Naming Format for Recording Files

[mvallevand]

I didn't test extensively but I developed the impression that npvr recordings would only get loaded into the xbmc TV shows database if they were in a format such as Title.SxxEx.Episode. So without being able to name the recordings in this format, it means that npvr recordings can onyl be viewed in Live TV - TV recordings and not under TV SHows. Won't this be considered a problem for xbmc users looking to adopt npvr?

You can play files in XBMC without renaming just fine in a Video Library like mode. You can need to rename files if you want to have the metadata and art. Grabbing this data means you have to split movies and tv shows into different destination folders but that is easy and follow XBMC naming conventions. The episode name is optional

gEd I checked the db you sent me and it didn't have season or episode info populated. If you are using a new data source could you sent it to me again. On the otherhand some roes did show it in the subtitle ie "Season 1, Episode 2 of 4 - Democracy Threatens" so some files could be renamed from the db only.

Martin

[gEd]

Yes I know I can view recordings in videos, files (just like npvr videos plugin) but I was just emphasizing the point that there is a kind of "mis-match" between npvr and xbmc wrt TV shows file naming.
I do have my movies in a separate folder and they look great in the xbmc movies section.

I used to use alan birtles xmltv with the option "add season / episode name to show subtitle". However in a recent update from Sub/alibert, npvr/TV listings now shows season and episode info after the subtitle so I was seeing the season/episode info duplicated in tv listings. So i disabled this option in xmltvgui when playing with xbmc in the last week.

I have emailed you my db.
many tx.

[Graham]

My understanding of xmltvGUI in the UK and the series and episode stuff is ...

The data downloaded by xmltvgui includes series and episode data for some shows using the format <episode-num system="xmltv_ns">5.18/24.</episode-num>
Some shows (but not many) randomly include series and episode data in the subtitle in the data downloaded.
xmltvGUI includes the option to "copy" the series and episode into the subtitle.
The NPVR correctly loads the series and episode data into EPG_EVENT.

I have the "copy to subtitle" option on and I sometimes (but not often) get a subtitle like ..."S6E12/22 Subtitle series 6 episode12"

My own view is that Sub might like to include a config option along the lines of "Recording Files and Folders = Legacy / XBMCcompatible"

Thanks

[phmt]

I didn't test extensively but I developed the impression that npvr recordings would only get loaded into the xbmc TV shows database if they were in a format such as Title.SxxEx.Episode. So without being able to name the recordings in this format, it means that npvr recordings can onyl be viewed in Live TV - TV recordings and not under TV SHows. Won't this be considered a problem for xbmc users looking to adopt npvr?

It would be could if IGL or npvr natively could use <episode-num> (if it exists) to rename files so xbmc could load the recordings and then do the internet lookup to download addtional fanart and metadata.

I was just about to make a new post when I saw this thread. This is the exact issue I am having and looking for a way to fix. I am looking to use nextPVR as my back end for xbmc. I just started playing around with the the two together (frodo + 2.5.9) and so far so good. I have xmbc running on a windows 7 machine and npvr running on a different windows 7 machine (server) with the all the recording going directly to my NAS. It was a bit of setup to get that all to work but it does. I record movies to one dir and TV to another on the NAS. In xbmc I was able to set up movie library just fine by just pointing to my movie dir and xbmc seems to have scrapped everything as expected. Setting up the TV library did not work as intended due to the naming issue in this thread.

I did have one series that I downloaded from a torrent that had a dir/file structure: series name\season x\series name.SxxExx.episode.mkv and it scraped just fine. I am not sure if xbmc picked up on the series name\season dir structure or the SxxExx file naming or both. I saw some posts in the xbmc forums that indicated that some xbmc skins need series saved under the specific dir structure of series name\season x\file name.

So.....I came here to see if I could find a way to rename to SxxExx and move TV series to series name\season x\. It looks like imageGrabLite will rename but not move. I was also looking at Guide Plus which looks like it will rename and relocate, but it relocates to only one of two directories. Right now I don't think there is anything that will rename and save to the correct dir structure. I think I will just try imageGrabLite and manually move the files. I think this will break the npvr DB, but if I use the xbmc libraries, I don't think I care if npvr can't find a recording. If anyone has a better idea please let me know.

