In the fourth part of our Kodi/XBMCseries, it's finally about the content, films, series and music. Kodi or XBMC runs on the Raspberry Pi or any Windows/Linux computer, the basic settings are made, the path to the fully automatically illustrated library is only a few minutes away. Important: Kodi can of course only recognize films and episodes if the names of folders or files match. Kodi understands film names like “Indianer Jones-Temple of Death 720p German Xvid.mkv” without any problems and series numbers should exist. A folder like "The Big Bang Theory" with files like S01E02.mkv and so on would be perfect - instructions for automatic renaming can be found here. Before that, a look at the entire Kodi series:
1. What is/can Kodi actually do: concept, features, connections, hardware
2. Cheap, Silent, Tiny: XBMC (Kodi) on the Raspberry Pi
3. Basic setup: TV full screen, calibration, network, etc.
4. Media collection: Set up sources including metadata
5. Perfect sofa potato: remote control via smartphone – smartphone as TV
6. Cool Addons: Free South Park is just the beginning
7. For budding pros: advanced/optimal settings
8. Stream Android content to Kodi/XBMC with Airplay
9. Use live TV without a TV card
Also interesting:
Setting up Amazon Prime Instant Video in Kodi
Use Kodi's smart playlists
Update Kodi on Fire TV
Share a library with multiple Kodi installations
For real Kodi nerds ;) : Kodi hack: Show plot keywords as icons in the video overview - aka visualize Christmas episodes & Co
By the way, this article is also available as a video version.
1. Create network share for Kodi media collection
Normally you will feed Kodi with media from network shares, so you start by sharing a videos/music folder. On Windows, this is easily done via the folder's context menu and the "Share" option.
2. Videos for Kodi provide
In Kodi you now switch to the video area and there to the "Files" item; proceed to Add Videos.
3. Cite source
In the next step you can enter a path directly manually, it is probably more common to click on "Browse".
4. Select network
A list of all available resources follows, i.e. networks, connected drives and also UPnP servers. Select "Windows Network (SMB)" for the network share - but the following steps apply to local drives as well. Of course, you may have to enter your login data, if in doubt your normal Windows login.
5. Choose folder
Navigate to the desired shared folder, here "Video Production" and confirm this as the source.
6. Name the Kodi share
You end up back in the previous menu and can enter an explicit name for the display of the share in Kodi.
7. Determine media type
Now comes the magic part: Now specify whether the media in the shared folder is a movie or a series. Depending on what you specify, Kodi obtains the appropriate metadata (images, descriptions, cast lists, etc.) from a series or film database, such as The Movie Database. Make sure that recursive scanning is activated so that subfolders are also included. Then open the settings below.
8. Tagging odds and ends
Two options are particularly interesting here: Instead of German titles, you can display the original titles, which is a must for real film fans. In addition, the age ratings can be changed to Germany if you have children and are not quite fit with the American ratings. This completes the source configuration and Kodi then gets started and gets the metadata - with a larger collection this can take an hour.
9. Set up servers as sources
As an alternative to shares/folders, you can also select servers from the list called up in step 4. This can be the media server of your NAS (here TwonkyMedia), your router or even another XBMC/Kodi installation - since the servers naturally have their own metadata, automatic tagging is not required here. Incidentally, this is very practical for weak computers that do not have to manage their own library (but this is only really interesting with a few thousand files).
10. The result
As soon as Kodi has finished tagging, you will see the reward for your effort: A clean, extremely attractively designed library - you can change the various views using the menu on the left edge of the screen.
11. Manual rework
Unfortunately, not all titles are always recognized correctly, in which case manual reworking helps. Simply navigate through the files view in Kodi via Videos/Files, and you can already see which series/folders are not yet tagged correctly (simply because of missing images). By right-clicking on the folder and selecting TV Series or Movie Information, you can then manually enter the name of the series or movie and Kodi will then load the metadata. This is sometimes necessary, for example, if German film titles cannot be found, there are spelling mistakes or the databases are finicky - here in the example "Dr. Snuggles" only found if you remove the "Dr."
