Current version: 1.0.0
Windows executable.
Source code.
I'm a relatively new XBMC user (I don't even have it hooked up to my TV yet) but I'm really enjoying the process of organizing my digital video.
I've been very impressed by the built-in scrapers and some of the third-party media managers (most of which seem to be in some sort of crisis at the moment), but I ran into a very specific sort of problem that I'm sure must crop up for a lot of people, but I didn't see a specific solution for this limited problem.
As many of you know, TheTVDB.com strongly discourages the addition of "DVD extras" to their database. It's their database, and a fantastic service, so no complaints there, but as a bit of a completist/perfectionist, I want to have those DVD extras inside XBMC with nice descriptions and organized into the series/boxset that they came from.
After a bit of digging, I learned about .NFO files and how I could use them to annotate the media files that contained those series extras. I tried using Ember and other media managers, but they all either were in the midst of crises or were designed for after-the-fact editing (I was concurrently ripping my DVD boxsets). I wanted something that would make ripping and annotating a streamlined process.
As a programmer by day, I figured I'd whip together an app to do this. A few days later, TV Show NFO Editor was born. I figured that as this can't be a unique problem, I'd open the program up to the community. It is currently being hosted at github as TV-Show-NFO-Editor. Executables and source are provided and the code is released under the Apache 2.0 License.
So, how does the app work? Let's look at a screen shot:
TV Show NFO Editor assumes a fairly standard folder structure - base TV Show folder\Series Name\Season # and an option "Extras" subfolder under the season.
You can enter the base TV Show folder or browse for it. Add a TV Series Name and the app will look for a folder of that name under the base TV Show folder. If the folder doesn't exist, the field will turn red and a "Create Folder" button will appear next to it.
The same thing will occur when you change the season number - if there isn't a folder for that season, a "Create Folder" button will appear. If, like me, you want to separate your DVD extras from the TV episodes themselves, you can add a subfolder name (I use "Extras"). If it doesn't exist... it turns red and a "Create Folder" button appears (see a pattern here?).
Now that you have a folder selected, the app will check to see if there are already .NFO files in that folder. If there are, they will be displayed in the "Existing NFO Files" list on the right. Selecting any of those files will load the existing data into the application, ready for editing. You can also drag-and-drop an existing .NFO file into the app and it will load the file, switch to the appropriate folder and display any other .NFO files in that folder.
Now, for the editing. Most of what you see is pretty self-explanatory - you can add a rating (1-10), add plot details, add actors and other data. For the less used NFO tags like "composer" and "credits", you go to the Tag grid, select a tag like "credits" and enter the value next to it. Go to an open row to add more tags or select a row and hit the delete key to remove an existing tag. I have predefined the following tags - "aired", "artist", "composer", "credits", "director" and "set". There are probably more, but the documentation for NFO tags is pretty sparse and those were the only ones I needed. You can add more tags, though, by editing a file that is automatically generated by the application in your user's AppData\Midnight Programmers\NFO Editor\1.0.0.0 folder: NFOEditor.Tags.config. It's just a text file with the tags on individual lines, so you can easily add more. If you accidentally corrupt this file, the app will simply restore it to the above list of seven tags.
I am (mis)using the "set" tag to group together extras that all reference a particular episode or story. It's harmless and seems to fit within the spirit of why that tag was developed.
Once all required data has been input, the "Save" button will activate and you can save the .NFO to the folder. The file will automatically be named as "S##E## - [title].nfo". If you are editing an existing file, it will remove that file and replace it with the new one (you may have changed the title, so I can't just write to the same file). If you don't want the original file to be removed (you might be using it as a starting point to create a new file), hit the Sweep button (little broom) next to "Original NFO Filename".
You can do the above in a lot of media managers, and they look slicker, so why use mine? I would use it if you are hitting the same use case - you are ripping and annotating at the same time. This application is streamlined for that use.
You will see that in addition to the NFO filenames, there is one for the media filename (in my case, I'm using MKV, so that's the file extension I want).
When I'm ripping (using Handbrake), I figure out which title is being ripped (via VLC), set Handbrake to that title and then I start the annotation process (I'm not ripping yet). In my case, a lot of the information I wanted for one show (Doctor Who) existed on a terrific Wikia page. I wanted to be able to copy information from that page and quickly paste it into a .NFO file. I can do that easily by selecting the text I want, hitting Ctrl-C and then going to the "title" or "plot" section in the app and hitting the "Paste" button next to either of them.
Now I just need to select or increment the episode number (the next available one for the folder can be selected at any time via a button next to the Episode number spinner), set up actors or tags and hit "Save". This not only saves a fresh .NFO file for this title, but it also copies a MKV filename for that folder into the clipboard (you can do this manually at any time by hitting the Copy button next to the Media Filename section). I paste that name into the Handbrake filename text field and now I can add the title to the encode queue.
Via this process, I can add all the extras for a DVD in just a few minutes. And I have nice .NFO files that XBMC can use to give me a great display.
Win-win!
I hope this turns out to be useful to others. It's an open-source application, so feel free to fork it, use bits of the code or contact me if you want to help develop it. I don't have any immediate plans for further development, but you never know...
