Episode naming convention alienates non-XBMC players
#1
In previous versions of XBMC, analysing TV shows would take into account the full path of each file, but it seems the current recommended naming conventions now seem to imply that only the filename itself is parsed. This can be a problem in mixed-player households who for space, cost, familiarity or simplicity reasons are happy to use set-integrated (eg Sony Bravia) or standalone external players (eg WD-TV Live) that have a browser only capable of displaying a limited number of characters per file (usually 20).

For those of us who perhaps started off with such a player and who have built a large, human-readable file tree to store episodics using directories as critical information, the new convention of "showname SSEE eptitle" renders the use of these other players and their short-length file browsers useless.

Whilst this example tree would work with XBMC's scraper:

Code:
+ TV Shows
--+ Star Trek The Next Generation
----+ Star Trek The Next Generation S01E01 Encounter At Farpoint.avi
----+ Star Trek The Next Generation S01E03 The Naked Now.avi
----+ Star Trek The Next Generation S01E04 Code Of Honor.avi

.. on a WD-TV it would look like this:

Code:
Star Trek The Next G...
Star Trek The Next G...
Star Trek The Next G...

If, like me and many others, one has built a tree to accomodate the shortened name display, eg:

Code:
+ TV Shows
--+ Star Trek The Next Generation
----+ Season 01
------+ S01E01 Encounter At Farpoint.avi
------+ S01E03 The Naked Now.avi
------+ S01E04 Code Of Honor.avi

... we would be seeing this:

Code:
S01E01 Encounter At ...
S01E03 The Naked Now...
S01E04 Code Of Honor...

... which I'm sure you'll agree makes it a lot easier to find the exact show you want.

What I put to you, is this:

How hard is it to allow a well ordered and nested file tree and analyse each episode by its full path, rather than just its discrete file name?

If the requirement of prefixing every episode with the showname becomes a mandatory requirement, I, for one, would forego further use of XBMC rather than render other players in a mixed-player house-hold useless.
#2
I have my shows similarly setup

Code:
+ TV Shows
--+ Star Trek The Next Generation
----+ Season 01
------+ 01 Encounter At Farpoint.avi
------+ 03 The Naked Now.avi
------+ 04 Code Of Honor.avi

and XBMC supports it fine as long as you add this to advancedsettings.xml

Code:
<tvshowmatching>
    <regexp>Season[\._ ]([0-9]+)[\\/]([0-9]+)[^\\/]*</regexp>
</tvshowmatching>

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Vid...file_names
#3
Have you tried this yet? You might be pleasantly surprised (no regexp tweaks necessary) Wink

Code:
+ TV Shows
--+ Star Trek The Next Generation
----+ Season 01
------+ S01E01 Encounter At Farpoint.avi
------+ S01E03 The Naked Now.avi
------+ S01E04 Code Of Honor.avi
#4
(2013-02-15, 20:57)Hyram Wrote: For those of us who perhaps started off with such a player and who have built a large, human-readable file tree to store episodics using directories as critical information, the new convention of "showname SSEE eptitle" renders the use of these other players and their short-length file browsers useless.

There is no such convention. The only part of the file name that is important is the S01E01 (or equivalent) part. Everything else is ignored.

XBMC determines the show title from the folder name.
#5
(2013-02-15, 21:57)scudlee Wrote: There is no such convention. The only part of the file name that is important is the S01E01 (or equivalent) part. Everything else is ignored.

XBMC determines the show title from the folder name.

Thankyou, I can now safely ignore whatever the wiki page on naming convention says when it talk about having the show name in the file name.

drivesoslow: Not much use if regexs are so much unfathomable Swahili.
#6
Where does it say that in the wiki?
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#7
(2013-02-17, 09:26)jmarshall Wrote: Where does it say that in the wiki?

There are at least three places on Video library/Naming files/TV shows (wiki) where the opposite is stated.

I've edited the third of these to try and make it more explicit for those who miss it.

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