Addendum: If you want or need to make extensive manual corrections/corrections, take a look at Media Companion. The media manager/tagger/scraper runs on the desktop but also modifies the Kodi database; we'll show you how here.
Hello Mirco, if I understood it correctly, Kodi loads more film information and covers for films based on the file name. That also works so far. But music files have to be tagged? I don't understand why the file name is not enough for music files. Is there an addon or a workaround for this? Thank you & LG
MoinMoin
a very nice introduction.
I've been using Kodi for a long time, but I'm currently facing an annoying "problem" and haven't been able to find a solution to date. Maybe they have a tip at hand.
Kodi pulls the media files by itself and saves them in its own database (not in the movie folders). This has always worked great. Now, however, I got a Mede8er and a NAS and thus rearranged my collection.
With the Mede8er I scanned every title for hours, which then creates an "about", "folder", "cover" and "fanart" in the film folder.
So far all well and good.
Now I deleted the libraries in Kodi and assigned the new paths to it. And here the problem begins.
Although Kodi downloads the film information, it uses the "fanarts", "cover" and "folder" jpegs stored in the Mede8er folders. He only downloads his own for "fresh" folders without these jpegs.
This would be ok if the Mede8er would not store the jpegs in such a bad quality. They are sufficient for the TV via the Mede8er, but it is torture for the projector via Kodi.
Is there a setting that I've overlooked that I can use to force Kodi to completely reload the data and have Kodi look past the data stored in the folders?
In this regard, I would be grateful for any tip. Of course I could now manually update the images in Kodi for each film. However, this would take forever.
können sie mir helfen
i want to display my photo collection on my tv with kodi
But I don't know how to do it, I can't find anything about it on the net either
Many thanks in advance
ingo boelke
I have one written a short guide - I hope it helps. If not: where exactly is the problem?
I use KODI via Raspberry Pi 2, NAS and Pana-TV and would like to have sound (music/comments) for my slide shows. Why not?
I also have another question… I managed to do it well with the pictures.
But contrary to popular belief... I would like the German titles to be displayed. Is the?
Yes, you can: you just have to tell the scraper which language to use. This can be done under Configuration/Add-ons/My add-ons/Information providers/Movie information and there The Movie Database – provided that films are involved and TMD is currently being used. Of course, the same applies to series/TVBD.
I have the same problems as c0x'. Has a solution emerged to date? Unfortunately, I can't find a solution on Google either. up to XBMC 13… I had no problems. If you wanted to try Kodi (15.2) as it is offered in the Playstore, no chance. Kind regards
Hello, I have the following problem.
My password is not recognized when I release it. I enter my password, press done a second later, Kodi jumps back to the password entry and the field is red. The password is correct because I already had permissions for it with Kodi. I have no idea what to do. I have already created a new user at windose but that didn't help either...
It's about 120-140 series with seasons etc.
I've thought about limiting TVDB and restarted my router twice to get a new IP.
If I then update the library, I see at the top of the screen how the films are first being scoured with the local scraper and then the series folder. It goes through the directories one by one, but doesn't add anything.
Only 20 series are displayed.
With the FireTV, this is relatively quick. It has a little more power than a 1er Pi.
I'm about to look for a tool for local information for the series. However, I have no desire to do so. That's still possible with the movies.
If you can/want to make the detour via Windows, with Media Companion does that – and that also connects directly to Kodi. In the instructions I used a local Kodi installation under Win, but you can also use the Pi-Kodi (albeit with a little cheating here...).
You'll be able to forget the TVDB limit, at least my 70 or so titles don't cause any problems. How about an alternative scraper: https://kodi.wiki/view/Add-on:XEM?
Whoa, the scraper sucks.
The problem is the years after the series title.
So for example:
Castle (2009)
If I now go to this folder in the file view and look at the series information, then a window pops up with the title and a keyboard. If I now delete (2009) from the name, then the usual selection of the series comes with de or en or whatever.
