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DFergATL · (This post was last modified: 2013-05-25, 09:52 by DFergATL.)

@MilhouseVH

Please see the post where I uploaded a log file after Freebase failed to resolve any artists at all.

@Dilligaf

I have been dealing with this for months now. Everytime I get it working, it breaks in a few days. i added that new music folder I created that XBMC pukes up on to my Plex and guess what? It scanned in just fine,every artist was populated, all the artwork for all the albums was downloaded. Not a single problem. But, Plex does not have a PVR. but I am at the end. I will not spend any more time on it.

Milhouse · (This post was last modified: 2013-05-25, 10:13 by Milhouse.)

(2013-05-25, 09:48)DFergATL Wrote: @MilhouseVH

Please see the post where I uploaded a log file after Freebase failed to resolve any artists at all.

I took a quick look, and all I can see are errors "Unable to parse web site" so either the Freebase add-on is broken (does it support Frodo?) or the Freebase web site is broken.

Try a different scraper add-on, most people seem to use the Universal Music scrapers - you're the first person I've seen mention Freebase.

Edit: Just realised you posted multiple logs - the one I refer to above is in post #22. I've really no idea why Freebase is not working for you, like I say I don't think it's widely used with XBMC (though I could be wrong on that, it's just the low volume of problem reports or reports of any other kind that suggest it's not widely used). Try contacting the author. Or try using another music scraper.

n1md4 · (This post was last modified: 2013-05-25, 12:38 by n1md4.)

Hi. I use XBMC for music. Scraping works with the Universal addon, the are some exceptions, but nothing that isn't fixed by adding artists to theaudiodb (that's for another thread). My point is, it does work well, so there must be something in your setup.

Sounds like you've already ditched XBMC but if you stepped up again, why not try a live distro (someone suggested already) openelec or xbmuntu (or what ever they're called)? That gives you a clean pre-built install, that's dedicated to the task, without anything else taking resources.

Just a thought.

**jjd-uk** · 2013-05-25, 14:15

Sounds to me like you're trying to do too much at once, which is not helping and is probably leading to a lot of the confusion. So keep it simple to start off with then build up in stages so you can identify where problems are introduced.

For starters the scrapers are only for artwork and artist & album info and are not needed to add stuff to the Library, for the Library structure itself the tags in the music files are used for thus it's essential these are correct.

Start off with all music scrapers disabled or removed and "Download additional information during updates" disabled in Music - Settings - Library. This will make XBMC exclusively use tags and any local folder or embedded art.

If when you add music in this state everything is still a mess then your tags are the problem and these will need sorting before you can use Library mode, whilst that is being sorted make sure music is well laid out in different folders for artists and albums on the hard drive so File mode can be for browsing your music.

Only once Music is being added cleanly with tags should you move onto using the scrapers via the add ons to get all the pretty fanart and the artist/album info, but be sure to backup music database before messing with scrapers for easy rollback.

For example I have 2 music sources, one is used to stored all my correctly tagged music and is set to update stuff into the Library and scape info from the internet. The other source is for music where I've not yet verified the tags so I purely use File mode for browsing this, only once I'm happy the tags are ok I'll move the album folder into the source for the Library updates for addition to the Library.

DFergATL · 2013-05-25, 22:01

I have formated my HD and reinstalled Windows 8, all the updates and then a generic install of XBMC. While it doesn't crash when scraping using the Universal Scrapper. I still need to use Freebase to get the artists I want. So, far I have uploaded at least one giant log file with the problems using Freebase. The only thing I have been told is "it looks broken" , well yes. However, why would it be listed as a downloadable plugin from within XBMC if it was broken? Why did it work for me a few months ago. Is there any developer that can take a look? The fact is that this Universal Scrapper is not doing what I need. The one that used to work suddenly broke, but it doesn't seem anyone will actually take a look at what is wrong with it. So, am I just screwed?

**Martijn** · (This post was last modified: 2013-05-25, 22:14 by Martijn.)

(2013-05-25, 22:01)DFergATL Wrote: Why did it work for me a few months ago. Is there any developer that can take a look? The fact is that this Universal Scrapper is not doing what I need. The one that used to work suddenly broke, but it doesn't seem anyone will actually take a look at what is wrong with it. So, am I just screwed?

site change,API changes or whatever can suddenly break things. The fact that is in repo is no way a guarantee it works.
When no one reports it broken or the dev who made it marks it broken it will stay there because we don't go checking every single addon in repo if it still works.

