Video library: Difference between revisions

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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.
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.
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Revision as of 22:53, 5 February 2009

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. IMDb, TV Shows) and nfo files. The Library Mode view allows you to browse your video content by things like; Genre, Title, Year, Actors and Directors.

Library.videos.moviefanart.WSCR.jpg

Preparing your Videos to be Scanned

First you have to decide what sort of video is contained in the folder/share you wish to scan via the 'Set Content' option of the The Context Menu, for more info see:

For TV shows to work properly in the Video Library, the file naming conventions used have to match the regular expressions used in XBMC, see:

Set content0.jpg

Navigating your 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.

Library.videos.controls.jpg

View
You can the toggle between the different display options, amongst others; List, Icons and Big Icons.
Sort By
You can choose what criteria to sort your Videos by. Note the arrow to the right which controls whether the items are sorted in ascending or descending order.
Library Mode
This control allows you to switch between Library Mode and File View. (Used to be called Switch View)
Hide Watched
Toggles between All Videos and Unwatched. XBMC will show either all videos or only unwatched media.
Search
You can search for a string anywhere in the XBMC video database.
Filter
Allows you to filter the media files to only show videos that include the specified string in the name.
Party Mode
See below.
Flatten
Removes the title, genre etc nodes from the library view. Selecting a category takes you straight to the title view.

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.)

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 The Context 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. File:Library.videos.movieinfo.WSCR.jpg Library.videos.tvshowinfo.WSCR.jpg

Video Context Menu in Library Mode

You perform actions on your video files using the Context Menu. Press the White button on your controller (Title on the remote). This will bring up the context menu, pictured below right. In Library Mode, selecting a movie that has been designated as a movie folder, the following options are available:

Context.library.myvideos.movies.jpg

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 IMDb or TV Shows info on 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 changed, added or removed, modifies the database accordingly and runs a cleaning routine. 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.

Remote browsing

To be able to browse the Video Library outside the GUI, like through The Web Interface, you'll currently have to add a special videodb:// source, which will show up as 'Library' under Videos in the web interface.

Video Library Settings and Maintenance

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.

Keeping your Library up to date

The Update library on startup and Always update library in background library settings can in conjunction be used to scan your sources for new files for inclusion in the library in the background at each XBMC start.

NOTE! If sources are unavailable during library update, everything on them will be removed from the library. You can avoid this with the <cleanonupdate> advancedsettings tag (see below).

advancedsettings.xml

Some settings can only be altered through the advancedsettings.xml file, such as settings affecting the "All" and "Recently Added" database nodes.

Removing Entire Folders from the Library

You can remove the contents of entire folders from the library by setting content to <None> as described in the How To use Scrapers section.

Clean Video Library

Cleaning up the Video Library (removing invalid entries and compressing) can be done via the User Interface Settings, in the Videos Settings with the Clean Library option.