[WestFlame]

Hi, I would like to use Kodi (LibreELEC specifically) on Raspberry PI to access my collection of movies and TV shows in NAS (through Samba, but I believe that is not important for my problem). Since Kodi will not be the only one working with the files, I'm not able to change the whole folder stucture to adhere Kodi naming conventions (https://kodi.wiki/view/Naming_video_files). Since I had problems with Kodi properly recognizing all the shows and movies, I went ahead and with the help of tinyMediaManager created NFO files for media files in hope that they will be succesfully recognized.

I thought, that giving it properly formatted NFO files would be enough to find and catalogize the files in the library, but that seems to not be the case.

Having this file structure as an example:

Code:

- TV Series/
    - StarGate/
        - Stargate SG-1 (1997)/
            - SG-1 01x01.mkv
            - SG-1 01x02.nfo
            - ...
            - tvshow.nfo
        - Stargate - Atlantis (2004)/
            - SG Atlantis 01x01.mkv
            - SG Atlantis 01x02.nfo
            - ...
            - tvshow.nfo
        - Stargate (1994)/
            - Stargate.mkv
            - Stargate.nfo
        - StarGate- The Ark of Truth (2008)/
            - StarGate- The Ark of Truth.mkv
            - StarGate- The Ark of Truth.nfo


Is there a way how to convince Kodi to add all shows and movies? I believe that (from ambiguity point of view) it should be fairly easy to correctly find all files since every video file has attached NFO file with the same name. And in case of TV Shows, tvshow.nfo file is also present in the same folder (or in the one above when seasons are in their own folders). All the required informations are in the NFO files. I don't even need to scrape any additional information from the internet databases, since they are already in the NFO files created by tMM.

Currently it seems to me that the discovery of media files is unnecessarily coupled with the folder structure. This make sense only in the case when there is no additional information. But when NFO files are present, why still restrict dicovery only to files that adhere some arbitrary file structure when it is not needed? Just look for the accompanying NFO file and do not care about where the media file itself is located or how it is named. Or there are some problems I do not see?

Could this possibly be solved by some add-on? I've tried to find those that would allow it, but with no luck. In the end I also searched through Add-on development section but it looks to me that Library discovery is not customizable in any add-on type...

Thanks for your time and thoughts .

[Karellen]

You cannot mix movies and tv shows into the same class. You need to convert your movie into an episode of a tv show.
See... https://kodi.wiki/view/Convert_movie_to_episode

I have used this on my own library for Stargate (among others)... https://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Movie_universe

Currently it seems to me that the discovery of media files is unnecessarily coupled with the folder structure.

I don't agree with your "unnecessary" statement, but yes that is exactly how it works. Episodes are not a class of media on their own, so they cannot be scraped individually and randomly. Episodes must be part of a tv show, so yes the folder structure containing tv shows is necessary. It is the way the API from the providers work.

Also, the filename must, must, must contain the SxxEyy information for episodes. That cannot be set from nfo files.

[WestFlame]

Thanks for the answer and the explanation. I don't mind that I will see the movies and TV Shows separatedly, each under it's section. But unfortunately as I said above, I'm unable to rename every file or move it as Kodi would like.

Given the NFO files with the required information (if it is either <movie> or <tvshow>, it's title, imdbid and everything else) I thought, that this should be enough for video files to be correctly listed.
 

Also, the filename must, must, must contain the SxxEyy information for episodes. That cannot be set from nfo files.

Why there needs to be some forced naming scheme as SxxEyy when this exact information (and much more) is already in the NFO file (<season>1</season>, <episode>1</episode>, ...)? Why it is stored there then?

Otherwise the Kodi seems to be perfect fit for my needs so it boggles my mind that I have to browse and watch everything through plain video browser...

One other note, is there a possibility of implementing my own discovery through add-on? I imagine something like adding new type of discovery to the source (as there are already Movies, Music videos, None, TV Shows), let's say "NFO based". It could accept path to browse and type of content I would like to find (Movies, TV Shows, ...) and return what was found in NFO files...

[Karellen]

(<season>1</season>, <episode>1</episode>, ...)? Why it is stored there then?

Because it is basically a database dump. Export everything in the database into a nfo file.
If we use your logic that season and episode is only read from the nfo file, then what happens when there is no nfo file, like most users?

Anyway there is no use debating any of this... this is the way it is. If you can't fix your folder layout and file names, then I don't think Kodi is what you are looking for.

One other note, is there a possibility of implementing my own discovery through add-on?

Not sure I understand, but... no. An add-on does not scan, Kodi core does the scanning. An add-on won't change that.

[WestFlame]

Anyway there is no use debating any of this... this is the way it is. If you can't fix your folder layout and file names, then I don't think Kodi is what you are looking for.

Ok, that's a pity (at least for me...). Thanks for your answers anyway .