TheTVDB.com

Around two years ago I started using XBMC and I had to go through the process of learning how to massage and manage my media collection all over again And one of the first things I learned was that was no matter how great a tool or resource is, you are going to run into situations where you have to get your hands dirty with your own media. So I'm going to share in this tutorial how to deal with your media manually when you need to make the files work for you. Now I realize that for some people who like automation this is not going to be ideal but I'm going to be frankly honest, you will not have certain luxuries with some shows. Hopefully by sharing what I have learned some others may be able to step in other solutions that help even more.

NOTE: If you feel that there is something that could change on TVDB then please post your questions for the mods/admins on the forum to be answered. But if you see a 20 reply post to the very question you have with the same answer over and over again, chances are very slim you are going to change that answer. As with most online resources: 1) Read the rules 2) Search and 3) Read Following those steps you'll find answers to 90% of your problems with any given resource.

Who this tutorial is for:
Users of XBMC and Windows, this guide should be useful for other platforms (Boxee, Meedios, etc) but if it is not let me know and I'll see about updating it for other platform needs.

I also decided this tutorial to be an a complete overview of the process if you are familiar with the basics please skip that section and move on to the advanced subjects.

What you will need:

Patience, time and these tools:

Notepad++ - http://notepad-plus-plus.org/ | Programmer's Notepad - http://www.pnotepad.org/ | NFOPad - http://thd.dyndns.org/s_nfopad.phpYou are going to need a text editor and these are ones I use on Windows. I would strongly recomend against using Notepad.

EpNamer - http://www.epnamer.com/
Just in case you have a lot of files to rename for a show that resides on TVDB.

Bulk Rename Utility - http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/
This is the fallback tool when you have to do manual editing of a lot of files.

Media Companion - http://mediacompanion.codeplex.com/
Now I know that Ember Media Manager has the ability to scrape TV shows and you can use that if you want but this is my personal favorite.

Now that we have our tools let's start!

I have broke this tutorial up into seperate sections

Basics

Custom Shows

More Customization and Tips/Tricks

Organization

Most of you will be able to skip this step but it goes without saying that you are going to need to organize your media files in a way that can be recognized by your HTPC platform and your own eyes.

I recomend this folder structure:

TV SHOW NAME
- SEASON 1
- SEASON 2
- SPECIALS

Example:
Red Dwarf
- Season 1
- Season 2
- Specials

Unless you are 100% sure a show will never be made again that appears to be a one off I would always organize tv shows this way. It also helps seperate media in a more orgazined fasion and is easier on the eyes. But if you insist you can put all your files for a tv show in the main folder you can.

Note: If you are like me and want to use Series for Season with British shows feel free.


File Names

This is the one area you can not play games with. The file names need to have a specific structure or no tool or HTPC platform will be able to read your media.

Your files names is going to need to fit this standard:

TV SHOW NAME - SEASON NUMBER |EPISODE NUMBER - EPISODE TITLE

Example:
Red Dwarf - 01x01 - The End
or
Red Dwarf - s01e01 - The End
or
Red Dwarf - 01e01 - The End

Either will work as long you show seperation between the key components that the software needs to read (Show name, Episode number, etc.) I recomend picking one style and sticking with it.

Once you have settled on a naming convention you are going to have rename all your files. Put your files into the folder structure you chose and check to see if the show you working on is on the TVDB. If it isn't check out my Custom Show Section. If it is, great news you can now use EpNamer.

Assuming this is your first use of the tool: Open Ep Namer and click settings at the bottom left. Sub-directory recursion should be set to "Auto recurse" and "Maintain structure" checked. In naming have Episode id parsing set to: <SHOWNAME> - <ID> - <EPISODENAME> Now click "OK" In auto naming all you have to worry about that your files show seperation between season number and episode number, EpNamer will do the rest, you could simply have the file named 01x01 and it will recognize the right show. Now either drag your folder into the "Episodes folder:" or click "Browse..." to find your show folder at the top of the program window. Your files will now show in "Preview", click "Get Episodes" below the "Browse..." button. In the "Preview" you will now see your files before and after. Verify that everything matches up, there is always a possibility that an episode number you use will not match the one in the TVDB database, if not make appropriate changes or you are going to have manually edit the files (see Custom Show Section.) If you are satisfied click "Rename" at the bottom right to the left of "Exit"

Now your files are ready for scraping. If not please go to my section on Custom Shows.

