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Media Companion 3 beta's - Now with Music Video support
Sorry I have to ask this, I just didn't want to read 92 pages from 20012->present to try to find an answer. Call me lazy if you want. I don't mean to be, it's just that I've done it before in other threads and did not find the answer, so I thought I'd just ask this time.

I'm new to Media Companion. I switched from Ember MM because of the problems I had with it (jamming and freezing). So far I'm impressed with what I've seen.

I have a problem. I want to use MC to scrape .strm files. This was easy enough in Ember, just add the .strm extension to the accepted source types and let it go. Not so with MC.

I added the .strm extension to the list of file types to scrape, ran MC, and nothing happened. Played around for a while, changing everything I could think of in the settings, and still nothing. Almost gave up, and then I saw the part about offline movies. I figured that may be my best bet.

I did all the work that seemed necessary, creating the necessary folder and placing all files in the proper folders, set up MC to scrape, and let it loose. Like I said, I'm impressed. It ran through the list very fast, with no problems that I saw. I checked a couple of folders when it was done, saw the finished files, liked what I saw, and transferred everything to my NAS. I ran XBMC and Hooray, it's adding the files to the library.

Then I looked (when it was done) at the mess that was created. Every file went in twice. One for the file, and one telling me to insert a disk (no option to turn this "superflous" [to me at least, considering all my files are .strms] function off in MC). Some of the files were bad, and when I clicked on them, nothing happened. But, the thing that bugs me the most (I can deleted the 'insert disk files') is the fact that not one movie (all my .strms were movies) in the whole batch had a poster or fanart. I checked the folders, and I can see the actual files, but nothing shows in XBMC.

I then went back, cleaned all the files manually, and tried again, adjust MC's settings as I went. I tried every possible setting, even letting MC scan the folder twice, creating art in both Moviename.jpg and fanart or folder.jpg forms, with both in the same folder. I rescanned the folder with XBMC after every test and still nothing. No artwork.

I then began to think MC was a piece of junk, or that I'm really stupid. An idea occurred and I used MC to scrape a .mp4 movie I had, then scanned it with XBMC. And what do you know? the art was there.

So, am I doing something wrong? How do I use Media Companion to scrape .strm files so I can see the art in XBMC? I have created my own .jpg, .tbn, & .nfo files for other .strm files and have had no problems getting XBMC to display the art, so how do I do it with MC?

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
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Hi and thanks for using Media Companion.

I can advise that .strm video files are supported by Media Companion, and that the extension is not one that needs adding to MC (though where your adding this I am not sure).

Offline Movies are just that. Movies that are on remove-able media (ie: dvd, blu-ray).

I have just tested MC by renaming a movie with the .strm extension. Test movie was called "Jobs.strm. Media Companion scraped this correctly, adding the correct artwork and nfo.
Tested with movie in Root movie folder, In a folder called Jobs, and both Use Foldername and All movies are in folders.

But, nothing I could do would add this strm file to the library of XBMC 12.2, or XBMC 13. Even deleting the nfo and artwork, XBMC could not even scrape the movie from TMDB. I actually had XBMC close itself trying to work with this strm file.
And then I learnt a valuable lesson. strm files have to be valid files with
Code:
plugin://plugin.video.youtube/?path=/root/video&action=play_video&videoid=vnnrOldxTUI
contained in the file.

So I've learnt something new.

Now I tried with an old movie, Ma and Pa Kettle At Home (1954).strm with the above line in the file, and scraped it with Media Companion. Then let XBMC add it to the library. Both 12.2 and 13.0a4 (13.0a4 set to local information only) added this to the library, with artwork, and played happily.

I may even add a new feature to Media Companion for creation of strm files, with the user supplying the youtube videoid only, but thats for later.

Right now, I have no issue scraping with Media Companion or adding to the XBMC library.

I am not sure what is going on with your setup, but if you wish further help, please post on https://mediacompanion.codeplex.com/discussions or Issues, and we may be better able to assist.

Regards

Rob
Media Companion Dev.
Media Companion - Kodi / XBMC - Media Companion
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I'm sorry, but I did not mean to imply that Media Companion did not scrape .strm files. The first time i tried it nothing happened when I tried scraping .strms. The second time, using the offline method, it did scrape the files. I don't know what I did wrong the fist time.

My problem is the movie posters. XBMC will not display posters for the .strms I'm trying to enter. It will enter the files in the library, but it will not display a poster unless I download it manually using the artwork downloader. After some further testing, I'm beginning to think my problem is an XBMC problem and not a scraper problem. I tried again this morning scraping the files using MC the normal way (not using the "Offline Media" option). It scraped them fine. I tried entering the in XBMC again and the same thing happened. The files show in the library, but the poster is the generic image XBMC displays when there is not image associated with the video. I then, cleaned the files and scraped the movies again using Ember Media Manager, then tried entering them in XBMC. This time the files showed in the library, but the poster was nothing, not even the generic cann't-find-the-artwork image. Looking at the log, I find things like this:

"ERROR: NFS: Failed to stat(nfs/Public/Shared Videos/Videos/Stagevu/A Name for Evil 1973/A Name for Evil 1973-poster.jpg) stat call failed with "NFS: Lookup of //Public failed with NFS3ERR_NOENT(-2)"

where XBMC is having a problem with the poster (from my Ember MM run, not Media Companion) along with other errors like:

"12:09:45 T:4188 ERROR: CDVDDemuxFFmpeg::Open - error probing input format, smb://MYBOOK/Public/Shared Videos/Videos/Sci Fi & Fantasy/Creature Of Destruction (1967)/Creature Of Destruction (1967).mp4
12:09:45 T:4188 WARNING: could not find codec parameters for smb://MYBOOK/Public/Shared Videos/Videos/Horror/Diary of A Madman 1963/Diary of A Madman 1963.mp4
12:09:45 T:4188 ERROR: CDVDFileInfo::ExtractThumb - Error creating demuxer"

where XBMC is having other problems.

