Win Library Metadata "Blank"
#1
I am losing my mind with my library on a machine that doesn't have Internet access. To make this work, I have a fetching machine that has a very quick connection, it grabs media, cleans it up, fills with metadata and transfers to this machine without Internet access to be added to it's media library after my verification. Problem is, all machines that use XBMC to pull metadata from the stored information instead of the internet get very basic data (video information like BluRay, 5.1, DTS, etc ... and year); why?

The metadata I have downloaded comes from either Media Center Master or YAMMM and, looking at the created data files, seems quite complete. However, it appears no installed version of XBMC is able to pull the data from any of the metadata files provided (dvdid.xml, movie.nfo or mymovies.xml). I have re-built the library many times, even reinstalled the XBMC application a few times, but to no avail. It feels like I am missing something very simple, but I don't know what it is, and the Internet seems not to give an answer on how to fix this.

The reasoning why this metadata is important is that the machine that hosts everything is quite custom, with various PHP applications to manage all the users requests for media that I made myself, and aren't secure enough to inspire me to have this machine connected to the Internet. Plus, there are about 500 devices on our intranet that use this machine as their media device, so it really doesn't need Internet access (the entire purpose of creating this machine was to reduce the hammering that our building Internet was taking).
Reply
#2
I believe XBMC will only read from the .nfo file. Check out the wiki:

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Imp..._nfo_Files

When you're checking for completeness of your metadata, are you referring to just the NFO file?

You might need to provide a debug log (wiki) when scraping to see if something else is going on, if the wiki doesn't give you the answer.
Reply
#3
XBMC will indeed search for a nfo file and if there isn't one, it will start searching for relevant information on the internet. You can manually create your nfo file (there are examples on the wiki) of use a program like ViMediaManager (MAC OS) or Ember Media Manager (Windows) that will create the nfo for you.
Reply
#4
Sorry about you losing your mind, I lost my hair... I'm wondering which is worse? Sounds like your 3rd party software doesn't deliver content 'exactly' as XBMC wants it... (not XBMC's fault) so it seems to get some of the material but not all. Scraping with XBMC is fairly comprehensive and gets the goods depending on what sites you scrape etc... if needed you can manually edit the .nfo. Most of these 3rd party managers save the .nfo etc.. in the media folder; but to get it into to the library, XBMC has to first scrape the local information (it doesn't need an internet connection for this).

You might want to experiment, compare an XBMC scrape against one of the 3rd party media managers you rely on... I'll bet the diffs are what is causing your migraines. With that knowledge in hand, get after the 3rd party devs... for this. I find notepad++ great for handling .nfo and I note the wiki has some solid samples. I think the part you're missing... is that XBMC uses information from it's internal library, not the .nfo in the folders. (although in a scrape it looks there first).





Reply
#5
Since all machines that use XBMC are unable to get the data from the file, I suppose you're correct about incomplete or malformed metadata. However, I thought YAMMM was pretty "standard"; what a ball ache. Looks like more PHP, plundering the YAMMM metadata and rebuilding it to XBMC standards. Maybe I'll just make a media fetcher of my own Wink.

In any case, thanks for the links; turns out my scraper doesn't use "plot" it uses "outline" ... easy enough to fix. Still not certain why XBMC isn't using the folder.jpg or backdrop.jpg, but I suppose I'll figure that one out soon enough as well. Too late to play with this.
Reply
#6
It does use folder.jpg when you cruise in file mode without a scrape. WMC uses backdrop.jpg.. XBMC uses fanart.jpg But you can get XBMC to see backdrops or any other name.. with an advanced setting modification. I wouldn't bother, though... a good batch re-namer should have this done in minutes.

Quote "Maybe I'll just make a media fetcher of my own Wink."

Don't keep it to yourself...! Wink
Reply

Logout Mark Read Team Forum Stats Members Help
Library Metadata "Blank"0