NOTE: To be completly honest you could simply throw the files into season folders and simply give them 01x01 file names but for the sake of sanity and for searches I suggest a more complete file naming format.

Scraping the Info

Now open up Media Companion and let the tool do it's job. When you open up Media Companion for the first time click on "General Preferences" at the top and place a check next to "Save Actor Thumbs to the '.Actors' Folder" (Not necessary but helps your HTPC platform.) Go back to "TV Shows" and then click on "TV Preferences" and put a check next to "Download TV Show poster/banner" "Download TV Show Fanart" "Download Season Thumbs" and under "Download season-all.tbn" select Poster and under "Default TV Show Thumbnails" and select Banner. The other two options I like to be checked are "Enable TV Show Actor Thumbs to be copied for Episode Actor Thumbs" and "Auto create screenshot if TVDB does not have one"

Now all you have to do is go to Folders and add your media folders. Go to "Folders" and add your media paths. This should be self explanatory. Click "Save Changes" and wait to be told the changes have been saved. Now go to "Main Browser" and all your shows, ones that are new will be locked and waiting for you to verify. To verify that the show if correct click on a show title on the left side of the screen. You will see next to "Status" the word "Verify" if the show information is correct click the button and "Verify" will change to "Open" If the show is not correct you need to click "TV Show Selector" and search for the correct show. Once you have found the show click "Scrape Show with Selected Options" and the show will scrape and take you back to the "Main Browser"

To add episodes you can either click "Search for new Episodes" or right click on each show and select "Search for new episodes" The only thing left is to add screenshots. Expand a TV Show (the plus sign next to the TV Show title) and expand the Season the same way. Click on episode title. If the episode's scrape did not contain a screenshot simple click "Screenshot" at the top and you will have two options. Click "Create Screen Shot Using ffmpeg" wait a few seconds and a screenshot will show in the middle of the screen. If you aren't happy with the screenshot then change the time value for "Location within media in seconds for Screen Shot" from 10 to whatever value you like. The larger the value the longer the time for the screenshot to be made. Be aware that HD files will take even longer to return a screenshot then normal SD.

NOTE: The screenshot time value will remember the last value while that session of Media Companion is open. Once you close the program the value will reset to 10.

Final Step

Now all there is to do is to add the show to your HTPC software's library.

Custom Shows

From time to time you will find there are shows that are either disallowed or make no sense for the TVDB website. Sports and Holiday shows would fit under this description. For me the first show I had to create was Christmas Specials. This was a catch all for all my Christmas specials that my children liked to watch. This walkthrough will show you how I made that show.

First the tv show...

To make the show you are going to organize the files just like any other show. The only difference you will be making the NFO files. The NFO file is a file that contains the information that software like XBMC will read and populate the library with.

To start use this blank NFO for the tv show by opening up Notepad++ and copy paste this into a blank document.



You are going to enter as much information or as least information as you want to in this file. The only information to enter that is mandatory is the TITLE. To enter information just simply enter the information between the tags, for those that have used html this will be simple but for those that have not it means to put your information in the middle of this: <></> like this: <>Your Information</>

Here is what those tags mean:

<title></title> : The title of the tv show
<year></year> : The year the show was first on TV
<rating></rating> : The rating of the show from IMDB
<plot></plot> : The plot overview for the show
<runtime></runtime> : How long each episode on average would run
<mpaa></mpaa> : If the show has a rating this is where it would go
<genre></genre> : The genre of the show, if multiple just seperate by "/"
<premiered></premiered > : The full date the first episode was broadcast in yyyy-mm-dd format
<studio></studio> : The television network the show was shown on
<id></id> : IMDB number for the show
<tvdbid></tvdbid> : TVDB number for the show
<sortorder>default</sortorder> : Mediacompanion specific tag for sort order
<language>en</language> : Mediacompanion specific tag for language
<episodeactorsource>tvdb</episodeactorsource> : Mediacompanion specific tag for episode actor source - TVDB or IMDB
<tvshowactorsource>tvdb</tvshowactorsource> : Mediacompanion specific tag for television actor source - TVDB or IMDB
<locked>0</locked> : Mediacompanion specific tag for whether the show is locked The value is either 1 (Locked) or 0 (Unlocked)
<actor>
<name></name> : The name of the actor
<role></role> : The role the actor played on the show
<thumb></thumb> : The URL of the actor's image
</actor>

