Generate missing thumbnails for video files imported into NextPVR

[Jimixter]

I am a new user of NextPVR, and am very relieved to finally have found a suitable replacement for Windows Media Centre (WMC), with Microsoft support for Windows 7 ceasing in January. Thank you for providing this great alternative!

Whilst NextPVR has been successful in retrieving thumbnails and artwork for some of my library, there are many other files which it has not been able to for some reason.

I have written a PowerShell script to use ffmpeg to analyse and generate thumbnail files for my entire library of .wtv files (it will also work with .avi files, and no doubt others too). I initially tried using VideoLan (VLC), but this was only partially successful and was unable to generate thumbnails for a number of video files for some unknown reason.

This has worked very well for Version 4.2.5.191014 (I have not tried other versions).

No doubt, there will be many others following in our footsteps in the comings months. I wondered if my script might be a useful addition for your Wiki pages, so that others can make use of it?

Please see the attached Zip file.

[sub]

It might be worth posting these scripts in the 'Community Announcement' forum, so they don't just get lost in the support forum.

[mvallevand]

Also NextPVR only supports episode art in the Video Library, so episode thumbnails are not typically going to be viewed with recordings.

wtv files may also be a difficult target for some NextPVR clients. I think the web streamer will stream them and Kodi can play them but I am not sure of other platforms.

Martin

[Jimixter]

It might be worth posting these scripts in the 'Community Announcement' forum, so they don't just get lost in the support forum.

Thank you, I have re-posted here.

[Jimixter]

Also NextPVR only supports episode art in the Video Library, so episode thumbnails are not typically going to be viewed with recordings.

wtv files may also be a difficult target for some NextPVR clients.  I think the web streamer will stream them and Kodi can play them but I am not sure of other platforms.

Martin

Ok thank you. The TV Listings plug-in has been able to make good use of them, but they don't show up in the main Recordings plug-in.

[mvallevand]

I think a better solution for WMC users with wtv files needs to be found than v4 with the TV Listing plugin.

Martin

[Jimixter]

I think a better solution for WMC users with wtv files needs to be found than v4 with the TV Listing plugin.

Ideally, it would be great if NextPVR was able to analyse and generate thumbnails for .wtv files itself internally. I trialled other media centre platforms (Kodi, Plex, Media Portal 2), but the scrapers just couldn't retrieve the artwork for all (most) of the recorded TV content we have.

For now, the attached script has done the job - we now have thumbnails for every single .wtv file and the TV Listings plug-in uses them.

[mvallevand]

Sorry I wasn't meaning, your two excellent contributions I was addressing sub. WMC users should definitely not be restricted to a solution that is based on v4 for the TV Listings plugin which really moving from one dead-end solution to another. If he is able to handle wtv files as recordings then Kodi clients on all platforms and the v5 NextPVR client (and likely others) v5 would be a better solution.

Martin