10 replies to this topic

[Duffy]

Finally got my home videos collated in xbmc under Library Mode and thought I'll share my learnings.

This has turned out to be a fairly long post because there are a number of options available. Therefore, I have set out the instructions for each option in a separate post below this intro post.

The Problem

I’ve spent some time over the last 2 or 3 months hunting around the xbmc.org forums investigating the best way to manage my home video collection. With three kids, the oldest being 15, you build up quite a collection over the years.

The problem is a simple one: if you turn Library Mode on within xbmc (my preferred mode), your home video files no longer appear on the list. You have an excellent GUI for skimming and reviewing all your Movies, TV Shows and Music Videos, but your home videos are out of sight, which means they are also out of mind.

The various discussions on the xbmc.org forums indicate that xbmc was not designed with home videos in mind. While a re-write of the menu structure is on the wish-list, it is only a wish-list and who knows what the future holds. In the meantime, we have to deal with the present.

Solutions

You can just use File Mode as your preferred mode or continually switch between File Mode and Library Mode. However, I’ve found that while in Library Mode, the kids just forget about home videos entirely. If I turn File Mode on, then suddenly the home videos start to play and the laughing (and cringing) soon follow. So, continually switching between File and Library Mode was not an acceptable solution for me.

The solution is to somehow incorporate your home videos into Library Mode. Library Mode allows you to view:

• Movies
  
• TV Shows
  
• Music Videos

Hence, your choice in managing your home videos in Library Mode is to add them to the Library as either Movies, TV Shows or Music Videos. None of these options are ideal, as it means your home videos will be inter-mingled with your Movies, TV Shows or Music Videos. However, with the use of nfo files, you can, to some extent, isolate the home videos.

Below, I set out how to do two of these options – adding them as Movies or TV Shows and creating the necessary nfo files. Adding them as Music Videos is only worth pursuing if you have no music videos. I do have music videos, so I haven’t explored this option. However, if you read through the instructions below, you will soon work out how to add your home videos as music videos.

For what it’s worth, I have gone with adding my home videos as TV Shows. So now, when I go into TV Shows in Library Mode, my screen looks like this (see attached jpg file).

As you can see, I have added two TV Shows to represent my home videos:

• Home Videos - Movies
  
• Home Videos – Dancing Concerts

I’ve also created wide icons so that the home videos fit in with the overall look.

Adding "Home Videos as Movies" follows below.

Duffy

Attached Files

•  TV Shows.jpg   35.44K   212 downloads

Edited by Duffy, 13 April 2009 - 04:52 AM.

[Duffy]

Adding Home Videos at Movies

Adding home videos as Movies is a relatively simple process. It involves:

• Creating nfo files for each of your home videos
  
• Creating thumbnails for each of your home videos
  
• Creating a Home Videos genre under Movies
  
• Setting the content of your home videos folder to Movies

Notes

• The order of the above steps is important.
  
• It is preferable to create the nfo file before setting the content of your home video folder to Movies. If you set the content first with auto scan on, xbmc will interrogate IMDB for data to match your home videos and will download the closest match. In my case, xbmc downloaded information on The Bridges of Madison County for my home video file, Madison’s Netball Final (2007). If a nfo file exits, xbmc will load the info in the nfo file in preference to scanning IMDB.
  
• Similarly, you create a new genre when you manually add a file to the Library. If you have already added the contents of the folder to the Library, then the option to manually add a file will not appear as the file is already added to the Library.

1. Creating nfo files

The nfo file ensures that the correct data is loaded into the Library – this can be fun, as you can add plot summaries, cast names, running time, thumbnails, etc to the information displayed for the home video. Any information that would normally appear for a movie can be modified or left blank. Given that I’m the one usually holding the camcorder, I insert myself as the director. Haven't figured out how to add cast photos - if you know how, please post up.

There is a different nfo file structure for Movies, TV Shows, TV episodes and Music Videos. The structure for Movies can be found here.

It is re-produced below for your convenience.