This is total crap. The year numbers are extra after it, so that no confusion occurs with the same title (I think Castle is one of those).
Now I've started to change it manually (not in my directory structure, because Plex and MediaPortal like it that way and I'm currently only testing Kodi as a replacement for Plex on the FTV, the rest of the devices continue to run with Plex) and the scoop is now that, for example, with Being Human there is a UK and a US series with the same name, since it's a remake.
1. It is not found because of the year (which makes the whole thing unique), no matter and changed by hand
2. Now it shows 0 episodes because the filename says Being Human (US) -S01E01 - ... and the scraper is bothered by the (US), which makes the whole thing even clearer.
If there was an increase of definitely, this would have just been found!
Wow, sorry, I've got a thick neck right now.
Kodi doesn't make it easy for me to like it.
Thank you for the effort.
Great site. I'll poke around a little more here.
I have now installed Kodi 15 beta2 (Isengard) and lo and behold, the scraper recognizes the syntax and assigns everything neatly.
I'm running Kodi (Helix) on the FireTV because Plex is always a nuisance...unfortunately.
Connecting to the Plex server is not family compatible, so I scrape everything right into Kodi. For films, the local scraper with two SMB sources is no problem (films and folders are prepared accordingly).
I have a problem with series. Folder structure is exemplary :)
The series
Series Title (Year)
Seasonings 01
Series Title - S01E01 - Episode
.....
Seasonings 02
....
I specified the Series folder as the SMB connection, but Kodi only scrapes a fraction of the series. :( (Scraper: TVDB)
Plex and MediaPortal also scrape through TVDB and there are no issues.
So structure should be great.
Any ideas? Would be nice. Google me to death right now ;)
So it can't be the structure, I just recreated it exactly like this with (fake) Roseanne episodes and otherwise the same settings. I have the problem from time to time on the Raspberry Pi, for which the amount of data sometimes seems a bit large and it exits with a half-filled library - sometimes it hangs completely, sometimes not. Also, sometimes when I issue the instruction to update the library via the Remote App (Yatse) from Android, it just happens that nothing happens.
The only thing that helps with the former is: start Scraper and leave Kodi completely alone (that's a few hours when reloading...) - if I then try to play something, the crash/error probability is an estimated 70 percent. I never have the Yatse problem when I go directly to Kodi via the context menu of the series folder. However, both tips fall under IT esotericism a bit... Nevertheless: Try another scan and see whether new titles have been added - if so, maybe a performance problem (but I don't have a FireTV to test).
If not: Name a specific series including the name of the episode and I'll see if it works here.
I have the same problem. Windows login data doesn't work either :(
I have several movies in compilations in Kodi. Is it possible to merge these into another parent folder.
Nope, there is no hierarchy here; And tags don't work either.
Hallo,
Of course I have a problem too ;-)
I can't access my shared folders in pc from my pi via smb. A password and username will be required. But I haven't specified one for any source. Can somebody give me a tip with that?
Nico
Try using your normal Windows credentials.
Unfortunately I can't access my NAS with Kodi on the Fire Stick via NFS.
At least not on my films.
Hello, I have two Firetv and one Firetv stick. Kodi 14.2 Helix is running everywhere. How can I compare the metadata or film databases? Would also like to pause a film in the living room and continue watching it in the same place in the bedroom,...
Thanks in advance for the effort ;)
Looking somewhere else might not work, but as far as the database is concerned, you can use a common one so you don't have to constantly update everyone manually and the viewed tags will then be consistent. This can be done using a MySQL database – unfortunately we don’t have any instructions for that (yet), but the Kodi documentation deals with the topic here. But it's probably not trivial.
