Video library
Template:XBMC wiki toc Inline The Video Library, one of the XBMC databases allows the organization of your video content by information associated with the video files themselves. This information can be obtained in various different ways, like through Scrapers (ie. Movies, TV shows and Music Videos) and nfo files. Library Mode allows you to browse your video content by things such as; Genre, Title, Year, Actors and Directors.
Building the library
See Adding videos to the library
Removing files and cleaning the library
You can remove the contents of entire folders/sources from the library by setting content to <None>.
Cleaning up the Video Library (removing invalid entries and compressing) can be done in Videos Settings with the 'Clean Library' option.
Updating the library
You can update the library to pick up newly added content. There are a few different ways of doing this:
- You can tell XBMC to scan for new content whenever the application is started in: Video Settings > Update library on startup
- Add-on:XBMC Library Auto Update can be used to schedule automatic updates to the library.
The library organizes your videos into three basic categories, Movies, TV Shows and Music Videos. Further these categories are divided into sub-categories, allowing you to find a specific video through criteria like genre, actors, directors, year etc.
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You can select the default startup screen in Video Library Mode via the Make Default option of The Context Menu, (Selecting Movies, TV Shows, Title in each etc.)
Searching the library
The search button is available to help you search the video database. Select it to begin your search. A keyboard will pop-up where you may enter search terms (SMS style with the remote, or just using the virtual keyboard). Note that search results will appear in the following order (where matches are found) Genres, Actors (Artists), Directors, By Name, and By Plot. Within each grouping movies will always be first, followed by TV shows and then music videos. NOTE: In order to search within words as well as just for words beginning with your search string, place a % sign in front of the match.
Party Mode
The Party Mode option allows you to randomly play Music Videos from your entire music videos collection based on criteria specified in partymode-video.xsp. Simply build a Smart Playlist and save it as partymode-video.xsp in the userdata folder.
Selecting 'Party Mode' from the sidebar will play ALL valid media scanned into your libraries in a random order that meet the conditions specified in the Smart Playlist.
The Media information screen
You display information on you video files by selecting the Movie / TV Show Information option from contextual menu or by pressing info on the remote.
From here you can refresh the information on your media, i.e. in the case of a wrong match during scanning. Here you can also change fanart and media thumbs, where the number of images being offered may depend on your scraper settings.
You perform actions on your video files using the Context Menu. In Library Mode, selecting a movie that has been designated as a movie folder, the following options are available:
- Queue Item
- Adds the item to the Now Playing playlist.
- Add to Favourites
- Adds the item to your Favourites menu.
- Movie / TV Show Information
- Shows the relevant information, gathered through scrapers, such as the movie or TV show info of the selected file.
- Mark as Watched
- Changes the video status to watched, see above.
- Edit Title
- Changes the name of the item within the Library.
- Remove From Library
- Removes the selected item from the video database.
- Update Library
- Checks if files in the Library have been added and modifies the database accordingly. Adds missing media to the database.
- Go to Root
- Takes you to the Video Library root.
- Now Playing...
- Takes you to the Now Playing screen that shows what is currently playing and what the next queued files are.
- Settings
- Opens the Videos Settings menu.
- Other possible menu items
- Play
- Plays the selected file, resumes a video from the last stopped position.
- Play using
- Allows you to select which player to use for video playback (DVDPlayer or Mplayer).
- Link to TV show
- Links the selected movie to a TV show, The Movie will show up with TV show seasons/episodes.
Video library settings
The main Video Library settings can be accessed from the Library tab in Videos Settings. Those can be accessed either from the Settings menu from the home screen, or via the context menu as seen above.