Video extras

Introduction

Video Extras is a new feature to handle Extra video material, such as bloopers, alternate endings, interviews etc. It was introduced in v21 as part of the Video Versions feature.

Many users are familiar with the existing Extras addon. Video Extras is the core version of the addon which provides greater flexibility to skinners to determine when Extras are available and provide icons in the library views to indicate their presence .

Video Extras and the Extras add-on are both compatible with each other, and one won't affect the other if both are in use.

This feature works on the movie library and may be expanded to TV shows in a later release of Kodi.

Note: Video Extras requires movie folders and connot be used with a flat folder structure.

Settings

There are two settings that control the use of Video Extras.

Located in the GUI and controls what to do when the Extra folder is found during a Library Update.
An advancedsettings.xml entry that prevents Extras being added to the library as movies when the GUI setting is Enabled.

GUI Setting

Settings level:

Basic

Description:

Settings ► Media ► Library ► Video Library ► Ignore video extras on scan

Disabled - When an Update Library is run, and if a folder named Extras exists, any video files in the folder will be added to the Extras listing for the movie.
See: Video Extras
Enabled - (default) When an Update Library is run, any extras in the Extras folder will not be added to the Extras listing.
Videos in the Extras folder will be treated like a movie file and added to the library. To avoid this ensure the advancedsettings.xml file has the correct ignore code.
See: Video Extras

Advancedsetting.xml

Extras are video files the same way the main feature movie is a video file. This may cause Kodi to see your Extras as additional movies when the GUI setting above is Enabled. To prevent each Extras video file being scraped as a movie, and adding random or duplicated movies into your library, you must tell Kodi not to scrape the Extras folder.

A number of methods are available. A listing is found here Excluding folders and file types or use the Advancedsettings.xml method using the code below by simply copying and pasting the following code into your Advancedsettings.xml file. If you already have an advancedsettings.xml file, do not duplicate the <advancedsettings></advancedsettings> tags.

 <advancedsettings version="1.0">
   <video>
      <!-- Extras: Section Start -->
      <excludefromscan action="append">
          <regexp>/extras/</regexp>
          <regexp>[\\/]extras[\\/]</regexp>
      </excludefromscan>
      <excludetvshowsfromscan action="append">
          <regexp>/extras/</regexp>
          <regexp>[\\/]extras[\\/]</regexp>
      </excludetvshowsfromscan>
      <!-- Extras: Section End -->
   </video>
 </advancedsettings>

Setup

Before running the Library Update, ensure the Extras folder has been created in the correct location. Only a folder named \Extras\ will be recognised by the scanner.

The Extras folder must be located in the same folder as your movie video file for the Kodi scanner to find it. Some typical examples are listed below.

Single Movie Folders

...\MyMovies\Lucy (2014)\
...\MyMovies\Lucy (2014)\Extras\

DVD Structure

...\MyMovies\Chronicles of Riddick\
...\MyMovies\Chronicles of Riddick\AUDIO_TS\
...\MyMovies\Chronicles of Riddick\VIDEO_TS\
...\MyMovies\Chronicles of Riddick\VIDEO_TS\Extras\

Bluray Structure

...\MyMovies\Lucy (2014)\
...\MyMovies\Lucy (2014)\BDMV\
...\MyMovies\Lucy (2014)\BDMV\Extras\

Extras Manager

The Extras Manager is accessed from the Information page as shown in the below images

Image 1- From the Movie Information page select Extras along the bottom row
Image 6- The Extras Manager with Extras added.

Play

Play the selected title.

Add Extra

The manual method of adding Extras to the manager by navigating through your file system.

See the Adding Extras ► Manual section below.

Choose Art

Allows the changing of artwork for the highlighted Extra. Which artwork is displayed is skin dependent.

Rename

Rename the title of the selected Extra

Remove

Remove an Extra from the manager. It will not delete files from the file system. The setting Allow file renaming and deletion has no effect.

Be aware that running an Update Library may rescan the removed title back into the library, depending on your settings.

Adding Extras

There are two methods to scan Extras into the Extras library:

Running the regular Update Library or Scan item to library.
Manually adding items.

Library Update

When the above-mentioned GUI setting is Disabled, the Kodi scanner, in addition to searching for video files, artwork, nfo files and trailers, will also search for the Extras folder and any video files in the folder will be added to the Extras Manager.

Note: There is a known bug in v21 related to the hash of the video files which may prevent Extras from being scanned. There is a fix for v22, which may be backported to v21.x

Manual

Extras can also be added manually to the Extras Manager for those cases where Extras are added after the movie has been scanned into the library. This is performed via the Extras Manager as detailed in the following screenshots.

Image 1- From the Movie Information page select Extras along the bottom row
Image 2- In the Extras Manager, select Add extra
Image 3- Select * Item folder to jump to the movie folder, or navigate to another location using the remaining options.
Image 4- Select the Extras folder
Image 5- From this screen, highlight an Extra to add to the Extras library one at a time.
Image 6- The Extras Manager with Extras added.

Playing Extras

Accessing Extras for playback is accomplished using one of the following methods...

Accessing the Extras Manager (detailed above) and pressing play after selecting the Extra to play
When a movie contains Extras, pressing play using any method will display the Choose version dialogue. From this screen you can choose to either play the movie or select Extras for the Choose extra dialogue.

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