Hi Mirco,
Thank you for your answer so far, here are a few explanations of how I integrated it:
Kodi runs under Win7 on my desktop PC, from which all files are, or should be, accessible. Everything runs exclusively via UPNP. The output is via UPNP plugin on my television or the connected Sony Bavaria BluRay player. The UPNP icon in the apps list also appears, Kodi can establish a connection. Under Kodi itself in the settings on the PC, I can integrate all the necessary files. Videos under Videos, Photo under Photos and my mp3 collection under Music. Videos can be called up on the TV, even 10GB Bluray mkv movies are played smoothly - all other file types under their Kodi sections, photo, music, are not displayed. The network releases are of course also set and free here. But if I now enter mp3 files and photo files, i.e. jpg's under "Add video" in the Kodi settings, then I can also find and call up photos and mp3 on the TV under the Videos or Video files category. This is of course suboptimal, for example, there is of course no slide show for photos, etc. under the video section. I would therefore like to be able to call up everything under the correct settings.
So you won't have any luck with pictures, UPnP photo sharing via Kodi is currently not possible. You should actually be able to access the music library without going through the film folder detour – at least Kodi can do that (e.g. with the Android client UPnPlay), maybe your Sony client just doesn’t play along (Kodi). I'd test it with a different client, some UPnP renderer for smartphones, and if that works, you'll just be unlucky, then it's the Sony device and only an update from the manufacturer should help you - which I contacted Sony would rather not bet.
Hallo,
I have problems to mount folders other than videos via the UPNP server. Example photos: I can add orders of pictures under Kodi, but they are not displayed on the TV. Only videos are displayed. But if I use a trick, ie I add photos instead of videos under Kodie/Videos, so I can also find them under the video section of the UPNP on the TV. Unfortunately the slide show doesn't work :(
Under the pictures section of Kodi I also have no way of adding the files to the database or linking them. This possibility offers me the Prog. only under videos. What am I doing wrong?
As far as I know, there were attempts to implement an image database, but nothing more - so nothing wrong. That being said, how does your setup look like? What acts as a UPNP server? Is Kodi connected to the TV as a client? Or does a Smart TV receive the Kodi server? Describe times, which devices and programs work together there, perhaps then a solution can be found.
Hallo,
Thank you for the good guide! After some fiddling, everything works now. There is only one thing that bothers me a bit: I have a few thousand pictures on my NAS, nicely sorted into a folder hierarchy with sometimes several subfolders, sometimes with just a few pictures, sometimes with a hundred or more. Now if I want to run the images in a slide show, I either have to keep selecting folders or I have to select ALL, which then ends up in a slide show of several hours. Isn't there a way to create some kind of playlist like for music?
Thanks and greetings to all Kodi fans
addendum. With the appropriate settings on the NAS, I can set each folder to be accessible with the Q5. Was necessary for me, because I have a USB hard drive with 4 TB on it, on which all the films are.
gruß
Cool, thanks, the hours of work are over, I was troubleshooting Kodi, not the NAS. I know I'm an old whiner, but the player (the DVD player) is much nicer to use than the xmbc player. There's no way to start the film with the DVD player?
Thanks and regards
Ewald
Yes, I had exactly the same thing. I have 4 main folders on my NAS. A self-created "data" where I have to enter access data when I select it and the three from the media server (function in DSM) video, music and photos. You should be able to get to the three without a password prompt and user when setting up the network smb in Kodi. If this is not the case, you need to set up your NAS cleverly. So it's only up to the NAS. Remember, once you have made all the settings, select the paths again (have the Q5 delete old database data by removing the old paths).
Alternatively, you can set up your NAS so that access via NFS works. But that only worked to a limited extent for me.
Hi again, I think my problem is somewhere else. Tried it that way, but I can only access the DS 214 (visible under smb as ds214) if I enter the password and username beforehand. otherwise “operation not permitted” will appear.
If I enter both, I can also play all the films perfectly with a click. So far so good. But if I now load the libraries (metadata) of the films so that they are displayed beautifully colorful and with a cover, I can no longer play them. When you click, the rotating circle appears and HimediaxbmcWrapper is written in the upper left corner. If I mark a film and click "Menu" on the remote control, a submenu appears with: Various options including "Play with". I go there and it shows the XBMCWrapper as (default) and the DVD player (that's what it says there.) If I go to the DVD player the movie starts normally. With the XBMCWrapper, the squiggle appears and nothing happens. It's actually a blemish, but it's annoying because the film only runs via this detour. As I said, only with loaded libraries. If I integrate the NAS via upnp, the films start normally, but I cannot load any libraries, which seems to be normal. So either joyless display of the films without cover and description and normal start or loading of the libraries and the start via detours. Any ideas to solve the problem?
