I understood that I can trigger Mezzmo to build itself partly into the Kodi library / DB.
But as I said, it only does that partly, because somehow the actor information is not included.
I mean do I really have to open the Info of hundreds of files, each open only to trigger Mezzmo to register the actor information?
There needs to be some kind of "import" feature.
This is all I would need to know :)
Thank you.
How are you browsing your Mezzmo library, through the Mezzmo Kodi addon (i.e. Vodeos-->Addons-->Mezzmo) or trying to use the native Kodi interface ? It the later it really isn't designed to work that way but it will as part of the Kodi database population. I highly highly recommend browsing via the addon and you'll see everything, including actor information. There's an autostart option to launch the addon to your preferred playlist upon Kodi start.Quote:
Originally Posted by Undertaker555
To get more detailed, upon an initial load of the Mezzmo addon or clearing of the Mezzmo data in the Kodi database, it will take up to 6 hours to sync in the background. This is by design for large libraries on low powered clients. However, by using the Mezzmo addon to browse your library you get the information in real time and the addon will update the Kodi DB real time as you browse so you'll always see the current information from the Mezzmo server. The background sync process will keep track of whether it is in sync with Mezzmo or not. Once it detects full sync it stops doing real time updates in the database as you browse since it isn't needed and the hourly sync process catches anything new. Each day the addon does a full resync between midnight and 6AM. You'll see that in the sync log viewer in the addon.
Jeff
Trough the native Kodi interface, because I like to be greeted by the tiles of unwatched media. It is inspiring and helping to decide what to watch.Quote:
Originally Posted by jbinkley60
All with that is fine, but to make actor information visible, I would have to select Information on each of those media files in Addons > Mezzmo..
So wait.. basically you are saying that I just need to wait 6 hours, and all the info (including the missing actor info) will just come by itself?Quote:
To get more detailed, upon an initial load of the Mezzmo addon or clearing of the Mezzmo data in the Kodi database, it will take up to 6 hours to sync in the background. This is by design for large libraries on low powered clients. However, by using the Mezzmo addon to browse your library you get the information in real time and the addon will update the Kodi DB real time as you browse so you'll always see the current information from the Mezzmo server.
And when I open the Information of each media files in Addons > Mezzmo it will just make it instantly, what would take 6 hours normally?
So the missing info (in native Kodi interface) will be fixed by itself, if I am patient?
By not using the Video->Addons->Mezzmo interface you are missing a lot of key extra features of the addon including real time browsing of your library (i.e. no waiting). You can use Smart playlists to create all kinds of stuff including recently added stuff which hasn't been watched. I have one of those playlists in Mezzmo. The Smart playlists are only limited by your imagination. The other advantage of the Mezzmo addon view is that it matches your Mezzmo library view. The native Kodi interface won't see any of the Mezzmo playlists and such because they live in Mezzmo and not the Kodi database.Quote:
Originally Posted by Undertaker555
Yes, if you wait long enough it will sync and you'll see everything in the native Kodi interface. I personally turn all that stuff off in the Kodi interface settings and use the autostart capability to immediately launch the addon to my Video playlist.
Jeff
I get your point, that the Mezzmo interface is better in some ways, but I don't have much of a choice.
You remember from the Kodi forum, that I need to create 2 profiles, to have basically 2 libraries. One for the small HDD and one for the big HDD.
I don't see an option without the Kodi profiles, except maybe the Mezzmo interface with Smart playlists, in which I would only add the media for the small HDD, and another one for the complete media on the big HDD, in case I like to connect this one.
I need to research a bit about these Smart playlists.
But good to know that I still could use the Kodi interface by just waiting a few hours.
Thank you once again!
OK. Smart playlists will force you to use the Mezzmo addon view since they aren't seen by Kodi. I have been thinking of a more simple option. On the Kodi system that you travel with the small drive, maybe clear the Mezzmo data and disable sync on it but keep your Kodi version of the database which points to the local files. The when you are home using the Mezzmo interface you will see the small drive when it is plugged in (because Mezzmo will detect it) but when you unplug it Mezzmo no longer sees it nor the Mezzmo addon. Then when you travel use the native Kodi interface which sees the drive locally.Quote:
Originally Posted by Undertaker555
This seems like it might work exactly the way you want.
Jeff
I will try waiting the 6 hours first, and if that doesn't solve it, then I will follow your recent post.
