Schlep,

thanks for helping out on the previous questions (saves me some typing). Yeah, so i haven't coded up the part to account for new season folders being added later. The way it would work is that it would be identified as a season folder then if a cover image is available (as defined in seriescache.xml banner sections) it would copy over the first season n cover  image.

I'll look back at the metadata download code. Thumbnails are downloaded (or extracted if can't get any online/cache) only when it gets metadata for a video/episode/movie.

Are you saying that the title property for the episode was "Season 4 Episode 5" ? Was it a brand new episode at the time?

schleppel:

Okay,

1.4 is broken for me.  I added a new Top Gear episode, and it wouldn't get metadata for me.  I thought this might have been a one-off glitch, so I removed the .metadata for the entire season, and attempted reload after removing the new episode from the folder.  This caused it to grab the metadata it already had in the cache(?) but now won't show any thumbnails.  I then re-added the new episode to the folder, and it didn't get any metadata at all.  Also, after removing the season metadata, the season now doesn't show a folder image, just the standard Vista one..

I also did a test with Weeds, and it added the metadata from this one, but it's not the metadata from the tvdb.com website, it looks like it's grabbed it from the cache folder, as it's called Season 4 Episode 5, instead of the name it should be (No Man is Pudding).

Not sure if this is a tvdb.com issue with the API or a video library+ issue, but I'm getting it all the same.

I'm now about to try to go back to 1.3 and see if that fixes the issues..

UPDATE: Had the problem all the way back to the first release of video libray+, so I went back to 1.4.  A complete removal of .metadata from the entire series allowed everything to be happy again, but as mentioned above, if you add a season to a series, you don't really get anything (doesn't create a .season.xml or a .season.thumbnail) other than the info already in the cached file, so no thumbnails or images, and no new metadata...  Hopefully that makes sense, if it doesn't, I could try explaingin it in english ;)

JackLuminous:

Are you saying that the title property for the episode was "Season 4 Episode 5" ? Was it a brand new episode at the time?

Yeah, the title was that.  I find that sometimes the info is not completely up to date on tvdb.com, so I like to check beforehand, so I don't have to change the metadata later.  The correct episode title was on tvdb.com, but it didn't seem to grab it.  This was kinda confirmed when the new Top Gear Episode didn't get any data at all (ie: no metadata created for it in .metadata folder what-so-ever) as there was no mention of this episode in the providercache .seriescache file, but the info was on tvdb.com.  Removing the metadata folder from just that season brought on the issue of it thinking it was a new season (which you've explained isn't coded yet ;)), so I then had to completely remove the series metadata.

It looks like the rule that tells it to refresh the cache when it sees a new file in the season folder isn't functioning correctly, it's just trying to grab cached data, and adding what it can find, if anything.

Haven't coded that part all :-P it should always download metadata for archived tv even if the season folder isn't recognized as such.

schleppel:

It looks like the rule that tells it to refresh the cache when it sees a new file in the season folder isn't functioning correctly, it's just trying to grab cached data, and adding what it can find, if anything.

Just wanted to say that I figured out my cover image issue.  It had to do with my folder structure.  My watched folder was set to \\mediasvr\disk3\videos\seriesname when it should have been \\mediasvr\disk3\videos.  This doesn't really work for me since there are folders in there that Video Library wouldn't be able to pick up (home videos and such).

So, I created a new directory called TV Series, moved the TV series I wanted the library to pick up in there and designated that as my watched folder.  What do you know?  Everything worked perfectly.  The cover thumbnail seems a bit off in its AR (squished), but I can either fix that or live with it.

I just need to work on getting this to work with movies now.  That will be a task, but I'm really wanting to get away from MyMovies.

EDIT:

I read a few posts up about editing the TV Series.folder.xml and editing the ImageType to "Cover".  My image now displays correctly!

---

theHTPC.net

Thanks schleppel and JackLuminous for the info, it's addressed everything except the adding another TV Season.

I am using Video Library+ v1.3 where this is occuring, and the series I've been testing it out is American Dad. However, I can duplicate it with any series -- once the new season is added, no images are retreived for the season image and the episode image. The metadata IS retrieved, though, for the episode details.

Copying the images over would work, but wouldn't make me very happy in the fall with all the new seasons =)

PS. I second the request for a "Play Random" option. Sometimes I just don't care what episode to watch, I just want to watch one since there's nothing on broadcast TV at that time.  

JackLuminous:

4. This is exactly how the data is on thetvdb.com or moviexml.com.  I have not looked at cleaning this up.

5. I am aware of this issue but just haven't gotten around to coding it. Basically, I need to do handle a "needsmetadata" scenario for season folders as well. For now, you can go back to the series folder\.metadata\providercache and copy out the image you want and name it as [folder name].season.cover.jpg and [folder name].season.banner.jpg (if you want a different banner when browsing into that folder)....wait, is this from the v1.3? What's the series name?

