[dmc1961]

Your nfo appears to be malformed, adapting an existing nfo this works for me https://paste.kodi.tv/kipadeloxo

Thanks for the nfo file and I do see your top line differs from mine, so put your entire nfo file in place (tvshow.nfo) and re-ran the library update - I also put the same file in three of my "Entertainment"  subfolders but none show anything, resulting kodi.log shows it is insisting an episodeguide tag for each file and inserting a blank one in the tvshow.nfo file does not make the error go away, so seems to be insisting on an episode nfo for each file which I thought the tvshow.nfo removed the need for:

09:09:19.364 T:139882006435584   ERROR: VideoInfoScanner: Asked to lookup episode /u/TV/kodi/00_TV/Entertainment/The.Voice/The.Voice.S08E15.mp4 online, but we have no episode guide. Check your tvshow.nfo and make sure the <episodeguide> tag is in place.
09:09:19.364 T:139882006435584   ERROR: Parse: Could not find scraper function GetArt
09:09:19.364 T:139882006435584   ERROR: Run: Unable to parse web site
09:09:19.667 T:139882006435584  NOTICE: VideoInfoScanner: Finished scan. Scanning for video info took 00:00
09:09:25.448 T:139882006435584   ERROR: Open - Error, could not open file /u/TV/kodi/00_TV/Entertainment/The.Graham.Norton.Show/The.Graham.Norton.Show.S25E01.mkv
09:09:25.448 T:139882006435584   ERROR: ExtractThumb - Error creating demuxer

The tvshow.nfo I posted was built using the Kodi recommended web page I saw somewhere hoping I didn't have any format/structure issues.

I started playing with the whole URL link in the tvshow.nfo file and changed tvdb to tmdb based on notes in forums reflecting the failures I was getting. I still don't get anything in the Context menu like your display shows, but I ended up with a bunch of renamed episodes in the display with hit and miss details for some - don't want this as it will show 'spoilers' in crime show episodes etc - want to keep it very simple. So I am now with TMDB and Local NFO source of info which got rid of the attempted episode displays - so no further.

This has to be something in my directory structure perhaps. Earlier when I was running tvdb and tried to get an update on the main "Entertainment" folder, it was trying to update a show from 2015 for "Entertainment" instead of any of the sub folders (The.Voice where the tvshow.nfo file is) and also if I change into the The.Voice folder, anything I press to update this directory naturally tried to work on the actual highlighted episode...

I might, given my uploads are all script related, create an nfo file for each episode which will essentially be the Context screen 'stuff' and see if this works - it still means I have to change into the folder to get info but maybe that is all that will work for me. Will also update the Kodi setup to latest release if needs be, but given I could not do this for 16 and 17, that isn't going to be the resolution either.

I will muddle along and see where I get to using the kodi.log file to help, but at this point, based on my hours in previous versions and now on 18, this does not work for me and I will continue to create mp4 files with text info in them in the actual TV show folders so I have something to remind me of what the show is all about. (I also download the YouTube trailers of shows just so people can view the content and can decide if this is the show they are in the mood for :-)

Many thanks for all your help, I am thinking my issue is something at my end in the setup of directory tree structure as it does source the tvshow.nfo file if I put a link in it to external urls, but as a local nfo, it won't give me the Context summary I am after.

[Karellen]

seems to be insisting on an episode nfo for each file which I thought the tvshow.nfo removed the need for:

No, wrong.

I am not really sure why you are trying to do this. Why are you trying to use NFO Files? I have asked you twice previously but you have ignored my questions. I think (and I am most likely wrong) that you are misguided or misunderstanding Kodi and its requirements.

I applaud your commitment to "get your hands dirty", but I think (and probably wrong again) you need to grasp Kodi basics first, before jumping to the more advanced areas. Why don't you use the Kodi scrapers. If your tv show folder is correctly named and your episode files are using S01E01 format in the file name, then you can have these scraped in a matter of seconds.

[dmc1961]

seems to be insisting on an episode nfo for each file which I thought the tvshow.nfo removed the need for:

No, wrong.

I am not really sure why you are trying to do this. Why are you trying to use NFO Files? I have asked you twice previously but you have ignored my questions. I think (and I am most likely wrong) that you are misguided or misunderstanding Kodi and its requirements.

