[richardlr]

I'm able to create the necessary NFOs (tvshow.nfo, and the episode NFO) when I have a TV show that consists of one episode per file.  But, I'm having trouble getting things to work when I have an ISO that contains multiple episodes.

For example, I have an ISO that is named "SomeShow_s01e02_s01e03.iso".  I tried creating an episode NFO named "SomeShow_s01e02.nfo" and "SomeShow_s01e03.nfo", but that doesn't seems to work.  Neither episode shows up in the list of episodes when I go to the show after doing a refresh.  (I also have an ISO with just one episode, SomeShow_s01e01.iso, and Kodi is successfully picking up and processing the episode NFO for that file.)

In my searching of the documentation for the various NFO file formats at https://kodi.wiki/view/NFO_files, I haven't come across anything that talks about a NFO for when you have multiple episodes in an ISO file.

Could someone please point me to the appropriate documentation or even better, an example of how to create the necessary episodes NFO(s) for when there's multiple episode on one ISO?

[Karellen]

I tried creating an episode NFO named "SomeShow_s01e02.nfo" and "SomeShow_s01e03.nfo

As you discovered that won't work.
Instead, in the one nfo file which you name SomeShow_s01e02_s01e03.nfo you add the metadata for both episodes.

xml:


<episodedetails> <!-- First episode metadata -->

    <title>Leavetaking</title>

    <more tags />

</episodedetails>

<episodedetails> <!-- Second episode metadata -->

    <title>Leavetaking</title>

    <more tags />

</episodedetails>

In my searching of the documentation for the various NFO file formats at https://kodi.wiki/view/NFO_files, I haven't come across anything that talks about a NFO for when you have multiple episodes in an ISO file.

You are correct. Let me fix that.

[Karellen]

@richardlr

Does this adequately explain it... https://kodi.wiki/view/NFO_files/Episodes

[richardlr]

Thank you for the replies.  I appreciate the clarifications.

You need to make one more change to the documentation.  In the documentation for Episodes NFOs, in the tag section, for the XML tag <episodedetails></episodedetails>, for the "multiple" column, the documentations states "No".  Which, as your example show, is not the case when dealing with Multi-Episode NFO files.  That is really what threw me -- the documentation was saying I could only have one such tag when I really did wanted to have multiple instances of it.

Richard

[Karellen]

In the documentation for Episodes NFOs, in the tag section, for the XML tag <episodedetails></episodedetails>, for the "multiple" column, the documentations states "No".  Which, as your example show, is not the case when dealing with Multi-Episode NFO files.

Ah, yes you are right. Done... https://kodi.wiki/view/NFO_files/Episodes

Hey you want a job as a wiki proof reader?

[richardlr]

Karellen.

I did as you suggested, including multiple <episodedetails> tags into the episode NFO, but it didn't work.

My ISO is named "My Show_s01e01_s01e02.iso".  The NFO is named "My Show_s01e01_s01e02.nfo".  In the NFO, I have two <episodedetails> tags.  Unfortunately, it didn't work. 

To double check that I didn't have an error in the NFO file, I copied the ISO, naming the two ISOes "My Show_s01e01.iso" and "My Show_s01e02.iso".  I took the NFO file and separated the <episodedetails> tags into two separate files, "My Show_s01e01.nfo" and "My Show_s01e02.nfo".  That did work, so it doesn't appear that there something wrong in my XML structure.

Are you sure that having multiple top-level <episodedetails> tags is correct? 

I'm asking as my understanding has always been that a properly formatted XML file is suppose to have a single top-level root element.  Both W3Schools (https://www.w3schools.com/XML/xml_syntax.asp) and W3.org (https://www.w3.org/TR/xml/#sec-well-formed, see 2.1 Well-Formed XML Documents, Documents, Definition) say that as well.

Is it possible that the multiple <episodedetails> tags needs to be enclosed in some other top-level root tag?

Richard

[Karellen]

@richardlr

Copy the contents of the nfo file to Kodi Paste Site and provide the link after you save it.

I scanned these 4 episodes using this nfo file... https://paste.kodi.tv/denusurike and it all worked ok.

[richardlr]

As requested: https://paste.kodi.tv/udasocizur

[Karellen]

As requested: https://paste.kodi.tv/udasocizur

Oh, you are just showing off now

Yes, there is another error in the wiki. And I have to admit it is not something I was previously aware of and it comes as a bit of a surprise (I don't use multi-episode nfo files, I rip everything to individual mkv's), but a few seconds of thought is enough to realise the logic behind it. I'll fix that also.

