Hi

First of all, thanks very much for this!

I have, however, hit a snag today.  I am adding some anime to my library, but for some reason the series info is not being downloaded.

For example, Welcome to the NHK (thetvdb.com link: http://thetvdb.com/?tab=series&id=79415&lid=7) is recognised as a series, and the Find Info button is displayed, pressing it returns the Welcome to the NHK banner, but when I select Download Info, I get a flash of "downloading" then I am returned to the Find Info screen.

The Welcome to the NHK.series.xml file contains the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Metadata>
  <Title>Welcome to the NHK</Title>
  <NeedsMetadata>true</NeedsMetadata>
  <NeedsUserSelection>false</NeedsUserSelection>
  <Status>The remote server returned an error: (404) Not Found.</Status>

  <snip>

</Metadata>

I specifically noted the <status> field... the show is there, as the above URL shows.

The files are stored as

\\shogun\Media\Anime\Welcome to the NHK\Season 1\Welcome to the NHK - S01E01.mkv

It is the same for:Clannad (http://thetvdb.com/?tab=series&id=80644&lid=7) and Midori No Hibi (http://thetvdb.com/?tab=series&id=79058&lid=7)

I have previously added Azumanga Daioh, Girls bravo, GTO, Ichigo masimaro, Kodomo no Jikan, Lovely Complex and Luck Star with no issues.

Any ideas as to why this is happening?

PS. can I safely omit the Season 1 folder from series that are only 1 season (such as anime)? and also change the filenames to \anime\series\series - episode # ?

Cheers
Andy...

robbiecrusoe, I am getting the same problem on my end as well --but only for the episode metadata. It's possible that something on thetvdb.com's api changed. I'll have to check it out

Hi,

does anyone know where the shortcut for TV Libary resides?
I've installed it on a Dutch Media Center and the TVL doesn't show up in the "TV en Films" menu (TV and movies)

Also the config file isn't in the Program Data, I figured it will be automagically created after running the program for the first time, but to do that you first need to find it.... ;)

Hi,

By default it should be on TV + Movies; however, if you installed another plug-in that also goes to TV + Movies, the previous plug-in will not be displayed. If you go to Online Media > Program Library, it should be there.

Indeed. It is in the Programs folder. It's not in the TV+movies unfortunately...

it also created the xml file at first launch....

I have been using this app for quite some time now, I think from almost way back when it was first launched and I have had to persist with it manually editing xml files, downloading and re-downloading data until eventually I got my head round exactly how it all worked and the folder structure fitted together.
I know I could have posted and requested some help here (and no doubt would have gotten it too) but I like to sort things out for myself first. However I do have one thing I'd like some advice on although it may not be a bug at all.

When I launch the app. I get a single menu option called TV Library with the generic blue TV and filmstrip icon. If I select this, then I see all my series with all the cover art and descriptions etc. in place. What I'd like to do is replace the generic icon to be one of my own. I've found the 'top level' .metadata folder which had a folder.xml file in it, and I can edit this to change the title, i.e. TV Library. So I thought if I copy a jpg file into this folder, call it folder.cover.jpg and edit the xml file accordingly this would work. Except it doesn't.

So what I'd like to know is, is it possible to change this icon picture and if so, how.

Over than that, and it really is a very minor thing, this really has to be one of the best VMC plug-ins I've ever come across, even my six-year old daughter can use it to find her favourite TV episodes.

Many thanks in advance for anyone's help. I may not have explained too well exactly what I'm talking about so if any further details are needed I will happily supply them.

John

oops...misunderstood your post... a

Jem101,

Can you post or PM me the contents of your \ProgramData\VideoLibrary\VideoLibrary.dll.config file?

jem101:

I have been using this app for quite some time now, I think from almost way back when it was first launched and I have had to persist with it manually editing xml files, downloading and re-downloading data until eventually I got my head round exactly how it all worked and the folder structure fitted together.
I know I could have posted and requested some help here (and no doubt would have gotten it too) but I like to sort things out for myself first. However I do have one thing I'd like some advice on although it may not be a bug at all.

When I launch the app. I get a single menu option called TV Library with the generic blue TV and filmstrip icon. If I select this, then I see all my series with all the cover art and descriptions etc. in place. What I'd like to do is replace the generic icon to be one of my own. I've found the 'top level' .metadata folder which had a folder.xml file in it, and I can edit this to change the title, i.e. TV Library. So I thought if I copy a jpg file into this folder, call it folder.cover.jpg and edit the xml file accordingly this would work. Except it doesn't.

So what I'd like to know is, is it possible to change this icon picture and if so, how.

Over than that, and it really is a very minor thing, this really has to be one of the best VMC plug-ins I've ever come across, even my six-year old daughter can use it to find her favourite TV episodes.

Many thanks in advance for anyone's help. I may not have explained too well exactly what I'm talking about so if any further details are needed I will happily supply them.