<movie>
        <title>Who knows</title>
        <originaltitle>Who knows for real</originaltitle>
        <rating>6.100000</rating>
        <year>2008</year>
        <top250>0</top250>
        <votes>50</votes>
        <outline>A look at the role of the Buckeye State in the 2004 Presidential Election.</outline>
        <plot>A look at the role of the Buckeye State in the 2004 Presidential Election.</plot>
        <tagline></tagline>
        <runtime>90 min</runtime>
        <thumb>http://ia.ec.imdb.com/media/imdb/01/I/25/65/31/10f.jpg</thumb>
        <mpaa>Not available</mpaa>
        <playcount>0</playcount>
        <watched>false</watched>
        <id>tt0432337</id>
        <filenameandpath>c:\Dummy_Movie_Files\Movies\...So Goes The Nation.avi</filenameandpath>
        <trailer></trailer>
        <genre></genre>
        <credits></credits>
        <director>Adam Del Deo</director>
        <actor>
            <name>Paul Begala</name>
            <role>Himself</role>
        </actor>
        <actor>
            <name>George W. Bush</name>
            <role>Himself</role>
        </actor>
        <actor>
            <name>Mary Beth Cahill</name>
            <role>Herself</role>
        </actor>
        <actor>
            <name>Ed Gillespie</name>
            <role>Himself</role>
        </actor>
        <actor>
            <name>John Kerry</name>
            <role>Himself</role>
        </actor>
    </movie>

Simply copy and paste the above content into a text file and save the file. You now need to edit the file and insert the relevant details for the home video in question. Below is how my nfo file for “Madison’s Netball Final (2007)” looks. You can delete any lines that are not required or just leave them blank. You will also notice that I have added more cast members to the bottom of the file so all members of her netball team are listed.

<movie>
        <title>Madison’s Netball Final (2007)</title>
        <rating></rating>
        <year>2007</year>
        <outline>Windy Hill 13 and Under Netball Final against North Melbourne </outline>
        <plot> Tragedy and ecstasy as Madison is forced to leave the court due to illness as her Windy Hill 
team powers to a win in overtime in the final of the 13 and Under D Grade Netball Final against North Melbourne.</plot>
        <tagline></tagline>
        <runtime>58 min</runtime>
        <genre>Home Video</genre>
        <director>Duffy</director>
        <actor>
            <name> Madison </name>
            <role>Herself</role>
        </actor>
        <actor>
            <name>Jorgia</name>
            <role>Herself</role>
        </actor>
        <actor>
            <name> Shelby </name>
            <role>Herself</role>
        </actor>
        <actor>
            <name>Lauren</name>
            <role>Herself</role>
        </actor>
        <actor>
            <name>Alyce</name>
            <role>Herself</role>
        </actor>
        <actor>
            <name>Laura</name>
            <role>Herself</role>
        </actor>
        <actor>
            <name>Molly</name>
            <role>Herself</role>
        </actor>
        <actor>
            <name> Erin </name>
            <role>Herself</role>
        </actor>
    </movie>

After inserting the relevant information, save the file to the same folder as the home video and give it the same name as the video but with a “nfo” extension. For me, I have:

Madison’s Netball Final (2007).iso
Madison’s Netball Final (2007).nfo

You need to create a nfo file for each home video – just keep editing the same file and save it to a different name.

2. Creating Thumbnails

This step in the process is optional, but it improves the look and feel of the setup and is very simple to do.

You can create two different thumbnails: one for the Home Videos folder (this will show up in File Mode only) and one for each home video file. Just select a jpeg file of your choosing and rename it to match the Folder Name and the home video file name, using the tbn extension. You should have something like this:

/video/Home Videos.tbn
/video/Home Videos/Madison’s Netball Final (2008).iso
/video/Home Videos/Madison’s Netball Final (2008).nfo
/video/Home Videos/Madison’s Netball Final (2008).tbn

3. Creating a Home Video Genre

In File Mode, navigate to the folder holding your home videos and right click on any file and select

Manually Add To Library

You will be prompted to enter the title of the file. The filename will show as the default – just hit “Enter” because the title that will appear in the Library will be determined by the nfo file.

You will then be prompted for the genre. Select “New Genre” at the bottom of the screen and enter “Home Video”, or whatever name you prefer. It should be the same as the genre you entered in the nfo file.

