anyone use metathumbs with the newer firmwares and have genre folders?
my folder.jpg is in the folder but when I look at the genre folder what appears is the 1st movie metathumb instead of folder.jpg. If I delete all metathumbs from that folder it reverts back to using folder.jpg.
what is the purpose of metathumbs?
how do you use folder.jpg and metathumb?
The .metathumbs take precedence over .jpgs. If you have any .metathumbs in the folder they will display before a .jpg.
Unknown why they changed to .metathumb, I suppose it has something to do with caching. However, .metathumbs don’t seem that reliable.
You really can’t and be sure of the outcome. Best to use one or the other, perferably .jpg, especially if you use TG.
Hi,
hm i think… its possible to use the jpg File for the Movie Icon
and the metathumb for an moviesheet or and second movie picture…(Theme)
Regards
Gerd
You can’t generate .metathumb for moviesheets in TG.
Besides, moviesheets are not natively used by the firmware, so yes you could use .metathumbs for moviesheets, because moviesheets are pulled from the xml data and not a variable like folder/file thumbs are.
You can’t not however use a mixture of .jpg and .metathumbs for folder/files because the .metathumb file will try to override .jpg images
There is however, no advantage (that I can see) to using .metathumbs over .jpgs. When used both are used the same way and there’s no speed advantage. In all actuality a .metathumb is a .jpg image with just the extension changed.
Tinwarble wrote:
You can’t generate .metathumb for moviesheets in TG.
Besides, moviesheets are not natively used by the firmware, so yes you could use .metathumbs for moviesheets, because moviesheets are pulled from the xml data and not a variable like folder/file thumbs are.
You can’t not however use a mixture of .jpg and .metathumbs for folder/files because the .metathumb file will try to override .jpg images
There is however, no advantage (that I can see) to using .metathumbs over .jpgs. When used both are used the same way and there’s no speed advantage. In all actuality a .metathumb is a .jpg image with just the extension changed.
I don’t think this is what he was referring to, He didn’t mean to generate movie sheets per se.
In my theme I am generating thumbnails with a moviesheet template for extra/spare movie sheets. in order to get the blu ray case, resolution tag, design features etc… saved as a folder.jpg
I don’t know how it works for movies but the TV Show Folder thumbs are a random mess from the planet CRAPton, it is absolutely impossible to list TV Shows without meta thumbs it would show random Season images instead of the Show’s main image, instead of the season image it shows the first episode image.
With this library you close one hole to rip open a new one because it was created wrong from the very beginning. At some point they MUST realise that they have to do it from the scratch instead of bug fixing it over and over again. It works fine with the build in scraper but that can’t be the solution to shut out anyone using Thumbgen for TV Shows.
Hey D,
I’m not sure what your saying.
“In my theme I am generating thumbnails with a moviesheet template for extra/spare movie sheets. in order to get the blu ray case, resolution tag, design features etc… saved as a folder.jpg”
Do you mean a coverbox ? Or a actual moviesheet?
“I don’t know how it works for movies but the TV Show Folder thumbs are a random mess from the planet CRAPton, it is absolutely impossible to list TV Shows without meta thumbs it would show random Season images instead of the Show’s main image, instead of the season image it shows the first episode image.”
This is what happens if you have .metathumbs and .jpgs in the same folder. If you have:
Folder
folder.jpg
filename.metathumb
Then the .metathumb will override the folder.jpg and show the first (or the first as the firmware sees it) filename.metathumb. If you have all .jpgs and you are still seeing the issue, but you had .metathumbs, then this is usually because the metathumbs haven’t been properly cleared from the cache.
As for the media library, I have no really issues. However, I don’t rely on the TV show filter, mainly because I don’t want to have to change filtering everytime I want to go from movies to TV shows. I filter everything by folders and overcome the sorting issue with naming. Instead of generating the xml data for say Fringe.S01E01 as:
PilotI use:
1: Pilot (there's a space first in single digit numbers)Thumbgen will actually use the series name as the title, Fringe, but I always change this in TG to the episode name (you should already know what series you are looking at by what folder your browsing).
I also do the same thing for movies, because unless you change your filtering, there is really no way for the HUB to know which file comes first with say the Die Hard compilation, so you have to name those files:
Die Hard 1
Die Hard 2: Die Harder
Die Hard 3: Die Hard with a Vengence
Die Hard 4: Live Free Die Hard
How well the media library works all comes down in how you use it and how you name your files for the xml data. Not to say that it isn’t buggy, but there are ways to overcome the bugginess.
Anyway, as I stated, I suggest you use .jpg for all your files and folder thumbs, this keeps the .metathumbs from overriding any .jpgs for folders or files.
By the way, even though I don’t really use it, this doesn’t effect using the TV Show filter.
All folder thumbs show correctly as to files.
@TW
i don’t think we are talking about the same thing either :smileyvery-happy:
speaking exclusively for TV Shows right now.
I am generating all cover art for Series / Season / Episode with ThumbGen each got it’s own template so they are technically a moviesheet but they are used as thumbnails
The issue is no longer the sorting order with TV shows and/or Movies
the problem is the display of thumbnails/cover art.