On a separate but somewhat related topic, since I save recordings to an ext4 drive, I get a separate ts.Timing.Info file. As I move/relocate files around, how careful to I have to be to keep this file with the .ts file? Also I am pretty sure imageGrabLite won't rename the ts.Timing.Info file so is that an issue? I have looked around and it is not obvious (to me) what the ts.Timing.Info file is for. I saw some comments like helping with skipping issues etc, but I have some ts files with no associated info file and I have not seen an issue. If it matters, I also ask this because I am playing around with the xbmc+npvr combo not only as a solution for desktop viewing, but also because I am also considering trying the same with a raspberry pi (xbmc) with a windows 7 npvr backend (for living room TV) and timing there might be more of an issue.

[mvallevand]

Actually IGL will rename Timing.Info and any related file. The best way to choose folders is when you create your rule or record a single movie select the appropriate movie or tv show folder, using NextPVR's extended directories. If you forget and choose the wrong folder in NextPVR the archive function creates a background thread to move them and keep the database current.

Currently Timing.Info isn't supported by the XBMC client.

Martin

[sub]

I have looked around and it is not obvious (to me) what the ts.Timing.Info file is for. I saw some comments like helping with skipping issues etc, but I have some ts files with no associated info file and I have not seen an issue.

You dont have to have timing.info, but if it is there, NextPVR use it to give more accurate skipping. Skipping will often work fine without it though. Occassionally you can get a bad timeline from a broadcaster, and the timing.info gives the app good hints on how to keep skipping accurate.

[phmt]

The best way to choose folders is when you create your rule or record a single movie select the appropriate movie or tv show folder, using NextPVR's extended directories. If you forget and choose the wrong folder in NextPVR the archive function creates a background thread to move them and keep the database current.

Are the "extended directories" you refer to the "recording directories" under setup\recording? If so, I use those to separate movies to the movies dir and TV series to the TV dir. But I don't think it is practical to use that for individual series/season recordings as I would manually have to "add" each and every series + season I want to record to the recording dir list. On top of that since I save to my NAS I have to manually edit the config.xml file directly with the UNC path. i suppose that could be done, but it is very manual to add all the directories and then manually pick the correct one from a list. If you record 10+ different series and are trying to pick up some old seasons along with the new, you could easily have ~20 different directories. Plus if you set up a recurring recording of a syndicated series, you could get different episodes from different seasons, and you can only chose one dir when you save the recurring recording request.

That is the only way I know of the set up and select different dir with npvr, if you are referring to something else in regards to "using NextPVR's extended directories", then I don't know how to do that.


Thanks

[gEd]

Again, is not the (viable) solution here for IGL or npvr to just use <episode-num> (if it exists in the database) to rename files so xbmc could load the recordings into it's own TV Shows database and go off to search tvshows.nfo?

Just for completeness, the xbmc naming convention is here: http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=How...ow_library

[mvallevand]

Are the "extended directories" you refer to the "recording directories" under setup\recording? If so, I use those to separate movies to the movies dir and TV series to the TV dir. But I don't think it is practical to use that for individual series/season recordings as I would manually have to "add" each and every series + season I want to record to the recording dir list.

NextPVR creates the series folder or you by default. Files don't need to be in separate season folders if they have the proper S#E# format as shown in this video of my IGL named files http://youtu.be/VLOheZDJi6k Go about 30-40 seconds in and you can see all the separate seasons of "The Big Bang Theory" stored in the one folder. All of this looks to scraped properly by XBMC

Martin

[Graham]

IGL does what it says on the tin ... I didn't read the tin properly ... the tin is here ...

http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...post428458

and says, "In addition to the existing function of renaming TV show to Series.S##E##.Episode format movies will be renamed to MovieTitle (year) format when the year is available".