How to see Movie Cover when only directory is selected?
#1
Hi,

I have organized my Movies this way: There is a folder called "Movies", under that folder are several folders called "Movie Title 1", "Movie Title 2", etc., and in these folders, there are the actual movie files.

I have set the content type of the folder "Movies" to automatically synchronize with moviedb, so it loads the correct covers from the internet, this works.

The problem is: XBMC only shows the covers of the movies when I enter a subfolder. However, I'd like to already display that cover information when the folder is selected in the list, but not yet entered. Do you understand what I mean? XBMC shows the movie covers only when I enter "Movie Title 1", and the file containing the movie is highlighted. I want this information already shown when I am highlighting the folder instead, so that I do not have to enter each folder in order to see the cover.

I don't want to switch to database mode either. Is there any way to achieve what I want?

Thanks alot.
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#2
I'm not sure I follow.
XMBC reads & links to files not folders. Not sure that's possible but I may be wrong?
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#3
The best way I found was simply to remove the movies from any folder, and just have the one folder called Movies. I've ripped my DVD's as .iso's, which may not be the way you have yours, however.
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#4
Jackie78 Wrote:Hi,

I have organized my Movies this way: There is a folder called "Movies", under that folder are several folders called "Movie Title 1", "Movie Title 2", etc., and in these folders, there are the actual movie files.

I have set the content type of the folder "Movies" to automatically synchronize with moviedb, so it loads the correct covers from the internet, this works.

The problem is: XBMC only shows the covers of the movies when I enter a subfolder. However, I'd like to already display that cover information when the folder is selected in the list, but not yet entered. Do you understand what I mean? XBMC shows the movie covers only when I enter "Movie Title 1", and the file containing the movie is highlighted. I want this information already shown when I am highlighting the folder instead, so that I do not have to enter each folder in order to see the cover.

I don't want to switch to database mode either. Is there any way to achieve what I want?

Thanks alot.

Sounds like you are in video files mode, and do not want to use video library mode? in that case, if each folder has a cover art file named either "folder.jpg" or "movie title 1.jpg" then when you navigate the folders, it should display the cover image for the selected folder.
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#5
I sort of having the same problem. Some folders do actually show fanart while others don't. Always in file mode. Of course you are right, that xbmc doesn't need separate folders to store your movie files in them. Just throw whatever movie files you have in, as is.
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#6
The reason I do not want to use library mode is the fact that I need to know the folder the movie is in, since many movies are available in SD and HD version, which is not shown in library. Besides, I also want to see the movies that have no library entry.

bodhi Wrote:Sounds like you are in video files mode, and do not want to use video library mode? in that case, if each folder has a cover art file named either "folder.jpg" or "movie title 1.jpg" then when you navigate the folders, it should display the cover image for the selected folder.

Is it possible to automatically generate these files from the XBMC database? Because after searching the web via scraper, XBMC already has that information, and I don't want to add a JPEG to each folder manually. Is that possible?
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#7
Jackie78 Wrote:The reason I do not want to use library mode is the fact that I need to know the folder the movie is in, since many movies are available in SD and HD version, which is not shown in library. Besides, I also want to see the movies that have no library entry.



Is it possible to automatically generate these files from the XBMC database? Because after searching the web via scraper, XBMC already has that information, and I don't want to add a JPEG to each folder manually. Is that possible?

Yes, especially if you have a lot of files.

I would use the scraper to get all cover arts first. And then use System -> Video menu to export the library (choose separate files). After that, the thumbnails and other extra stuff would be stored at each directory where the files are. Thumbnails will be files with "tbn" extension, e.g. movie_1.tbn. Then rename the file to "movie_1.jpg" or "folder.jpg" for each video file. You can delete all other extra stuff in the directory, since you don't want to use library.

Good luck!
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#8
Hi,

thanks alot bodhi!
Edit: sorry, I overlooked the "rename" part first, although I believe it would be a better design if the exported data worked out of the box, without having to batch-rename everything, this has worked so far.

If I replace a folder.jpg (i.e. there was a folder.jpg, which I don't like, so I copy a new one), how can I make XBMC display the new one? It seems to be caching the old one, which I do not want.
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#9
Jackie78 Wrote:Hi,

thanks alot bodhi!
Edit: sorry, I overlooked the "rename" part first, although I believe it would be a better design if the exported data worked out of the box, without having to batch-rename everything, this has worked so far.

If I replace a folder.jpg (i.e. there was a folder.jpg, which I don't like, so I copy a new one), how can I make XBMC display the new one? It seems to be caching the old one, which I do not want.

Since you don't want to use the library mode, I would just go to the Context menu of the top level folder, and do a "remove source". Do this only after you've scraped and got all the art works, and have exported the library. This will clean up everything in the library.

If you still want to keep the library, then go to the System -> Video library and do a Clean Library, see if this will refresh the cache.
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How to see Movie Cover when only directory is selected?0