Thumbnails and summaries

I am not a new user but I’m always confused about he way to manage the covers and summaries.

1/Is it possible without using media library?

I gave up library because it takes too long for things to be indexed.

I prefer play with my DLNA server (Synology 213+)

2/What about .xml and .mediathumb and .something directories?

Is it useful for getting or showing thumbnails and whatever?

  1. Yes, if the thumbnails are embedded into the video files themselves.

  2. These do not normally work in most DLNA clients as per DLNA design. 

You could use Thumbgen to create create xml files, thumbnails and backdrops. Recently I have been having a problem with tvdb but tmdb works great for getting your movie information.