Thank you ever.
gruß
got it done The wrapper "rotates" indefinitely, since it asks for the password again at this point without a password query ;) Turn on the media server on the NAS and move your films to the "video" folder generated by the NAS. You do not need a username/password in the network for the 3 folders music, video and pictures. Then playing works with the wrapper! :) so far even smooth.
Hello everyone, I can agree with the previous speaker. With me the Himedia Q5 runs with its Synology DS 214 +. What confuses me is that everything works fine until I load/update the libraries. This also works, but the films can no longer be played afterwards. Clicking on the movie launches the Wrapper for Xbmc and brings a never ending spinning squiggle. The movie never starts. If I go to the film with a right click, the choice comes up: Start with: XMBC Wrapper (default) and "DVD Player" I click on DVD Player, the film starts immediately. However, the wrapper is configured as a standard and is therefore always active first with a normal click. This phenomenon only occurs after updating the metadata (libraries). If I don't load any libraries, the film starts immediately when I click. Access to the NAS via SMB and password. When accessing via upnp, I also have no way of loading libraries since point 7 (see above) does not appear. Player therefore starts normally when accessed via Upnp, but unfortunately without the nice features of the libraries. Anyone have an idea? I've been tinkering for hours but to no avail. Many thanks and greetings
Ewald
Hi. Also use a Synology DS and the HiMedia Q5 with Kodi 14.1. I bind the NAS via SMB ink. password and user. That works and he builds up the database nicely.
But if I want to play a film now, the loading symbol comes up all the time without playing the film.
Now I keep reading the following sentence on the website:
(Please note if you use XBMC/KODI to play files from SMB network, the SMB network should have no User ID and Password.)
How am I supposed to issue an SMB share on a NAS WITHOUT access control?!
I really think it's because he doesn't play the movies with the wrapper. It works with another player that is on it, but it can only do stereo sound (DVD player).
With NFS I don't get any files displayed (I have access, but folders are empty).
I don't have any experience with the HiMedia Q5 and I'm not sure what you mean by wrapper (the Android app for mounting SMB shares locally?), but at least I can confirm that the access data is nonsense. On the other hand, if you mean the Smb Wrapper for Xbmc - yes, there probably were problems like that, but apparently only in early versions.
Hello everyone, so I have 3 PCs and a Fire TV, everything can be controlled via tablets and cell phones without any problems. The only problem I have is that my hard drive is connected via NAS. So I activate the UPNP button in step 4 and thus I have no scraper to choose from in magical step 7 and no metadata either. If I connect the FP to the PC via USB, it's not a problem, but I don't want to keep a computer running while I'm watching the film. Does anyone know how I can get the metadata read out via a NAS?
If you integrate via UPnP, Kodi is only responsible for playback, streaming and library are then in the hands of the UPnP server on the NAS - accordingly, Kodi can only display what is delivered by the server. In the screenshot at step 4 you can see the drives X, Y, Z under the SMB network - these are shared folders on the NAS. In this respect, you could switch off/ignore the UPnP server on the NAS and use normal shared folders (as is also the case when the platter is connected to the computer via USB); then Kodi is the server and takes care of the library itself.
And since Kodi also acts as a UPnP server, you could still access the media with other UPnP clients, such as UPnPlay for Android.
Hello great guide!
would like to access my NAS remotely via Kodi. Without Kodi it works wonderfully, everything is set up! But I'm too stupid to set it up via Kodi can someone help me how to do it?
