How to manually add movie info?

krs000 · March 26, 2015, 6:21pm

Hello,

There is an option to automatically download info about the movie from online. Is there a way to manually add info? Some of the downloaded info is incorrect, and some movies are not even recognized. So if I want to manually type in synopsis and add cover images etc, how do I do it?

TonyPh12345 · March 26, 2015, 6:36pm

XML Files, or any of a number of PC / Mac applications which will create them.

krs000 · March 27, 2015, 5:14pm

Hello.

Thank you for replying.

Can you please explain a little more? I’m a newbie sorry and not very tech savvy… Which applications for example creates these files and what do I need to do after creating one? Put them in the movie’s folder? What do I name the file?

Buzzard1999 · March 27, 2015, 5:33pm

I use WDTVHubGen ( https://wdtvhubgen.codeplex.com/)) to create my xml files.

Download the software and then run it. Select the folder(s) on your drive for which you want to create xml files. The software finds the files and then gives you selections of xml files for you to choose. Select the one you want and the xml file is created and saved right along with the movie. Hopefully this will make more sense as you use the software. There is some user documentation at the site to help out.

I know there is a scraper built-in to the WDTV but I’ve never had great luck with it. I’m more than willing to create my own manually.

gambit8 · March 27, 2015, 6:56pm

Hi everybody,

I recently acquired the WD TV Media Player and started adding .xml files generated with Thumbgen to display the movie info. However, I can only see the information related with the “plot”, the “total time” and one of the “actors”. The other categories (“director”, “genre”, “date” and the rest of the “actors”) don’t show any information at all.

Any solution to this problem?

JoeySmyth · March 27, 2015, 11:02pm

don’t double post

question answered in your 1st post

TonyPh12345 · March 27, 2015, 11:46pm

JoeySmyth wrote:

don’t double post

question answered in your 1st post

It’s actually a different person, I think.

TonyPh12345 · March 27, 2015, 11:48pm

krs000 wrote:

Hello.

Thank you for replying.

Can you please explain a little more? I’m a newbie sorry and not very tech savvy… Which applications for example creates these files and what do I need to do after creating one? Put them in the movie’s folder? What do I name the file?

I wrote a program (but no longer update it) called the XML Fetcher. It’s specifically for TV shows.

The final version is still out there if you want it.

http://www.tonysown.net/XMLFetcher/XMLFetcher.html

JoeySmyth · March 28, 2015, 12:14am

TonyPh12345 wrote: It’s actually a different person, I think.

same person, same question

http://community.wd.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/330613

I have a little problem with the movie info. I have installed the AlaskaDark theme and I have generated .xml files for each movie with Thumbgen to display the information. However, it only shows the “plot”, the “total time” and just one of the “actors”. I mean I can’t see the “genre”, the “date”, the “director” and the rest of the “actors”.

Anybody knows why this happens?

http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-TV-Themes/Alaska-Resurface-WDTV-LIVE-HUB-amp-SMP/m-p/866385#M15684

I recently acquired the WD TV Media Player and started adding .xml files generated with Thumbgen to display the movie info. However, I can only see the information related with the “plot”, the “total time” and one of the “actors”. The other categories (“director”, “genre”, “date” and the rest of the “actors”) don’t show any information at all.

Any solution to this problem?

http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-TV-Media-Player/How-to-manually-add-movie-info/m-p/866390#M2465

to demostrate the difference for example what Thumbgen creates and what the WDTV creates … take a look at “actors”

Created by the WDTV scraper

<cast>Robert Downey Jr. / Gwyneth Paltrow / Guy Pearce / Don Cheadle / Ben Kingsley</cast>

Created by THUMBGEN

<actor>
<name>Robert Downey Jr.</name>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>Gwyneth Paltrow</name>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>Guy Pearce</name>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>Don Cheadle</name>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>Ben Kingsley</name>
</actor>

“Thumbgen” splits the actors up into separate tags … which is why the WDTV only displays the 1st actor.

So to solve the problem, don’t use Thumbgen (unless you like a Lot of xml editing)

This is what the WDTV creates and displays everthing fine

PatCarol · March 28, 2015, 4:47am

Hi,

I am also using ThumbGen and it is OK for my purposes.

I hope I am not hijacking this thread in asking a related question here.

I am trying to stop WDTV creating all the backdrop files - is there a way to do this? Unless there is a purpose for them that I am not aware of, I find they are just cluttering my storage.

Thanks

JoeySmyth · March 28, 2015, 4:58am

AFAIK … you can’t stop the .backdrop folders being created

but i guess if you’re using Network Shares maybe setup permissions for “Read Only” ?

P.S. i have no idea what the .backdrop folder are for

PatCarol · March 28, 2015, 6:02am

- I would really like to stop them.

I also note that after adding new movies, the next time I turn on the WDTV it is much slower for a while (reported in other threads also) - I am beginning to think it may be related to this where the system is too busy creating and saving the backdrops for awhile???

Any other feedback or workarounds would be greatly appreciated.

TonyPh12345 · March 28, 2015, 12:37pm

PatCarol wrote:

- I would really like to stop them.

I also note that after adding new movies, the next time I turn on the WDTV it is much slower for a while (reported in other threads also) - I am beginning to think it may be related to this where the system is too busy creating and saving the backdrops for awhile???

Any other feedback or workarounds would be greatly appreciated.

I think It only begins saving backdrops for a movie when you’re looking at the movie (the UI has the movie selected, but not playing.)

JoeySmyth · March 28, 2015, 1:34pm

thank goodness my WDTV Live Hub (FW 2.07.17) does’nt download this junk :wink:

yeah, i have the latest WDTV as well … it’s annoying, but i don’t lose sleep over it

krs000 · March 29, 2015, 6:59pm

Hello,

I am the thread creator. Thank you for your helpful answers, and I don’t mind anyone sharing this thread to ask related questions as those questions are stuff I want to find out as well. I don’t know yet if my WDTV saves those backdrop files, if it turns out it does then I must find a way to stop it. I don’t want any info or pics in the movie folders other than what I placed there myself.

I think I have WDTV Version 2, but not sure.