Movies and TV show fan art not displaying

[mm_half3]

Hello,

Using a wmc7 64bit system, and pretty much have it configured with a high WAF. Have an extensive movie & TV series collection on a remote storage NAS with ripped blu mkv files and mythTV recorded shows transcoded into mkv files. Currently use media browser classic and ember media manager to scrap fanart, posters & banners for each movie or TV series. The directory structure is setup to have all movie mkv files in their own folder with its corresponding movie.jpg, movie.nfo & movie.tbn files. The TV series are split into folders that contain a full season of episodes and their corresponding jpg, nfo, tbn files.

This directory structure shows fanart and backdrops just fine in media browser classic, and on other linux media clients running xbmc. I would like to view the movies & television series directly in WMC instead of media browser for a few reasons. Bluray ripped movies & TV series only for added WAF of not having to click into another app (even though it is integrated into the main WMC menu), but the transcoded mythTV recordings don't play very well in media browser, many dropped frame rates/jittery, that I can't seem to fix. The same recordings play smooth using the native player in wmc. So the problem is none of the fan art displays in wmc. Should wmc be able to read the nfo, jpg & tbn files used by other media software (MBC & xbmc), and display the corresponding fanart /backdrops? Was going to install MediaCenter Master, because my understanding was it could configure the fanart & backdrop images to be seen in WMC, but not sure if it is going to do anything different than what ember media manager or media browser classic are currently doing. Hoping its something along the lines of renaming files that I can run a script to do.


Thanks,

[d00zah]

I was intrigued by this post as you are moving in the opposite direction I chose.

Once opening WMC movie library, how long have you waited for it to scan the library? Native WMC movie library takes a VERY long time to scan/acknowledge changes, dependent on library size/location/etc., and only displays cover art/descriptions. That's why I switched over to MediaBrowser3, which handles/presents media (with some exceptions, but it's a work in progress) far better than WMC does natively... IMHO, a much more satisfying experience.

BTW, I'm assuming you're using MediaBrowser 3 server/client arrangement, rather than the MediaBrowser 2.x with which I have no experience. If I've assumed incorrectly, you should consider an upgrade.

You mentioned not wanting to use MBC because playback is choppy for some media... but it uses the WMC native player with their own overlay. This can be disabled in the MBC 'Playback' config section by unchecking 'Use Custom Player Interface', at which point you are back to using the same native player WMC Movies uses. If choppy playback persists, I believe your problem is elsewhere.

Just my 2 cents, but I'll be following the thread to see where it goes.

[cKuR6]

I don't know what you're using to access these files, i.e. extender or multiple PC's or just one PC, but I spent some time trying to do the same thing, in order for other household members to access DVR'd items and Ripped movies, and found it much too time consuming. Having to use multiple software, databases, and folder structures to gather art and organize files.
If you're moving toward WMC interface, Recorded TV HD has been working fine on my otherwise buggy system for a few months now. It dl's all the necessary art and data needed to provide user with a good looking and intuitive GUI.
I do nothing but setup my recordings, and every once in awhile clean up old recordings or add a missing poster. For example, it thought Conan O'brian was Conan from the 80's.... quickly changed IMDB number and it works. You can also show your own posters and backdrops relatively quickly if you wish.

My reasoning for dropping MB3, other than the time consumption and system bloat required for the GUI to look good, was the issue with copy protected Cable Co files not showing. If you don't have this issue to contend with, then this might not be your best option.

[mm_half3]

I was intrigued by this post as you are moving in the opposite direction I chose.

Once opening WMC movie library, how long have you waited for it to scan the library? Native WMC movie library takes a VERY long time to scan/acknowledge changes, dependent on library size/location/etc., and only displays cover art/descriptions. That's why I switched over to MediaBrowser3, which handles/presents media (with some exceptions, but it's a work in progress) far better than WMC does natively... IMHO, a much more satisfying experience.

It does take a pretty long time when I added the networked array with the mkv rips to the movie library, in addition to the time I never found a way to sort things cleanly...everything showed up in one alphabetical sorted list of titles, when dealing with hundreds of titles, that type of list is not very user friendly to easily locate titles. I don't remember cover art, or if it was there it was a small box/case type thing that did not show the high resolution art I have in the movie/TVshow folders. When I added a few sections/series of the transcoded mythTV recorded files as a video library, they showed up as separate folders, but again no fanart/backdrops.

BTW, I'm assuming you're using MediaBrowser 3 server/client arrangement, rather than the MediaBrowser 2.x with which I have no experience. If I've assumed incorrectly, you should consider an upgrade.

