Using Local NFO Files??? (NFOs in XBMC??)

[ethan_9219]

Hi.

I am wondering when creating my local NFO files if XBMC can be set to only display certain information.

For example, IMDB rating, MPAA (since i am not in America, our Australian ratings are different), tagline, outline, votes, top250 etc. are all categories i don't need to display inside XBMC.

Basically, I just want the NFO to show such information as the synopsis, runtime, year, genre and who stars in the film.

If i could get XBMC to only show these things it would mean i could save a lot of time in creating 600+ NFO files for different movies as i wouldn't need to fill in so much info.

Basically, i have no need for all the excess, so just wondering what can and can't be done with NFO files in this regard.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[dandirk]

I am guessing you know this already but... Media Companion (http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=33961&highlight=media+companion) is a nfo creator that scraps IMDB for you...

It will pull MPAA and IMDB Ratings though, and I don't think you can set MC to exclude those items.

You can delete the tags, but just remember most skins have a field for those items. The fields would still be there but show empty... If you wanted to remove the fields you would have to edit the skin.

I am new to xbmc and just used the Media Companion on my 400 movie (video_ts.ifo format) collection. It works fairly well, movies in which I normally have to edit due to scraper miss matching were correct. I just did this last night so haven't gone through all of them in detail yet though.

It only failed to find info on 1 movie, and that was because it was ripped odd and the vobs/ifo had a non standard naming convention...

These are the tags MC creates in the nfo. Not sure if these are the old tags xbmc supports or if there are others...

<movie>
<title></title>
<rating></rating>
<year></year>
<top250></top250>
<votes></votes>
<outline></outline>
<plot></tagline>
<runtime></runtime>
<thumb></thumb>
<mpaa></mpaa>
<watched></watched>
<id></id>
<genre></genre>
<credits></credits>
<director></director>
<premiered></premiered>
<studio></studio>
<actor>
<name></name>
<role></role>
<thumb></thumb>
</actor>
</movie>

[ethan_9219]

Okay. Thanks very much for your reply.

I have bee umming and ahhing over whether i will use Media Companion or do it all by hand.

Okay, so i would have to edit/mod the skin to make it so that certain info doesnt show?

Also, in Media Companion can i edit the information it pulls from IMDB and generate the NFO with my edits as well?

Thanks

[dandirk]

I believe (remember I am new) that if you were to remove information from your NFO, the "field" woulds still be there but would be blank...

Aka Instead of "Rating: 7.5", it will just show "Rating:"

In this case you would have to edit the skin to remove the field entirely if you don't like having a blank field.

MC generates the nfo automatically but it provides a list of all nfos and their content so you can edit through the application fairly easily. You just have to select the edit option, (just changing the info that it displays by default, while it allows you to, won't be saved...) Once you use it you will know what I mean...

The great thing about NFOs is that they can be edited in anyway you want and since it is a file, it will (and thus your changes) will stay with that movie forever unless you change it... You could delete your library when ever you want and the rescan will pull all the same correct info.

Even better is how xbmc handles these nfos... In the early days of HTPC, many apps used nfo like files for storing all movie information. This though limited sorting and caused speed issues because all the information was not in one place like with a DB. Many HTPC apps moved to DBs only. XBMC decides to use both which I think is a great idea. You can edit your nfos and when you scan/create your library (a DB) it will use the nfo information when its first imported.

so remember to delete your library each time you make changes, especially while testing... I am not sure if you rescan, xbmc will note there has been a change to a previously created/imported nfo...