Windows executable.
Source code.
I'm a relatively new XBMC user (I don't even have it hooked up to my TV yet) but I'm really enjoying the process of organizing my digital video.
I've been very impressed by the built-in scrapers and some of the third-party media managers (most of which seem to be in some sort of crisis at the moment), but I ran into a very specific sort of problem that I'm sure must crop up for a lot of people, but I didn't see a specific solution for this limited problem.
As many of you know, TheTVDB.com strongly discourages the addition of "DVD extras" to their database. It's their database, and a fantastic service, so no complaints there, but as a bit of a completist/perfectionist, I want to have those DVD extras inside XBMC with nice descriptions and organized into the series/boxset that they came from.
After a bit of digging, I learned about .NFO files and how I could use them to annotate the media files that contained those series extras. I tried using Ember and other media managers, but they all either were in the midst of crises or were designed for after-the-fact editing (I was concurrently ripping my DVD boxsets). I wanted something that would make ripping and annotating a streamlined process.
As a programmer by day, I figured I'd whip together an app to do this. A few days later, TV Show NFO Editor was born. I figured that as this can't be a unique problem, I'd open the program up to the community. It is currently being hosted at github as TV-Show-NFO-Editor. Executables and source are provided and the code is released under the Apache 2.0 License.
So, how does the app work? Let's look at a screen shot:
TV Show NFO Editor assumes a fairly standard folder structure - base TV Show folder\Series Name\Season # and an option "Extras" subfolder under the season.
You can enter the base TV Show folder or browse for it. Add a TV Series Name and the app will look for a folder of that name under the base TV Show folder. If the folder doesn't exist, the field will turn red and a "Create Folder" button will appear next to it.
The same thing will occur when you change the season number - if there isn't a folder for that season, a "Create Folder" button will appear. If, like me, you want to separate your DVD extras from the TV episodes themselves, you can add a subfolder name (I use "Extras"). If it doesn't exist... it turns red and a "Create Folder" button appears (see a pattern here?).
Now that you have a folder selected, the app will check to see if there are already .NFO files in that folder. If there are, they will be displayed in the "Existing NFO Files" list on the right. Selecting any of those files will load the existing data into the application, ready for editing. You can also drag-and-drop an existing .NFO file into the app and it will load the file, switch to the appropriate folder and display any other .NFO files in that folder.
Now, for the editing. Most of what you see is pretty self-explanatory - you can add a rating (1-10), add plot details, add actors and other data. For the less used NFO tags like "composer" and "credits", you go to the Tag grid, select a tag like "credits" and enter the value next to it. Go to an open row to add more tags or select a row and hit the delete key to remove an existing tag. I have predefined the following tags - "aired", "artist", "composer", "credits", "director" and "set". There are probably more, but the documentation for NFO tags is pretty sparse and those were the only ones I needed. You can add more tags, though, by editing a file that is automatically generated by the application in your user's AppData\Midnight Programmers\NFO Editor\1.0.0.0 folder: NFOEditor.Tags.config. It's just a text file with the tags on individual lines, so you can easily add more. If you accidentally corrupt this file, the app will simply restore it to the above list of seven tags.
I am (mis)using the "set" tag to group together extras that all reference a particular episode or story. It's harmless and seems to fit within the spirit of why that tag was developed.
Once all required data has been input, the "Save" button will activate and you can save the .NFO to the folder. The file will automatically be named as "S##E## - [title].nfo". If you are editing an existing file, it will remove that file and replace it with the new one (you may have changed the title, so I can't just write to the same file). If you don't want the original file to be removed (you might be using it as a starting point to create a new file), hit the Sweep button (little broom) next to "Original NFO Filename".
You can do the above in a lot of media managers, and they look slicker, so why use mine? I would use it if you are hitting the same use case - you are ripping and annotating at the same time. This application is streamlined for that use.
You will see that in addition to the NFO filenames, there is one for the media filename (in my case, I'm using MKV, so that's the file extension I want).
When I'm ripping (using Handbrake), I figure out which title is being ripped (via VLC), set Handbrake to that title and then I start the annotation process (I'm not ripping yet). In my case, a lot of the information I wanted for one show (Doctor Who) existed on a terrific Wikia page. I wanted to be able to copy information from that page and quickly paste it into a .NFO file. I can do that easily by selecting the text I want, hitting Ctrl-C and then going to the "title" or "plot" section in the app and hitting the "Paste" button next to either of them.
Now I just need to select or increment the episode number (the next available one for the folder can be selected at any time via a button next to the Episode number spinner), set up actors or tags and hit "Save". This not only saves a fresh .NFO file for this title, but it also copies a MKV filename for that folder into the clipboard (you can do this manually at any time by hitting the Copy button next to the Media Filename section). I paste that name into the Handbrake filename text field and now I can add the title to the encode queue.
Via this process, I can add all the extras for a DVD in just a few minutes. And I have nice .NFO files that XBMC can use to give me a great display.
Win-win!
I hope this turns out to be useful to others. It's an open-source application, so feel free to fork it, use bits of the code or contact me if you want to help develop it. I don't have any immediate plans for further development, but you never know...