NOTE: To add more actor's simply add a new group of actor tags as such:

<actor>
<name></name>
<role></role>
<thumb></thumb>
</actor>
<actor>
<name></name>
<role></role>
<thumb></thumb>
</actor>

Here is my NFO file for my Christmas Specials tv show:



Some notes:

1] You can create your own network by simply entering it into the tag. For instance I could enter Doughboy. You can then make a network logo and add it to your favorite skin.
2] You can also create your own genre.
3] TVDB and IMDB are not necessary to creation of custom shows but in Media Companion you cannot unlock a show that does not contain a TVDB number. You will have to manually edit the NFO file and change the "<locked>" value to 0
4] You can edit an NFO file from Media Companion by right click on a Show title and clicking "Open File"
5] Keep in mind that Media Companion does not like the "&" sign, either use "and" or add it in GUI.


When you have entered the information you are going to need to the name this file as "tvshow.nfo" If you do not the show will not be picked up by your HTPC software or Media Companion.

Next the Episodes...

Start Notepad++ and copy paste one of these into a blank document:

Choice A] With Media Information



Choice B] Without media information



Again as with the TV show NFO you are going to enter information between the tags.

Here is what the tags mean:

<streamdetails>
<video> : Video and Audio should be self explanatory.
<width></width>
<height></height>
<aspect></aspect>
<codec></codec>
<duration></duration>
<bitrate></bitrate>
<container></container>
<codecid></codecid>
<scantype></scantype>
</video>
<audio>
<codec></codec>
<channels></channels>
<bitrate></bitrate>
</audio>
</streamdetails>
</fileinfo>
<title></title> : The title of the television episode
<season></season> : The number of the episode's season number
<episode></episode> : The number of the episode's episode number
<aired></aired> : The date the showed aired in YYYY-MM-DD format
<plot></plot> : A plot overview for the episode
<playcount></playcount> : How many times the show has been watched
<director></director> : The episode's director
<credits></credits> : Any additional people who have worked on the show such as the writer
<rating></rating> : IMDB rating for the show
<runtime></runtime> : How long the episode ran, not average but this episode's runtime
<actor>
<name></name> : The name of the actor
<role></role> : The role the actor played on the show
<thumb></thumb> : The URL of the actor's image
</actor>


NOTE: To add more actor's simply add a new group of actor tags as such:

<actor>
<name></name>
<role></role>
<thumb></thumb>
</actor>
<actor>
<name></name>
<role></role>
<thumb></thumb>
</actor>


Here's an example from tv show of what a finished episode NFO looks like:




Once you have entered your information you need to save this file as the same name of your video file with the ".nfo" extension. If not the episode will not be picked up by your HTPC software or Media Companion.

Screenshots...

To add screenshots you are going to have to add your new show to Media Companion. Once the show is added to Media Companion the show and episode should show up. If the show is shown but not the episodes right click on the show and "Rebuild the show" Media Companion will rescan the show and when done come back to the top of your list of shows. Now simply navigate back to your new show and check if the episodes have shown. If the episodes still do not show you have a problem with either a file name or your NFO contains duplicate information for another show or does not contain a title, season or episode number in the NFO file for the episode.

Now make a screenshot just like you do for any other show.


NOTES:

1] If you want to do much of the editing in GUI then simple create an NFO file with the "Title" / "Season" / "Episode" tags filled in. YOu can then edit the files in Media Companion after added.
2] Keep in mind that Media Companion does not like the "&" sign, either use "and" or add it in GUI.
3] If an episode does not load and displays a message saying that there is an XML problem. Simple right click the episode and click "Open File" then edit the NFO file and look for problems, usually will be the "&" problem.
4] Episode NFO files in the same diretory/show can not have the same Title Season and Episode tags. If this occurs only one show will be picked up in Media companion or your HTPC software. That doesn't mean you can't have same title episodes or same season episode number shows. See my More Customization and Tips/Tricks section.

Final Step

Now all there is to do is to add the show to your HTPC software's library.

How do you deal with special shows like commercials and DVDs?

TVDB does not allow DVDs being added to the database, no problem there is an easy solution to this problem. XBMC has no problem reading ISO files so I gathered them into a folder called "DVD" All my DVDs are gathered in Season 90, as I figure there will never be a show to ever make it that high up in seasons.