But before I try anything, I first want that thumbnail stuff fixed, because I don't want to put much time and effort in this library, if I possibly still have to delete it and begin from scratch..
By this library do you mean on the Kodi client vs. Mezzmo ? Instead of guessing to the sync state you can check it easily in either the addon context menu Logs & Stats or tail the Kodi.log file. You'll se something like this every hour:Quote:
Originally Posted by Undertaker555
2022-04-25 16:55:01.510 T:47848 NOTICE: Mezzmo sync beginning.
2022-04-25 16:55:04.283 T:47848 NOTICE: Mezzmo total Kodi DB record count: 16368
2022-04-25 16:55:04.310 T:47848 NOTICE: Mezzmo total Mezzmo record count: 16652
2022-04-25 16:55:04.331 T:47848 NOTICE: Mezzmo total Live Channels count: 0
2022-04-25 16:55:04.359 T:47848 NOTICE: Mezzmo total nosync videos count: 285
2022-04-25 16:55:04.405 T:47848 NOTICE: Mezzmo sync process in sync at 100.0%. Real time updates disabled.
2022-04-25 16:55:04.430 T:47848 NOTICE: Mezzmo autosync is enabled.
2022-04-25 16:55:04.453 T:47848 NOTICE: Mezzmo sync completed. 400 videos in 0m 2s checked.
2022-04-25 16:55:04.485 T:47848 NOTICE: Mezzmo sync setting is: Newest
2022-04-25 16:55:04.516 T:47848 NOTICE: Mezzmo performance logging is enabled.
If you cut/paste what you see here I can tell you what is going on with the sync process.
Jeff
Yes, will check it. First I need to add this huge HDD to the Mezzmo server.
That will take damn long I think..
I have a question:
In the Kodi forum you said "My recommendation for metadata and artwork is to let Mezzmo scrape the metada and let it use your local artwork."
How exactly do you mean that? Do you mean I should scan them to my library by using the exported Kodi files (artwork + .nfo), and then after that let the scraper overwrite only the metadata in "Maintain Library"?
I am guessing you mean:
1. Add my media to Library
2. Let it scrape everything, by using the exported Kodi library (exported as single files jpg and nfo, placed in the same folder as the video files)
3. Go to Maintain Library and select there "Update information about media files in your Mezzmo library" > unckeck there everything except "Video files" and "Update media properties and metadata".
And what would I have to choose in the setting "Choose to update all attributes or only empty attributes"?
I am guessing it should be set to "Update all attributes", because the Kodi .nfo already added many things.
Also you said: "Mezzmo also has a lock feature where once you get the metadata / artwork how you want to you can lock it so that it won't be changed. This is a cool feature. It's at the top of the metadata editor there is a lock symbol for locked or unlocked."
But is there a bulk-locking?
Because I really can't do this with hundreds of files, each one by one..
Just began scanning everything, then I saw that hundreds of completely unrelated files are downloading to my "backdrop" folder in appdata.
These files are thumbnails of media that is definitely not on my HDD.
Thse files begin with "cva_srch-ACTORNAME.jpg", each with the name of actors who I indeed have media from.
But why is it downloading these completely unrelated information?
And how can I disable it?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Undertaker555
Yes to your question on what I was referring to with scraping artwork except you need to check video files and update artwork. Also in the metadata retrieval settings settings uncheck Get Text and Metadata from Internet sites.
For bulk locking / unlocking you can do a multi-select in the Mezzmo GUI. Click on one video, hold the shift key down and then select the last video you want. That will highlight all of them and allow bulk updating. This again where Smart Playlists can help where you create one for a bunch of files you want to edit and then use multi-selecting to edit them. You an also do it in your folders, depending upon how many you created. Lastly, you can also use an SQLite database tool but for most the multi-select is fine.
BTW, you are going about this the exact right way. Play with a playlist or set of files till you are comfortable in how you want to set it up and then do the rest.
Jeff
You need these. They are your actor images when you you display information in a video and then view the cast. Remember Mezzmo stores the artwork. The Kodi clients don't go to the Internet for this stuff. This is the power of Mezzmo. Don't get hung up on he Poster folder. Mezzmo will add / remove stuff thee as needed. It is database driven with dynamic capabilities. We have to unlearn some of our Kodi ways of thinking around managing artwork. :) I have an entire other utility to help manage actor artwork. This is a future topic.Quote:
Originally Posted by Undertaker555
Jeff
Yes, I understood that the "cva_srch-ACTORNAMES" are supposed to be actor images.
