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dn604
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2010-01-12, 23:41
Sorry for the silly question, but I'm trying to understand how the media managers (Ember, MIP, etc) work with XBMC...
Or are they just standalone programs?
I was hoping I could manage, and have full control over updating things I didn't like that the scraper filled in, or add things that was missed. And XBMC would use the Media Manager information to build the Media Information in the Library?
Am I way off?
Thanks for any clarity!
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They are stand-alone programs; but can really help manager your media in the way you describe.
Use the media manager first to generate the NFO files for your different media types. The XBMC scraper can then read in the NFO files and populate its database with the information (and also find all the thumbnails, fanart, screenshots, etc that is associated with the file).
Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe XBMC will only read in the NFO file when it is adding to the library, so if you scan and add the movie; then change the NFO file you'll have to remove and re-add the movie.
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dn604
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Ok, that is what I was thinking.
If I have all my movies in one big directory, will it be ok to save .nfo's with the proper information, with just the moviename.nfo and XBMC will pick them all up correctly?
And I would assume you are correct that I would need to remove the movie from the library, an rescan so it picks up the .nfo information.
I'm not sure if it would just be easier to manually edit the Database directly? I don't need 100's of changes, most of my stuff is main stream and the scrapper did just fine.
Thanks!
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dn604
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Oh, that might be the answer!
Will try this out later today.
Thanks SO much guys.
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You will find that if you use a manager, deleting your DB (set content to none) and repopulating is fairly quick. Since XBMC grabs the info from the nfo file scrapes are much much faster.
The other added benefit of nfo files, is that if you ever get a new HTPC or wipe and rebuild any customizations will stay with the nfo file and you won't have to worry about backing up the db or re-editing titles etc.
Since all your files are in the same directory:
1. Ensure you configure the manager to use moviename.nfo, moviename.jpg, and moviename-fanart.jpg only. Otherwise you will just write over the defaults files of folder.jpg etc
2. If you have TV shows mixed in with movies, I would separate them. TV Shows DO NOT support moviename-fanart.jpg only the generic fanart.jpg (at least the last 9.11 final version didn't pick them up when I tried last night).
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Trust me... as someone that has edited movie data for 30-50 movies each time I rebuilt a database (switching HTPC software, upgrades, issues, aka tons of times) that you will get over nfo files intermingling after about say the 3rd time you go and perform all the same edits over and over and over....
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dn604
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2010-01-14, 06:28
(This post was last modified: 2010-01-14, 08:11 by dn604.)
haha, I hear ya.
That being said, why not just backup the database? Same as having to backup all the .nfo's?
Out of curiosity, which MM do you use? I've tried Ember, MIP and MCGen2 and I haven't liked any of them...
Also, I"m confused how Posters, FanArt, Thumbnails, etc are stored in the database, in XBMC are they just LINKS to a website to pull them from, or is it somehow storing the actual IMAGE? Which doesn't seem right...
Thanks!