Due to a new pointless functionality the rule no longer applies to display folder.jpg as the folders cover art
(remember we are talking about TV Shows, i did not test it for movies due to being bleeped off)
The file structure is
The Walking Dead
|–Season 1
|-- Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3…
You would expect that
Thumbnail 1 from the image above would display for the Walking Dead folder
Thumbnail 2 for Season 1
Thumbnail 3 for Episode 1
…if thumbnail 1&2 are named folder.jpg and Thumbnail 3 as the moviefile
Instead, with the new firmware and the new TV Show Filter
The Walking Dead folder shows the folder.jpg from a season folder (randomly)
The Season 1 folder shows and episode thumb or the correct season folder, it picks alphabetically
The 1st Episode always shows the folder.jpg of the episodes folder.
For our mutual understanding, the sorting order of TV shows is now fixed with the Thumbgen Update, it adds tags the library is looking for. Manual editing is no longer needed besides that you cannot hand edit 6000 episodes in my case.
For movies such as Die Hard I manually put the number in the title line of thumbgen.
This is the new TG output for the corresponding show above.
The Walking Dead - Days Gone Bye
<series_name>The Walking Dead</series_name>
<episode_name>Days Gone Bye</episode_name>
<season_number>1</season_number>
<episode_number>1</episode_number>
alrighty here the sum up and the reason why i was screaming at my TV and why I am saying the library is still broken
and remember we are talking about TV Shows
it disables a basic rule (folder.jpg is no longer the cover for the corresponding folder)
it now requires a meta thumb in order to replace the folder.jpg
the meta thumb must now be manually edited from .jpg to .metahumb (if you use an advanced design thumbnail)
I know many people would be willing to do all that sh!t just not to lose the precious library.
I am just not one of them. It would work for me if have the option to create movie sheets as .metathumb as well (and use them as a cover)
Having said that, if I want to watch a movie i need to change the filter which is another glorious achievement that makes me scream at my TV
I repeat myself for the 600th time…
we need a sorting filter “FOLDER / FILENAME” in alphabetical order
it would work for Movies, Tv Shows and Music
no extra work from nobody needs to be done when people use proper file names such as
tv.series.s01.e01.mkv
die.hard.1.mkv
die.hard.2.kmv…
01 - the library stinks.mp3
02 - start from the scratch.mp3
03 - whats wrong with natural file structures.mp3
no more hand edit, no more playlists, no more randmoness no more ouchies in the bunghole 
ps
obviously i was smart enought to delete all generated thumb images from the thumb folder and unplugged the power from the device in order to guarantee a clean cache.
pss
just got an answer from ThumbGen, metathumb extension will be available for movie sheets in the next update. \o/
Tinwarble wrote:
Pilot
I use:
1: Pilot (there's a space first in single digit numbers)
single space in front of 1-9? how about 01-09?
OK so I went through an entire season and regenerated from scratch.
Used your trick of renaming to 1 - episide title.
Here is the xml:
Here is the image of he season folder with all the episodes out of whack:
for some reason there is no pattern to the order, not alphabet, not number… just doesnt make sense.
I have it sorted by folder>alpha
I deleted the “.miocrawler_cache”, “.wd_tv\thumb” folders and let media library rebuild. I see the images change and I see the details change but the order soes not change.
I also tried sorting by tvshow just to see and I got 2 folders, 1 had 1 movie and the other had nothing, that made even less sense.
Yes that works too. I just use a space because I don’t like the 01, 02, etc numbering. A space take first place so I just use that.
Yes, I know you are talking about TV shows and I only mentioned movies (if you noticed I was talking about TV shows first). But it really doesn’t matter, because in reality, when it comes down to how the “folder.jpg” is handled, it is the same. If you use file.metathumb and a folder.jpg in a Movies genre folder the same issue happens that you are describing.
it disables a basic rule (folder.jpg is no longer the cover for the corresponding folder)
it now requires a meta thumb in order to replace the folder.jpg
the meta thumb must now be manually edited from .jpg to .metahumb (if you use an advanced design thumbnail)
As, I said, I’m not seeing that. When I filter by “TV Shows”, I always see my folder.jpg. This is because I have never used the .metathumb.
With you new firmware you can’t rely on the method of deleting the thumb folder and unplugging the HUB to clear the library any more. As I have stated before, the HUB also caches the thumbs internally and with the newer firmware it is almost impossible to clear the old data. With the newer firmware, when you delete the folder then unplug the HUB, it just rebuilds the cache from the internal cache. The only real way to make sure that it isn’t using the old cache is to change the folder name.
Also, I understood what you were talking about. But there is a difference in a “Moviesheet” and a “Coverbox”. Although in TG you add it under a “sheet” tab, it is actually a coverbox if you are generating it for a thumbnail.
COVERBOX – Folder/Season/Episode
MOVIESHEET
As you can see, my folder thumbs, series thumbs and file thumbs are all custom generated just like yours and when I filter by “TV shows” I always see my folder.jpgs.
Yes, I know. Episode order numbering is messed up when filtering by TV Shows in the latest firmware. It is a known issue.
