[88keyz]

Is it possible for video content to scrape the movie or tv show info metadata without scraping any artwork or additional thumbnails?  I've been looking for a way to disable artwork but can't seem to find one.  For devices with limited storage that don't support expandable storage, like the Fire TV Sticks, this would be a nice option - assuming it doesn't already exist.

[Karellen]

Unfortunately there is no option to disable artwork scraping while using Kodi scrapers, or using nfo files that contain artwork links.

[88keyz]

Maybe that is a feature that could be implemented as part of the Matrix release.  It would be nice if there was a more storage friendly version of metadata collection.  I'm sure I'm not the only user that would make use of such a feature.

[Karellen]

I'll move this post down to Feature Requests for developers to note.

But I don't like your chances as Kodi is designed to do the exact opposite, find and force display artwork, so trying to do the opposite will be a fairly large job I would imagine.

Might be of interest to @DaveBlake and @rmrector who are currently working on better artwork facilities.

[DaveBlake]

For devices with limited memory a facility to turn off artwork makes sense, but I wonder how many users would turn if off by accident?

You don't ask about music, but using advancedsettings.xml to remove the <muiscthumbs> and <fanart>, and the scraping with Universal Album and Artist scrapers which allow for art to be optional, I think you can avoid music artwork being fetched.

Since I am working in this area at the moment I'll certainly look at including a simple option for it.

[88keyz]

I don't index music content with Kodi but its good to know that there is already an option to disable artwork for that type of content.

I understand the concern around users disabling artwork by accident and because of that this is probably better set in the advancedsettings.xml file.  Perhaps something like the following.

Code:

<advancedsettings>
    <videolibrary>
        <artwork>  <!-- Disable all Metadata Artwork by Content Type -->
            <movies>0</movies> <!-- 1 = Enabled (Default) or 0 = Disabled -->
            <musicvideos>0</musicvideos>
            <tvshows>1</tvshows>
        </artwork>
    </videolibrary>
</advancedsettings>

Or perhaps like this for more granular control.

Code:

<advancedsettings>
    <videolibrary>
        <artwork>
            <posters>  <!-- Disable Metadata Artwork by Content & Artwork Type -->
                <movies>0</movies> <!-- 1 = Enabled (Default) or 0 = Disabled -->
                <musicvideos>0</musicvideos>
                <tvshows>1</tvshows>
            </posters>
            <fanart>
                <movies>0</movies>
                <musicvideos>0</musicvideos>
                <tvshows>1</tvshows>
            </fanart>
            <thumbnails>
                <movies>0</movies>
                <musicvideos>0</musicvideos>
                <tvshows>1</tvshows>
            </thumbnails>
        </artwork>
    </videolibrary>
</advancedsettings>

[rmrector]

At some point I would like to see all ALL artwork in the whitelist, including the basics, just for this reason. For now I'm still wary of side-effects in the video library.

[DaveBlake]

@88keyz shame you are not using the music library.  I don't think increasingly complex entries in advancedsettings.xml is the best way to go, in fact v19 is moving to having UI settings (as simple and yet flexible as possible) for artwork control. I would see what users do with that before considering greater granularity.

I agree with @rmrector about future whitelist use, just not sure how to best cover that music thumbnails can come from local files with multiple names (unlike all other art types where type and file name match).

For users that reduce or even turn art off, hence scanning/scraping does not assign and cache images although the scraper results of possible art could still be stored, what is needed is an art refresh facility that can be used later to non-destructively apply new artwork settings.

[jjd-uk]

I agree with @rmrector about future whitelist use, just not sure how to best cover that music thumbnails can come from local files with multiple names (unlike all other art types where type and file name match).

Why worry about local art? that's something users can control by removing it.

[Karellen]

Why worry about local art? that's something users can control by removing it.

two reasons...

1. embedded art is a big job to be removed
2. A NAS may be sharing to multiple Kodi instances. Maybe the other setups want artwork, but the setup in the Kitchen does not need it.