Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Skyx]

Hi all,

I had already deleted JRiver after a problematic start where the software wouldn't recognize my AVR.
Don't know what the problem was... I thought I'd give it another try after Kodi just made me go nuts when it came to supporting my Harmony remote and a decent player with standard info displays, like a timeline when ffwd or just displaying amount of time played/remaining... I already accepted the inability of playing BR isos, but was shocked to see the software wouldn't even allow me to run SD DVD isos...
So I spent a few hours this morning with JRiver...
What can I say, I'm blown away... there's still some learning to do, but so far I managed to load my library and customize the Theater UI in a way that I can watch ANYTHING using my Harmony remote where all basic buttons worked out of the box.
While setting up the system I came across a few questions:
- in preparation for the switch to MC, I created nfo files and pictures, posters etc. for everything in my Kodi library. However, MC scraper didn't use these files... is there any setting that would tell MC to use the nfo and jpgs ?
- I haven't loaded my TV shows into MC yet, because I expect problems... as already mentioned, I have created nfo files and stored posters etc. in the respective folders. The layout worked fine in Kodi... what is required to load TV shows ? I have a share 'TV Shows' on my NAS... so how can I tell MC that this share contains TV shows and not movies ?
The desired view would be a list of Shows, and when opening an item it would present a list of seasons where after opening all episodes are are shown.
- Collections... is there a way to have collections created (like all James Bond 007 movies)?
- Multi DVD collections ? I have some DVD Concerts that consist of multiple discs. How can I have them listed as eg. one concert and when entering this item, a list of discs is presented ?
- Harmony remote: is there a list of commands that can be configured or a how to for a Bluetooth Harmony ?
- Top Menu backgrounds... is there a way to configure them (like to use random movie posters)

Many thanks for any input

BR
Sky
 

[RoderickGI]

MC should import data from NFO files, as long as the data doesn't already exist somewhere that has priority. Read this: https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,87442.0.html Also just search the forum for NFO to find out more. The *.nfo file must be named exactly the same as the video file, except for the extension, and must be next to the video file. So for DVDs, for example, the nfo file must be named "VIDEO_TS.nfo" and be in the VIDEO_TS folder. This only works on initial import, of course. If you have done that, and don't want to start from scratch (Clear Library and re-import), then just run the "Get Movie & TV Info..." function against the movies. It does a pretty good job, gathering data from Themoviedb.

MC will use jpg and png files it finds in the same directory as video files, if they are named the same as the video file, with just a different extension. If MC didn't find such correctly named and located files, select the records in MC and run "Right-click > Cover Art > Quick Find In File / Cover Art Directory". That should find and use the image files.

MC guesses whether a video file is a TV Show or Movie based on the duration. If you want to be absolutely sure MC gets it correct on initial import, you can use the Auto Import settings for the folder to set the tags correctly. Look under "Configure Auto Import > Folders (add the folder) > Edit > Apply these tags (optional)". Just set [Media Sub Type]="TV Show".

IN Standard View, using the default Views, MC goes from Series to a full list of Episodes. In Theatre View, MC has a structure of Series > Season > Episode like you want. Keep the original Views while you learn MC, to learn from them, and create new ones if you wish to change what is shown. Take note of functions like TVInfo(). https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Miscellaneous_Functions#TVInfo   Learn what is in the Developer Zone: https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/DevZone#Media_Center_Languages

People have used lots of ways to group movies belonging to a storyline. A search of the forum would find them. I use the simplest of the methods. I put the grouping into the Series field, and change Views to show the grouping. So, for example, I have a "Series" View in Theatre View that only shows movies that are part of a series. In fact, that may have been a standard View. I can't recall now. (EDIT: No, it is a custom view.) But anyway, it shows Movies within groups like TV Show Episodes are shown within a Season, and Seasons within Series. So "Alien", "Jason Bourne", "Kill Bill", "Star Trek". "Toy Story" etc. all form the top-level view, and drilling down into any of those shows the individual movies.

Again, people handle multiple DVD Collections in various ways. For concerts on multiple DVDs, the easiest way would just be to enter the disc numbers into the [Disc] tag, and then sort within each disc by track. It depends a lot on the type of media, whether the tracks are all individual or use Particles or other methods to break down a large file. I handle them like simple multi-disc CDs, so all tracks in one folder and named for "[Disc]-[Track] [Name]", but that is because I have ripped the DVDs to tracks. If you still have the full DVD folder structure, they will each need to be in their own folder, which can mean that they aren't displayed in a View as one record (concert). Again, it depends on the View definition. That may need to be a separate thread when you are ready to get the best advise.

MC supports all the standard MCE IR commands. As you seem to be using a Bluetooth Harmony Remote, it should support all MCE commands, plus a bunch more. Search the forum. There have been discussions around using such Harmonies. Mostly good. Some configuration issues from memory.

Backgrounds in Theatre View are controlled by the MC Theme. See "Options > Theatre View > Appearance > Theme". Basically, put a bunch of images files into the correct Theme directory, and they will be shown as background for menu levels etc. I have themes for Dakar, MotoGP, Puppies, etc., and I switch amongst them when I get bored of the current one. It is hard to get bored of Dakar photos though!

You want to see images related to the program being highlighted, turn on "Online Media Slideshow", and adjust settings as required.


Enjoy your MC journey!

[Skyx]

Many thanks Roderick,

seems like quite some work to do... particularly the function part is unknown to me...
I fought my way through setting up custom views inside Theater view by simply filtering the pathname of my shares... haven't done anything else... and I was hoping I could do the same with my TV Shows.

BR

[RoderickGI]

Sure, you can filter to the pathname, so that only files in that path are included in a View.

But all the default TV Show Views are filtered to [Media Sub Type]="TV Show", and you will want to leave them that way. So, you need to make sure the files in your TV show share are tagged with [Media Sub Type]="TV Show", so that they show in the View.

MC doesn't care much where media files are actually stored. It uses tags extensively to decide what to display.

MC does have a learning curve, but it is no harder than Kodi, and probably easier since it is all from one vendor. Take the time to learn how it works, and you will be able to master it, making it do what you want.