You mentioned not wanting to use MBC because playback is choppy for some media... but it uses the WMC native player with their own overlay. This can be disabled in the MBC 'Playback' config section by unchecking 'Use Custom Player Interface', at which point you are back to using the same native player WMC Movies uses. If choppy playback persists, I believe your problem is elsewhere.

Just my 2 cents, but I'll be following the thread to see where it goes.

Am using MB3 server and MBC3 client. Actually liked the default interface for MediaBrowser Theater 3.x version better, but it's player was dropping frames in the bluray rips. The bluray movies & TV rips were the only files in my library at the time when setting up the WMC system, and MBC did not have the problem, decided to work on making the MBC client default interface look better, and got it to a pretty slick presentation. Now that I am adding the mythTV recordings to the WMC system, the problem with dropped frames for those files cropped up. I think its probably related to the mythTV recordings having interlaced content. All the bluray rips are 1080p. Thanks for the suggestion, I am going to look at disabling their overlay in MB. Seem to remember seeing that when I was researching the problem with my initial tests of MBtheater, not sure why I don't remember trying it out.

[mm_half3]

I don't know what you're using to access these files, i.e. extender or multiple PC's or just one PC, but I spent some time trying to do the same thing, in order for other household members to access DVR'd items and Ripped movies, and found it much too time consuming. Having to use multiple software, databases, and folder structures to gather art and organize files.
If you're moving toward WMC interface, Recorded TV HD has been working fine on my otherwise buggy system for a few months now. It dl's all the necessary art and data needed to provide user with a good looking and intuitive GUI.
I do nothing but setup my recordings, and every once in awhile clean up old recordings or add a missing poster. For example, it thought Conan O'brian was Conan from the 80's.... quickly changed IMDB number and it works. You can also show your own posters and backdrops relatively quickly if you wish.

My reasoning for dropping MB3, other than the time consumption and system bloat required for the GUI to look good, was the issue with copy protected Cable Co files not showing. If you don't have this issue to contend with, then this might not be your best option.

I have multiple devices configured as media players to view the content. The television in the living room is setup with wmc7, because it is the only device that can view & record what my local comcast segment has flagged as premium/protected content, and is the display used most by the wife. The protected content is usually movie pay channels, but sometimes an outlyer like Univision will get the flag, and can't be viewed/recorded unless the digital cable advisor application is installed. The biggest plus of using WMC is the television guide for live TV... on WMC its very close to the DirectTV HDdvr's we are migrating away from, and look a lot more like a professional DVR than the mythTV xbmc plugins I use on the other devices...they are all linux type OS's, running in micro/mini sized devices, a couple are raspberry pi's. Don't think I want to go with an all wmc setup, the licensing costs for 6 more windows OS installs is enough to not go there...plus the protection allowing us to view premium channels in wmc, also limits viewing dvr'd content to that same system. Since we are migrating from the directTV genie multi-room view anywhere dvr concept/model, am required to get similar functionality before passing the WAF mustard

It has been a time consuming process, but think its pretty much there. Just attempting to iron out a few remaining minor issues, to make the interface look great.

[mm_half3]

"You can also show your own posters and backdrops relatively quickly if you wish. "

Any insight on the names/ files used to display the fanart and backdrops natively in WMC? Think that is the missing part on the externally recorded/ripped files. Once I know what wmc expects to see, can probably write a script to create the file name/structure from the existing fanart and nfo xml files used by MB & xbmc.

[d00zah]

Live /Recorded TV keeps me in WMC, too.

I originally used YAMMM for renaming movies & gathering metadata, but after the library reached > 1000 titles, the WMC native interface was so sluggish I auditioned a number alternatives & settled on MB3.

Typical YAMMM structure that WMC recogiised looked like this:

Move Tile (year) (parent folder)
-----Movie Title(year).dvd.xml
-----Movie Title(year).jpg
-----Movie Title(year).mkv
-----backdrop.jpg
-----folder.jpg (same image as Movie Title(year).jpg)

Pretty sure WMC only looks at backdrop.jpg & folder.jpg for artwork & the .xml for description, etc.. Don't think you're going to get the presentation you want in WMC Movies library.

For archived TV, I originally tried a plug-in called TV Library, but MB3 did the same thing so I scrapped that.

[d00zah]

You also mentioned choppy BD playback in MBT. A recent forum post mentioned the same thing. User solved by changing 'Hardware Acceleration Mode' from 'Auto' to "Disabled' (under 'Playback Options'), but here are other options worth trying.

