[m.savazzi]

I have a huge DVD library whose data is stored in a DB thanks to XMM (eXtreme Movie Manager)
I would like to browse it in XBMC. I need to see the cover and to retrive some info like the DVD number.

I do not have problems to write a program to convert the DB in files etc... but I need some directions as I'm new to XBMC...

thanks
Mf

[watzen]

one way is to convert it to this folder structure:

yourmovies\DVD#\moviename (year).avi (dummyfile with the right moviename and the year it was released)

then you can let xbmc scan the folder and scrape IMDB for all the infos. If you want the dvdnumber you have to press "i" to get the information regarding the file, in the path field you can see the path (DVD#). Set the scan recursively option to on in set content dialog.

[m.savazzi]

good suggestion....

[xbmcjb]

Hi,

Is there a way to put directly an "offline code" like DVD# in the path field ?
Or the path field has to be the exact path to my faked media file ?

I tried this in the nfo without success

Code:

<filenameandpath>DVD#</filenameandpath>

Thanks

[locotewz]

Having the ability to catalog and include offline content in XMBC would be good but its needs to have a method of filtering it (or indicating what is offline).

One way to do this is that when a folder has a scraper set to it, you can also set an option that the entire structure is "offline"

eg. I might have on my server

/movies/(lots of movies that are actually on the harddisk)
/offline_movies/(lots of fake files as has been previously discussed)

Then you can set the scraper for the /offline_movies folder structure to consider everything under there to be "offline"

Then, when displaying the movie names and other things in library view, a graphic could be overlayed with the thumbnail to indicate the movie is offline. This would allow you to see which movies were available to play now and which ones were on media elsewhere.

From that its easy to take it a step further and expand the .nfo files to have a "catalog#" piece of metadata that could be included for offline media, and if the video is played in XBMC a simple message saying "This media is offline and is located on catalog # xxxx"

You can then go and retrieve the media and copy it to your online folder (if you store things on external hard drives like I do) or insert the DVD rom into the xbox and watch it.

You could also then add a filter to the side bar to show/hide offline content.

[timdog82001]

Having the ability to catalog and include offline content in XBMC would be good but its needs to have a method of filtering it (or indicating what is offline).

One way to do this is that when a folder has a scraper set to it, you can also set an option that the entire structure is "offline"

eg. I might have on my server

/movies/(lots of movies that are actually on the harddisk)
/offline_movies/(lots of fake files as has been previously discussed)

Then you can set the scraper for the /offline_movies folder structure to consider everything under there to be "offline"

Then, when displaying the movie names and other things in library view, a graphic could be overlayed with the thumbnail to indicate the movie is offline. This would allow you to see which movies were available to play now and which ones were on media elsewhere.

From that its easy to take it a step further and expand the .nfo files to have a "catalog#" piece of metadata that could be included for offline media, and if the video is played in XBMC a simple message saying "This media is offline and is located on catalog # xxxx"

You can then go and retrieve the media and copy it to your online folder (if you store things on external hard drives like I do) or insert the DVD rom into the xbox and watch it.

You could also then add a filter to the side bar to show/hide offline content.

i agree, it would be nice to have the ability to set a source as offline. I suppose it could just bring up a pop up or dialog of sorts that would display "Please Insert [moviename] Disc and Select OK" with options of OK and Cancel. Would be a welcome addition from my point of view, and hopefully not too complicated to code which is always a plus.

[amducious]

I know there are many posts about offline media temp file but I could not find a way to do this.

what I want to do is add a temp file for my offline dvds that when you click on the file in xbmc it pops up a msg telling me where it is.

Ex. If I click on "Stargate s01e02" I would like a pop up something like "File is located on the Stargate SG-1 Vol. 1 DVD"

thanks for all the help.

[argus]

you can do that by:

Creating a sdirectory named Stargate and then in it put an .avi named Stargate.S01E02 which has in it the text that you want it to display when you click.

when you click on the file the video pops up with the message

only problem is you have to manually navigate to the movie on the dvd and play it.

here's more info if you're using Ant Movie Catalog http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=40329

[amducious]

thats a geat idea Never thought about making a small avi file dose anyone know a program that will allow me to add text and a back ground img. somthing like this

[da-anda]

Hi,
I'm new to XBMC and was wondering if it's possible to add movies I have on DVD or BluRay to the media library, so that I can browse all my movies in XBMC. I know that I can't play BluRays or HD-DVDs directly with XBMC (or any other open source media center) - but at least having them in the library would be sufficient to me.

Second question is about at least limited BluRay and HD-DVD support: Does anybody know of a plugin/script that allows to launch a external app (like PowerDVD) for watching HD media. Or is there some sort of hook or API where I can register a custom script that is triggered after a DVD/BluRay is inserted into the drive? Same would of course be needed for automounted ISOs then. I'm no professional coder/developer, but if nothing like that is present right now I'd be willing to digg into Python and code it myself. I just need some help to get started with it.
Thanks a bunch.

edit:

@admin or whoever did it:
thanks for moving my post.

For me, fake-files are no option as well as fake-videos are no option. Those are by far to time intensive to handle and are not userfriendly at all. It's sad that there doesn't seem to be a offline-index feature.

[Swifty]

I was just thinking of how useful this feature would be.. luckily I searched before posting.

Seems that quite a few people are interested in some feature like this!

At the moment I have lots of DVD's which aren't ripped to my NAS, they hardly ever get watched because whenever I'm looking for a film I just browse the list in XBMC and don't look through my DVD's.

It would be great if we could just create a designated folder name (say 'Offline Videos') within the Movies search path that could contain .nfo's for all the Offline media (Using something like MIP etc. to pull all the film info and art down..)
The scraper that pulls stuff into the library could then pull in every .nfo within that directory without looking for .avi's or similar.. then mark some flag so the library knows it's offline.
When it's selected within XBMC's player it could just display a generic "Please insert disc" message.
The display of Online/Offline media together should be optional for people who want to keep it seperate.

Now it's probably a lot harder than I've just made it sound.. but I think it would be an awesome feature to have within XBMC!

[fidoboy]

Hi there,

I'm also very interested in a feature like this. Currently i manage my movies collection using Ant Movies Catalog and it could be very nice to manage it directly from XBMC GUI. Please, post here if you find a working solution for this.

I can't understand why XBMC doesn't have already a solution for managing an offline catalog, in my modest opinion this is a 'must have' feature....

kind regards,

[ezechiel1917]

simple text: "Please insert <sourcename> " added to media not available dialogue would be more than enough (maybe other variations for local source/smb..) it's just developers don't think this issue should be addressed.
I agree it should be considered as an essential feture for every media center software. I even remember this working on original Xbox few years ago, and it was awesome! Then I was disappointed when I've found it got removed during process of revamping library. Still hoping it will be brought back one beautiful day =)

[spiff]

nobody ever said it shouldn't be added. we just said we don't care jack about the feature and if somebody wants it, they will have to add it themself - big difference!

[ezechiel1917]

you're right spiff, I'm sorry for misinterpretation.