I have no experience with Pi/NFS so far, my QNAP releases via SMB, no problems so far. However, Kodi does not automatically recognize copied films, you have to start updating the library manually – that would then be a pleasantly simple solution. With Kodi, this can be done via the slide menu on the left edge of the screen, with older versions via the context menu of films/series.
If the films are not recognized even then, it could be due to bad file names - but this should only happen in individual cases, rather unlikely if there are several films. See if you can find the films in the file view and if they can be played and, if necessary, enriched with metadata via the context menu.
Hey thanks for the guide. My system is as follows...I have a qnap nas on which the movies are stored. I connected the nas via NFS to my pi on which xbmc is running... so far no problem, everything is running great and the library is being filled diligently. However, when I add a new movie, that movie is not recognized. I've tested it with several companies (always mkv). xbmc cannot play the new film at all (accordingly, it can't find any information either). But all other films work perfectly... It only happens when you add new films. Can that somehow be due to NFS? Roger that? Can someone help me? Thanks & Greetings
Hello!
I have series on my hard drive in both German and English original versions. Separated because the EOV versions are more recent.
I would like to save them in different folders.
So for example "Modern Family" in German in the folder "Modern Family"-> Season 1,... and the EOV versions in the folder "Modern Family EOV"-> Season 5,...
So I could set the scrapper to DE for the German folder and to EN for the EOV folder.
Unfortunately, the scrapper does not find any episodes in the folder with the EOV extension.
Is there a solution for such a case, or do I have to save everything in a folder?
Thank you!
Nice question, a bit tricky... In each root folder you can put a file called tvshow.nfo, which has the URL to the show's TVDb.com page; The URLs of the different language versions are displayed via the search function on the page. For Modern Family, for example here. Otherwise nothing has to be in the tvshow.nfo. However, only one series is displayed in the library, German and English episodes are right next to each other. If you want to show two different series, look at the discussion here – the questioner probably managed it, but the solution was only suggested and my first attempts didn't work. Apparently you can probably achieve that with title entries in tvshow.nfo. Otherwise the result looks like this:
Another way to separate language versions are Smart Playlists - more on those here.
Then I must have misunderstood. Yes, the media server is activated and the stream works via DLNA or NFS Share. Since I have 2 XBMC/Kodi MC, I didn't want to scan the share every time for indexing of media data.
Unfortunately, not all seasons appear for the series because not all seasons are recorded under thetvdb.com. Can this be avoided?
Another question:
Can you then classify the films after scanning? e.g. B children, anime etc.
The solution to avoid double indexing is a MySQL database that can be shared by several Kodi installations - but that involves some effort, I don't know how stable/smooth it is and I can only recommend it anyway , if you have basic database knowledge. In Kodi it can be found there anyway: https://kodi.wiki/view/MySQL
For missing seasons you could try other sources, i.e. another scraper, but I have no experience with:
Alternatively, you can easily rework it manually with Media Companion - an article on this will follow in the next few days. This allows you to change the genre as you like, but unfortunately this is not possible in Kodi itself:
Hallo,
First of all, great guide! Actually everything worked.
Now I have a question about 9. Servers as sources! How do you get there? I have a Synology with VideoStation active and it scans all media data on the NAS. I would like to use this database as a source.
You cannot use the database itself as a source, only the stream from the media server. It streams via DLNA, as well as the Twonky server with QNAP, as can be seen in the screenshot under step 9. I don't have a Synology here, so I can only understand it from some screenshots: Not VideoStation but Media Server is responsible for DLNA in the Synology apps. If it is activated, DLNA should run by default - otherwise see if there is a suitable switch in the configuration. If the server is running and it still doesn't show up in Kodi, try another DLNA device as a test, for example UPnPlay on Android or a game console.
Since unfortunately everything did not want to work, I have now switched to Plex. Everything works great with this!
Hallo,
great derivation but something doesn't work for me as it should.
Have my movie files on my imac and released. If I open kodi on my Windows laptop, I can also load and play everything great. But when I open kodi with fire tv, it doesn't find my Mac. Even if I manually enter the source. Then the error message Operation not permitted or No connection to the network server appears
My mac is displayed in the Zeroconf browser, but when I try to select it, nothing happens.
