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+---- Thread: How does Kodi's library manage media files on optical discs? (/showthread.php?tid=341781)
How does Kodi's library manage media files on optical discs? - DJ_Izumi - 2019-03-09
I'll have to admit that the last time I was using files on optical media with Kodi was when it was XBMC an actual Xbox and I didn't even use the library function then, I just used plain files. So lately I've been backing up some of the rarer or more valuable data from my media server to optical, only I've upgraded from 4.7GB DVDs to 100 and 128GB BDXL discs. All the files are reformatted for Kodi to scrape since they are copied out, including their series folder, so I can just copy and paste back to the server in the event of needing to recover. But a low priority additional scheme was that these discs could 'Tray And Play' in a Kodi machine with a BDXL capable optical drive. What I'm wondering is if one can actually build a library like this? Like, let's say some disaster happens, my server is gone, and in the end all I have is the bankers box of BDXL discs with multiple TB of media between them all, plus one HTPC. Can I scrape the discs one by one and build a library? Does Kodi KNOW which disc the files should be on or will it just assume everything is in 'D:\Something Something\' and if the file isn't found because the wrong disc is inserted a the time and it will ask me if I want to remove the entry from the library?
This obviously isn't URGENT, it's more a curiosity for a fairly out there contingency, but I'm curious to know.
P.S. 128GB BDXLs are only made by ONE company, only for sale in Japan, and kinda pricey to bring into Canada. =X
RE: How does Kodi's library manage media files on optical discs? - pkscout - 2019-03-09
I don't think you can just have Kodi scrape the discs. Or rather you'd have to define every disc as a source and then scrape it (assuming each disc has a unique name that the OS would recognize as a distinct path). When you go to play something Kodi would just tell you the media couldn't be found, so you'd have to know on which disc every file was to put the right disc in. And if you ever cleaned your library Kodi would delete anything on sources that weren't available (i.e. every disc). The short story is that I don't think you can do what you want to do.
An alternative would be to create media stubs for every file that includes the information about which disc it's on. That's still very, very manual though.
https://kodi.wiki/view/Media_stubs