Kodi addon "Movieset Artwork Automator" or the Ember module "Kodi Interface" to load the movieset images. Kodi is not able to read them. I whould prefer to use Embers KI, that can also be used to sync all other images and data, also unsupported images like banner, characterart, clearart, clearlogo, discart and landscape.
First you have to enable the webserver in Kodi and than the Kodi Interface in Ember. You have to setup the movieset artwork path in the Kodi Interface host settings in that way, that your client can access it. That means if you save the images on the same PC you run LibreELEC you can use local path. I'm not shure how they look under LibreELEC, but you can show how the movie and tv show sources are looks like. Add a new host, set all network and login data and use the "Populate Sources" button to read the sources from Kodi. Than map all Ember soures to the correct Kodi sources and use the right path-format for the artwork folder (red). For me its "smb://SERVER/SHARE", but for a local folder it will be different.
After that you select all entries in your movieset list and use the context menu to sync the image paths. If you enable "RealTime Sync" for that host than Ember will always sync if you change something on your movies, sets and tv shows.




#2 The addon creator had some beef with the Kodi administrators and removed all his addons. As far as I know there is no other addon available.

#3 autosync see #1

[guill69f]

Thanks for the answer, i'll be looking at your suggestions and posting back here to tell how it went, might not be before some days. Cheers

[guill69f]

After all, coming back here earlier than planned.
So, continuing on question #1, i've done my checks:

• webserver in kodi is enabled (with default login but changed password)
  
• kodi interface is what i use for Movies and MovieSets (i mean by that that in the settings, under the "Files and Sources" sections for Movies and MovieSets, the box "Enabled" (and all those below: banner, clearart etc.) under Kodi Interface is ticked). In the kodi add-ons tabs, artwork downloader is not ticked
  
• Modules - Kodi Interface: these are my settings:
  

Comparing to yours, i suspect that the Kodi source fields should be populated, with the same paths as the ones on the Ember Source column. Or? I will not try today, i am backing up my media and don't dare to do anything until the process is completed, but I'll be happy to read your opinion anyway :-)
I think i missed a point with Ember Media Manager, what is the purpose of having different path sections (EMM and Kodi source)? In your example, does it mean you have media files on shares on your SERVER64, from which EMM is doing its work, and saving all artwork on drives X, Y, W and Z on another machine?
I believe I don't have any references under the kodi sources because the path under Kodi MovieSetArtworks is not set properly? Is it where you said I should / could use a localpath? I am a bit stuck here on what to fill in...

Thanks!

[DanCooper]

kodi interface is what i use for Movies and MovieSets (i mean by that that in the settings, under the "Files and Sources" sections for Movies and MovieSets, the box "Enabled" (and all those below: banner, clearart etc.) under Kodi Interface is ticked). In the kodi add-ons tabs, artwork downloader is not ticked

This has nothing to do with the Kodi Interface itself or syncing process. "Kodi Interface" in "file naming" means, that this file naming schema can only be load to Kodi with the Kodi Interface module. AD (Artwork Downloader) use other file names and can only read/find files that has been named for this addon. Please compare the different file names on this list, I think you should see the differences: Link
As you can see, Kodi can only read/find a part of all image types, but will export all image types if they are cached. The file names that will be used for an export is that what we call "Kodi default file naming"... and they are different from the file names that the AD uses. That's also the reason why we call it "Kodi Interface" defaults... they can only be added to the Kodi database with the Kodi Interface.
 

Comparing to yours, i suspect that the Kodi source fields should be populated, with the same paths as the ones on the Ember Source column. Or?

In the KI host settings you have to "map" the Ember sources to the sources you use in Kodi. The reason is that we need to know, what path is correct for the Kodi database. As example:
If you've mapped a share from your server (\\SERVER64\movies) in Windows as network drive Y:\ than e.g. the full path will be "Y:\Avatar\Avatar-poster.jpg". Kodi can't use this path, so we have to change it. That's a simple "replace" process. If you've added the same share in Kodi as "smb://SERVER64/movies" (or in your case a local path on your media PC) we have to replace "Y:\Avatar\Avatar-poster.jpg" with "smb://SERVER64/movies/Avatar/Avatar-poster.jpg", so that Kodi can access the image.

The same you have to do for the movieset artwork path. Maybe I can tell you what you've to use as "Kodi Movieset Artwork folder" if you can share a screenshot with your mapped sources.

[guill69f]

Hi,

I think I got it to work.
Actually i realized I had not mapped my LibreElec media folders into Windows; i was accessing them through a IP network adress. This is now corrected and Kodi Interface looks as follow (example given for one source only)

Ember Source 1: X:\Movies1
Kodi Source 1: /media/Media_01/Movies1

Ember Source 2: X:\Movies2
Kodi Source 2: /media/Media_01/Movies2

Sync is working fine for movies, movie sets and tv shows.
Now the big question: do i need to do anything on my HTPC? like rescan the complete library? or remove my sources and add them again for a full scan?

thanks

[DanCooper]

Not really. You one have to sync all one time after adding the host (select all entries in lists and use the contextmenu to "sync" resp. "sync all" for tv shows). If "RealTime Sync" is enabled all new scraped or edited media will be synced automatically. New episodes for already scraped tv shows will be scraped and synced automatically while Embers database update.

[guill69f]

Ok, so i am banging my head on the walls :-)
Sagas in Kodi are still using as poster one of the movie poster the saga includes.

Let's review my settings in case you can figure out what's wrong:


Then in Kodi, i even deleted my video database to generate everything again from scratch, but the results is no different than earlier: images in the MovieSetArtworks are not being used. Do you think that the adress under the KodiMovieSet Artwork Folder should be changed?
Now it says \\192.168.1.204\Media_02\MovieSetArtworks.
Should i try with /media/Media_02/MovieSetArtworks to have a match with the Kodi Source format? That would be having a local address here to? I can't do the check now, i don't have the computer at hand at the moment.

thanks

[T-bird_se]

Now it says \\192.168.1.204\Media_02\MovieSetArtworks.
 

First, can't see your images, permission error

Assuming you use SMB from Kodi it shall be smb://192.168.1.204/Media_02/MovieSetArtworks (look at Dans screen shot)

[DanCooper]

Let's review my settings in case you can figure out what's wrong:

can't access your image

Should i try with /media/Media_02/MovieSetArtworks to have a match with the Kodi Source format? That would be having a local address here to?

You have to use a path that's correct for Kodi. So if you've saved the movieset images on a LOCAL folder on your Kodi, than use /media/Media_02/MovieSetArtworks in the Kodi Interface Host settings.

[guill69f]

Hi both,

Sorry for the issue with the screenshot, apparently I am not so good at mastering dropbox either ;-)

It looks things are working great now, sitting in front of the HTPC and keeping an eye on EMM doing the sync, collection covers are being progressively updated. FYI I am using this path now: smb://192.168.1.204/Media_02/MovieSetArtworks
Out of curiosity I will be testing also the LOCAL folder option some day, but as things look great now, i'll enjoy what i have at the moment. Thanks again.