Help understanding metathumbs, xml, etc

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live & Live Plus
1

I use the media library to browse my videos.

Some covers are in a foreign language. To correct, I thought I could just change the order in the xml file since I noticed the incorrect cover was the first thumb listed and the second or third was good for me.  But it did not change the cover when viewing the media library.

So I have some questions to help my understand why not.

  1. What is the .metathumb and when is it created. Does the library use the .metathumb in priority of the .xml list of thumbs? Does in contain meta data in addition to the cover.jpg? If so, how do I regenerate using a new cover instead. Can I simply download a cover.jpg and rename the extension .metafile or will I lose information embedded in the .metafile? 

  2. Do I need to clear the .wd_tv  hidden folder? Could this by why I do not see a change in the cover when I change the .xml file.

  3. I notice that the .xml file has some information that is not used by the defaul theme for the media library (like imdb rating, which I would find usefull)  Are that other themes that would utilize this? I don’t want to jailbreak or use moviesheets, just something simple and approved.

  4. The .xml files has a list of covers and pictures. The first cover seems to be the one used for the cover thumb. Are the others ever used?

2

You are in the wrong forum. This device has no metathumbs and xml files.

3

The device itself does not have metathumbs or xml files but doesn’t it use them when it builds the media library on a connected device? 

I have a WD TV Live connected to a network shared hard drive.

4

No.  The 2009 WDTV Live doesn’t use metathumbs at all.   It does use JPGs as coverart, though.

There’s no media library for Network shared drives on this model, either, and regardless of source, XML files aren’t used at all.