Help with making XBMC see posters/fanart for movies
#1
I'm trying to make XBMC pick up my fanart/posters but it doesn't see them. I had previously set my movie collection up to work with YAMJ, which required that the fanart and poster have the same name as the movie, but with a jpg extension (and the fanart had ".fanart" before the jpg extension). I hoped I could do the same with XBMC. I had already generated XBMC compatible NFO files with a program called YANFOE which had all the IMDB info. I don't want to have to re-download all the posters/fanart for my movies again, since I have them all saved locally (in the movie folder).

I also tried using the Ember program for setting the NFO/picture info. It detected and showed my posters/fanart, and I could even make XBMC rescan the folder to pick up the changes from within the program, but XMBC still doesn't see the pictures. I could set it manually in XBMC (setting the poster/fanart), but I don't want to have to do that for each movie. Is there a way to make it automatically see all the pictures?

I searched around this forum for a tutorial on how to set that up, but wasn't able to find anything...

I found something on the wiki that if I name the poster to be <movie name>.tbn instead of <movie name>.jpg and the fanart to <movie name>-fanart.jpg instead of <movie name>.fanart.jpg then it will pick it up. That seemed to have worked, but I don't want to have to go rename all the files, and also Ember doesn't show the pictures any more.
Do I basically have to go rename everything? Thanks in advance for any help.
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#2
Yes you do. Use a renamer utility, which can do it for you easily. I would use either LupasRename or BatchFileRenamer.
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#3
Bummer. Thanks for the info.
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#4
There's really no need to use a renamer if you already have a bunch of files and use Ember.

For movies Ember does a good job. If you can't find the images you want through its sources simply back out to the main screen (showing the movie list to the left) and insert the files you want to add from your own sources (I use google/bing). You can setup Ember to have a set file structure for all the folders. When you select an image within ember it will output the appropriate files.

The file structure I use is:
Fanart: fanart.jpg
Main Info File: <movie>.nfo
Movie Poster: <movie>.tbn
Extrathumbs\
Thumbs: thumbx.jpg (where x is a number, i.e. thumb1, thumb2, thumb3)

This seems to work extremely well for me. There seems to be two locations within Ember that you have to setup this file structure...best to keep them identical. I can't recall off the top of my head where exactly in the program those locations are. Ember will only show the pictures in the directory if it is set to use that file in its file structure.

If you already have a bunch of files I would setup Ember's file structure first, then import all those images into that file structure. Then go back and delete any extra files that don't fit the file structure. I think Ember can do this (deleting extra files) but I haven't figured out how yet.

I really wish Ember did TV shows as well...as what it does for Movies, it does extremely well.
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#5
look into BetterFileRename for batch file renaming.
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#6
Thanks, but I was hoping to avoid having to import the images again one by one. I just used a renamer to put the .tbn at the end of the posters instead of .jpg, and to also rename the fanart pictures appropriately, and XBMC picked them up after that. Thanks anyway.

thor79 Wrote:There's really no need to use a renamer if you already have a bunch of files and use Ember.

For movies Ember does a good job. If you can't find the images you want through its sources simply back out to the main screen (showing the movie list to the left) and insert the files you want to add from your own sources (I use google/bing). You can setup Ember to have a set file structure for all the folders. When you select an image within ember it will output the appropriate files.

The file structure I use is:
Fanart: fanart.jpg
Main Info File: <movie>.nfo
Movie Poster: <movie>.tbn
Extrathumbs\
Thumbs: thumbx.jpg (where x is a number, i.e. thumb1, thumb2, thumb3)

This seems to work extremely well for me. There seems to be two locations within Ember that you have to setup this file structure...best to keep them identical. I can't recall off the top of my head where exactly in the program those locations are. Ember will only show the pictures in the directory if it is set to use that file in its file structure.

If you already have a bunch of files I would setup Ember's file structure first, then import all those images into that file structure. Then go back and delete any extra files that don't fit the file structure. I think Ember can do this (deleting extra files) but I haven't figured out how yet.

I really wish Ember did TV shows as well...as what it does for Movies, it does extremely well.
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#7
Can't blame ya, especially if you have a large library of movies. Mine is still relatively small with only the movies I had converted prior to setting up XBMC. Something around 80 or so at this point...which is a small fraction of my movie collection.

Oh and I figured out how to clean unwanted files. Under Edit->Settings->General->Clean Files just select the files you want to get rid of (leaving the files you DO want unchecked) then hit the Clean Files option in the Tools Menu. Not perfect as any file that doesn't match the clean files list will remain. I'm sure that can be fixed by using expert mode, but I'm too lazy to figure out how right now.

Bottom line is...it's a great tool for movies at least...get yourself started right with the bulk renamer...then rely on Ember to set up everything properly for ya in the future and you're good to go.
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