I applaud your commitment to "get your hands dirty", but I think (and probably wrong again) you need to grasp Kodi basics first, before jumping to the more advanced areas. Why don't you use the Kodi scrapers. If your tv show folder is correctly named and your episode files are using S01E01 format in the file name, then you can have these scraped in a matter of seconds. 

Firstly I appreciate your responses to me and I apologise if I appear to be ignoring your questions, I certainly would like to state here this is not my intention. Given I have been using Kodi since version 16 I don't believe I am misguided or misunderstanding Kodi and have enjoyed migrating off using DLNA client from a TV to a Raspberry Pi years ago to using Kodi but maintaining the much enhanced capabilities of Kodi to use my existing TV/Movie directory structure added as a 'source' - has been working like this for years. I have loved the use of automation in Linux with Kodi to do things like move watched TV shows and Movies to an archive area for possible eventual deletion (observing disk space limitations) and I have certainly only skimmed the surface of the more diverse features in Kodi - I use a front end Linux PC to obtain TV shows and movies to upload via NFS to the Kodi directory structure on my dedicated Kodi Linux server. Perfect, suits my sometimes changing media hierarchy and provides smooth TV interface via HDMI link with USB WiFi based TV remotes.
I don't really want the enhancements of having scrapers download episode info etc, I was just hoping to have a Context feature for the respective TV show's folder to display some simple text of what the TV show folder is about just as @jjd-uk  has pasted their screenshot in the dialogue - works perfectly and is exactly what I am after.... but I can't seem to get it going in my setup despite all my shenanigans. To this end I will keep tinkering till I find what is preventing it make this happen for me. I have used @jjd-uk's tvshow.nfo file placing it in the TV show folder (The.Voice) but it is not working. Using the logs I can see the banter from the scraper obviously trying to process the nfo file (qualified this earlier by just putting in the URL to an external DB for show info).
My apologies again for causing any annoyance and will continue to work on why the tvshow.nfo is not being used as it should. I have spent most of my weekend hacking with this so eventually I might get the result I want..... a nice feature but not 'biggy' if I can't get it going. Thanks again for you patience.

[Karellen]

No, not annoyed, but just wanted to ensure you understood that there was an easier way.

So you want the TV Shows, but not the episodes to display information. So the problem may be solved by simply changing the following setting...

Enable the setting 3.6 Show empty TV shows as shown here... https://kodi.wiki/view/Settings/Media/Videos#Library

Do your shows appear now?

[dmc1961]

No, not annoyed, but just wanted to ensure you understood that there was an easier way.

So you want the TV Shows, but not the episodes to display information. So the problem may be solved by simply changing the following setting...

Enable the setting 3.6 Show empty TV shows as shown here... https://kodi.wiki/view/Settings/Media/Videos#Library

Do your shows appear now?

Thank you for your cross-checking my settings. I changed it but still shows nothing in the Context - I must have a setting somewhere that is suppressing showing the folder details from the tvshow.nfo folder actually in the folder. I notice recommendations to put "Seasons" under sub-folders so have been wondering if this is the issue, but there are shows with no 'seasons's as such (but then in logic if there is only one season, it is season 1 anyway). Also tried making sure any of the internal title tags has a dot in them as the directories are all The.Something, not "The Something", but that didn't work either so more to discover perhaps in my settings. I have Kodi loaded on my own desktop just to test things and it is an 'untouched' version as such, so maybe I will tinker with this and then if it works, will compare my live setup to the test system?

[jjd-uk]

Have you tried removing the Source saying yes to the do you want to remove all library items and adding the source again. I ask as I'm still not convinced you are updating correctly, so starting from a fresh source after ensuring nothing is left over in Library maybe best.

[dmc1961]

Have you tried removing the Source saying yes to the do you want to remove all library items and adding the source again. I ask as I'm still not convinced you are updating correctly, so starting from a fresh source after ensuring nothing is left over in Library maybe best.

