[lightningbit]

Hi,

I'm fairly new to xbmc (had a few quick trial runs) and I've a question regarding organizing movies in folder structure

The basics I captured and understand well :
- keep movies and TV shows (or series) in a separate "root" folder
\movies
\tvshows

talking about movies, I understand there are 2 options:
- put multiple movies in a single (sub)folder (like \movies\action or \movies\science-fiction, ...), where the foldername does not really matter
or
- put each movie in its own folder, where the folder name then becomes important as lookup parameter

when I define the source, this is what I would set:
- path : \movies
- run automated scan
- use foldernames for lookups
- scan recursively

now here are my questions/assumptions:
1 if the foldername is not a movie name, xbmc will just dive into that folder and continue scanning for folders/movies (recursively)?
2 if xbmc finds multiple movies in a single folder, it will store all art (fanart, backdrop, thumbs, ...) in the general location (userprofile)?
3 if the folder is a movie name, in which I have also the actual movie file, will it store all the art (fanart, backdrop, thumbs, clearart, ...) of that movie, in that specific folder?
** so what I'm asking in other words, for 2 and 3 : is xbmc smart enough to know/see the difference and act on it?
I know, it is not ideal to mix, but I may have reasons to do so, I want to fine tune part of my collection (down to .nfo files etc...and so avoid rescraping ) and another part not so much (and may be "re-scraped" at any time I reset the source)

4 if for some reason, I reset the source, to re-initialize the library for example, can I assume, that for the folders in point 3, xbmc will use the local data if present, and not overwrite with newly scraped information?
(and in the same way, if I move those folders to a different xbmc unit, they get nicely imported in a new library, with all fine tuned info, without the need for scraping)



Thanks

L.

[Kib]

There is a wiki that explains this very well.

Adding_videos_to_the_library (wiki)

Spoiler:
1) No, if you say that a source has foldernames as movietitles it needs to be that way for every folder in that source. You are free to add several moviesources with different settings, but you can't combine different ways and only select one. Using 'scan recursively' with 'us foldernames for lookups' makes only a little sense if sometimes there would be an empty intermediate folder.

2) No, fanart is stored in the database and in the thumbcache unless you export it to seperate files from the settings menu.

3) No, fanart is stored in the database and in the thumbcache unless you export it to seperate files from the settings menu.

Combining is not ideal at all, but a lot better if they are seperate sources (and folders on disk).

4) If you export the database to seperate files before you start, the NFO files, fanart and thumbs will be nicely placed next to the video files with appropiate names and can be reimported into a new/other xbmc instance (with an advancedsetting you can even import the watched state).

[lightningbit]

There is a wiki that explains this very well.

Adding_videos_to_the_library (wiki)

Spoiler:
1) No, if you say that a source has foldernames as movietitles it needs to be that way for every folder in that source. You are free to add several moviesources with different settings, but you can't combine different ways and only select one. Using 'scan recursively' with 'us foldernames for lookups' makes only a little sense if sometimes there would be an empty intermediate folder.

2) No, fanart is stored in the database and in the thumbcache unless you export it to seperate files from the settings menu.

3) No, fanart is stored in the database and in the thumbcache unless you export it to seperate files from the settings menu.

Combining is not ideal at all, but a lot better if they are seperate sources (and folders on disk).

4) If you export the database to seperate files before you start, the NFO files, fanart and thumbs will be nicely placed next to the video files with appropiate names and can be reimported into a new/other xbmc instance (with an advancedsetting you can even import the watched state).

Hi,

thanks for the quick and clear answer
I didn't think of the multiple sources, so I probably will use that

few a follow up questions :
- reading your answer on 4) : in the case of "each movie in their own folder" : if such folder would have already (before importing it into xbmc) the .nfo file, and art (fanart, folder thumbs, clear art, backdrops, ..) like downloaded by for example Mediacenter Master or Media Companion: XBMC would use that to load in in the database and thumbcache (in stead of or preferred over scraping for info), correct?
- I assume they need to be named according to certain standards (both meta media managers seem to have a similar naming standard, compatible with xbmc?)
- if only an .nfo file is there, but the jpg files would be missing, will xbmc try to scrape for the missing items?

Thanks

L.

[Kib]

Yes, yes, yes.

[lightningbit]

Yes, yes, yes.

Excellent, thanks for all the info

now I can start organizing my collection ... slowly but steady