[Wcool]

Hi,

Sorry for the long question but I need to explain well what my setup is, I hope someone can help!

I use Alaska (not revisited), and in general use Video mode, not TV Show or Movies (I have too many movies and TV shows and it would take me ages to find the right movie)

My internal directory structure is as follows:
TV1 <- directory Content = TV
...House <- directory
......Season 1 <- dir
.........files
......Season 2 <- dir
.........files
......etc
...Blake's 7 <- dir
......Season 1
......etc
TV2 <- dir
...Little Britain <- dir
......files
etc
Films (2000) <- directory Content = FILMS
...Movie 1 <-- directory
......Moviefile.avi <- files
......Subtitles.srt
......pictures.jpg
......Moviefile2.avi
...Movie 2 <-- directory
......Moviefile3.avi <- files
......Subtitles.srt
......pictures.jpg
......Moviefile4.avi
Films (2001)
Films (2002)
etc

I normally use File view mode, the only sound way to see quickly where you are.

Now for the question:
When I browse TV shows and I am on the 2nd level of directories (for instance in TV1), I can scroll through all the directories that have names of TV shows AND I CAN SEE a background with normally a picture of the cast of the show appear.

When I browse Films on the 2nd level (for instance I am in directory Films (2000) I can scroll through all my directories (all names of movies) BUT A BACKGROUND of the movie WON'T appear. Only when I delve one level deeper and go into the specific movie directory do I see a background for that movie when I stand on the movie file itself.

I love to see that movie picture when I am browsing all my movie directories and what I actually also see when I am browsing TV shows. I don't understand why it does not show up for movies only until I am inside a single movie dir.

Is there a way to achieve this for movies too, or should I organise my directories differently?
I am not afraid of hacking some XML files if need be

Thanks in advance,

Jeroen

[bassieman]

Create a folder.jpg in every directory and that is what will show up as the thumb, create a fanart.jpg in every directory that will be used as the fanart.

[Wcool]

Thanks Bassieman

I probably need to write a script to extract the pictures from the database then

what I don't understand is why TV folders do show the background picture per directory where the movies do not.

[bassieman]

Just use one of the media managers, seems to do the trick. That way you can do your complete collection in one go.

[Wcool]

The media managers are normally not very useful if you have a large collection. If I browse by Actor or Title i have more than 2000 entries, completely unworkable.
<rant> A remark on this btw: why does 'jump to character' not work.
(You have a huge list and want to jump straight to everything starting with let's say H, XBMC won't, I have to press page down 50 times). Nothing to do with Alaska sorry
</rant>

TV shows though are neatly ordered by name first, then season, which is completely workable.

But the only way you can browse a huge collection of movies is by ordering it yourself. I order on year, but would love some of the functionality of Library mode build into File mode - like the cool backdrops per movie. I had the hope it would be adding some <XML> tag to one of the config files in the .xbmc directory but I guess it is not that simple.

Thanks a lot for your reply

[ppic]

you just have to export in separate files, it will put your stuff in your folders.

[Wcool]

I think I misunderstood Media Manager, I thought it was Library mode.But I think you mean an external program. Will check it out, thanks all

[steppedup]

Just saw this, here's an easy way of getting all artwork you might need with almost no work:

http://htpcguide.info/index.php?option=c...&Itemid=64

In short:
TV Logo's, landscape, banner images:
In XBMc, switch to to the Alaska Mod Skin (available in Configure the System/ Appearance/ click on the skin you have listed, scroll down to Get More, and choose Alaska Mod.

Posters, clearart, and fanart:
You can do it via the TVDBDownloader, available here.

Download the two files, and then open command line and type this in:

"c:\tv" /poster /fanart /clearart


c:\tv being your top TV show repository. It will not download into Season folders though.

[DurhamDev]

Just saw this, here's an easy way of getting all artwork you might need with almost no work

I believe everything you mention above, short of the clear art, can be downloaded through the integrated script in Alaska Revisited's advanced settings. Unfortunately, I believe it's also not an automated process, so you need to trigger it to make it work. I just read you are using Alaska, which I believe is an 'End of Life' product, so it's another good reason to upgrade to AR!