Comics in 3.5
#1
So the built in support for Comics is great, much better than my previous hack.

However I'm having some issues fine-tuning it. In particular, fanart for the various sub-sections.

Folder structure
-------------
\Comics
>DC
>>Batman
>>>The Dark Knight

Is it possible to have fanart.jpg at the "DC" level and then again at the "Batman" level? The end result means a generic DC fanart when browsing all title, and a more book/character centric one when selecting a particular sub-folder. Folder.jpg works fine, just fanart that doesn't want to play...

Possible, or am I being too picky here?

Also, the thumbnail that is generated for a lot of my comics appears as a four-page layout squished into one tiny picture. Is this to do with the CBR/CBZ file? Some are displayed perfectly, with the image being the front cover. Again, minor tweaks. Anyone else encountered this?
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#2
you need to have a .tbn file named exactly as the comic for a thumbnail
I usually google the cover of the comic as a jpg and rename it

Each level of folder can have its own artwork just put artwork inside folder and name it folder.jpg
As for individual fanarts I believe the answer is no but cant be sure as away from pc atm will get back to you concerning this

Edit tried to add fanarts using all kinds of naming conventions but no go
Seems like folder fanarts not possible atm
Check out my Fanart.tv stuff!
...........I also accept disc requests if image not on fanart.tv database !!!!
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#3
The thumbnails being squished in that four bit layout is normal.
This is because of the way your folders are organised.

One work around for you, for instance, is to find a comic book shaped image you like for DC (for example) and move it in there as folder.jpg

This will prevent that behaviour, because what it's doing right now is combining thumbs from the folders within that directory.

Basically folder.jpg is a nice "trick" even for the layout of pictures and works grand with comics.



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#4
Thanks for the help guys.

That's a shame about fanart but I can deal.

As for the thumbnails, I should clarify a little: each comic book is its own file - either .CBZ or .CBR. XBMC supports both (I'm unaware of the difference mind you...)

So the structure would read:
DC
> Batman
>> Dark Knight
>>> Issue 01.cbz, Issue 02.cbz, Issue 03.cbz....

When viewing these folders that contain multiple comics, the naturally generated thumbnails are hit and miss - some pick the cover perfectly (which is the first image in cbr file) while others display the compressed 4-page preview. I'm yet to pick a pattern as to why some work and not others.

The .tbn solution would work, however if I can work out HOW xbmc generates its thumbnails, it would save a truckload of work. (I have a lot of comics!)
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#5
(2012-08-08, 17:11)holygrail4 Wrote: Thanks for the help guys.

That's a shame about fanart but I can deal.

As for the thumbnails, I should clarify a little: each comic book is its own file - either .CBZ or .CBR. XBMC supports both (I'm unaware of the difference mind you...)

So the structure would read:
DC
> Batman
>> Dark Knight
>>> Issue 01.cbz, Issue 02.cbz, Issue 03.cbz....

When viewing these folders that contain multiple comics, the naturally generated thumbnails are hit and miss - some pick the cover perfectly (which is the first image in cbr file) while others display the compressed 4-page preview. I'm yet to pick a pattern as to why some work and not others.

The .tbn solution would work, however if I can work out HOW xbmc generates its thumbnails, it would save a truckload of work. (I have a lot of comics!)


so for example your first thumbnail is - Issue 01.tbn
Yes it is a pita - I was fortunate in that I added a few comics after working out the naming conventions
Looks like youve got a project - good luck

btw cbr/cbz files are really like folders holding multiple pics this is why xbmc shows the first 4 pics on the thumb of a comic
Check out my Fanart.tv stuff!
...........I also accept disc requests if image not on fanart.tv database !!!!
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#6
The thumbnails do not behave that way for me. While I know the reason it would do that and behave that way, it doesn't make sense for it to do that for the cbz and cbr files themselves or as such I've not seen that behaviour. What are some of the comic names it does that with?

I've a significant amount of scans and comicrack can help you sort things out. I use winrar to open the comic and take images for thumbs and delete images/pages I don't want.

There are little scripts you can write to speed/automate the process once you get things organised
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#7
made some changes to bg for pictures section just now, it should now play a slideshow of included images when focussing a folder.
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#8
(2012-08-08, 19:43)fional Wrote: The thumbnails do not behave that way for me. While I know the reason it would do that and behave that way, it doesn't make sense for it to do that for the cbz and cbr files themselves or as such I've not seen that behaviour. What are some of the comic names it does that with?

I've a significant amount of scans and comicrack can help you sort things out. I use winrar to open the comic and take images for thumbs and delete images/pages I don't want.

There are little scripts you can write to speed/automate the process once you get things organised


I think (although it was a while ago when I didnt initially check cbr/cbz files after downloading) that some comic files are embedded in another folder
When opening in winrar instead of seeing all the 'pages' there would be another folder with the pages inside
This could be why some thumbs are generated as 4 thumbs by xbmc - I think a quick test could prove that
(or shoot me down in flames and branded a 'heretic')
Check out my Fanart.tv stuff!
...........I also accept disc requests if image not on fanart.tv database !!!!
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#9
I'd say you're right in that instance I can see that. That's where comic rack be handy for cleaning up those silly cbz and cbr files!
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#10
my folder structure is nearly the same as holygrails ( and have been scraped by comickrack.using comicvine scraper. will this help ? ). so all I need to do is to add comics folder as a source in pictures & then add that to the home comics menu ? will xbmc be generating its tbn files ? will it be scraping these as comics ? can xbmc use comicvine scraper?
I thought advanced launcher could scrape for folder & fanarts but one needs a speperate instance of advanced launcher for all seperate titles and that was looking very daunting to me.
will be trying this today!
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#11
You no longer need to add it as pictures if you're in 3.5. You can do that in the menu settings bit.

You don't need advanced launcher. I personally think XBMC does a nicer and less laggy job than comicrack.

Try it without and see, I think it works quite smooth. I have a demo video. I'd give step by step but I won't likely have XBMC access until Monday.

Good luck.

Also, I don't believe XBMC uses comic vine scraper but again you could do all that with comicrack which has a comicvine plugin
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#12
is there no way to have them come from network? im using my atv2, and the only option when setting path appears to be the atv2's home folder which isnt really an option
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#13
(2012-09-28, 01:07)michaelstone Wrote: is there no way to have them come from network? im using my atv2, and the only option when setting path appears to be the atv2's home folder which isnt really an option

i think it´s possible when havin the option "Show parent folder items" in xbmc settings activated. not sure though.
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#14
thanks for reply but doesn't seem to work...i have everything else streaming over nfs from my pc except comics...unless i just use pictures section instead
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Comics in 3.50