4. Setting Content to Movies

Now we can add the entire home video folder to the Library by setting the content. Still in File Mode, navigate up one level and right click on your home video folder. Select “Set Content” and set to “Movies”.

That’s it. Turn Library Mode on, scan for new content and all your home videos will now appear under Movies according to how your nfo file is edited. To show only your home videos, go into genres and select Home Video.

The downside of the above is that all your home videos are inter-mingled with your movies, so if you want to skim through your movies for something to watch, you will also be seeing your home videos. This may not be a big problem if you have only a few home videos. Unfortunately, I have more than a few home videos.

One way to get around the above problem is to rank your movies by the IMDB rating – all your home videos will be at the bottom (assuming you have given them no rating). Alternatively, you can assign a rating of 10 to all of your home videos and have them at the top of the list!

Next - Adding Your Home Videos as TV Shows.

Duffy

[Duffy]

Adding Home Videos as TV Shows

I have found this to be the best solution for managing my home videos.

Adding home videos as TV Shows is slightly different to adding them as Movies. It involves:

• Creating a nfo file for your Home Video folder
  
• Renaming your home video files
  
• Creating nfo files for each of your home videos
  
• Creating thumbnails for each of your home videos
  
• Creating the fanart
  
• Setting the content of your home videos folder to TV Shows and setting fanart

1. Creating a nfo file for your Home Video folder

First, to explain my folder structure. I ended up creating two sub-folders under Home Videos because I decided to put my home videos into two groups and add them separately as TV Shows. My folder structure looks like this:

/video/Movies/
/video/Music Videos/
/video/TV Shows/
/video/Home Videos/Home Movies/
/video/Home Videos/Dancing Concerts/

To get xbmc to recognise my two home video folders (“Home Movies” and “Dancing Concerts”), I created two nfo files and placed them within the relevant folder of the home video folder. You end up with:

/video/Movies
/video/Music Videos
/video/TV Shows
/video/Home Videos/Home Movies/tvshow.nfo
/video/Home Videos/Dancing Concerts/tvshow.nfo

Note

• The name of the nfo file is the same (tvshow.nfo) in both instances – it must be this name and not the name of the folder.

The nfo file for a TV Show is different to movies and TV episodes. The correct structure can be found here. It is reproduced below for your convenience.

<tvshow>
        <title>My TV Show</title>
        <rating>9.900</rating>
        <season>-1</season>
        <episode>0</episode>
        <displayseason>-1</displayseason>
        <displayepisode>-1</displayepisode>
        <plot>The best TV show in the world</plot>
        <genre>Action and Adventure / Drama</genre>
        <premiered>2000-01-01</premiered>
        <studio></studio>
        <actor>
            <name>Big John</name>
            <role>Jack of all trades</role>
            <thumb></thumb>
        </actor>
    </tvshow>

Copy and paste the above into a text file. My tvshow.nfo file for Home Movies looks like this:

<tvshow>
        <title>Home Videos - Movies</title>
        <episodeguideurl><episodeguideurl>
        <!-- select the correct seriesid and language (en.zip) -->
        <rating></rating>
        <episode>0</episode>
        <plot></plot>
        <genre></genre>
        <premiered>1992</premiered>
        <studio></studio>
        <actor>
            <name></name>
            <role></role>
            <thumb></thumb>
        </actor>
    </tvshow>

Note that the name of the TV Show within the nfo file does not have to be the same as the folder name. I have deliberately prefixed my two TV Shows with “Home Video -”. This way, when I turn Library Mode on, they will be next to each other on the list.

2. Renaming your home video files

Xbmc requires a certain naming convention is order to recognise TV episodes. Each of your home video files needs to include the name of the TV show (in our case the name of the folder) and its season and episode number. So my home video file

“Madison’s Netball Final (2007).iso”

was renamed

“Home Movies s2007e01 – Madison’s Netball Final (2007).iso”

Notes

• By using the year as the season number, all my home videos are classified by year.
  