Yes I have set the library to None and then local info only to no avail many times - just tried it again now. Here is a clue that might help me/us with this. Only The.Voice has a tvshow.nfo file, all my other folders just contain episodes. It is looking at the tvshow.nfo based on this log that shows it attempting to expand on the episodes in the The.Voice folder, none of the others do this, only this folder. Pasted log file section: vunoxugowa.kodi (paste)

I saw someone posting that if you have 10 episodes in a directory, you must have 11 .nfo files, one being tvshow.nfo and then one per episode. I don't think this is the case with other postings I have seen but it may be a clue based on the logs on the actual episodes - there are episodes in the folders about this in the log file I posted but none are listed like The.Voice attempting to process the files.

With your test and resulting tvshow.nfo file, did you put it just into an empty folder or did you put in some test episode files for testing? I tried creating a new empty folder with the tvshow.nfo and still nothing.

[ponkotsu]

(...) don't want this as it will show 'spoilers' in crime show episodes etc - want to keep it very simple. So I am now with TMDB and Local NFO source of info which got rid of the attempted episode displays - so no further.

So you want the TV Shows, but not the episodes to display information. So the problem may be solved by simply changing the following setting...

Enable the setting 3.6 Show empty TV shows as shown here... https://kodi.wiki/view/Settings/Media/Videos#Library

Not wanting to correct @Karellen, but I think "3.2 Show plot for unwatched items" might be the setting that prevents spoilers?
(Sorry can't really offer any help with the NFO stuff -- I just use scrapers.

[Karellen]

"3.2 Show plot for unwatched items" might be the setting that prevents spoilers?

Yes, the setting you state is to prevent spoilers. But I referred to a different setting.
3.6 Show empty TV shows

[dmc1961]

"3.2 Show plot for unwatched items" might be the setting that prevents spoilers?

Yes, the setting you state is to prevent spoilers. But I referred to a different setting.
3.6 Show empty TV shows 

Thanks to you all for your input. I typed in an extensive 'Thank you' e-mail earlier in the day but a VM Windows session I started crashed my Fedora desktop before I could get back to complete it. My sincere thanks for your guidance and patience with my nfo issues to @Karellen, @jjd-uk  and @"runningnaked". Earlier today I fired up my Kodi app on my Fedora desktop which is a fresh install and applied the same setup as my live TV server, but getting the same result. Given I can 'see' it react to the presence of a tvshow.nfo file in a TV show folder (it tries to find episodes) in the log file, it is part way there. I created a bunch of screen shots as follows and for now I will just return to tinker with the nfo issue from time to time on my desktop 'test' setup. My feeling is it is a setting somewhere and for now will just persist with doing my recorded MP4 screen shot with text as my guide for what the show is about.

I did find some dialogue between some guys who are storing their own motor sports folders and using nfo files but my settings already matched what they got going (was the folder exclude option), so I am no further.

I will report back if I find anything in testing/tinkering.

My screen shots on my test rig that echo what is on the live TV server:

http://dmc1961.id.au/tmp/01_Kodi_Test.png
http://dmc1961.id.au/tmp/02_Kodi_Test.png
http://dmc1961.id.au/tmp/03_Kodi_Test.png
http://dmc1961.id.au/tmp/04_Kodi_Test.png
http://dmc1961.id.au/tmp/05_Kodi_Test.png

[Karellen]

Provide the following...

1. Screenshot of your TV Show folder clearly showing all the files in the folder
2. FULL Debug Log which captures you trying to scrape the nfo file. Remove the show from the library first if it is in there.

[dmc1961]

Provide the following...

1. Screenshot of your TV Show folder clearly showing all the files in the folder
2. FULL Debug Log which captures you trying to scrape the nfo file. Remove the show from the library first if it is in there.

Thank you. Please find links to screenshots:

Kodi view of folder
Linux directory listing
cat of tvshow.nfo
tail -f ~/.kodi/temp/kodi.log

