Solved - Emby media drive to standalone Kodi 18.3 build workflow. Need advice!

Solved Emby media drive to standalone Kodi 18.3 build workflow. Need advice! - Printable Version

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Emby media drive to standalone Kodi 18.3 build workflow. Need advice! - TurtleTaub - 2019-07-12

Greetings,

I'm building a standalone laptop media center using Kodi 18.3 and an external drive. The media folders on external were copied from my Emby server drives. Metadata was saved next to media, so has artwork/nfo's.

In Kodi Files Manager, I added each folder as a separate source - Movies, Concerts, Stand-Up Comedy, TV Shows, Documentaries, Music, Audiobooks, Training, Music Videos...

For source-types that allowed it, I chose 'Local Metadata Scraper' to grab the metadata inherited by Emby. For content-types that could import, process went smoothly.

Here's some issues I now face with Kodi 18.3 I didn't face with Kodi 16 or 17...

1) How can I separate movie/tv shows/music types in Main Menu? I would like a main menu section for example 'Audiobooks', but gets mixed in with Music? Same for Movies/Concerts/Stand-Up Comedy, and TV Shows/Documentaries.
2) How do I add Main Menu items for my obscure 'Training' and 'Music Videos' libraries, without using integrated video file types? These don't have scrapeable data from the internet.
3) Now that libraries are imported, can I change scraper from 'Local' to internet source, and any skin I install which requires artwork not found in media drive get downloaded from the internet?

Thanks for any help!

RE: Emby media drive to standalone Kodi 18.3 build workflow. Need advice! - Karellen - 2019-07-12

(2019-07-12, 22:36)TurtleTaub Wrote: How can I separate movie/tv shows/music types in Main Menu?

See here... Custom home items (wiki)
Also... Audiobooks (wiki)

(2019-07-12, 22:36)TurtleTaub Wrote: How do I add Main Menu items for my obscure 'Training' and 'Music Videos' libraries, without using integrated video file types? These don't have scrapeable data from the internet.

You will need to create NFO Files. They can be as simple or as complex as you like. See... NFO files (wiki)

Will they be in your library as Movies or TV Shows?

(2019-07-12, 22:36)TurtleTaub Wrote: Now that libraries are imported, can I change scraper from 'Local' to internet source, and any skin I install which requires artwork not found in media drive get downloaded from the internet

It does not work like that. Skins do not control the scraping process, they just display what is already there. The information in your NFO Files (metadata inherited by Emby) controls this. If there are artwork links in those files, then Kodi's thumb-loader will download the artwork from the links, but my experience is that there won't be. If you post a movie, tvshow and episode nfo file I can confirm. Post to Kodi Paste Site

RE: Emby media drive to standalone Kodi 18.3 build workflow. Need advice! - TurtleTaub - 2019-07-13

(2019-07-12, 23:13)Karellen Wrote:
(2019-07-12, 22:36)TurtleTaub Wrote: How can I separate movie/tv shows/music types in Main Menu?
See here... Custom home items (wiki)
Also... Audiobooks (wiki)

(2019-07-12, 22:36)TurtleTaub Wrote: How do I add Main Menu items for my obscure 'Training' and 'Music Videos' libraries, without using integrated video file types? These don't have scrapeable data from the internet.
You will need to create NFO Files. They can be as simple or as complex as you like. See... NFO files (wiki)

Will they be in your library as Movies or TV Shows?

(2019-07-12, 22:36)TurtleTaub Wrote: Now that libraries are imported, can I change scraper from 'Local' to internet source, and any skin I install which requires artwork not found in media drive get downloaded from the internet
It does not work like that. Skins do not control the scraping process, they just display what is already there. The information in your NFO Files (metadata inherited by Emby) controls this. If there are artwork links in those files, then Kodi's thumb-loader will download the artwork from the links, but my experience is that there won't be. If you post a movie, tvshow and episode nfo file I can confirm. Post to Kodi Paste Site

Really appreciate the help Karellen, I got it figured out. Using Jellyfin media server and will use Jellyfin for Kodi add-on which sorts my issues out automatically.

RE: Emby media drive to standalone Kodi 18.3 build workflow. Need advice! - Karellen - 2019-07-13

Ok, not sure how it solves a couple of your questions but l will mark this solved...

Emby media drive to standalone Kodi 18.3 build workflow. Need advice! - Karellen - 2019-07-13

Thread marked solved.

RE: Emby media drive to standalone Kodi 18.3 build workflow. Need advice! - TurtleTaub - 2019-07-14

(2019-07-13, 12:08)Karellen Wrote: Ok, not sure how it solves a couple of your questions but l will mark this solved...

Great, thanks!

Jellyfin allows to add all the media folders I described and separates them in the main menu and homescreen. Using the web app through Chrome, every format playback is supported (except epubs). Tried to use 'Jellyfin for Kodi' and have Kodi as front-end player, but Kodi kept crashing when trying to play. Early days for the add-on, so will put on ice and check back in a few months.