2011-01-07, 05:10
I'm a xbmc newbie that has become so excited by this system, I've jumped in with both feet since discovering it in mid-December. This is an amazing system and look forward to being part of this great community. I've read many, many threads in the forum.
I've spent far too much time trying to optimize my system and now I ask for help. I'm having trouble with xbmc display of movies. I have several other questions that would help me streamline or automate my system. Please excuse the long posting as I am new to xbmc and don't know what I'm doing is incorrect, silly or crazy and could use the advice of more experienced users. Seems a description of my network and systems would be helpful.
Background:
I was looking for a replacement for a dying TiVo series 2 that we use for watching downloaded content as well as recorded and time-shifted television. In order to make the spouse-unit happy, it has to be attractive, cost-effective and quiet. The AppleTV running xbmc got the WAF approval for the bedroom when even a TiVo in a closed armoire did not (too noisy). She loves she can now stream foreign films from Netflix. It clearly is a better system for downloaded content although it won't easily replace the TiVo for recording television, especially time-shifting sports (Way-to-go Giants!). I really like that the Apple TV units will work now with out SD TVs and still work when we upgrade to HDTV all throughout the house, if ever.
My Installation:
Media Server (name: Marichal)
Windows Home Server with 1.3 OS software
HP 470 w/2GB RAM and 6.5TB HD internal, 2TB external HD
All the xbmc installations connect to this media server
Media Library (on the network at "\\Marichal\Videos\"):
100+ movies
40+ TV shows
(planned) Personal recordings converted to digital (family events, old how-to VHS tapes)
VM Server (name: Lincecum)
W7 Ultimate, 64-bit, 8GB RAM, 1TB HD
runs 2 VM (Virtualbox) machines
and these apps on the host
EventGhost
TheRenamer
Ember Media Manager
PlayOn server so I can connect to Netflix
W7 Virtualbox Torrent Server (name: Ross)
W7 Ultimate, 32-bit
uTorrent 2.2
showRSS feed to automatically start download of selected TV shows
This machine stores torrent data locally during download and
when torrent completes, it is moves it to media server to seed.
I typically seed 100+ torrents at any particular time.
Apple TV, 40GB
connects to SD TV in spare bedroom
xbmc with Confluence skin
3 remotes: TV, DVD and ATV
(this is the ATV that was spousal approved such that I could move ahead with other installations, found this on CraigsList from someone local)
Apple TV, 160GB
connects to SD TV in master bedroom
xbmc with Confluence skin
Harmony 650 remote for TV, DVD, ATV (hepefully, Harmony arrives tomorrow)
(got this one ATV eBay)
FoxxConn 330i (name: to be determined: McCovey?)
connects to SD TV in family room
W7 Ultimate 64-bit, 4GB RAM, 320GB HD
xbmc with Confluence skin
Harmony 650 remote for TV, DVD, FoxxConn, TiVo and sound system
(I'm building this FoxxConn system when my hardware arrives from NewEgg, hopefully this weekend)
Laptop (name: Hornsby)
W7 Ultimate on an 5+ year old HP Tablet PC.
xbmc with Confluence skin
Everything around the house connects with 100Mb LAN. A few of the connections are 1Gb LAN. The laptop connects either through LAN or wirelessly.
The Library:
TV Shows
The display of TV shows is great in xbmc/Confluence. The show and season posters display as expected, the episode description is accurate. Except for the required hand work to make this happen, I'm very happy with this system. The process is as follows:
1. Hand copy the .avi file from the torrent seed folder to the fetch folder ("\\Marichal\Videos\_Ready4xbmc\TV.Shows") for theRenamer. This sometimes involves unzipping or unrar-ing the target file from the torrent data.
2. EventGhost usually catches that a new file has appeared in the fetch folder and starts theRenamer. Sometimes it doesn't and I haven't yet figured out why.
3. theRenamer automatically renames and moves the files to the correct archive folder most of the time. Occasionally it doesn't recognize the show from the file name and I have to massage it to theRenamer's liking. Fortunately the show remains in the fetch folder until I notice and fix whatever is wrong so theRenamer can do it's work.
4. Start EMM manually to update it's internal TV library and scrape each show individually. There doesn't seem to be a way to get EMM to be started by EventGhost and scrape new shows or episodes automatically.
5. Tell each xbmc instance to clean and update it's media library.
Source: "\\Marichal\Videos\TV.Shows"
Typical show:
"\\Marichal\Videso\TV.Shows\Alias\Alias Season 01\Alias.s01e01.Truth Be Told.avi"
Note: very few shows include the year in the folder or file name, but still everything seems to display great in xbmc.
Movies
In my installation the display of movies simply sucks in xbmc. In this forum I've seen images where others have it working well but I haven't been able to get mine to work. Since TV shows works so well, it must be something I'm doing wrong.
