Add-on:AudioBooks

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AudioBooks
https://github.com/robwebset/script.audiobooks/raw/master/icon.png

Author: robwebset

Type: Music/Audio
Repo:

License: GPL v3.0
Source: Source code
Summary: Play AudioBooks
Home icon grey.png   ▶ Add-ons ▶ AudioBooks
Attention talk.png Need help with this add-on? See here.

Allows the playing of AudioBooks

Introduction

You can install this addon from: Repository:robwebset

AudioBooks is an addon that allows you to list and play your AudioBooks using Kodi. Support includes m4b file format and the standard file formats supported by Kodi. (e.g. mp3, flac etc)

On installation of the AudioBooks addon it will need configuring to point to the directory that contains all of your AudioBook files. This can be done via the AudioBooks Settings, or if not set, you will be prompted on first use.

Basic Support

With the default configuration you can:

  • List all your AudioBooks (By filename)
  • Play your AudioBooks
  • Resume your AudioBooks from the point it was last stopped
  • Display of AudioBook Titles
  • Display of AudioBook Cover Artwork



Advanced Support

In order to get features that include:

  • Listing of AudioBook Chapters
  • Starting playing from a given chapter marker

You will need some form of FFmpeg installed, see the following section on how to make FFmpeg available.

Enabling FFmpeg

There are 2 different ways to enable FFmpeg

  • Using the Kodi ffmpeg modules
  • Using a locally installed ffmpeg on the machine Kodi is running on.



Note: If you previously loaded books without ffmpeg, then you will need to clear the cache via the settings - or the context menu to have the audiobooks rescanned.

FFmpeg Modules

There are a set of script.module.ffmpeg addons available that will supply the required FFmpeg files for each platform. Make sure you install the module designed for your platform:

After installing script.module.ffmpeg, if you already have AudioBooks installed, then enable "Auto Detect FFmpeg On Next Restart" in the settings and restart Kodi.

Note: The Windows version of script.module.ffmpeg is optional, Kodi for windows already comes with the FFmpeg libraries, and the AudioBooks addon will use these be default.

FFmpeg Manual Install

You will need to download ffmpeg to a location on your machine and then use the AudioBooks Addon Settings to point to the ffmpeg executable. If you are running on a Linux or Android system then you need to ensure that the ffmpeg program has execute permissions otherwise it will not run (In order to set execute permissions on Android you will most likely need to have rooted your device)



Network Support

If you store your audiobooks on a network server and use Kodi to access them via smb:// or nfs:// then the initial listing of the available books will be slower (Until they are cached into the AudioBooks database) and chapter listings will always be slower.

Why? - Because external programs (like ffmpeg) is not able to read the smb:// or nfs:// format that Kodi uses, so in order for the AudioBooks Addon to use ffmpeg to read the file, it is copied to a temporary local directory, it is this copy that makes the processing of data slower.

How to Avoid This? - Either store the books locally or use the OS level network functionality to map the drive in such a way that it looks like a local drive.

AudioBook Listing

When entering the addon via the Music Addons Menu the available audiobooks will be listed. Any directories that exist will be displayed with their directory name and enclosed in square brackets. On selecting an audiobook, the chapters in that book will be displayed (Note: If ffmpeg support is not enabled then a link to play from the start of the book, or resume will be displayed).

Any audiobooks or chapters that have been marked previously as complete will start with an asterisk ("*").

Cover Art

The cover art for a given audiobook is retrieved in the following order:

  1. A jpg file in the same directory as the audiobook with the same name (i.e. an audiobook with the name myaudiobook.m4b and an image with the name myaudiobook.jpg)
  2. An image that has previously been cached from a book (Based on the file name of the book)
  3. Extracted internal image from the audiobook file
  4. The default cover image set in the AudioBooks settings screen.



Settings

General

AudioBooks Folder
The Location where the AudioBooks are stored
Highlight Completed Books And Chapters
Indicate which books and chapters have been completed
Automatically Number Chapters
Will give each chapter in an audiobook a number when displayed
Default AudioBook Cover Image
The default cover image to use if there is no image available for the audiobook
AudioBooks-Settings1.JPG

ffmpeg

Auto Detect FFmpeg On Next Restart
The next time Kodi restarts it will search for installations of ffmpeg and update the settings location
FFmpeg Usage
Options are None (Do not use FFmpeg), Libraries (Use FFmpeg shared libraries) and Executable (Use FFmpeg executable)
- Library Location
(If Usage set to "Libraries") The location of the ffmpeg libraries
- Library Location
(If Usage set to "Executable") The location of the ffmpeg executable
AudioBooks-Settings3.JPG

Operations

Clean AudioBook Cover Cache
Removes any audiobook covers that have been cached
Clear AudioBook Details Cache
Clears any data cached about the audiobooks (inc. read markers)
Debugging
Enable debug logging
Enables AudioBook debug logging (Required if reporting a problem) - for this to work, system-wide Kodi logging must also be enabled
AudioBooks-Settings2.JPG



Debugging

If reporting a problem, please also provide a debug log. To do this you need to enable BOTH:

  • Kodi logging from the main setting menu
  • AudioBooks debug from the AudioBooks addon settings menu

Please do not paste the log into the forum thread, just link to it.

Donations

If you have found the AudioBooks Addon useful and would like to help support future development and bug fixes, then please feel free to make a small donation.

Please use the link on the top of the AudioBooks Forum