2008-08-07, 23:51
XBMC Media Companion latest version is 1.481
Main Changes since last release:-
Support for TV Shows has finally been added.
TV Shows can be scraped from http://www.thetvdb.com.
Individual shows must be contained within one root folder and these root folders must be added one at a time i.e.
C:\tv\24\
would be added separate from
C:\tv\Lost\
C:\tv\ would not work
It doesn't matter how the shows are organised within this folder/subfolders as long as each root folder added only contains one show.
In order to make this work it was necessary to include a couple of extra xml tags within the tvshow.nfo file. These are :-
<id>tt0092455</id> - This contains the IMDB ID of the tv show, to allow more detailed cast information from individual episodes.
<tvdbid>71470</tvdbid> - This contains the TVDB Show ID, needed to scrape episodes.
You will only need to do the above once, on adding a new TV Show Folder. These tags do not affect XBMC compatibility.
When you add a TV Show folder the program will first check if tvshow.nfo exists within the root. If it does not then you will be given the option to scrape this from TVDB. This must be done before the folder will be added.
If tvshow.nfo exists and it contains valid xml data then you will be given the option to add the above tags (NOTE - The data contained within the XML will not be altered. The above tags will merely be inserted, or edited if it already contains empty <id></id> tags).
If the tags already exist then the folder will be added straight away. (If you need to re-add them at some time in the future)
Preferences available for TVDB are :-
Language
Episode sort order (DVD order, or Default (Usually aired order)
Banners and Fanart is downloaded from TVDB. Main Banner is saved as folder.jpg, fanart as tvshow-fanart.jpg, tvshow-fanart-1.jpg, etc
Series jpg URL's are included within the nfo files
Ability to get actor info from IMDB for tvshow.nfo and/or episode-title.nfo
In order that 100% accuracy is maintained then I recommend that you check the show episode order as listed on TVDB. The scraper uses Series No and Episode No and if the orders are different then the wrong information will be scraped for out of order episodes. (Sometimes this is as simple as selecting use DVD order as episodes may differ from aired order)
As above, if you are getting the actors from IMDB for the TV Show episodes then I would recommend that you check the order of your TV shows compared to IMDB. If the episode order is different then the wrong actors will be downloaded
Compatible naming would be any filename including S01E01 or s01e01 etc, or 1x1 or 1 x 1 (02x01 would be ok) etc where the first number would be the season and the second number, the episode.
Movie fanart can now be obtained automatically from http://moviebackdrops.com/
Enable in preferences, Available images saved as "moviename-fanart.jpg", "moviename-fanart2.jpg", "moviename-fanart.jpg", etc.
Naming convention added for multi-part movies now includes "pt1" , "pt.1" , "pt-1" , "pt_1" , "pt 1"
Bug Fix - IMDB trailer URL now include XML codes to be compatible with XBMC.
Please note - TV show support is in very early days, and while it seems to be working ok on my system there is still much to be done. I would appreciate it if people would approach this as they would any beta softwarem, namely with a bit of caution.
Editing TV show and episode nfo files has not been enabled yet, and I am still working on the layout so please be patient.
Main Changes since last release:-
Support for TV Shows has finally been added.
TV Shows can be scraped from http://www.thetvdb.com.
Individual shows must be contained within one root folder and these root folders must be added one at a time i.e.
C:\tv\24\
would be added separate from
C:\tv\Lost\
C:\tv\ would not work
It doesn't matter how the shows are organised within this folder/subfolders as long as each root folder added only contains one show.
In order to make this work it was necessary to include a couple of extra xml tags within the tvshow.nfo file. These are :-
<id>tt0092455</id> - This contains the IMDB ID of the tv show, to allow more detailed cast information from individual episodes.
<tvdbid>71470</tvdbid> - This contains the TVDB Show ID, needed to scrape episodes.
You will only need to do the above once, on adding a new TV Show Folder. These tags do not affect XBMC compatibility.
When you add a TV Show folder the program will first check if tvshow.nfo exists within the root. If it does not then you will be given the option to scrape this from TVDB. This must be done before the folder will be added.
If tvshow.nfo exists and it contains valid xml data then you will be given the option to add the above tags (NOTE - The data contained within the XML will not be altered. The above tags will merely be inserted, or edited if it already contains empty <id></id> tags).
If the tags already exist then the folder will be added straight away. (If you need to re-add them at some time in the future)
Preferences available for TVDB are :-
Language
Episode sort order (DVD order, or Default (Usually aired order)
Banners and Fanart is downloaded from TVDB. Main Banner is saved as folder.jpg, fanart as tvshow-fanart.jpg, tvshow-fanart-1.jpg, etc
Series jpg URL's are included within the nfo files
Ability to get actor info from IMDB for tvshow.nfo and/or episode-title.nfo
In order that 100% accuracy is maintained then I recommend that you check the show episode order as listed on TVDB. The scraper uses Series No and Episode No and if the orders are different then the wrong information will be scraped for out of order episodes. (Sometimes this is as simple as selecting use DVD order as episodes may differ from aired order)
As above, if you are getting the actors from IMDB for the TV Show episodes then I would recommend that you check the order of your TV shows compared to IMDB. If the episode order is different then the wrong actors will be downloaded
Compatible naming would be any filename including S01E01 or s01e01 etc, or 1x1 or 1 x 1 (02x01 would be ok) etc where the first number would be the season and the second number, the episode.
Movie fanart can now be obtained automatically from http://moviebackdrops.com/
Enable in preferences, Available images saved as "moviename-fanart.jpg", "moviename-fanart2.jpg", "moviename-fanart.jpg", etc.
Naming convention added for multi-part movies now includes "pt1" , "pt.1" , "pt-1" , "pt_1" , "pt 1"
Bug Fix - IMDB trailer URL now include XML codes to be compatible with XBMC.
Please note - TV show support is in very early days, and while it seems to be working ok on my system there is still much to be done. I would appreciate it if people would approach this as they would any beta softwarem, namely with a bit of caution.
Editing TV show and episode nfo files has not been enabled yet, and I am still working on the layout so please be patient.