Did I miss some setting?
Is file sharing enabled in Mac's System Preferences?
Yes, the file sharing is activated (read + write) and the ticks under Options are also set (SMB and Co.) The access from my Windows laptop with Kodi to my Mac also works wonderfully. I also downloaded Kodi to my Android phone to test it there. Same issue as the Fire TV. The Mac appears in the Zeroconf browser, but no access is gained.
Is there maybe a problem between Mac and Android?
I don't have a Fire TV or a Mac, but I'll try to be useful anyway: The not-permitted error message usually indicates a rights problem, i.e. a typo when logging in. The no-connection error usually indicates wrong IPs (can probably be ruled out...) or strange router/firewall/LAN configuration; but you would have to have already configured it manually so that only certain hardware (here the Win laptop) has access to the server - I think it's rather unlikely.
You can test whether it is a Kodi or Android problem with the video three posts above. AndSMB is a very simple Android/SMB client - if it works it's Kodi, if not Android is probably the culprit.
Having the same problem, my MacBook can't connect to the music option in Kode, "Operation is not permitted" is the message. What am I doing wrong?
`
I have now tried to establish a connection between my mobile phone and my Mac using AndSMB. Despite the correct user name and password, the following error appears: Login Failure: unknown user name or bad password.
So there must be a problem between android and mac.
Good day!
Great instructions, everything worked until yesterday. But then this, I have 4 hard drives as shares in the network, all of them are also recognized. I was also able to access all folders and sub folders. Until yesterday, when accessing only one hard disk (release), the error "invalid argument" appeared. I have reconfigured the release on the hard drive. also unnamed etc. this error comes again and again, even a new installation of Kodi does not eliminate the error. As I said, the release as such shows me.. only access to exactly ONE HD fails, I can open or search all other disks. :O
Hi! Use Kodi on the Amazon Fire TV. Have no trouble adding my NAS (Synology Diskstation). As soon as I select a movie and want to play it, Kodi resets again and I have to start the app all over again. Then try again from the beginning, unfortunately always with the same result - video is not played. Music is played from the server, photos from the server are also displayed on the TV. Would be nice if someone could give me a tip. Installed Kodi 14.0 Helix Beta 2.
Hi Stefan,
how did you release the film releases on the NAS? I just put them on an SMB share and can play everything from there (just a handful of files, but still ;) )
Alternatively, you can also try a UPnP share, as described here: https://www.synology.com/de-de/knowledgebase/tutorials/452
Oh yes, and what file formats are the films in? Maybe Kodi has problems with that...? It's more of a shot in the blue now, admittedly ;)
Thanks for the great instructions.
However, I have a problem because my Fire Tv does not connect to my PC via Windows Network SMB to play movies. Sending apps via sideload works without any problems. Do you or a Fire TV owner have an idea?
Hi Rolf,
Since this works for both of us on various systems without any further Kodi configuration, the first guess would be that something is wrong with the SMB share itself (which has to be set up manually on the source devices). Have a look under Windows via the context menu of the folders or on the NAS with the shared folders, depending on where the media are located, to see whether the shares are set up correctly.
You can also test whether a simple SMB client, for example on Android andSMB, works to control the SMB share.
Hallo,
Unfortunately, the Amazon Fire TV still can't find the source (my PC) via the Windows network, although sharing works (laptop finds the video folder).
Can you briefly explain to me how this works with AndSMB?
Basically quite simple: enter the IP of the media server, enter the user name/password and the folders are already available; here it is in action:
Hi Tom,
I forwarded the Fire TV part to the Fire TV owner here in case it differs from normal Kodi. If not:
1 question: Changes to incorrect or unrecognized You can simply film via the entry in the film list in XBMC. Bring up the movie's context menu (right-click or on your keyboard, the funny key right between Win and Ctrl, I can't think of the name right now...) and then choose Movie Info/Update/Manual. If the film was not recognized at all, you will of course not find it in the library view, but in the file list.