In my system, I see very few movie posters display in xbmc in either standard or "Library" mode. The movie meta-data (plot, cast, etc) are usually available via the context menu. Movies are sometimes listed twice or three times depending on how many movie or trailer files exist on the media server. Although theRenamer and EMM seem to work together to put files in the xbmc wiki recommended format, I just don't see the data in xbmc as expected. Here's my process:
1. Hand copy the .avi file from the torrent seed folder to the movie fetch file ("\\Marichal\Videos\_Ready4xbmc\Movies") for theRenamer. This sometimes involves unzipping or unrar-ing the target file from the torrent data.
2. EventGhost usually catches that a new files has appeared in the fetch folder and starts theRenamer. I haven't done this enough with movies to know if EventGhost sees every deposit in this directory.
3. theRenamer automatically renames and moves the files to the correct archive folder most of the time. Again, occasionally it doesn't recognize the Movie from the file name and I have to massage it to theRenamer's liking.
4. EventGhost starts EMM automatically to update it's internal movie library and scrape all movies. EMM scrapes movies automatically based on the command line options.
5. Tell each xbmc instance to clean and update it's media library.
Source: "\\Marichal\Videos\Movies"
Typical movie:
"\\Marichal\Videso\Movies\The American (2010 R)\The American.avi"
Note: every movie folder includes the year and the rating in the folder or file name.
Questions:
1. How do I fix the display of Movies? For the life of me, I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I suspect it is because EMM was broken by a recent change to the IMDB. I downloaded it in late December and have been using almost daily ever since. With the new year EMM seems to have gone offline. Is there a suggestion for a replacement? I hate to give it up as it's doing such a good job with TV shows.
2. Why can't EMM automatically scrape new TV shows when started by EventGhost? This is annoying. Again, is there a replacement scraper?
3. Why doesn't EventGhost work every time? Sometimes it does seem to even notice when a new file appears in the fetch folders. Other times it runs theRenamer (and EMM) multiple times for every file (I've noticed up to 6 times for one file!).
4. Any obvious flaws in my over all system? Any suggestions for making it better? Thanks!
Plans:
1. I want to install a common database (MySQL) for all the xbmc instances to share info on videos in progress, videos shows completed, etc. I would really like to put this on a virtual machine that also runs EventGhost, theRenamer, Ember Media Manager and an installation of xbmc so I can automatically update the common database when a new file arrives in the fetch folder. I don't know if this is possible, especially since xbmc doesn't seem to run via remote desktop, the preferred way to connect to virtual machines under Virtualbox. Any suggestions?
2. Pick a better skin for xbmc. The spouse-unit has seen Alaska revisted and thinks it's a good choice. I want the same skin a every installation of xbmc that she would use. I've been impressed with some of the demo skins I've seen in the forum but this is a task for later as I get this working. Then I make it pretty.
Thanks for any suggestions!
-Bob
I've spent far too much time trying to optimize my system and now I ask for help. I'm having trouble with xbmc display of movies. I have several other questions that would help me streamline or automate my system. Please excuse the long posting as I am new to xbmc and don't know what I'm doing is incorrect, silly or crazy and could use the advice of more experienced users. Seems a description of my network and systems would be helpful.
Background:
I was looking for a replacement for a dying TiVo series 2 that we use for watching downloaded content as well as recorded and time-shifted television. In order to make the spouse-unit happy, it has to be attractive, cost-effective and quiet. The AppleTV running xbmc got the WAF approval for the bedroom when even a TiVo in a closed armoire did not (too noisy). She loves she can now stream foreign films from Netflix. It clearly is a better system for downloaded content although it won't easily replace the TiVo for recording television, especially time-shifting sports (Way-to-go Giants!). I really like that the Apple TV units will work now with out SD TVs and still work when we upgrade to HDTV all throughout the house, if ever.
My Installation:
Media Server (name: Marichal)
Windows Home Server with 1.3 OS software
HP 470 w/2GB RAM and 6.5TB HD internal, 2TB external HD
All the xbmc installations connect to this media server
Media Library (on the network at "\\Marichal\Videos\"):
100+ movies
40+ TV shows
(planned) Personal recordings converted to digital (family events, old how-to VHS tapes)
VM Server (name: Lincecum)
W7 Ultimate, 64-bit, 8GB RAM, 1TB HD
runs 2 VM (Virtualbox) machines
and these apps on the host
EventGhost
TheRenamer
Ember Media Manager
PlayOn server so I can connect to Netflix
W7 Virtualbox Torrent Server (name: Ross)
W7 Ultimate, 32-bit
uTorrent 2.2
showRSS feed to automatically start download of selected TV shows
This machine stores torrent data locally during download and
when torrent completes, it is moves it to media server to seed.
I typically seed 100+ torrents at any particular time.
