[dmcx]

With Kodi 20 I use the "Videos" menu and add a file location (sftp addon network share pointing to a remote folder). The files show up in a list, and each eventually has an extracted thumbnail picture in the left side bar, but I can't get them to show the metadata information from the mp4/mkv files, they all say "No information available".  I have "use video tag" enabled and "Extract information from files" (Settings>Media>Video).   I used mp4tags -s "Title" -m "Description" on an mp4 file.  The metadata shows up in "ffprobe".  What more must I do to get Kodi to use this information? 

I had assumed these tags would be supported:
https://kodi.wiki/view/Video_file_tagging

Code:

ffprobe -i file.mp4
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'file.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : isom
    minor_version   : 1
    compatible_brands: isomavc1mp42
    creation_time   : 2023-04-03T13:48:16.000000Z
    title           : Title
    description     : Description

[Karellen]

they all say "No information available"

That is a placeholder for scraped metadata. Your movies have not been scraped into the library, so there is nothing to display.
Kodi hasn't been coded to display video file tags in views by directly reading the video file each time your scroll over it.

I used mp4tags -s "Title" -m "Description" on an mp4 file.  The metadata shows up in "ffprobe".  What more must I do to get Kodi to use this information? 

You need to scan these into the library.

[dmcx]

they all say "No information available"

That is a placeholder for scraped metadata. Your movies have not been scraped into the library, so there is nothing to display.
Kodi hasn't been coded to display video file tags in views by directly reading the video file each time your scroll over it

I used mp4tags -s "Title" -m "Description" on an mp4 file.  The metadata shows up in "ffprobe".  What more must I do to get Kodi to use this information? 

You need to scan these into the library.

How is it displaying the thumbnail then?  I assumed it would work in the same way.  I just have video files in folders and sub folders, no real structure to Movies or TV Shows, and I don't want to use internet services to fill in data that is already there in the metadata.   Files are added and deleted daily, so I just want to show the filesystem as it is at the moment, not create a library that could be out of sync.

I just want the metadata read from each file once and stored like the thumbnail seems to be (until the file is later deleted), is that not possible?


Edit I tried adding a single file as TV Shows, and the log indicates it sees the title tag (no mention of description), but the file list still has the same filename and "No information available':

Code:


  debug <general>: VideoInfoScanner: Extracted filestream details from video file sftp://192.x:22/test/file.mp4
  debug <general>: VideoInfoScanner: Adding new item to tvshows: sftp://192.x:22/test/file.mp4
  debug <general>: VIDEO::CVideoInfoScanner:: ProcessItemByVideoInfoTag - found match for: 'sftp://192.x:22/file.mp4', title: 'Title'

[Karellen]

That is not going to work. You can't just dump a whole heap of files in a folder and expect Kodi to make sense of it.
Movies and TV Shows need separate Sources.
Episodes need the correct SxxEyy format, and each episode needs to be in the correct tv show folder for that show.

I just want the metadata read from each file once and stored like the thumbnail seems to be (until the file is later deleted), is that not possible?

Depends on what you are expecting. Yes and No.
Yes, if you correctly name your media and scan/scrape it into the library
No if you are just expecting the metadata to appear as you scroll through your list of files.

I urge you to read this... https://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Create_Video_Library especially the second line of the Introduction.

[dmcx]

That is not going to work. You can't just dump a whole heap of files in a folder and expect Kodi to make sense of it.
Movies and TV Shows need separate Sources.
Episodes need the correct SxxEyy format, and each episode needs to be in the correct tv show folder for that show.

I just want the metadata read from each file once and stored like the thumbnail seems to be (until the file is later deleted), is that not possible?

Depends on what you are expecting. Yes and No.
Yes, if you correctly name your media and scan/scrape it into the library
No if you are just expecting the metadata to appear as you scroll through your list of files.

I urge you to read this... https://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Create_Video_Library especially the second line of the Introduction.

I understand Kodi can't scrape if the filenames don't follow a certain file/folder format.  That makes sense if building an organized library and scraping metadata.

But, I don't want to scrape anything. The metadata is already in the mp4/mkv files.  I do just want to dump files and folders.  Kodi can already generate thumbnails from the files and list them by filename. Kodi can already extract metadata from files.  I just want it to use the metadata from the files while it is getting the thumbnail, replace the name with the title, and use the description (and other metadata) as if it were scraped.  Just like it does with the thumbnails. If a file doesn't have metadata, Kodi can continue using the filename and having no description. That seems like it should be possible and doesn't harm the library scraping system at all.

But it sounds like it can't do that, so my descriptions will remain "No information available", even though information IS available if only Kodi would use it.

[Karellen]

That seems like it should be possible and doesn't harm the library scraping system at all.

Sure, it can be possible. But Kodi is not coded to do that, so it presently does not do what you want.

I can suggest you put in a feature request, but honestly, save yourself the trouble, as it will never be a feature that would be added.
The complexity involved far outweighs the benefits and, to the best of my memory, you are the first person to have asked for it, so not a big demand for it.

[sakuraba]

Ive been struggling with this same thing for the last 3 days and almost gave up but I read the article Karellen posted and figured it out in seconds. I had been mapping my movies to an external usb drive but after reading article Karellen posted I went back and followed the steps to add the directory in Kodi. I added just one movie folder to test and the No Information Available changed to the description of the movie. Before when it wasnt working I was just going to the Movies section and my hard drive was already mapped. After mapping a new directory and telling it its for Movies and to use my own .nfo file it worked like a charm. Use this link that Karellen posted and let me know if you have questions.

https://kodi.wiki/view/Adding_video_sources