One error is on you. Your UniqueID is wrong, and there are examples in the wiki on how to use it. I don't know how you are creating your nfo files or why you are creating them as the show is listed at the scraper sites, but it is your choice of ID value - either from IMDB or TMDB, but if you are using IMDB, it would look like this for episode 1.

xml:
<uniqueid type="imdb" default="true">tt1188151</uniqueid>

The second error is that for multi episode files the following tags are required, and must be in correct episode order...

xml:
    <season>1</season>

    <episode>2</episode>

Once you add these two tags, the multi-episode nfo file will work.

[richardlr]

Karellen,

It work!  Adding the <season> and <episode> tags did the job.  Thank you very much for your help! 

To answer your questions, I actually got the <uniqueid type="" default="true"></uniqueid> tag from your multi-episode example.  I originally had it as <uniqueid type="self"></uniqueid>, which I got from an online NFO generator.

The reason for doing the NFO, in this case, is that my installation of Kodi is configured to use TheTVDB rather than IMDB for television shows.  Goes back to when I originally set up Kodi years ago.  As I recall, that was (maybe still is) the default setting for TVShows.  And the episode information for the show is missing on TheTVDB.  It happens to be okay on IMDB.

I actually was somewhat baffled as to the lack of any tags listed in the documentation for season/episode information.  I figured Kodi was just picking it up from the filename. 

Out of curiosity, I did try stripping down the NFO to the minimum and using the uniqueID you provided:

<episodedetails>
  <title>The Great Pyramid</title>
  <season>1</season>
  <episode>1</episode>
  <uniqueid type="imdb" default="true">tt1188151</uniqueid>
</episodedetails>
<episodedetails>
  <title>The Colosseum</title>
  <season>1</season>
  <episode>2</episode>
  <uniqueid type="imdb" default="true">tt1188151</uniqueid>
</episodedetails>

but that didn't seem to cause Kodi to go out to IMDB and grab the information.  I think it still went out to TheTVDB database.

One more question.  How do I associate thumbnails with the individual episodes?   Saving JPEGs in the folder with the ISO with the names of "myshow_s01e01-thumb.jpg" and "myshow_s01e02-thumb.jpg" isn't working for the mutli-episodes.

[Karellen]

It work!  Adding the <season> and <episode> tags did the job.  Thank you very much for your help!

Great!! Looks like we both learnt along the way. I guess I'll be seeing you here again picking up more errors

my installation of Kodi is configured to use TheTVDB rather than IMDB for television shows.  Goes back to when I originally set up Kodi years ago.  As I recall, that was (maybe still is) the default setting for TVShows. 

There is no IMDB scraper for TV Shows.
The default Kodi scraper is TMDB. But the show at TMDB is not complete... https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/27902-anci...astructure
TVDB does have a listing for the show, and it seems pretty complete... https://thetvdb.com/series/ancient-megastructures
TV Maze looks complete also... https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/8879/ancien...structures

but that didn't seem to cause Kodi to go out to IMDB and grab the information

The ID is just an ID. It is used internally by Kodi to link episodes to a tv show. Without that link, your episodes will eventually mix into other tv shows.
Sounds like what you are after is the Combination NFO file where you can add data to the nfo file, but Kodi then scrapes the missing data. It works for movies and tv shows, but that does not work on episodes.
If you want a more complete entry than your nfo files, use the TVDB or TV Maze scraper for this one show. Do you know how to change scrapers?

Saving JPEGs in the folder with the ISO with the names of "myshow_s01e01-thumb.jpg" and "myshow_s01e02-thumb.jpg" isn't working for the mutli-episodes.

Yep, it is a limitation of multi-episode files. Artwork, nfo files, trailers, audio tracks, subtitles are linked to a video file, and only a single instance of each of these is allowed for a video file. So trying to link multiple xx-thumbs.jpg to a single video file won't work. If you scrape it, the scraping process works differently and will attach a xx-thumb.jpg to a each library entry.

Why not split your episodes? MKVToolNix or Avidemux, should be able to help with that.

[richardlr]

Ancient Megastructures is actually a different series.  The series in question is actually this one: https://thetvdb.com/series/national-geog...impossible

Yeah, I could split the episodes, but then I tend to lose the bonus features and other additional stuff on the ISO.  Yeah, I suspect that I could get them as well, but then I need to also create NFO for them, etc. -- just seem worth the effort <g> 

Maybe being able to associate thumbnails to multi-episodes will make it into a future release of Kodi.  In the meantime, I can live without them.

Thanks again for all the help and explanations.  I do appreciate it.

Richard