[PeteCress]

Got a NAS box with a Share called "B".

Within Share B, we have directories:

• DVDs_Library
  
• DVDs_NetFlix
  
• DVDs_NoBackup
  
• DVDs_Owned
  
• Streamed_Amazon
  
• Streamed_HBO
  
• Streamed_NetFlix
  
• Torrented.
  

Within each of those directories are a bunch of subdirs: one for each movie.

e.g. https://photos.app.goo.gl/icwJh2bjVH4tfjNv5

The user does not know or care which parent directory a movie lives in; they just want to see a single list of all movies.

Is there any way to have Kodi present all the subdirectories (from each of the "DVDs_..." et. al.) as if they were under a single parent?

SageTV does this by combining all of the subdirs in each of what it calls "Media Center Import Directories" into what looks like a single drive.

Is there any hope for Kodi here?

[trogggy]

You can add as many paths as you like when defining a video source.  Just go into videos, choose a source, bring up the context menu and choose 'add' to see how.
Or scan multiple sources to the library and they'll all show up in one big list with lots of information and pretty pictures.
So yes.

[PeteCress]

You can add as many paths as you like when defining a video source.  Just go into videos, choose a source, bring up the context menu and choose 'add' to see how.
Or scan multiple sources to the library and they'll all show up in one big list with lots of information and pretty pictures.
So yes.

Did that, but then realized that I did not describe the situation accurately.

After adding all my shares to Video Source and clicking "Update", Kodi dutifully scanned through all the subdirs, extracted the name of each movie in same, and presented all those movies as advertised.

But what I left out of my problem description is that I do not copy "DVDs" to my subdirs (in spite of the misleading subdir names).

Instead, I rip the contents of each DVD to a .MPG file: one file for each video on the DVD.
e.g.

• Main Movie
  
• Deleted Scenes
  
• Director's commentary
  

A given movie's subdir might contain a half-dozen different .MPG files.

So what I am looking for is a directory (as opposed to movie title) presentation that combines all the subdirectories in a given multi-share video source.

In SageTV, there is a "Folder" option for presenting content (note the subdir names have plus signs appended to them - that's just my own personal rating system: five=five stars, one=one star).

The top-level presentation looks like this:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/34BWpWU6GEqf6o9N6

Then, when you drill down into one of the subdir titles, Sage throws up something like this:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/TAhgEYfExMybS2Za6 where clicking a given list item plays that video.

Kodi's Videos | Files presentation gives that on a share-by-share basis, but what I was hoping for was some way to combine all shares' subdir names into a single list like Sage does.

Push-comes-to-shove, I guess I will have to define a single "Movies" share on my NAS box and move the contents of each of the existing shares into it - but, on the file maintainence/backup/restore side, there's a convenience factor in knowing where movies came from and that's why I do the different shares.

[PeteCress]

I think I have it 75% beat.

I was mis-using the UI by creating eight different Sources instead of a single Source with eight components.

Doesn't help any with the "Movies" presentation, but when I went to System | File Manager and created a single Source called "NAS_B" and then included all 8 shares in it I got what I wanted: A combined/merged presentation of all the subdirs in the eight shares with the ability to select a subdir and then drill into it to see/play any one of the .MPGs there.

I am guessing there is no hope for the "Movies" presentation, but I don't really care about all the shickle-shackle like DVD covers, and so-forth: I'm happy with just a list of my directory names and the ability to open a given directory.

I think I see what would have to be added:

In the Confluence skin, Movies currently offers:

• Recently Added
  
• Sets
  
• Title
  
• Genres
  
• Years
  
• Actors
  

What would be needed would be the addition of "Folders"

Ditto the Aeon skin:

• Genres
  
• Title
  
• Year
  
• Actors
  
• Directors
  
• Studios
  
• Sets
  
• Countries
  
• Tags
  

Just needs the addition of "Folders"...

After seeing the extra ways that Movies can be sliced and diced in Aeon, I have to wonder if maybe somebody has already written a skin that offers up    Movies | Folders...

[DarrenHill]

Those are the default built-in video nodes (wiki).

You could maybe look at using the library node editor addon (in the program addons section of the official repo) to tweak them and add your folder one?