But all the actor images are usually in the Poster folder, and contain pictures of the actor's faces.
But in that Backdrop folder, are only backdrops - and Thumbnails of some really strange Russian and Korean stuff with names like "cva_srch-
Attachment 1336
This comes from AppData\Local\Conceiva\Mezzmo\Artwork\Backdrop
Filename is "cva_srch-andy-serkis.jpg"
I mean, what actually is that? Some kind of Korean King Kong, lol?
And why is it in my backdrop folder, and not even in the Poster folder, where all other actor thumbnails are supposed to be, if I am not wrong.
It is literally downloading hundreds of these "actor" photos of things that I don't even have and there is no stop.
It keeps downloading and I am already close to 1GB, while it is not even close to being finished scanning.
Even if this is other stuff of actors I have media of, how would I prevent Mezzmo to download many gigabyte of these completely unrelated images?
I just want the actor pictures, and nothing else..
In the Poster folder all seems normal, though.
Only Thumbnails of the right media and actor pictures.
Where are these strange "actor pictures" supposed to be showen in the client? I don't even find them in Mezzmo, not in Kodi and not even in the Server.
It is just files that unnecessarily bloat my drive and waste space..
Can I simply disable that section, and prevent Mezzmo from downloading it, and instead just download the Actor pictures (portrait)?
Sorry if I am ignorant, and if that is some kind of useful stuff, but I certainly don't need it if I am honest..
Try deleting the actor active playlist in your Mezzmo library and see if that stops things. If it doesn't then Peter may need to weigh in again to explain. The Mezzmo folks decoupled the actor active playlist awhile back at my request and most folks with larger libraries don't search for actors that way. . You can always download my new tool and run it against your Mezzmo library and it will tell you all of the mappings.Quote:
Originally Posted by Undertaker555
You will never see the Mezzmo artwork on your clients except in Kodi textures caching which the Mezmo addon manages the cache timers. Mezzmo hosts the artwork. This is how it is shared across clients. If you want to try an actor, open up a browser and try something like this:
http://192.168.0.34:53168/content/im...illiam+Shatner
Change the IP address to your Mezzmo server and the actor name to someone you know is in your library. This is how Mezzmo hosts actor artwork.
Your database folders with artwork can get a little large due to the artwork it hosts. I don't know how big your library is but I have 17k movies / TV episodes, 10K audio files and 70k actors. My library is around 13GB with the artwork.
Jeff
I have about the same amount of stuff.
But how did it get up to 13GB?
For example, my current Kodi library just has 1.5GB, with all actors, thumbnails, etc.
What does Mezzmo download that Kodi doesn't? Possibly these "actor files" in the backdrops folder..
Also a new problem..
Well, movies are added now correctly to the Kodi DB, and it is just perfect, except for these strange "actor" files in the backdrops folder.
But series are not added at all. How can I trigger the series to be added to Kodi DB, too?
EDIT:
I am seriously thinking about skipping the whole Kodi stuff and begin to use the plugin by itself. It just makes more and more problems.
Now even some thumbnails are missing again in Kodi DB, while in the Mezzmo addon they work fine.
Is there any way how I can get the look and feel of the Kodi starting screen, with all the promoted tiles, and nice overview?
Literally this is the only thing on why I wanted to use Kodi UI instead of the addon, but now I rather go to the addon, like you said from beginning..
Ok, I reread your earlier post and the "actor" files in the backdrop will need to be answered by Peter. I was referring to actors in the poster folder. I believe they might be actor fanart from the actor active playlists, He can confirm.Quote:
Originally Posted by Undertaker555
You should be able to get the Mezzmo addon UI to look pretty darn close to the Kodi native interface. You'll want to do two things, first play with the view settings in the addon settings. Start with the Top Folder view setting for the skin you are using. Not sure what skin that is. Next you can add / delete stuff in the Mezzmo GUI to get exactly what you want in your library and how you want it to look. This is the real power of Mezmo. Second, organize your library by creating Smart Playlists for anything missing that you might want, Recently added, Last 100 played etc... One thing I do is create a blank playlist in my Mezzmo library called Old Indexes. Anything which Mezzmo creates by default that I don't want to see at the top level view I cut / paste into it, just in case I need it later.