JackLuminous:

4. This is exactly how the data is on thetvdb.com or moviexml.com.  I have not looked at cleaning this up.

Gotcha. When browsing the movie-xml website, the text appears correctly in their listing. However, my guess is the xml data they export uses the escape codes for special characters to prevent issues with the .xml file encoding. It's odd, though, that they use the same backend as theTVDB which doesn't have this problem <shrug>.

schleppel:

1. In the <foldername>.folder.xml change the image type to Cover (<ImageType>Cover</ImageType>)

2. See point 1

This works fine... now just being anal, but I noticed in the screenshot (http://www.flickr.com/photos/26106575@N03/2449807241/) is shows basically a movie poster for the TV show. However, Video Library+ is showing the season banner for the first season. Just to make sure I'm not missing something, I'm assuming that for this screenshot a custom image was used and placed in the metadata folder, is that correct?

The main reason I ask is that there is a relatively new feature on the theTVDB that allows for series "Posters" (http://www.thetvdb.com/?tab=recentbanners&bannertype=poster shows some examples). Very few shows have them, but was wondering if it would pull the poster down for the series image if it exists? If not, possible feature request in the future?

I just attempted the install on a Vista Ultimate x64 and there was no "video library+" icon on the TV + Movies bar.  Any thoughts?

I was able to install it on my office computer that's running Vista Ultimate x86 with no issues.

A probably stupid question:

Why doesn't the image default to Cover? that would be lovely. Also, some of my images are kind of widescreen tv shaped and squashed, rather than dvd cover shape (mainly on the main show selection screen)- what am I doing wrong?

Otherwise, keep up the good work JL

JB

notyouraccount:

schleppel:

1. In the <foldername>.folder.xml change the image type to Cover (<ImageType>Cover</ImageType>)

2. See point 1

This works fine... now just being anal, but I noticed in the screenshot (http://www.flickr.com/photos/26106575@N03/2449807241/) is shows basically a movie poster for the TV show. However, Video Library+ is showing the season banner for the first season. Just to make sure I'm not missing something, I'm assuming that for this screenshot a custom image was used and placed in the metadata folder, is that correct?

The main reason I ask is that there is a relatively new feature on the theTVDB that allows for series "Posters" (http://www.thetvdb.com/?tab=recentbanners&bannertype=poster shows some examples). Very few shows have them, but was wondering if it would pull the poster down for the series image if it exists? If not, possible feature request in the future?

Check your metadata folder. Is there a [series name].series.cover.jpg?

If there a [series name].series.xml file?

Open up series.xml.file. What's the <ImageType> set to?

Thanks but ,lost in the Great Multitude™ that is this thread (or the more recent posts...) is a little blurb were I said something about not fixing the default properties imagetype, and sort for seasons, and series. I'll look at this tonight or tomorrow night.

If the folder is SUPPOSED to be a series root folder, then check the <ImageType> attribute in your series.xml file. It might be "Thumbnail" instead of "Cover".

Jimbob_UK:

A probably stupid question:

Why doesn't the image default to Cover? that would be lovely. Also, some of my images are kind of widescreen tv shaped and squashed, rather than dvd cover shape (mainly on the main show selection screen)- what am I doing wrong?

Otherwise, keep up the good work JL

JB

I'm using Vista x64 and can't launch video library as well.  Anyone know what's going on here?

JackLuminous:

Check your metadata folder. Is there a [series name].series.cover.jpg?

If there a [series name].series.xml file?

Open up series.xml.file. What's the <ImageType> set to?

Don't get me wrong -- it's working just fine and displaying an image just fine. I was just wondering if the screenshot on that link had images that were placed there manually by someone, or something else.

There is a [series name].series.cover.jpg file, which is the same as the "Season 1.season.cover.jpg" file in the Season 1 metadata folder.

There is also a [series name].series.xml file, and the <ImageType> is set to "NotSpecified".

It displays everything just fine -- I was also just curious if you had given any thought of polling the "Posters" from theTVDB and saving that image as the [series name].series.cover.jpg file, since it's not season specific.

[Edit - I misunderstood your comment at first]

Aaah... I hadn't noticed that before on tvdb.com...thx for the headsup. if they updated their banner xml to flag the series posters so I can identify them, then I'd definitely support it :-)

[Edit 2 ]

I just confirmed that posters are designated in the info downloaded into series cache. W00t! So I can now use that as teh series.cover.jpg instead of the season1 junk...(thx again for the tip, bossman). I'll work on this on Sat/Sun while my brand new tattoo heals....

notyouraccount:

JackLuminous:

Check your metadata folder. Is there a [series name].series.cover.jpg?

If there a [series name].series.xml file?

Open up series.xml.file. What's the <ImageType> set to?

Don't get me wrong -- it's working just fine and displaying an image just fine. I was just wondering if the screenshot on that link had images that were placed there manually by someone, or something else.

There is a [series name].series.cover.jpg file, which is the same as the "Season 1.season.cover.jpg" file in the Season 1 metadata folder.

There is also a [series name].series.xml file, and the <ImageType> is set to "NotSpecified".

It displays everything just fine -- I was also just curious if you had given any thought of polling the "Posters" from theTVDB and saving that image as the [series name].series.cover.jpg file, since it's not season specific.

so, i checked out thetvdb and not all series have posters. With that in mind, if there is a poster defined I will use that as the series cover; however, there isn't a poster defined I'll keep the current behaviour of using the season 1 cover. Again, you can always change the image after the fact....

The only reason I implemented this so quickly (poster shizzle described above is coded and working so far) is that it was the easiest to implement. I am currently looking at the default imagetype/sort junk for series and seasons. Next up is the find UI