Video library

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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 view allows you to browse your video content by things such as; Genre, Title, Year, Actors and Directors.

Video library.png


Video playback and controls

See: Video playback

Adding and managing videos

To use your video files with "metadata" like summaries, cast info, DVD covers, thumbnails, and more, you need to add those video files to the video library by following these steps: Video library/Contents

Navigating 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.

Sidebar menu

The sidebar on any given screen, be it in Library view or File view, changes the view types and filters. In most skins you can access the side bar by navigating left till the sidebar opens up, or in some cases you must navigate up or down to bring up those view options.

Library.videos.controls.jpg
View
You can the toggle between the different display options, amongst others; List, Thumbnails, Fanart and Cover Flow.
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.
Filter
Allows you to filter the media files to only show videos that include the specified string in the name.
Misc Options
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. See Searching your library for more information.
Stack
Enables file stacking for multi part videos.
Flatten
Removes the title, genre etc nodes from the library view. Selecting a category takes you straight to the title view.


Contextual menu

In library view, 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.
Resume from (time) e.g. 00:02:21
If you previously started watching a file (after a preset time elapsed) and stopped, you can resume viewing from the moment you stopped. see also: Advanced settings override
Play from here
This will start playback from this file onwards (not including the file highlighted)
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, can also set unwatched, see above.
Edit Title
Changes the name of the item within the Library.
Link to TV show
If a particular Movie has a TV series, you can link to said TV Series.
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.


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, depending on platform available players.

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.

Library filtering

Advancedfiltering.jpg

Advanced Library Filtering

Media information screen

In addition to various display layouts, a media information screen can be shown from contextual menu (C on keyboard) or by pressing info on the remote (i on keyboard}}).

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

File stacking


Linking movies to TV shows

When you are in the Movies section of XBMC you can select a movie and bring up the contextual menu (C on a keyboard) and select "Link to TV show". This will bring up a list of TV shows that are currently in your library. When you link a movie to a TV show it will make that movie show up in the TV show's library view. Multiple movies can be linked to a TV show, but a movie can only be linked to one show at a time.

Movie sets

A Movie Set is a collection of related films that are part of the same fictional universe. The scraper sites include artwork and metadata for Movie Sets which is scraped by Kodi and creates the Movie Set in your library. Movie sets are versatile and can be easily edited to suit your own needs.

Media stubs

  • If you have a collection of DVD's and Bluray disks but do not want to rip them to a hard drive, then a Media Stub File allows you to add the collection of disks to the Kodi Video Library.
  • It is a simple text based file that is added to your Source in exactly the same way as any other Movie or TV Show, which is then scanned or scraped into the library.


Internet streams in the library

STRM

Video library tags

Video library tags, aka Tags or Keywords, can be used to further sort and organise your library into meaningful lists. Sites such as IMDB and TheMovieDB use Keywords to describe themes, plot details or character types to group and easily locate similar titles. They are generally different to the genre.

Custom video nodes

Video nodes are defined views that are used to organize your media from the videos menu. Title, Director, Year, Studios, Countries, Genres are examples of Nodes. These Nodes can be customised using an XML file which gives flexibility in how you display your media. Custom nodes will work with any skin, but for ease of use a compatible skin is preferred.

Playlists


Smart playlists

Smart Playlists are a versatile feature that allow you to create customised lists of media that may be more suited to your browsing preference. They are a set of rules/filters that allow you to display a sub set of the media in your library.

How to separate the library (cartoons, documentaries, anime, etc) from normal listings

A common question people have after setting up their library is how can they separate their library so not everything is just in one big section, and how to have that as an option on the home screen in XBMC.


XBMC can already filter and separate library items using a number of methods mentioned above, but here's a quick and easy way to get the results a lot of people are looking for:

The trick is to use something like smart playlists or video library tags (or even those two together) and create a list for each special type (like anime) and create one for "general TV shows". Basically, "TV shows" becomes a smart playlist where it's all TV shows except for the ones with special playlists. Then grab a skin that lets you use custom home items, such as Transparency! or Hybrid, and set those as home buttons while hiding the original "TV shows" button.


Some skins even let you use custom video nodes (which are based on smart playlists) to automatically alter what is displayed on the home screen.


If you want to completely separate the library you can also use profiles, where each profile has their own XBMC library and settings.


Locking video sources / Parental controls

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.