• I have a number of “Best of” home videos that span a number of years. By denoting these with a season number of “0” (eg s0e01), they appear as “Specials” in xbmc.
  
• When naming files, avoid using the ampersand (“&”).

3. Creating nfo files for each home video

You need to create nfo files for each of your home video files. Nfo files for TV episodes have a different structure to both TV Shows and Movies. The structure for TV episodes can be found here.

It is re-produced below for your convenience.

<episodedetails>
        <title>My TV Episode</title>
        <rating>10.00</rating>
        <season>2</season>
        <episode>1</episode>
        <plot>he best episode in the world</plot>
        <credits>Writer</credits>
        <director>Mr. Vision</director>
        <aired>2000-01-01</aired>
        <actor>
            <name>Little Suzie</name>
            <role>Pole Jumper/Dancer</role>
        </actor>
 </episodedetails>

Simply copy and paste the above content into a text file and save the file. You now need to edit the file and insert the relevant details for the home video in question. Below is how my nfo file for “Madison’s Netball Final (2007)” looks.

<episodedetails>
        <title>Madison's Netball Final</title>
        <rating></rating>
        <season>2007</season>
        <episode>3</episode>
        <plot>Tradegy and ecstasy as Madison is forced from the court due to illness as her Windy Hill 
team powers on to win the final against North Melbourne in overtime.</plot>
        <runtime>58 min</runtime>
        <credits></credits>
        <director>Duffy</director>
        <aired>2007</aired>
        <actor>
            <name> Madison </name>
            <role>Herself</role>
        </actor>
        <actor>
            <name>Jorgia</name>
            <role>Herself</role>
        </actor>
        <actor>
            <name> Shelby </name>
            <role>Herself</role>
        </actor>
        <actor>
            <name>Lauren</name>
            <role>Herself</role>
        </actor>
        <actor>
            <name>Alyce</name>
            <role>Herself</role>
        </actor>
        <actor>
            <name>Laura</name>
            <role>Herself</role>
        </actor>
        <actor>
            <name>Molly</name>
            <role>Herself</role>
        </actor>
        <actor>
            <name> Erin </name>
            <role>Herself</role>
        </actor>
 </episodedetails>

After inserting the relevant information, save the file to the same folder as the video and give it the same name as the video but with a “nfo” extension. For me, I have:

Home Movies s2007e01 – Madison’s Netball Final (2007).iso
Home Movies s2007e01 – Madison’s Netball Final (2007).nfo

You need to create a nfo file for each home video – just keep editing the same file and save to a different name.

4. Creating Thumbnails

The dimensions for wide icons is 760 x 140. Just use your photo editing software, etc to design something and save the file. I saved my icons as jpeg and renamed them with the tbn extension.

The wide icons need to be saved in the same folder as your home video folder ie not within the home video folder (see below under Taking Stock).

5. Creating The Fanart

Within Library Mode, fanart is often shown in the background. To replicate the same effect, you just need to find a jpeg file to your liking and save it somewhere assessable by xbmc. No naming conventions are required, although I did rename my jpeg files with the tbn extension as I tend to have less problems with the tbn extension.

Taking Stock

Just to make sure we are all on the same page, if you have got to this point, your folder/file structure should look something like this::

/video/Home Videos/Home Movies.tbn
/video/Home Videos/Home Movies fanart.tbn
/video/Home Videos/Dancing Concerts.tbn
/video/Home Videos/Dancing Concerts fanart.tbn

/video/Home Videos/Home Movies/tvshow.nfo
/video/Home Videos/Home Movies/Home Movies s2007e01 – Madison’s Netball Final (2007).iso
/video/Home Videos/Home Movies/Home Movies s2007e01 – Madison’s Netball Final (2007).nfo
/video/Home Videos/Home Movies/Home Movies s2007e01 – Madison’s Netball Final (2007).tbn

/video/Home Videos/ Dancing Concerts /tvshow.nfo
/video/Home Videos/ Dancing Concerts / Dancing Concerts s2002e01.iso
/video/Home Videos/ Dancing Concerts / Dancing Concerts s2002e01.nfo
/video/Home Videos/ Dancing Concerts / Dancing Concerts s2002e01.tbn

6. Setting Content to TV Shows and Setting Fanart

In File Mode, navigate to where your home video folder is listed and right click on its name. Select “Set Content” and set to “TV Shows”.