I am glad you are wanting to use the addon view. Thre are so many things which wouldn't have worked with the native Kodi interface because Kodi only reads from the Kodi database in that mode and so many Mezzmo features which require speaking uPNP wouldn't have worked you'd likely have had a disappointing experience over the long run. The Wiki highlights all of the addon capabilities and the Logs & Stats viewer will tell you everything going on.
Jeff
I am using the "Estuary" skin in Kodi itself.
When I open the addon, it only shows Music, Video and Photos categories, but no tiles with new media, suggestions, etc.
In the addon are only 2 Viewtypes "IconWall" and "WideList", so how can I get that?
Attachment 1338
How would I get that view inside the Mezzmo plugin?
I think you were looking at the skin setting and not the addon view settings . The addon view settings allows the addon to override the skin for consistent views. Under Estuary there's also a Top Folder view mapping option which allows you to map the Top folder view to something else like Movies to get more options. This is to get around Kodi skin view limitations.Quote:
Originally Posted by Undertaker555
I suggest we create a new view point in your library under Video and add the appropriate content and layout to get close to what you want and likely more. I don't recommend deleting or moving the top level Music, Video and Photos playlists. Once we create this new view you can add a favorite for it in Kodi or have the addon autostart to it. It will start by doing a Create Playlist --> Playlist called My View. This is a blank Playlist to where we will add other stuff like Smart playlists and such. You can even move your folders there if you want. We can always rename it later if we don't like the Name My Views.
Give me some time and I'll add this to the Wiki with more step by step instructions and create it on my test system so you can see it. It is actually pretty easy and with this approach you can make it look almost anyway you want.
Jeff
Oh please not another problem... :(
All the Season 0 Episodes are not correctly places within the Series..
How does actually Mezzmo manage special seasons aka Season 0?
All the series were scraped with TVDB and have the folder structure like that.
Please don't tell me that I need to rename all the series and follow now a completely different system or ordering the series.......
I tell you honestly, this will be the moment when I just give up and use Kodi with UPnP without any artwork...
I was going for TVDB, because other scrapers had completely wrong orders of many series.
And TVDB was much more reliable, but this is also why TVDB has a completely different structure and order than all other scrapers.
TVDB also has mostly the system of adding "Specials" such as Christmas Episodes to a Season 0.
And if Mezzmo can't handle Season 0, then I really don't know what else to do.
Kodi for example accepts Season 0 and adds the episodes to the appropriate Season automatically.
And how do I prevent Mezzmo from adding the media to Kodi DB?
Thank you with the patience btw.
I think still think it is getting closer to be finally be like I want, if we can find solutions for these problems.
Ignore all my past posts.
I will now just write my clear and direct questions:
1. How can I prevent Mezzmo from adding stuff to my Kodi library?
2. How does Mezzmo client treat Season 0 episodes? Is there a way to not only have them in a Season 0, and instead place them to their real Season?
3. Why does my Mezzmo Server replace my Series Thumbnails all the time by itself? It really annoys me, it already happened 4 times now that it just replaced my thumbnails with incorrect ones from series with the same name. Adding to this it also keeps replacing the Thumbnails of Seasons or whole Series with some screenshots from a random episode.
EDIT: I really don't get it. It happened again, this time I did not fix it, and after a few minutes it was normal again by itself. Then it came again, and replaced again the Season Thumbnails with some random screenshot from an episode --- and then? Again fixed itself!!! :confused:
EDIT2: Now it replaced in another Series all Season Thumbnails with one and the same Series Thumbnail.
4. For some reason there are 4 movies missing in the client, but they appear in the server. Why would they not appear? For some reason they appear in the Movie section, but not in the playlist.
5. I am still curious about these completely unrelated "cva_srch-ACTORNAMES"-files that are in my Backdrops folder, especially they don't appear anywhere in either the Server or the Client. They just sit in the Backdrops folder and waste space.
6. I gave up the idea of importing the stuff from Kodi. So now I need a way how to scrape Series from TVDB. How can I do that? Or is there an easy way on how to import my whole Kodi library into Mezzmo? There really needs to be a tool for that....
FYI, I fished adding some content to the Wiki regarding how to create a custom view. It's just an example.Quote:
Originally Posted by Undertaker555
I looked in the Mezzmo addon code and season 0 is fine. As well Mezzmo itself shouldn't have a problem. It scrapes what it gets from TVDB. I have specials and such in my library with season 0.