I just installed Gotham less than two weeks ago. I have several files that are almost exactly the same as the ones I'm trying to enter now (.strm files) that were scraped with Ember. Those show in the library fine, but those were also scanned in using Frodo. Maybe it's a Gotham thing, but for now I cann't figure out how to get XBMC to recognize the poster no matter what is used to scrape the file.

Like I said before, I am sorry if I offended you. I'm just trying to figure things out. I jumped the gun when i said it was a problem with Media Companion.
Reply
No problem. no offence taken, just wanted to be sure it was working also.

In my tests XBMC did pull the posters and fanart into the library.

I think, and only a thought, if you upgraded from Frodo to Gotham, that is is a library upgrade issue.

It might be an idea to back-up your userdata folder, delete it, and start Gotham as a Fresh Install. Or, as I've had to do in the past. Delete the oldest databases, leaving only the highest numbered myvideo db file.

Just a thought.
Media Companion Dev.
Media Companion - Kodi / XBMC - Media Companion
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Hi Vbat
after renaming all my movies my stacked movies have been renamed to CD 1 CD 2 and so on but now each file gets an entry in mc its not really a big problem but I cant seem to fix this I have tried both with name mode enabled and disabled. how should they be named ? I have tried all variants I can think of.

Little Feature request
Season folder.jpg in season folders same reason as movie jpg

Merci Wink
Reply
(2014-04-23, 20:18)ztrust Wrote: Hi Vbat
after renaming all my movies my stacked movies have been renamed to CD 1 CD 2 and so on but now each file gets an entry in mc its not really a big problem but I cant seem to fix this I have tried both with name mode enabled and disabled. how should they be named ? I have tried all variants I can think of.

Little Feature request
Season folder.jpg in season folders same reason as movie jpg

Merci Wink

For stacked movies, you will have to check the two parts are named exactly the same. I also suggest using CD1, CD2, no spaces between CD and the number.
Duplicate entries for stacked movies would also mean you are getting an nfo for each part. so delete both and rescrape.

Regarding season {b]folder.jpg[/b], I'll look into this.
Media Companion Dev.
Media Companion - Kodi / XBMC - Media Companion
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hey vbat sorry for late response

my files are named as cd1 and cd 2 I changed it to cd 1 to see if it would work but I am still getting an nfo per file.
I have played with use folder name for scraping and all movies are in folders and both name modes none work but part 1 and part 2 work.
the folder is like this

Dune (2000)
---------Dune (2000) CD1 [BDRip].avi
---------Dune (2000) CD2 [BDRip].avi


wich gives me 2 nfo when they were named part 1 and part 2 it worked

I am using your beta build
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I'm not sure if this will help but I always put a dash ("-") between the title and the CD1, CD2, etc with no blank spacing.
Reply
(2014-04-25, 04:28)ztrust Wrote: hey vbat sorry for late response

my files are named as cd1 and cd 2 I changed it to cd 1 to see if it would work but I am still getting an nfo per file.
I have played with use folder name for scraping and all movies are in folders and both name modes none work but part 1 and part 2 work.
the folder is like this

Dune (2000)
---------Dune (2000) CD1 [BDRip].avi
---------Dune (2000) CD2 [BDRip].avi


wich gives me 2 nfo when they were named part 1 and part 2 it worked

I am using your beta build

Doesn't matter about a dash, but the CD1 and CD2 etc, have to be at the end of the filename, just before the extension.
Media Companion Dev.
Media Companion - Kodi / XBMC - Media Companion
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Thank you that clears it up Wink
Reply
Amazing program!

Thankyou
Reply
How could I name a single iso file consisting of 6 DVDs with 6 movies of Star Wars?
Newest stable Kodi (portable), Win 10 | skin: default Confluence
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(2014-04-27, 08:31)Dirki Wrote: How could I name a single iso file consisting of 6 DVDs with 6 movies of Star Wars?

You can't.

Each movie has to be it's own entity, meaning must be of their own video file, or own DVD set of files.

Your only option is to split each movie out of the ISO. You possibly could do this quickly by extracting each movie to a single VOB file, and renaming to "Phantom Menance.vob" as an example.

There are tools available to quickly do this with no re-code of the video/audio streams, just can't recall them right now.

(2014-04-27, 05:33)Pillze Wrote: Amazing program!

Thankyou

Glad your liking the program. Any questions feel free to ask.
Media Companion Dev.
Media Companion - Kodi / XBMC - Media Companion
Reply
Thank you vbat99.

Quote:Your only option is to split each movie out of the ISO. You possibly could do this quickly by extracting each movie to a single VOB file, and renaming to "Phantom Menance.vob" as an example.
The drawback would be to lose the DVD menu, I assume.

And may be create 6 disc files named with the movie titles / year displaying a text when clicking on them in XBMC saying to open the iso file containing these movies? But I assume, you only can use one such txt file at a time in XBMC and that one I already use says: "Insert the disc" or so.

OK, I will try to find such a split program.

Thanks again.
Newest stable Kodi (portable), Win 10 | skin: default Confluence
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Hate to be the guy who asks "When's the next release?", but... Anxiously waiting to apply some of the new changes, besides, couldn't see this thread being on page three and Ember and Tiny have a sub-forum of their own! DevilRofl
YOYIZDERZOMENEMOHOZEZAZEZDENDERIZHOZEZ
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