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[stricko]

Hi guys, quick question on DVD cover art in Theater View.

I've got a mixed library, with some movies in AVI format, and some in VIDEO_TS folders. The library in primarily used by 2 HTPCs running MCE (one XP, one Vista) with the library maintained used My Movies.

Each movie is in it's own named folder, and contains either the AVI itself, or a VIDEO_TS folder with the usual selection of VOBS.  In both cases, the movie folder has a folder.jpg file. For the VIDEO_TS rips, the movie folder also has a .DVDID XMP file.

MC (13 in my case) happily finds and plays all of the movies, in both formats. But the DVD cover art is only being picked up for the AVI stuff. How do I get it to pick up the folder.jpg images for movies in VIDEO_TS folders?

Thanks

[tcman41]

I kind of had this same question earlier. From what i understand what j.river is displaying for ripped dvd's is actually the .ifo file, apparently thumbnails wont embed themselves in these files automatically but it can be done manually.

I have a file labeled moviename.jpg in each video_ts folder, i then import all the movies into j.river and they dont show any art, simply highlight all your dvd rips, right click, then choose cover art and then choose quick find in file, all the thumbs should then embed themselves in the .ifo's if you will.

[Mr ChriZ]

It would be so much nicer if the screengrab option worked though

[benn600]

Very strange.  I've got a library 948 direct-rip DVDs and 100% of them show cover art properly.  I use several HTPCs around the house.  It's great that they can all access the server content without any trouble.

[stricko]

Benn600

My folder structure for DVD rips is;

<drive>/My Movies/<movie-name>/video_ts/...

With the folder.jpg in the <movie-name> directory

Is that the same as for you?

Havn't had chance to try the Quick Find, but the post suggests that the art is in the video_ts folder.

[benn600]

I do often have to use quick find.  It also helps to REMOVE the cover art in MC but DO NOT say yes to deleting it from your hard drive.

My structure is:

//chenbro/titanium/Video/[Category]/[Name]/

A while back I determined that I did not need the VIDEO_TS folder and MC would still recognize the files.  I should point out that keeping and removing the folder each has its own pros and cons which I remember discovering a year or so ago when I made the change.  I do not recall the differences but they are probably different now anyway.  I put the folder.jpg file right next to all the actual DVD files inside the DVD Name folder, obviously with no VIDEO_TS folder present.

I then use fill properties from file name with [Name] in the box.  This adds the name.  I used to add [Genre] before name but I have since switched to a view pane that browses based on the actual file structure so my genre's, or categories, are located on the hard drive.

There are a few annoyances with DVD rips -- I haven't been able to use auto import because it overwrites the Name field with "VIDEO_TS" every time it checks the files.  A few others as well.  Either way, it works very well for my needs.  I have HTPC boxes around the house and anyone can watch any of our content at any time without having to locate the DVD.  I remember the old days of having huge shelves of DVDs and then having to run to them to pick a movie--and then when I would be at a 2nd or 3rd TV and realize that the DVD was not only not in the DVD racks, but it was in an arbitrary DVD player.

It takes a lot of space to store direct DVD rips but it doesn't require hours of encoding on every disc.  Plus, it preserves all the 5.1, special features, extra angles, etc.  Oh yea, and the same system provides all our music and pictures!  It's excellent.

[stricko]

Sounds like we have a similar domestis setup. I'm selective about which DVDs I compress. If it's a favorite with additional features that I value, I keep it in it's original uncompressed state, otherwise i've got a batch job running on my server that compresses to XVID continuously. The load on the server isn't significant, and it leaves the other Pcs free. If I want the features from a DVD I've compressed, I've got the original filed away as well.

But I'm still confused about the cover art. I ran quick find last night, but nothing happened. I tried putting a copy of the folder.jpg in the video_ts directory but that didn't work either.

Can someone please give me a definitive view on where MC13 get DVD cover art from, and where it stores it, so that I can try and find a way to make this work.

Thanks

[)p(]

Benn600

My folder structure for DVD rips is;

<drive>/My Movies/<movie-name>/video_ts/...

With the folder.jpg in the <movie-name> directory

Is that the same as for you?

Havn't had chance to try the Quick Find, but the post suggests that the art is in the video_ts folder.

You'll have to put the folder.jpg into the video_ts folder not the movie-name folder.

peter

[stricko]

I thought I'd tried that last night, but I'll give it another go tonight.

[benn600]

Also, as I said, try removing the cover art first.  Once MC fails on a quick find, it seems to truly give up.  I often remove the cover art library-wide and then re-quick find it.