[eggman]

Hey Folks,

I am trying to store TV shows. I have:
1. several shows that span several seasons where I have individual files for each episode
2. several shows that span several seasons where I have .iso files from my DVD collection, typically 2 to 4 discs per season

What is the best naming convention and folder structure for these scenarios?

I currently have:
-Movies
--- Movie Name Folder
----- Movie Name.mkv
----- Movie Name.tbn
----- Movie Name-fanart.jpg
--- TV Series Name
----- TV Series Name Season 1x
------- TV Series Name 1x01 - Episode Name 1.mkv
------- TV Series Name 1x02 - Episode Name 2.mkv
----- TV Series Name Season 2x
------- TV Series Name 2x01 - Episode Name 1.mkv
------- TV Series Name 2x02 - Episode Name 2.mkv
--- TV Series Name
----- TV Series Name Season 1
------- TV Series Name Season 1 [DISC 1].iso
------- TV Series Name Season 1 [DISC 2].iso
----- TV Series Name Season 2
------- TV Series Name Season 2 [DISC 1].iso
------- TV Series Name Season 2 [DISC 2].iso

But that seems to make XBMC and XBMC Media Companion go a bit mentol. I think I will seperare out the TV Shows from the movies so I will have:
- Movies
--- Movie Folders
- TV
--- TV folders

But I want to understand how I should set up the TV sub-folders.

I am trying to figure out the best file storage schema that will work with XBMC, XBMC Media Companion and YAMJ on an NMT. If I can determine what the best structure is for XBMC and XBMC Media Companion I can see what the YAMJ devs can do to implement a compatible system.

Thanks in advance,
egg

[fekker]

I'm working on a app (movieinfoplus) that made me think about how to format things for quite some time.
This is basically what I came up with.

Basically I'm putting movies into a folder that's has the moviename as the foldername with any addon data (like (DVD) or (720p) or (Xvid) or (LQ))

For tv shows, I don't put any of the episodes in the root folder, I think there should be 1 sub folder (at least) but the ideal way is for sub folders for each season

I name tv shows tvshowname.sXXeXX.whateverelse.avi (or whatever extension is used for the movie type)
the key being sXX (for season number as 2 digits as XX) and eXX (for episode as 2 digits as XX)

-Movies
--Movie Title (movie name is folder name)
--> Movie file(s), -fanart, -trailer, .nfo, .tbn, folder.jpg
--Movie Title (movie name is folder name)
--> Movie file(s), -fanart, -trailer, .nfo, .tbn, folder.jpg
...

- TV Shows (root folder for all tv shows)
--TV Show (folder with the title as the name of the folder)
-->tvshow.nfo
-->fanart.jpg
-->folder.jpg
-->season01.tbn
-->season02.tbn
---Season 1 (folder named Season 1)
--->folder.jpg (season thumbnail for non-library view)
--->tvshowname.s01e01.avi
--->tvshowname.s01e01.nfo
--->tvshowname.s01e01.tbn
--->tvshowname.s01e02.avi
--->tvshowname.s01e02.nfo
--->tvshowname.s01e02.tbn
... etc
---Season 2 (folder named Season 2)
--->folder.jpg (season thumbnail for non-library view)
--->tvshowname.s01e01.avi
--->tvshowname.s01e01.nfo
--->tvshowname.s01e01.tbn
--->tvshowname.s01e02.avi
--->tvshowname.s01e02.nfo
--->tvshowname.s01e02.tbn
... etc
etc

for TV Shows with only 1 season
--TV Show (folder with the title as the name of the folder)
-->tvshow.nfo
-->fanart.jpg
-->folder.jpg
-->season01.tbn
---All (folder with the name of All)
--->folder.jpg (for non-library view)
--->tvshowname.s01e01.avi
--->tvshowname.s01e01.nfo
--->tvshowname.s01e01.tbn
--->tvshowname.s01e02.avi
--->tvshowname.s01e02.nfo
--->tvshowname.s01e02.tbn
... etc


I wanted to keep the TV Shows out of the root folder so that I could do something like this in the future (this is just an idea and doesn't work in xbmc)

-TV Shows (root folder for all tv shows)
--Supernatural (folder under TV Shows, folder name is: Supernatural)
--> folder.jpg (for non-library use)
--> tvshow.nfo (.nfo file for the TV Show)
--> tvshow-fanart.jpg (the fanart for the entire show)
--> tvshow-banner.jpg (season banner (wide icon))
--> tvshow-poster.jpg (season poster (poster type))
--> tvshow-teaser.avi (teaser for the tvshow, kinda like a movie trailer, but for the show)
---Season 1 ( sub folder of the TV Show folder)
---> folder.jpg (for non-library use)
---> season1.nfo (season information)
---> season1-fanart.jpg (season background)
---> season1-banner.jpg (season banner (wide icon))
---> season1-poster.jpg (season poster (poster type))
---> season1-teaser.avi (teaser for season)
---> supernatural.s01e01.avi (the episode movie file)
---> supernatural.s01e01.nfo (the episode .nfo file)
---> supernatural.s01e01.tbn (the episode thumb file)
---> supernatural.s01e01-fanart.jpg (the episode fanart)
---> %all other season 1 episodes and episode .nfos/tbns%
---Season 2 (sub folder of the TV Show folder)
---> folder.jpg (for non-library use)
---> season2.nfo (season information)
---> season2-fanart.jpg (season background)
---> season2-banner.jpg (season banner (wide icon))
---> season2-poster.jpg (season poster (poster type))
---> season2-teaser.avi (teaser for season)
---> %all other season 2 episodes and episode .nfos/tbns%

just my 2 penny's worth

[eggman]

Good stuff .. thanks for the reply. I will also check out Movie Info Plus.

I think I have come up with a decent structure for TV Series where the files are stored as individual episode files (typically .avi or .mkv files). It's pretty much similar to yours.

However I can't figure out how to store TV series where it's a "box set" with several episodes on a single .iso and several .iso files for a complete season. Any ideas on that one?

egg

[Tuckie]

Have you figured out how to do this? It seems like more work than I would like to convert my box sets from isos to individual episodes.

[eggman]

Have you figured out how to do this? It seems like more work than I would like to convert my box sets from isos to individual episodes.

I haven't figured it out. And I agree would be a huge pita to convert iso to individual episodes (and extras). It's really the last "meta data" & storage structure issue I have left to figure out.

egg

[sho]

Have you guys looked here?
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=38964

And more precisely:
http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=TV_Shows#Mul...t_Episodes

[eggman]

Have you guys looked here?
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=38964

And more precisely:
http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=TV_Shows#Mul...t_Episodes

Thanks for the links Sho. I have read that previously. The specific link you provided to the MultiPart Episodes would work for "box sets" stored in .iso format (where there is 3 episodes on a single DVD and 4 DVDs for an entire season).

But what I don't quite understand is how the nfo and tbn data should be stored and named. I can't seem to figure out how I should structure the NFO and images (like covers and fanart) for these situations.

egg

[sho]

one file can only have one thumb atm unfortunately.
support for multi ep nfo has just been added to XBMC, you can probably look at media companion for more info.

[eggman]

Thanks very much for the info sho.

Is there any doc on multi ep nfo?

egg

[sho]

I remember seeing something on it in this forum somewhere.
I'd use media companion to create a valid multi nfo and take it from there.

[halo_nz]

Have you figured out how to do this? It seems like more work than I would like to convert my box sets from isos to individual episodes.

Use DVDFab while ripping the ISO's.

You can customise split them, doing 2 episode's into single ISO's at a time. It's the least manual way I could find to do the same thing you are looking for.