Naming video files/Movies

Template:XBMC wiki toc Inline XBMC has the ability to lookup meta data and present information on TV Shows in the Video Library.

Movie information support in XBMC

XBMC can help you organize your movie collection by cataloguing your movies and cross-referencing the file names with film records obtained from the internet. Movie meta data support is via scrapers and requires a connection to the internet. The information gathered is stored locally in the Video Library so that it is available when you are offline. The scrapers scan your movies and retrieve the information about them from sites on the internet. For movies, TheMovieDb.org[1] is the one recommended, as this is a free and open database of movies that anyone can contribute to. Optional scrapers can be added via the XBMC Add-ons system. In order to get the most out of your movie library, you may want to scan your videos and retrieve information about them from the available sources.

Troubleshooting movie lookups

The scraper picks the wrong movie

You can always do a manual lookup by going to the media information screen, select Refresh and then Manual. You will get The On Screen Keyboard to refine your search.

To improve the matching add the year within parenthesis to the end of the file or foldername, depending on your scanning method (before the extension, if filename), this naming standard seems to yield the best results. Note that the same goes for some TV Shows such as "Battlestar Galactica", "Doctor Who" and "Knight Rider" which can yield multiple results.

\Movies\Pulp Fiction (1994).avi
\Movies\Reservoir Dogs (1992).avi
\Movies\The Usual Suspects (1995).avi

\Movies\The Usual Suspects (1995)\somefilename.avi

\TV\Battlestar Galactica (2003)\files.avi

And for DVD-Video movies stored in file-mode on the harddrive:

\Movies\Alien (1979)\VIDEO_TS.IFO
\Movies\Léon (1994)\VIDEO_TS.IFO
\Movies\Scarface (1983)\VIDEO_TS.IFO

Additional information

Based on the naming scheme of your movie files, lookups may or may not be effective. The filename is referenced by a search within the online resource records and the closest matches are presented. If the filename is not exactly or very close to the movie title the automatic scan may not always offer accurate matches. You can always do a manual lookup instead from the context menu. This allows you to choose between several matches and/or refine your query to obtain the correct movie.

If you would like to remove the entire video database (after a bad scan, or for whatever reason) you can simply remove/rename the file called MyVideos*.db in the UserData-directory (see The UserData Folder to find out where the UserData Folder is located on your installation). Restart XBMC and the IMDb information can be rescanned.

*TIP!: If you like to use lookup to catalog off-line DVD-Video library (or other movies stored on DVD/CD media) see: Media stubs