If you noticed though, I stated that I don’t filter by “TV Shows” (except for testing theme design) I use filter by “Folders”. This is because I seperate my Movies in one folder and TV shows in another (on a seperate drive), this way I don’t have to change my filtering when I want to watch movies or tv shows.
The naming convention was for filtering by Folders so if you do that your episodes will show up in the correct order.
However, once the sort order is fixed, this will not change anything when you do sort by “TV Shows” because that feature is suppose to look at the <episode_number> for sorting order.
@ TW
good now we are understand each other :smileyvery-happy:
I have renamed some folders and the same thing happens, if I replace the folder.jpg with folder.metahumb it works.
No problem whatsoever with movies and genre folders. Not sure if you mispoke or if you understood me wrong or i was reading too much detail into it, but i never suggested to use filename.metathumb because in this case i would also need a folder.metathumb and then it would be redundant.
In my understanding (and i am just dealing with it since today) the metathumb is prefered over a jpg.
For some reasons the folder.jpg is not doing what it is supposed to do. The metathumb is superior and will show for the folder. This works for me and i believe this is how it is intended (no?)
Out of interest… i’d rather sort by folder because then none of this would happen
you said your episode titles are with a leading number, have you automated the numbering process and i am too dumb to see the trick or are your fiddeling it in manually?
Tinwarble wrote:
Yes, I know. Episode order numbering is messed up when filtering by TV Shows in the latest firmware. It is a known issue.
o sort by “TV Shows” because that feature is suppose to look at the <episode_number> for sorting order.
this is now fixed in Thumbgen
DeVicious wrote:
Tinwarble wrote:
Yes, I know. Episode order numbering is messed up when filtering by TV Shows in the latest firmware. It is a known issue.
o sort by “TV Shows” because that feature is suppose to look at the <episode_number> for sorting order.
this is now fixed in Thumbgen
This is a firmware issue not something to do with TG. TG will add the correct info, but the firmware doesn’t read it correctly. It has been a know issue even with using the internal scraper which has, since the change, added the correct info in the xml.
@ TW
good now we are understand each other
I always understood.:smileyvery-happy:
Also, as I stated:
“Thumbgen will actually use the series name as the title, Fringe, but I always change this in TG to the episode name (you should already know what series you are looking at by what folder your browsing).”
So, yes, you have to manually edit the when you are generating.
I’m sorry that it’s not working for you and you have to change the folder.jpg to folder.metathumb, but like I said, I don’t have that issue on my end. Using folder.jpg works just fine for me.
When I generate with the new TG straight up my is:
series title - episode titleso I edit it in TG before generation
Erase the title box and just put in " 1"
this generates in the xml:
1 - episode titleas you can see from my 2 previously posted xml snips.
I am not using the metathumb files at all, I just wanted to know their purpose. I am just using jpg which is fine[as long as no metathumb gets generated]
My current issue is your trick for renaming the is not working for me using sort by FOLDER. no matter what I name the its stays in the same order… all info and images change on the screen, just not the sort order.
Did you clear the media library?
If that doesn’t work, try renaming your Season folder, from say “Season 1” to “Season 01” or Season 1" (add extra space before “1”), then recompile your media library.
Your issue as I stated is that it’s really hard to get the new info to override the old cache, you can tell if it’s not caching the changes. When you scroll, if the name shows the old title the flashes to the new, then it’s still using the old cache data.
OK, so I turned off ML, cleared ML, delete “.wd_tv\thumb” and “.miocrawler_cache” and turned on media library.
Once complete it was in a more organized manor 1,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,2,20
So I looked at the xml. I set the “TITLE” field in TG to " 1" but in xml it was 1 - episodename
So i regenerated and in TG “TITLE” i put “01” and generated
xml now has 01 - episode name
had to clear library again but now episodes are in order.
So I have made a request to TG dev here
hopefully this little tweak will be added to next version.
Tinwarble wrote:
DeVicious wrote:
Tinwarble wrote:
Yes, I know. Episode order numbering is messed up when filtering by TV Shows in the latest firmware. It is a known issue.
o sort by “TV Shows” because that feature is suppose to look at the <episode_number> for sorting order.
this is now fixed in Thumbgen
This is a firmware issue not something to do with TG. TG will add the correct info, but the firmware doesn’t read it correctly. It has been a know issue even with using the internal scraper which has, since the change, added the correct info in the xml.
I had a fully elabroate answer to all that
today i have different results on my hub
Sorting order is fine using the new thumbgen output in TV Filter
but cover art for the main folder is impossible, it displays the folder.jpg of the latest season
I have tried anything to make that work… it doesn’t work, not with JPG not with Metathumb not with putting a 0.jpg or a 0.metathumb in any of these folders. It will stubbornly display the folder.jpg of the latest season as the series folder cover art.
Obviously manually renaming would work fine but is not an option with the folder sorting filter but what a complete sick head would i be to do that for 6000 episodes when everything is fine when i simply turn that **bleep** off?!?!
For that matter the library is a monkey butt and it is broken period period fullstop period
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