Devs are currently doing a ground-up re-write of MBT which I'm looking forward to trying.

[d00zah]

mm_half3, I just loaded a small chunk of my movie library back into WMC. The only image used by the native library is the cover image (folder.jpg). It doesn't even use use the backdrop. If you're looking for a way to display fanart, etc., I doubt the native library will satisfy your needs.

It also occurs to me that if media playback is an issue with MBC, you can configure an external player. I use the TMT5 player, myself (upscales DVD rips). Others use MPC-HD. Configured with the 'Media Browser Classic Configurator' tool. Seamless & may address the playback issue?

[mm_half3]

Disabling the custom overlay in MBC3 fixed the problem of jittery playback on the transcoded dvr recordings, thanks d00zah . Going to end up using it as the interface for the networked movies & TV series collections. It looks very nice once you tweek the default setup a little bit, and its able to include everything but the recordings local to the wmc system...might look into adding them also, and removing the "recorded TV" item in the main wmc menu. Will make it a little less confusing if there are not two locations to watch recorded TV, one for the wmc recordings and another for the mythTV recordings. Too bad MB does not have liveTV incorporated into the client yet....i've seen hope for it in posts on their forum, users thinking it will be easier to include a liveTV feature in the major update to MBT, but its not really known yet. Have not tried any of the android clients for MB server, I see those are recommended to play liveTV, but really makes no sense to use one, since wmc already does it well, and the only reason for me to even look at another liveTV option on the wmc system is to combine everything into one app. It's pretty much there with the MBC app launcher on the main wmc window anyway so not such a big deal.

Also, created a couple links to setup folder.jpg files in the movie directories, and the fanart does show up, but as you suspected not very pleasing, probably would need to get correctly scaled jpg files to look correct in the wmc movies library. Might spend a little time on it, just to know, but without the backdrops and ability to organize the movies better...not only are all movies clumped together, it's including the trailers I've downloaded into each movie folder in the list of titles, so it looks like each movie has a duplicate entry. Would bet there are ways to clean the listings up, but am doubtful the catalog will ever look as nice as in MB. Just a little clarification on my last post, if I add the external media directories/folders as video libraries in wmc they do organize as separate folders per movie/TV show, but none of the fanart shows, even if it has a folder.jpg file. There is only a little frame of preview for each video file it finds. Also, reading the new library gets populated much faster if its added as a video library, my guess is wmc is not trying to grab xml info/folder.jpg files for the media files it finds in a video library, so the library scan happens a lot quicker...but not really sure.

[d00zah]

Glad you've almost got things sorted to your satisfaction. Recorded TV is about the only redeeming feature of WMC I'm left with. Original interface is otherwise too primitive compared with available alternatives. Since CableLabs updated their OCUR spec & Ceton was able to release new F/W for the Eth6, I'm back to being happy with my setup again. I can live with the navigational issues until a better solution comes along, although it WOULD be ideal to integrate a live/recorded TV interface into MBC. Might be cool if the author of Recorded TV HD could create an MB plug-in, preserving access to native TV function within MBC? ;^) Otherwise it's just (IMO) a shiny interface for recordings I, more often than not, view & delete.

Best of luck to you in your quest for media nirvana.

d-

[cKuR6]

"You can also show your own posters and backdrops relatively quickly if you wish. "

Any insight on the names/ files used to display the fanart and backdrops natively in WMC? Think that is the missing part on the externally recorded/ripped files. Once I know what WMC expects to see, can probably write a script to create the file name/structure from the existing fanart and nfo xml files used by MB & xbmc.

Unfortunately no. I'm using the Recorded TVHD interface, which is simply a point and click to where you've saved your desired artwork.

Don't think I want to go with an all WMC setup, the licensing costs for 6 more windows OS installs is enough to not go there...plus the protection allowing us to view premium channels in WMC, also limits viewing dvr'd content to that same system.

It sounds like you've already built your "extenders", which would certainly make it cost prohibitive. I would be in your same boat, except I decided early on to use extenders, and keep the recording & hosting to one system in WMC (HOST HTCP, InfiniTV ETH6, echo's, and Rokus). Only way I could find with relatively simple "out of the box" playing of all content on all devices, Total Home DVR type system as you mention.
I started looking at your kind of setup, and it is way too much time an effort for tv in my opinion. Could be fun to do, and would be a satisfying accomplishmet when all setup. I just don't have that kind of time, WAF or KAF timelines to allow for building such a system.