I don't know where you are looking in your library but have you checked the sort order ?
Instead of importing from Kodi, you might try running maintenance against a folder you have imported and let it overwrite all metadata and have the get from Internet sites enabled. This will pull things down exactly as they sit on TVDB. This will let you know how things look natively in Mezzmo with proper TVDB scraping. Mezzmo does have a file naming structures for TV episodes but it is pretty broad and supports most common naming styles.
Jeff
I'll answer what I can.Quote:
Originally Posted by Undertaker555
1. In the addon settings disable sync by setting to Off..
2. Answered in previous post. Peter may be able to lend more insight.
3. This is the dynamic nature of Mezzmo. I stop it by adding a folder.jpg file in my TV series folders. You can also go into the folder / playlist properties and do a change poster--> add picture to a local file and Mezzmo will no longer do anything dynamic.
4. I'll need a little more info here. How are you trying to view them on the client (in the addon or in Kodi natively ) ?
5. Peter can answer this but I believe it is related to the actor active playlist. I believe deleting it and running maintenance will delete them and stop them from being added.
6. I answered this in the prior E-mail. Run maintenance against the series with Internet enabled and overwrite everything. That is the cleanest form of adding things to your library.
As for Kodi importing, Mezzmo tries with the NFO files but unfortunately there is so much customization often done in Kodi it is difficult. Peter may be able to provide more perspective.
Jeff
Definitely checking out what you said, but I really need a break.
I had a few moments where I nearly gave up, but I am again motivated to get Mezzmo working.
It is just sad to see my thumbnails going crazy, after I spent much time importing the files, and all looked so fine at first - and then all just goes crazy, and the thumbnails replace themselves with some random episode screenshots, for literally no reason.
Season 0 exists, but in Kodi the episodes were placed from Season 0 into the other Seasons, like they would be in DVD order.
I checked the Wiki for many things, and it helped me fix already some of them, but all what I posted here is still to do..
All that was a bit demotivating, but I will try it again.
Maybe the one or other response by Peter will help, too.
Basically, the 6 questions in post no.21 are the only questions I have for now.
Tomorrow I will try to add my big HDD for the first time, because I am still kind of in experimenting phase of my library.
I will remove it completely again and begin from scratch when I am sure that all will work correctly.
Something like the thumbnails just vanishing and being replaced by random screenshots would be a nightmare to me, if it would happen with my big HDD.
Thanks for the info.Quote:
I'll answer what I can.
1. In the addon settings disable sync by setting to Off..
2. Answered in previous post. Peter may be able to lend more insight.
3. This is the dynamic nature of Mezzmo. I stop it by adding a folder.jpg file in my TV series folders. You can also go into the folder / playlist properties and do a change poster--> add picture to a local file and Mezzmo will no longer do anything dynamic.
4. I'll need a little more info here. How are you trying to view them on the client (in the addon or in Kodi natively ) ?
5. Peter can answer this but I believe it is related to the actor active playlist. I believe deleting it and running maintenance will delete them and stop them from being added.
6. I answered this in the prior E-mail. Run maintenance against the series with Internet enabled and overwrite everything. That is the cleanest form of adding things to your library.
As for Kodi importing, Mezzmo tries with the NFO files but unfortunately there is so much customization often done in Kodi it is difficult. Peter may be able to provide more perspective.
Jeff
1. Which one exactly? Settings > Content Control > Auto Background Sync? Or is it Mezzmo Backroung Sync? Or is it the switches above, like "Kodi DB actor information copy" + "Add TV Episodes to Kodi DB"?
2. Will check tomorrow, maybe wait what Peter says.
3. Is there a way to completely disable dynamic? Because all was fine as it was.. I mean do I really have to change hundreds of Season thumbnails for dozens of Series, just to prevent them from changing dynamically? I really hope it can be simply switched off..
4. I don't use Kodi natively anymore. I followed your advice and only use the Mezzmo addon.
5. Yes, waiting for Peter, because I am curious what the purpose of that is in the first place. Maybe it is some useful feature, but I don't see what, and probably won't need it.
6. Actually I will scan everything from scratch, and don't use the Kodi export anymore. But I will think about that again tomorrow.
