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

Video library/Navigation

Media sources


Library filtering

Advancedfiltering.jpg

Advanced Library Filtering

Media information screen

Library.videos.movieinfo.png

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 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

Edit decision lists

An edit decision list (EDL) contains information about edits that should be made to the video during playback. Edit decision list information is contained in a separate file to the video that is read by Kodi just before the video is played. Examples of use include can be to skip commercials, cut out content inappropriate for children, or skip over the half hour acid trip in 2001: A Space Odyssey .

Subtitles

Kodi supports both stand-alone subtitle and embedded subtitles. Most major subtitle formats are supported. Kodi can also search and download subtitles directly from full screen playback.

Music videos

Kodi has the ability to include Music Videos in the Video and Music libraries. All scanned music videos will show up in both. Music Videos can also be part of Party Mode and Smart Playlists. Playlists containing both music and music videos should be stored in the mixed playlist subfolder under the userdata folder.

Import-export library

Kodi has the option to Export and Import the library databases. These options may be used for a number of reasons including the following more popular ones:

  • Perform database backup and recovery
  • Reorganization of data or eliminate database fragmentation (export, clean/remove database, re-import)
  • Move data between Kodi databases on different platforms (eg Widows to Linux)

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.

See also