[hammerhead69]

Hi, I'm new to xbmc but i'm getting htpc shortly, and adding new file names will be v important to me, i'll def need a separate folder for music videos, documentaries, nature documentaires (i have all my david attenboroughs and underwater doc's backed up) and would even like one for home movie clips
It'll be a few weeks until i'm up and running but i'm live i'll be giving this a try and i'll let you know how i get on, thanks for your time

[joeranjensen]

Hi

What program do you use to edit xml. files? Ive tried notepad, but thats only a mess in my eyes? As you probably have allready guessed... Im a NooB:

[Myth]

Notepad++ does a good job at showing XML.

@shalarim and wilson.joe:
I been rather busy last few days so probably won't be able to give a proper answer until next weekend.

[joeranjensen]

Notepad++ was a lot easier to understand

Iwe been playing with this for a while now and I get it all working, but I still have a couple of questions if you dont mind.

1. I cant get any background image for my extra button. My code looks like this:

Code:

<item id="17">
                    <label>test</label>
                    <onclick>ActivateWindow(10025,"special://profile/playlists/video/test.xsp", return)</onclick>
                    <icon>/bilde/test/</icon>
                </item>

My backdrop picture is c:/bilde/test.jpg. Where do i put the file, and what do i write to make it show as background image?

2. This is not a big deal for me, but my new button is looking different from the other buttons. It looks like the button is pushed in or missing its shaddow or something. You know what causes this?

Thanks for this guide! I love transparency, but ive allways missed some extra coustom menus.

Edit: I found the ansver to my question nr.1

[Korath]

First up thanks alot Myth! I've been using XBMC a while now but could never figure out how to do this correctly... I started playing with favorites but it never displayed them correctly as TV Show / Movie.

Having a huge anime collection really annoyed me when mixed in with everything else.

As for getting the menu to look right just a note that if you are using AEON MQ2 you can create the xsp playlist files as Myth explains in the OP and then open XBMC and go to settings > Menu > New Item and add the new playlists as TV Show/Anime or Movie from there and re-arrange them using the UI.

Just makes life a bit easier

[TheStretchedElf]

First up thanks alot Myth! I've been using XBMC a while now but could never figure out how to do this correctly... I started playing with favorites but it never displayed them correctly as TV Show / Movie.

Having a huge anime collection really annoyed me when mixed in with everything else.

As for getting the menu to look right just a note that if you are using AEON MQ2 you can create the xsp playlist files as Myth explains in the OP and then open XBMC and go to settings > Menu > New Item and add the new playlists as TV Show/Anime or Movie from there and re-arrange them using the UI.

Just makes life a bit easier

You can also do this with Cirrus/Cirrus Extended. I think a few other skins have this ability now, too.

[WhiteLighter]

Myth,

Thanks for this tut. I'm also an anime fan and been wanting to have a separate menu for them to make things neat and tidy (and avoid constant complaints from other family members who don't watch anime since they'll need to go through the long list to get to what they want to watch). This has been a great help

[markimark]

Is there anybody out there to help me. I try for a long time now but no one really is responding to my question.
I work with the redux skin and I have activated show tv, movie and videos in my home menu. I can chose different backgrounds for each category and they show up if I scroll the main home menu but if I click on tv, for example, to see the content of that category, the background is switching to the one that I have chosen for the videos category.
Can anybody explain to me how I can keep the chosen background all the time for the different categories
Please HELP. This is the only thing that is driving me crazy for days now.

[Herrjeh]

Hello and thank you for this tut!

Maybe someone can help me clear things up a little bit. I want to create Main Menu entries for such things as: Audio Books, Dokumentaries etc.

... but... They aren't scraped and I don't want to. Most of my Dokumentaries aren't well known, some local etc. To scrape them would take a huge amount of time...

Unfortunatly there are allready three custom entries in my transparency skin (Streams links etc) - so I can't use the "use as favorite" -> "Assign the favorite to one of the three custom entries" way!

Is there a way to point the smartplaylist to a favorite or any other work around?

I know that smartplaylists are only capable of filtering the db - but maybe someone can help me... (like add two more "custom menu entries" to transparency, so I can use Favorites)


EDIT:
Found a very simple Solution:

Code:

<label>Documentations</label>
<onclick>ActivateWindow(VideoFiles,Documentations)</onclick>
                    <include condition="!Skin.HasSetting(Home_Movies_Fanart_Background)">home-movies-background</include>
                    <include condition="Skin.HasSetting(Home_Movies_Fanart_Background)">home-movies-background-fanart</include>
                    <visible>!Skin.HasSetting(Menu_Movies)</visible>
</item>

Just add the Source of your Choice in Video/Music etc, don't scrape them - you don't have to... just put the name of the Source behind "VideoFiles", seperated with a ","

Code:

<onclick>ActivateWindow(VideoFiles,Sourcename)</onclick>

This will link directly to the Source - just perfect for a few of my entries...

[coffras]

Thanks for the tutorial!
I'v managed to create an Anime category now using the smart playlists however the anime series are still showing up in the tv show menu. Could someone give me a hint how to just make them visible in the newly created Anime category?

[TheStretchedElf]

Thanks for the tutorial!
I'v managed to create an Anime category now using the smart playlists however the anime series are still showing up in the tv show menu. Could someone give me a hint how to just make them visible in the newly created Anime category?

Make a smart playlist called TV and have it exclude anime, then hide your TV menu and show your TV playlist in its place.

[Wizard66]

Can somebody put his code files online I have tryed to get it to work but i'm stuck.
I Have all the dirs (share) and menu's (XBMC) in place but all dirs are empty in the menus.
Do I have to move the movie files into the share dirs I have made?
If so is this the way to start a complete new database? Or are all files in there original exsisting place?
I can't get it to work.. so i must be doing something wrong.

[gszx1337]

Please forgive me if this sounds stupid, can you have a category for Advanced Launcher Applications? I'd like to have a category for emulators without having to go to Programs>Advanced Launcher>(Insert Emulator/Console here).

[masteroc]

Thanks for this tutorial, it has helped me separate all my media much like you did for yours. The one problem that I am having is that all my anime titles show up, but no episodes once I click on that title. I am using the Night theme (since it was easier to just add my smart playlists via the menus on Night). My movies and TV shows show up (Tv shows with episodes), but my anime will show the title and background, but when I select it...there are no episodes. This happens for all my anime. I have even made sure that they conform to the standard naming conventions, still nothing.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

P.S. What scraper do you use for your anime collection?

[Myth]

P.S. What scraper do you use for your anime collection?

I use TheTVdb, just like for normal series. Haven't yet had a series that TheTvDb didn't know. Sometimes though you must use the english name for a series. And for best matching, it's best to use seasons and episode numbers in the names of your anime, instead of absolute numbering like most sub groups release episodes with.

Furthermore, in your playlist file, make sure you have 'type' set as 'tvshows'
(<smartplaylist type="tvshows">).