Apple TV, 40GB
connects to SD TV in spare bedroom
xbmc with Confluence skin
3 remotes: TV, DVD and ATV
(this is the ATV that was spousal approved such that I could move ahead with other installations, found this on CraigsList from someone local)
Apple TV, 160GB
connects to SD TV in master bedroom
xbmc with Confluence skin
Harmony 650 remote for TV, DVD, ATV (hepefully, Harmony arrives tomorrow)
(got this one ATV eBay)
FoxxConn 330i (name: to be determined: McCovey?)
connects to SD TV in family room
W7 Ultimate 64-bit, 4GB RAM, 320GB HD
xbmc with Confluence skin
Harmony 650 remote for TV, DVD, FoxxConn, TiVo and sound system
(I'm building this FoxxConn system when my hardware arrives from NewEgg, hopefully this weekend)
Laptop (name: Hornsby)
W7 Ultimate on an 5+ year old HP Tablet PC.
xbmc with Confluence skin
Everything around the house connects with 100Mb LAN. A few of the connections are 1Gb LAN. The laptop connects either through LAN or wirelessly.
The Library:
TV Shows
The display of TV shows is great in xbmc/Confluence. The show and season posters display as expected, the episode description is accurate. Except for the required hand work to make this happen, I'm very happy with this system. The process is as follows:
1. Hand copy the .avi file from the torrent seed folder to the fetch folder ("\\Marichal\Videos\_Ready4xbmc\TV.Shows") for theRenamer. This sometimes involves unzipping or unrar-ing the target file from the torrent data.
2. EventGhost usually catches that a new file has appeared in the fetch folder and starts theRenamer. Sometimes it doesn't and I haven't yet figured out why.
3. theRenamer automatically renames and moves the files to the correct archive folder most of the time. Occasionally it doesn't recognize the show from the file name and I have to massage it to theRenamer's liking. Fortunately the show remains in the fetch folder until I notice and fix whatever is wrong so theRenamer can do it's work.
4. Start EMM manually to update it's internal TV library and scrape each show individually. There doesn't seem to be a way to get EMM to be started by EventGhost and scrape new shows or episodes automatically.
5. Tell each xbmc instance to clean and update it's media library.
Source: "\\Marichal\Videos\TV.Shows"
Typical show:
"\\Marichal\Videso\TV.Shows\Alias\Alias Season 01\Alias.s01e01.Truth Be Told.avi"
Note: very few shows include the year in the folder or file name, but still everything seems to display great in xbmc.
Movies
In my installation the display of movies simply sucks in xbmc. In this forum I've seen images where others have it working well but I haven't been able to get mine to work. Since TV shows works so well, it must be something I'm doing wrong.
In my system, I see very few movie posters display in xbmc in either standard or "Library" mode. The movie meta-data (plot, cast, etc) are usually available via the context menu. Movies are sometimes listed twice or three times depending on how many movie or trailer files exist on the media server. Although theRenamer and EMM seem to work together to put files in the xbmc wiki recommended format, I just don't see the data in xbmc as expected. Here's my process:
1. Hand copy the .avi file from the torrent seed folder to the movie fetch file ("\\Marichal\Videos\_Ready4xbmc\Movies") for theRenamer. This sometimes involves unzipping or unrar-ing the target file from the torrent data.
2. EventGhost usually catches that a new files has appeared in the fetch folder and starts theRenamer. I haven't done this enough with movies to know if EventGhost sees every deposit in this directory.
3. theRenamer automatically renames and moves the files to the correct archive folder most of the time. Again, occasionally it doesn't recognize the Movie from the file name and I have to massage it to theRenamer's liking.
4. EventGhost starts EMM automatically to update it's internal movie library and scrape all movies. EMM scrapes movies automatically based on the command line options.
5. Tell each xbmc instance to clean and update it's media library.
Source: "\\Marichal\Videos\Movies"
Typical movie:
"\\Marichal\Videso\Movies\The American (2010 R)\The American.avi"
Note: every movie folder includes the year and the rating in the folder or file name.
Questions:
1. How do I fix the display of Movies? For the life of me, I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I suspect it is because EMM was broken by a recent change to the IMDB. I downloaded it in late December and have been using almost daily ever since. With the new year EMM seems to have gone offline. Is there a suggestion for a replacement? I hate to give it up as it's doing such a good job with TV shows.
2. Why can't EMM automatically scrape new TV shows when started by EventGhost? This is annoying. Again, is there a replacement scraper?
3. Why doesn't EventGhost work every time? Sometimes it does seem to even notice when a new file appears in the fetch folders. Other times it runs theRenamer (and EMM) multiple times for every file (I've noticed up to 6 times for one file!).
4. Any obvious flaws in my over all system? Any suggestions for making it better? Thanks!
Plans:
1. I want to install a common database (MySQL) for all the xbmc instances to share info on videos in progress, videos shows completed, etc. I would really like to put this on a virtual machine that also runs EventGhost, theRenamer, Ember Media Manager and an installation of xbmc so I can automatically update the common database when a new file arrives in the fetch folder. I don't know if this is possible, especially since xbmc doesn't seem to run via remote desktop, the preferred way to connect to virtual machines under Virtualbox. Any suggestions?
2. Pick a better skin for xbmc. The spouse-unit has seen Alaska revisted and thinks it's a good choice. I want the same skin a every installation of xbmc that she would use. I've been impressed with some of the demo skins I've seen in the forum but this is a task for later as I get this working. Then I make it pretty.
Thanks for any suggestions!
-Bob