And why does the Universal scraper does not do what you want? It works for millions of people.....
If the artists are missing you might wanna contribute to the sites Universal scraper uses.

Universal scraper uses MusicBrainz as a base and theaudiodb website for information

DFergATL · (This post was last modified: 2013-05-25, 22:58 by DFergATL.)

This artist is on musicbranz, but will not scrape
http://musicbrainz.org/artist/c9a9f9c2-2...3114bef4dc

Same with this one.
http://musicbrainz.org/artist/814359d1-4...685969d395

and again:
http://musicbrainz.org/artist/3908a0ff-c...3d52b16a6d

So my next question is why should I have add these artists when they are already on the site the the scrapper is using, but it still can't find them. Yes, I have checked the spelling at least a dozen or more times.
By the way I could go on.. these are just the first three that came to mind.

oh and suddenly the ACE skin refuses to download. does anybody understand why it might be frustrating to a user when every time they start the software something else doesn't work? Or, why I can't scrape artists that are clearly there to be scrapped?

nickr · 2013-05-25, 23:08

Neither bjorn again nor expose appear to be on theaudiodb. Please note the audiodb's page: " TheAudioDB.com is a community driven database of music releases."

You need to be more community minded, same as the people who moan that their favourite obscure movie isn't on themoviedb.

DFergATL · 2013-05-25, 23:33

can you explain to me this relationship

"Universal scraper uses MusicBrainz as a base and theaudiodb website for information"

If they are on MusicBranz why can't I scrape them from there?

**Martijn** · (This post was last modified: 2013-05-25, 23:49 by Martijn.)

(2013-05-25, 23:33)DFergATL Wrote: can you explain to me this relationship

"Universal scraper uses MusicBrainz as a base and theaudiodb website for information"

If they are on MusicBranz why can't I scrape them from there?

MusicBrainz does not provide any artist/album information. theaudiodb does.
So if you want descriptions and artwork and so on they must be at both sites.

If they are not scraped at all (not even added to your library) you might want to check if you got everything tagged properly using ID3 tags.

DFergATL · (This post was last modified: 2013-05-26, 00:32 by DFergATL.)

Ok, now that makes sense.

Currently up and running with:

ACE Skin:
HULU
Artwork Organizer

My audio files are scrapped apparently as good as it is going to get for now. (I would love, love to see Freebase work again.)
TV Files are in.
Movies Files are in.

I am going to leave it at this for a few days to see if it blows up again. If it doesn't I will add things like Youtuve, Revision3, TWIT. and Cinema Experience.

**scott967** · (This post was last modified: 2013-05-26, 05:16 by scott967.)

I use XBMC for music local, Pandora, Last.FM. Maybe not perfect but acceptable. If I need to test (windows) I do a new install outside of Program Files folder, create a shortcut and run portable mode (-p). That way you have an isolated test environment. Just use Confluence and not a bunch of addons. Use a test music folder with just a couple of artists and albums to keep it simple. Get a SQLite app to check out the db.

You should be able to check out how your music tags were read, how the scrapers respond, etc pretty simply.

BTW as far as "community effort" on MusicBrainz, they were missing an artist. I went through the work of registering, studying the style guides, browsing forums etc. Then I added the artist. A couple days later my addition was deleted with no explanation and I never could find a way to ask someone. So I assume you have to be a member of the "club" and I just live with no mbid for missing artists. Often I have better luck scraping from last.fm (like artist slideshow addon).

Now if there is a need to improve XBMC, it is music video. Start with reading mp4 tags like music tags.

scott s.
.

nickr · 2013-05-26, 06:28

Nobody said anything about adding to musicbrainz. We were discussing theaudiodb.

DFergATL · 2013-05-26, 07:45

Kill me please.

I can't play any of my .mkv files. I could yesterday. I did a clean Install of windows 8 and now I can't play 90 percent of my video files. I downloaded vlc and that will play them. I have updated windows, tried downloading codecs. But nothing will make XBMC play my video files again. I know it isn't XBMC because windows media player won't either anymore. But I have spent over 7 hours just today trying to fix this and I am exhausted. What the hell more could go wrong!!

saitoh183 · (This post was last modified: 2013-05-26, 08:02 by saitoh183.)

what do you get as error? post your log after you try in xbmc. have you tried vlc to see if they play in there. Xbmc doesnt need external codecs to play media. Maybe UAC( User Account Control) is blocking playback