John

Hi Jack, thanks for getting back so quickly.
The contents of the config file is

<?xml version="1.0" encoding=utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
  <appSettings>
  <add key="CombineDuplicatedFolders" value="true" />
  <add key="WatchedFolders" value="d:\TV Shows,\\media-server\videos\TV Shows" />
  </appSettings>
</configuration>

As I said everything appears to be working as I can see all the contents of the two watched folders with cover art etc all in place it's just that when I first enter the app, I see a single icon labeled 'TV Shows' with the generic blue filmstrip icon, then if I select that icon only then do I see the shows I have recorded and from that point all is fine. It would just be good if I could either change the first blue icon to a jpg of my choice or skip that stage and go straight to showing the TV shows.

John
John

Hi Jack,

Thanks for programming this!
I've been using it now for a couple of days and am definitely impressed by the way it picks up and combines all the different avi's and showing it in a nice menu!

One item currently not working as supposedly to do is that for House M.D. there is only the general picture describing the series. For f.e. Heroes there is a nice series-picture. For the different episodes of House there ^are^ pics. Already deleted the .metadata directory, but it didn't pick up a correct image....

Koen

John,

Thanks for the proper explanation ;-). Now I get it. So basically, it does combine the two folders into one; however, you don't see how to set the thumnail image.

Actually, there's a bug somewhere because that first page should have seen that there's only one item listed and should have automatically just displayed the sub folders instead. I'll look into it.

There's a workaround for this but I'll have to tell you when I get home from the office.

For now, try adding a file called "TV Shows.folder.thumbnail.jpg" and placing that in d:\TV Shows\.metadata. If that doesn't work, try placing the jpg in \\media-server\videos\TV Shows\.metadata. Make sure that the corresponding TV Shows.folder.xml has ImageType set to Thumbnail.

jem101:

Hi Jack, thanks for getting back so quickly.
The contents of the config file is

<?xml version="1.0" encoding=utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
  <appSettings>
  <add key="CombineDuplicatedFolders" value="true" />
  <add key="WatchedFolders" value="d:\TV Shows,\\media-server\videos\TV Shows" />
  </appSettings>
</configuration>

As I said everything appears to be working as I can see all the contents of the two watched folders with cover art etc all in place it's just that when I first enter the app, I see a single icon labeled 'TV Shows' with the generic blue filmstrip icon, then if I select that icon only then do I see the shows I have recorded and from that point all is fine. It would just be good if I could either change the first blue icon to a jpg of my choice or skip that stage and go straight to showing the TV shows.

John
John

John,

I have confirmed that the behaviour you described is, in fact, a bug. I've found where it is but I won't be able work on it until Sat or Sunday. It should have combined the two watched folders into one then, since there is only one entry in the list, it should have just displayed all the content without you having to click into it.

Until I fix the bug, here's the workaround I spoke of. You can solve your immediate problem using the built-in support for 'spanned folders'. 

• Pick one of those two folders from your config to use as the 'main folder'. Let's pick d:\TV Shows.
• Remove the other folder, \\media-server\videos\TV Shows, from your config. Now, the app only knows about a single watched folder.

Now, you're saying "uhm, I still want to show that other content...". No problem. We ain't done yet.

Since we picked d:\TV Shows as our 'main folder', edit d:\TV Shows\.metadata\TV Shows.folder.xml to look like the file below. Note that your other folder is specified as  spanned folder. This tells the app that d:\TV Shows has some other content located elsewhere that should be displayed as if it's in the same folder.

It's really cool that you were able figure this thing out on your own. You absolutely had the right idea --it's just that the app was NOT doing what it SHOULD have been doing.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

Jack

Many thanks for the replies, I'll try editing the xml file to allow for the spanned folders as you suggested later today and let you know how it goes.

As an aside, earlier while digging about in the xml file structure I did try putting a jpg in the d:/tv shows/.metadata folder although I called it tv shows.cover.jpg and changed the entry in the folder.xml file to reflect that. This didn't work so I didn't think to try making it a .thumbnail.jpg or try in in the other folder on the media-server.

UPDATE

Found some time to try this out earlier than I thought and it works perfectly. It's now all exactly as I wanted it to be. One minor thing was that I changed the folder.xml file to be imagetype=cover rather than thumbnail as that's how my jpgs were named.

Many thanks for all your help.

John

Jack,

it appears that for House M.D. in the .metadata directory there is no house.series.thumbnail.jpg or house.series.cover.jpg. There ^is^ a house.series.xml with a correct description.
Also for the separate episodes there is a normal thumbnail there.

Where does it download it's series information and images from? Can I somehow force it to download the series.thumbnail? I don't just want to copy an episode thumbnail to the series.thumbnail. ;)

picablaat:

Jack,

it appears that for House M.D. in the .metadata directory there is no house.series.thumbnail.jpg or house.series.cover.jpg. There ^is^ a house.series.xml with a correct description.
Also for the separate episodes there is a normal thumbnail there.

Where does it download it's series information and images from? Can I somehow force it to download the series.thumbnail? I don't just want to copy an episode thumbnail to the series.thumbnail. ;)

...did you check the Status field in the series.xml? do you even have a \.metadata\providercache folder?