Question 2: Do I have the same here: some films are located directly as MKV/AVI in the films folder, some in subfolders, such as multi-part films, film series and the like. However, Kodi automatically displays them all on an equal footing: Kodi reads the metadata and uses it to organize the library – the folder structure does not appear at all. If it is displayed differently for you, see if you might have die File Representation uses. If you call up "Movies" or "Videos" from the Kodi start screen, Kodi asks in the next step whether you want to search one of the created library areas (TV series or films) or via "Files" the folder structure/file listing - and this in turn shows just the folders / files as they are on the hard drive.
Question 3: Deleting is not a problem, just die Delete key then the film will be removed from the library, but will not be deleted from the hard drive. Alternatively, of course, this can also be done via this Context menu and then "Remove from library". By the way: If Del doesn't work and the context menu doesn't show the option, you're probably in the file view mode just mentioned - of course there are no library options here.
Another tip: If you switch from the start page to "Movies" or "Videos", you tend to end up directly in the film list. Then navigate back using the two ".." until you see the options "Movies", "Files", "Recently Added Movies" and so on.
And one more thing: Under settings/videos/file lists you can choose whether films/files in the File view with your file or library names are used - the file names are recommended as a control instance here, for everyday use the library view should be used.
Last but not least, remote controls sometimes don't display the library XNUMX% exactly the way Kodi does.
I hope it helps!?
Hello…
Thanks very much! Now my Fire TV is finally really, really useful. A few things confuse me: how do I get the data post-processed on the Fire TV? And: I have films that have several parts or extras or subtitles in folders, but not films that only consist of one file. Can I get it to show me everyone on an equal footing? And can you delete individual films from the DB?
Thank you!
Hi Mirco, is it possible to save the manually edited metadata (centrally)? Preferably in the respective film/series folder so that the correct information is displayed when it is read in again (from another client).
Hello Boris,
Yes, there is: You can open the library via Settings/Video/Export the exportier to let. If you select "separate files per entry" there, XBMC will create NFO files with the metadata directly in the Movies/Videos/Music folders. If NFO files are present, XBMC reads them in directly. (You could also export everything to one file and import the library back into the next XBMC/Kodi - this would save time for very large databases.)
Alternatively, you could also have a central one MySQL based library shared among all XBMC installations on the network. I haven't tried it yet, but the principle is simple: The exported library is imported into a local MySQL database and the desired XBMC instances are instructed via a manually created/adapted XML file to use this database as a basis. English instructions are available on the Kodi Wiki: https://kodi.wiki/view/MySQL
Experience has shown that I can only recommend a database solution if you either have basic (My)SQL knowledge or are willing to work with it.
Hi Mirco, Extremely helpful site to get Kodi working on Fire TV, thank you so much.
However, I have the same problem as my previous commenter: Step 7 absolutely does not want to appear. I had 14.0 Helix installed and now 13.2 Gotham. But that's not the reason, because in neither of the two versions can the media type be selected after "Add source". Could it be the software version for the Fire TV?
Thank you for your answer.
gruß
Dennis
Me again, done. I had linked the folders / sources via uPnP. However, the automatic scanning of the media content does not work with this. Switching to linking via NFS solved the problem.
gruß
Dennis
Great, thank you for the information; then I can stop bullying the only Fire TV owner I know...
Incidentally, UPnP is often a bit problematic, adding to the playlist, "Play from here" and the like sometimes doesn't work, the series names of a connected XBMC server are displayed cryptically (at least in Yatse) and so on.
The query comes right after you click OK in step 6 - however, the dialog from the image in step 7 looks a bit empty by default, since no scraper is preset. Here is a short video showing the process:
https://youtu.be/kW8zaznQQhs
Metadata non-metallic
awesome instructions, but I have problems reading the metal ones.. I access my nose via unpnp and add the folder as far as described in the instructions, but where can I do step 7 I can't find an option to set it.. Would be great if you can help me ;)