iPad 2 metadata
#1
Firstly may I say a huge thank you to the many people contributing to this forum. Without them I would have been truly lost in setting up my fileshare for XBMC on my ipad in the first place.

I followed the guide exactly and after some work, managed to access the files on the network on my ipad via smb. Although I already have XBMC on the laptop, with all the metadata, for some reason I am unable to access this functionality on the ipad. Although I can see and play the files, I'm assuming that for some reason I can't access the metadata.

It should be noted that I'm pretty new to all of this, so it's likely that I missed something. From the research I've done, the metadata isn't accessible via upnp (tbh I have no idea what these protocols are, I simply follow guides) but how this differs to smb is unknown to me. I don't intend to sync all devices via sql, but I would like to access the metadata information (e.g fanart synopsis etc) on the ipad version of xbmc. If anybody knows how, do let me know, otherwise many thanks for helping me getting it all up and running: The streaming functionality is significantly better than many of the paid for apps that do a similar function, but require far more installation files on the pc/laptop so it's still my go to player-even if it isn't as pretty as my laptop version Smile

tldr: need help with accessing metadata. I'm a techno noob. I have metadata for xbmc on the laptop version.
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#2
Most of the metadata you're probably looking for is the stuff that's scraped when loading your media files into your library.

Sounds like you have your sources setup and can access them in file mode, but you'll need to set the content on your sources and load them into your library. Check out the Video Library (wiki) wiki. You'll want to pay attention to the steps about Setting the Content (e.g. TV Shows vs Movies) and Scanning.

Since you already have your metadata setup on your laptop, you may also wish to look into Import/Export library (wiki) as a way to have the fanarty, posters, etc. from your laptop made available to your iPad install.


Edit - just another note. Yes, upnp "shares" can't use the XBMC library, since the path to the file is dynamic, but the library feature can be used for smb, so you're good there.



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#3
Hi there DLeavy,

Thanks for trying to help me out with this. I've actually tried importing the library from my laptop before, which never worked. I tried again using the link provided, and whilst I was able to view the fanart and other metadata(ery) bits-I was unable to play the video files (error file not found) – it's important to note that the new library imported was separate from the "file mode" list which was still there. Do I need to do some tinkering with the videodb file in the library export folder (e.g. redirect the movies from external hard drives, to smb: so the ipad can read it, as currently they're all directing to external drives F and E rather than smb:XXXXXXX? Is there a quick way to do this, rather than find and replace?).

From what I know (little...) my laptop library is working fine concerning scrapers and content sources. I've set up the ipad xbmc version in the same fashion, but it still won't supply me with any extra metadata access goodness. I've included some screenshots, not sure how useful these will be.

I should also note that my xbmc main install is on the laptop, whilst the films and tv shows are on two separate hard drives (and yes, they're plugged in and on – appearing on ipad xbmc and playing fine in file mode).

The first few screenshots are from the ipad-showing the current situation.
http://i50.tinypic.com/2e23x90.png
http://i47.tinypic.com/dnegq0.png
http://i47.tinypic.com/2cmqijb.png

And the current (working) state of xbmc on my laptop
http://i45.tinypic.com/beahlg.png

EDIT: Problem solved. I had listed two sources as one set (trying to be clever) which wouldn't allow a scan for both. If I did the files one at a time, they worked which led me to believe adding one hard drive at a time would work. Which it did. Thanks for the help people! Smile
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iPad 2 metadata0