The zCompleted.mkv blank file exists in 'some' of my folders where the show will be completed once all episodes viewed, and therefore my script will remove the folder when it finds only zCompleted.mkv (ignoring any 'trailer' or 'nfo' files). I have an overnight cron that moves viewed files to an archive folder [all this to clarify why there might be weird files in the directory but others I tested for this Content Listing from NFO exercise don't have the zCompleted.mkv or any other files, just the show files].
You will see from the 'tail' of the log file, there is a SciFi folder which does have a subfolder called the The.X-Files but this has no tvshow.nfo in it which means it is trying to do something with the Titanic.2012 tvshow.nfo in its folder. If I put in a blank episodeguide tag in the tvshow.nfo the error entry for the individual episodes goes seems to go away, but I don't get anything in the left-hand panel at all to show me what 'Titanic.2012' is about. I have also tried putting a '.' in the "Titanic 2012" entries for title but makes no difference if it matches or doesn't. I can never get what @jjd-uk has shown here in past comments where the plot tag shows the info and I am using the nfo file they sent, just modded. [also I don't need the studio tag as it won't show anywhere, I just want the plot tag contents to display..... unless I am using the wrong thing to effect the Context to show?]
Is there a scraper that just looks at nfo files only and doesn't try to do on-line lookups etc? Maybe someone else has done this. I also saw some banter about 'xml' files in the Kodi config directory but think it best I don't touch the heart of the system. My life is a shell prompt since 1987 in computing so I run build scripts all the time and for the Kodi I have a few, so it is no 'biggy' for me to have to write code to put in place what Kodi wants.... as I intend to do for nfo or whatever else gets me a simple 'plot' tag line on the folder. Again it has worked for @jjd-uk so I am stumped (Aussies expression for "I don't know what the hell to do next."). Thanks again for your help - I am out of options to try and all my Googling of Kodi and Kodi forums indicated this all should work for me. I love Kodi but maybe it doesn't love me :-)

[Karellen]

2. FULL Debug Log which captures you trying to scrape the nfo file. Remove the show from the library first if it is in there.

And this image here... http://dmc1961.id.au/tmp/08_Kodi_Test.png shows there is more text in your nfo file than you have shown. Post the FULL nfo file. Use Kodi Paste Site

When we say FULL we actually mean full/complete/whole/all of it/ etc not little bits that you think are relevant.

Is it wise to name your zcompleted file as a video file? Why use the mkv extension instead of something like txt?

[dmc1961]

2. FULL Debug Log which captures you trying to scrape the nfo file. Remove the show from the library first if it is in there.

And this image here... http://dmc1961.id.au/tmp/08_Kodi_Test.png shows there is more text in your nfo file than you have shown. Post the FULL nfo file. Use Kodi Paste Site

When we say FULL we actually mean full/complete/whole/all of it/ etc not little bits that you think are relevant.

Is it wise to name your zcompleted file as a video file? Why use the mkv extension instead of something like txt? 

acequyozuv (paste)
I think if your are referring to the slight text bits in the image at the bottom of the screenshot, it is just the next line line in Linux showing the prompt after the 'cat' command.
Full log since startup/install:
tivadudefo.kodi (paste)
I do this so I can 'see' for myself in the folder when viewing it in Kodi that it is a 'completed' series. I can use other names but visually I can say to family (or to myself) that the series is finished. It hasn't been an issue for years but if it causes issues I can easily adapt things my end.... but other folders I have tested only have tv show episodes in them and I get the same scenario as I am in now.

[dmc1961]

2. FULL Debug Log which captures you trying to scrape the nfo file. Remove the show from the library first if it is in there.

And this image here... http://dmc1961.id.au/tmp/08_Kodi_Test.png shows there is more text in your nfo file than you have shown. Post the FULL nfo file. Use Kodi Paste Site

When we say FULL we actually mean full/complete/whole/all of it/ etc not little bits that you think are relevant.

Is it wise to name your zcompleted file as a video file? Why use the mkv extension instead of something like txt?  

acequyozuv (paste)
I think if your are referring to the slight text bits in the image at the bottom of the screenshot, it is just the next line line in Linux showing the prompt after the 'cat' command.
Full log since startup/install:
tivadudefo.kodi (paste)
I do this so I can 'see' for myself in the folder when viewing it in Kodi that it is a 'completed' series. I can use other names but visually I can say to family (or to myself) that the series is finished. It hasn't been an issue for years but if it causes issues I can easily adapt things my end.... but other folders I have tested only have tv show episodes in them and I get the same scenario as I am in now. 

Hey, could it be the upper exclusion of the folder is stopping anything under it? Or are folders view as individual folders in the structure regardless of how far down the 'tree' they are? Log entry:

23:02:57.236 T:139650990253824 WARNING: No information found for item '/u/kodi/Drama/', it won't be added to the library.

and Titanic.2012 is under /u/kodi/Drama