For example I'm going to use my Red Dwarf DVD folder as an example:

An example file is named this way: "Red Dwarf - 90x01 - Back to Earth Disc 1"

And here's its NFO file:



What about screenshots for the DVD?

Well that's just as simple, I simply use the DVD cover for the screenshot. Do a google search, find the DVD cover (or choose whatever you would like to) save/drag it to your DVD folder and rename the file the name of your file with a ".tbn" extension.

Like this: "Red Dwarf - 90x01 - Back to Earth Disc 1.tbn"

What was that note about duplicate Season/Episode numbers?

In both my DVD folders and Christmas Specials I simple use the same season and episode tags for all the files letting my library automatically sort them by Title. Now I suppose I could go through and order my episodes properly but I figure it's not worth the time when I find a new Christmas Special or DVD.

For example (using Red Dwarf again) here is the next Disc:

File name: "Red Dwarf - 90x01 - Back to Earth Disc 2"

and NFO:




The plot summary and aired date came from Amazon.

NOTE: You can do this for all kinds of other extras. For Doctor Who I like to save the commercials and teasers from various sources. I put them all in the same folder ("Commercials" for example) and picked a season number for them all.

Tricks:

The Kitchen Nightmare / Terra Nova / Animaniacs way

So here is a little trick for all those that want to still use TVDB to auto-scrape your information but don't like the numbering here's a quick trick that works great and takes minimal manual editing.

Just rename the file of the show you are scraping to match up with the database. For example with Kitchen Nightmares the new season is season 4, although some of us think it is season 4. Put the file in Season 5 and name the file according to it's season number and name in TVDB.

Episode 1 should be named this way: Kitchen Nightmares - 04x01 - Blackberry's

Now let Media Companion scrape the show. When it is done go back and rename the file Kitchen Nightmares - 05x01 - Blackberry's Now open up the nfo file and change just the season tag from "4" to "5" then go and rebuild the show and you will have the show numbered the way you like with minimal effort.

Here's my NFO file for that episode:



Multiple Episode Episodes

If you find you have a show that contains multiple episodes there is no need with XBMC to split the files. This is all dependent on how TVDB has the files defined and how you want to list them in your library.

First you will need to name the file to show two seperate episodes:

For example: SpongeBob SquarePants - 06x07x04 - Spongicus

Looking at 06x07x04 this will tell Media Companion and XBMC that the season is 6 and this file contains both episodes 7 and 4. You can technically add as many episodes to a file as long as you follow the naming convention.

NOTE: that the episode numbers do not have to be in numerical order as shown with my example. Media Companion will scrape the file and create proper NFO file for you but if need be you can look at my example NFO file. Basically the multiple episode NFO repeats the episode tags over and over again as needed, and adds a very important new tag <epbookmark></epbookmark> This tag will tell XBMC where to start the episode. This is important because when XBMC scans the file into the library it will add the file as two (or more) seperate episodes. Without the <epbookmark> tag XBMC will start each episode at the beginning. <epbookmark> value will be seconds in.

NOTE: There is no tool that as of this date can add the <epbookmark> value automatically. This will have to be done manually. Also note that <epbookmark> will only be used for the second and on episodes in the NFO file as the beginning file does not need the tag as it starts at the beginning of the epiosde already.

Example NFO:

Thanks for this! being new to XBMC and this site, this will help me out a lot!

Thanks for this! Are the instructions mainly for XBMC or is this necessary for Plex as well? There's a new service called thevideosdb.com that I'm trying out for Plex but they don't seem to work with XBMC yet. I'm still trying to figure out which is the better solution.

Thanks allot.

Sorry this has taken so long to respond to.

I want to give a little warning. I have noticed that newer versions of Media Companion are not recognizing custom shows. I am still using 3.4.0.8, so if you have issues try that version out, it still scrapes shows fine.

=============================

kappaknight - Mainly XBMC, but I don't see why it wouldn't work for Plex. I have found that most scrapers work universally between platforms.

Here's some info to guide you - http://wiki.plexapp.com/index.php/Media ... e#TV_Shows

As for thevideosbb.com it could be the fact that they recomend that the files have a naming convention of s01e01 - Title, This might be the reason why XBMC is having trouble seeing them. If you want try my naming convention on one file and see how it works in both. I would start experimenting from there and see what errors it throws up. If you can post logs or such I may be able to see what is causing issues.

This is an older post, but since we have a new and related forum section I thought it would be best here. ^_^

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