Strangest thing – I’m using a WHS V1 home server and have all my movie directories processed so tumbgen has 5 files in each folder (at the “movie name” level). None of the WD views allow me to see any XML, box art or backdrops, but when the WD goes into “savescreen mode” (which is set to display random photo slideshow) it displays the backdrops, XML data and everything fine).
All I can believe that could be wrong is incorrect directory structure. Can anyone tell me how this has to be structured? Right now I have the following structure …
server
genres (labeled like this - 1 Action & Adventure) etc
movie name (this folder contains the 5 files generated by thumbgen)
VIDEO_TS (this folder has the .IFO and .VOB movie files)
THANKS IN ADVANCE-- YOU HAVE ALL BEEN GREAT IN HELPING ME !!
If you have links to paypal so I can “buy you a coffee” for your help please tell me. I am glad to help support (spelled fund) all your assistance and programming.
Looking closer at where these “working movies” are I realize that only movies on the WDTV Live Hub actually display this information. I’ve been reading reviews of other media players and this problem seems to be related to “chipset limitations”. Sounds like no one has fixed this yet either on the realtec or sigma chips.
Guess I may have to hold out for XBMC to run on the “someday down the line” media players.
If anyone has been successful in seeing metadata across network attached drives (especially WHS V1) please let me know.
In “savescreen mode” playing a random photo slideshow the Hub shows you all images found on the local/shared drive(s) including the backdrops. Look in the Photo section of the Hub … you will find your backdrops there also.
When i’m correct this is your file/folder structure at the moment:
Root of the server
Genre [folder]
–|Movie name [sub folder]
------|Video_ts [sub folder]
----------| DVD files … .ifo .vob
Your ThumbGen files are in the Movie name folder. If you want to keep this structure place the ThumbGen generated files you need for the Mojo Theme in the Video_ts folder then it should work.
Instead of keeping the 3 folders structure it can be changed into a 1 folder structure. The problem is that every dvd has the same folders and files so they can’t be in 1 and the same folder with another dvd.
To workaround this i make .iso image files for each dvd. This way you can have dvd’s in 1 folder together with all ThumbGen files and other movie/dvd’s/extensions. The Hub works fine with .iso dvd image files.
I’ve tried moving those 5 files (example seen below) into the VIDEO_TS folder, but still nothing seen in any “view mode”.
My structure is … SERVER\dvd storage\genre (in format like 1 - action & adventure)\movie name\VIDEO_TS (with the .VOBs and these five files from thumbgen …
EXAMPLE NAMES … Hanna.IFO.tgmd, Hanna.nfo, Hanna.png, Hanna_cover.jpg and Hanna_sheet.jpg
I don’t have any .XML files from thumbgen. Is that a problem too?
So there’s even more folders in folders in folders … wow …
This is how it should work, if not maybe there’s to much folders/subfolders.
SERVER [root]
dvd storage [folder]
genre[folder]
Pirates of the Caribbean [folder]
–|Video_ts [folder]
----|Video_ts.bup
----|Video_ts.ifo
----|Video_ts.vob
----|VTS_01_0.bup
----|VTS_01_0.ifo
----|VTS_01_0.jpg
----| VTS_01_0.xml
At the moment i think your ThumbGen files have different names then the dvd files.
Maybe the 1 folder structure and working with .iso files is a better suggestion just to loose some folders.
It can look like this:
SERVER\dvd storage\genre\Movie1.iso
--------------------------------------\Movie1.jpg
--------------------------------------\Movie1.xml
Then:
The Hub can’t read .tgmd files, these are some sort of ThumbGen back up files for your movie info/backdrops. No need to put them on the Hub or server/movie folders.
The Hub can’t read .nfo files. Set ThumbGen to generate xml files instead. These files contain the metadata you are looking for.
The png files must be the folder thumbs generated by ThumbGen, don’t know about Mojo but folder thumbs must be true .jpg files. No need for them when a folder.jpg for movie/genre folder thumb is used.