Btw. Peter, I hope you read this, because you can just begin to read from post 21 beginning, because this is what is current and these are more clear questions than the chaos of my previous posts.
Question 1. Here's the settings link. There are 5 controls for sync.Quote:
Originally Posted by Undertaker555
Kodi DB actor information copy - set off to disable real time updates
Add TV Episodes to Kodi DB - set off to detect TV shows during real time update
Kodi DB Change detection - Set off to detect real time changes
Mezzmo Background Sync - Set off to disable background sync process
Automatic background Sync - Set off to disable auto sync updates
So basically disable / set to off these 5 settings and the addon will not make any updates real time or via the background sync to your Kodi database.
I know you said you will be using the Mezzmo Kodi addon so I added one more Wiki page on how to use it with favorites. Basically you can make any folder or playlist a favorite and launch it from Kodi., The favorite will pass the playlist name to the addon. I prefer the autostart approach and stay in the addon but some folks like to just launch certain playlists from their Kodi skin. The goal is to try and be as flexible as possible.
Jeff
I've had a closer look at #2 and I believe I know what is going on. Are you seeing TV episodes in the Kodi database showing up under a movie instead of a TV show when the season and episode in Mezzmo are both 0 or if either of them are 0 ? If so, go into the properties in Mezzmo for ones which are showing up wrong and let me know the season, episode and category values. I suspect the season and episode are both 0 and the category is TV Show. If so, I can fix this in the Mezzmo Kodi addon.Quote:
Originally Posted by Undertaker555
I'll try to explain what is happening. Mezzmo has a flat table with all files in it but Kodi has two tables called: episodes and movies. The addon has to decide which table to write the file from Mezzmo to.
This means that if the season and episode are 0 the addon treats it as a movie and not an episode, regardless of the category value. This is some of the original sync code and I don't remember why I chose this approach vs. trusting the category value from Mezzmo (i.e. TV Show). I suspect possibly due to improperly categorized TV Shows or Movies also I found that many TV show specials were tied to a season so they might be season 1 episode 0, which is fine in the current approach.
If we find this is what is happening, I can add a setting option to allow you to toggle how episodes are determined (i..e current method or by category) or you could change the season or episode value to nonzero. This could be done for testing or for a bulk update with a Smart Playlist. I'd do the option approach so as not to break current users who are using the logic the way it is.
Ultimately this is really just an issue for the Kodi database and the addon itself really doesn't care how it is written in the Kodi DB nor does Mezzmo. This is probably why it hasn't been reported before by others.
Jeff
These are the most important ones to fix right now.Quote:
Originally Posted by Undertaker555
All other are not so important.
About that Season 0 I will do some experimenting now, but that other topic "dynamic thumbnails" is really a no-go for me..
There is no way that I will manually replace thumbnails for literally hundreds of seasons and dozens of series.
EDIT: Yeah, I give up most of the things. I will simply accept that Season 0 episodes will stay as Season 0. Not so important.
The most important things already work, except that "dynamic thumbnail".. this I really can't accept..
I really dislike when software thinks it is smarter than me, and thinks it knows better what I want than myself :(
Mezzmo is great, but I really request 2 things:
- Please add a simply "Import from Kodi" function, because it really would make things easier, and much faster, because there would be nothing downloaded from the internet, as all important info and artwork already was scanned in Kodi months ago, and it already then took so much time and effort to make it how I want. And now I need to repeat all of it in Mezzmo..
- And please give an option to disable the dynamic behavior. I think it has some benefits, but I am much too old school in handling libraries. All I want is just one massive block of library that will never be changed, except adding stuff. Basically, as native Kodi allows.
Other than that, Mezzmo is a great tool and does exactly what I want.
Still, I would be thankful to know how to prevent Mezzmo to change the Thumbnails into some random episode screenshots..
I feel like a child building it's LEGO house, and some bully keeps coming and smashing it on the floor...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Undertaker555
The import from Kodi is covered by the XBMC/NFO metadata option. I think Peter can assist with specific issues with this method. I can fix the season 0 item fairly easily. Were you able to check any any determine that they were season 0, episode 0 and the category was TV Show ? The dynamic thumbnail item can be fixed by adding a folder.jpg file to the folders where you have TV series. If you already have a poster.jpg just copy it to folder.jpg . I do this on all of my TV series. Another approach is doing an add picture function in the folder/playlist properties. You can test both of these methods to see that they work. I do this and mine every change except on playlists whee I ant them to like Last 100 played, Recently added and such. In those it is nice seeing the top of the list item be the thumbnail for the playlist but I could change that if I wanted by doing an add picture.