You set the fanart by highlighting the folder and selecting “info” on the remote (or “i” on the keyboard). Select "Fanart" then "Browse" and navigate to where you saved your fanart, select the file and select OK.

That’s it. Turn Library Mode on and all your home videos will now appear under TV Shows. You may have to “Scan For New Content”. While skimming your home video files in Library Mode, just hit "Info" on the remote (or "i" on the keyboard) to bring up the info entered in the corresponding nfo file.

In case you’re wondering, unlike Movies, I was not able to create a new genre for Home Videos under the TV Shows title – if you know how, please post up the steps.

Enjoy your home videos in Library Mode!

Duffy

Edited by Duffy, 13 April 2009 - 06:28 AM.

[arkay]

Duffy,

Nice one! and deserving of a sticky Will come in handy if I ever get my home movies that sorted

Cheers,

Arkay.

[Duffy]

Arkay

My very first sticky! I'm chuffed. :D:D

As to sorting out that home video collection - it's a labour of love. I was determined not to have my photos and home videos tucked away at the top of some cupboard collecting dust.

It starts with converting all those old 8mm and vhs tapes to DVD (I have one to go).

Duffy

[arkay]

Congrats on the sticky

I've got 4 left out of 22, sadly I've only edited 8 of them though.... takes so damned long to do. Even when automated with mencoder..

Cheers,

Arkay.

[Mickjuice]

Nice guide mate.

That's my only gripe with XBMC ie not being able to use library mode & fanart etc in file mode.
I've got lots of non-movie/TV videos eg downloaded YT clips, foreign TV not in TVDB etc that aren't in the library.

[Balinus]

Great! I was looking into a way to do that.

Putting the Home Videos into TV Show makes sense for me. Going this way... :-)

Thanks!

edit - ok, it's done and working as described!

Edited by Balinus, 10 June 2011 - 07:24 AM.

[transcender]

I just thought of this and would have like to think would have followed your approach but found your post first, so thanks!
I went w/ the TV method.
Took forever to find how to index undated content when I tried to use SEASON00

Curious I've been puting people in the videos in each episode but a friend and I tried yesterday to do a search on a person only listed in Episodes and the search in XBMC yielded no results. I looked at the forums on XBMC and from what I could tell it seems like this functionality should exist in search and the information is in fact kept in the sql tables. if you hit I in the the video you do see them.

Can anyone affirm if searching for 'actors' by individual episodes is possible via directly XBMC gui?
I would like to be able to say search for all videos of this nephew or that niece and be able to just find those or a combination of grandma and granddaughter1...etc

[Duffy]

I just thought of this and would have like to think would have followed your approach but found your post first, so thanks!
I went w/ the TV method.
Took forever to find how to index undated content when I tried to use SEASON00

Curious I've been puting people in the videos in each episode but a friend and I tried yesterday to do a search on a person only listed in Episodes and the search in XBMC yielded no results. I looked at the forums on XBMC and from what I could tell it seems like this functionality should exist in search and the information is in fact kept in the sql tables. if you hit I in the the video you do see them.

Can anyone affirm if searching for 'actors' by individual episodes is possible via directly XBMC gui?
I would like to be able to say search for all videos of this nephew or that niece and be able to just find those or a combination of grandma and granddaughter1...etc

If I go into TV Shows and select Actors, my daughter's name is not listed.

However, I can get a list of all my daughter's episodes as follows:
Select Home Movies
Highlight an episode (where I knew my daughter appeared)
Select Info
Select Cast
Select my daughter

All episodes across all home movies came up where my daughter is appearing.

Not as good as being included in the actor list, but better than nothing.

Duffy

[wyster]

If I go into TV Shows and select Actors, my daughter's name is not listed.

Hi,

Any solution yet ? I don't understand why the actors are not listed.
Do you think it's a good idea - for a newbie like me - to modify/complete the database to fix this bug ?

Thanks, by the way.

wyster