The _cover.jpg files are nice but if Mojo doesn’t use them to display somewhere … loose them.
The _sheet.jpg files are they renamed .png to .jpg files or true .jpg? Most themes use the .png renamed to .jpg files for better picture quality.
Yup, I missed one word in the thumbgen directions and forgot to set “movieinfo export” to XML. Now I guess I will have to re-run all 780 movies – ARGH !!
I ran that movie “Hanna” thru thumbgen again after setting it for XML outputs and changed the Hanna.png to .jpg. The info I see from thumbgen (which I want to display) is Hanna_sheet (I will try to paste it here so you see what I’m looking to accomplish) …
I have just been allowing thumbgen to generate what it needs, while naming it with names that would work on the WD. Are you saying I have to adjust all its output and rename every file with the VTS_01.0 structure so it will work?
When Manually searching for movie info select the DVD\video_ts folder and type the keywords ( movie name ) you want ThumbGen to look for. Maybe the Pop up comes up to confirm. Then when images for backdrop and thumb are selected press Generate Them!
After this look in de DVD\video_ts folder and there you will find the files you generated with the correct names. No need to edit them. There’s one thing left to do and that’s to rename the extension of the movie sheet from .png to .jpg
O.K. now I realize why the naming is messed up. Not because thumbgen is outputing wrong names, but because my PC identifies the file types with the player VLC and VLC labels these files with VTS x y z and places its traffic cone icon on each.
Anyway … if I am correct then renaming the sheet file to VTS_01_0.png is the only way to resolve what my machine has used for file naming. GIVING IT A TRY …
Offcourse i can only help you with the ThumbGen program itself, not with what’s going on on your pc/server. I mean you are using so much folders in the folder structure, it almost looks like your are trying to hide your video files from the Hub. :smileyvery-happy:
However check the generated xml files if they have the local backdrop line Movie file name.png
if not your setting is off, cahnge it:
Options -> Movie Info
On the right there is the option:
Store cover/backdrops links into the movieinfo file.
Set this to: Store links to Moviesheets
Then when you rename your Movie sheet from .png to .jpg the backdrop line in the xml is incorrect. The backdrop line is searching for Movie file name.png while the file is renamed to .jpg, you have to edit this line to Movie file name.jpg and save the xml…
The simplest solution for you is to convert your movies to .iso using something like ImgBurn. You’ll have a single file with the same playback function you have now and you want have to deal with all the TS folder and files. If you are using DVDFab, you can just create the .iso directly when you rip, by selecting the little blue disc icon to the right of the “Target” box.
Then all you will have to do is to create your Thumbgen files for that single .iso so that you have:
Allready suggested this on page 1 twice but i think the TS doesn’t know how to …
Medic wrote:
Instead of keeping the 3 folders structure it can be changed into a 1 folder structure. The problem is that every dvd has the same folders and files so they can’t be in 1 and the same folder with another dvd.
To workaround this i make .iso image files for each dvd. This way you can have dvd’s in 1 folder together with all ThumbGen files and other movie/dvd’s/extensions. The Hub works fine with .iso dvd image files.
I don’t think so, or at least I haven’t seen where there might be a limit.
However, I would always suggest to remember “K.I.S.S.”. The simpler the structure the better off you’ll be, the more the HUB has to dig down through your folders, the more problems your likely to have.
I personally try to keep my files no more than 3 to 4 folders down.
Thanks for all your help, guys. It’s just a matter of preference as to the folder depth, but I will probably remove some just to make it look cleaner. I use “DVD Next copy” to create my server copies and prefer its options like “copy movie only” so I am spared seeing all those leading trailers for up-coming movies. An ISO copy would be a clone of the DVD and nothing is more painful to me then waiting 15 mins for trailers to be done.
Thanks again for all the help. I’ve discovered new tools along the way and now feel comfortable editing XML files.