Thanks,
Jeff
I will once again do all from scratch.
But first I will do a proper export from Kodi. Sadly in the current export something is wrong.
This is not a good basis for using Mezzmo, because it could lead to problems, and I would falsely search for fixes in Mezzmo, when actually my export is the problem.
About that dynamic thumbnail, I understood it like that I need to add a folder.jpg in each Season, but that would be by far too much work.
Already one .jpg in each Series will take much time, especially since it has to be done manually. But for Series it is still ok.
But anyway.. it should give some kind of setting about that..
Placing a .jpg into each folder should not be the only solution..
Ok. As you go through it again, let's try and capture which thumbnail are changing and what was done when they changed. Note on imported folders those should generally be static unless you add content at the top of the folder based upon sort sequence (i.e. if it is alphabetical it might change if you add something lower in the alphabet). The folder.jpg or Get Picture is a fix for this.Quote:
Originally Posted by Undertaker555
For smart playlists and active playlists they adjust their folder thumbnails based upon their dynamic content which makes sense. Again, this can be set static by a get picture.
If you have actual content changing thumbnails (i.e. for movies and episodes, then please indicate what happened prior to that). Generally that shouldn't change.
Also, I would recommend deleting the actor dynamic playlist. I believe that will address the backdrop item you saw with actors. If you let me know which version of Kodi you are running, I can have an updated version of the addon for the season 0 stuff later today.
One of the things I've learned working with other Kodi users is that by the time they realize the challenges of managing Kodi sharing across clients their libraries have grown large and they have a lot of customization in their environments. So replicating that again is a task but the thought of continuing it on, with all the maintenance overhead, will be even more work over the long run. Mezzmo takes a little bit of work getting setup but I found once I got it how I want, the maintaining my library work is minimal.
Jeff
Before I answer anything, I really will concentrate on creating a good export.
I realized that I really didn't follow the best of structures norms.
What I had was just barely ok for Kodi, but everything else beyond that makes problems.
So before I post dozens of problems in Mezzmo, I better first fix my structures :(
Ok. Let me know if I an help. I am not a Kodi export expert but do have methods I use with Mezzmo to make things easy long term. I do have an updated version of the Mezzmo addon for Kodi 19 I am finishing testing which has the option for category matching or season/episode. I should be done testing in another hour or two.Quote:
Originally Posted by Undertaker555
Jeff
Yes, thank you!
I am making progress with my export.
Soon I can try importing this new exported library, or better to say my completely new structure.
Let's see how this will change things.
Here's a link to the Kodi 19 test release. It the addon settings under Content Control called Add TV Episodes to Kodi DB, change it to Category to match TV shows by category vs. Season & Episode. I set some of my TV episodes to Season 0 and episode 0 and they went into the Kodi DB episodes table vs. Movies table.Quote:
Originally Posted by Undertaker555
Jeff
I had to pull the test release. I found a problem I am working on.
Jeff
Ok. The issue is fixed and all testing is good. Here's the link. I actually found a few episodes in my library that were season 0 / episode 0 that had previously been classified as movies. Don't forget to change the addon setting to Category.
Jeff
Awesome! Will try that tomorrow, because sadly again my structure is not good. The small HDD is ready, but I messed the big one up by exporting without creating thumbnails before...
Ok. I am testing the Kodi 18 version now. One good thing that will come out of this is that Mezzmo will help you get things organized better. I use it to help me keep an eye on things and quickly identify things which need attention.Quote:
Originally Posted by Undertaker555
Jeff
So testing on the Kodi 18 version looks good. I am noticing one side effect of using the category matching. The addon matches on three pieces of information for TV show uniqueness: the series name, the season and the episode. That's how it tells the episodes apart. So if you have a TV series and there are two episodes that have the the season and episode both at 0 the addon will only insert the first one it sees in the episodes table into the Kodi DB and mark the other as a duplicate. This limitation does not exist in the movies table because the matching there is by name. The easy solution is increment the episode number to distinguish them, which would also work in the original method. I'll look to see how difficult it would be to add a fourth match to episodes (name) but I suspect that will be a bit of work and could mess up some other parsing logic.
Jeff