[BobMysterios]

I've started playing with movie thumbnailer (mtn) to create thumbnail images when the-tvdb.com doesn't have any. Is there anyway to include those thumbnails when the episode thumbnail is empty?

One thought is to modify the skin to display the thumbnail of the current file if the episode thumbnail is blank. I'm just not sure what tags to use to get that in the skin.

Any ideas?

For instance I have this:
E:\TV\Survivorman\Survivorman 103 Costa Rica(Dvd).avi
it doesn't seem to get an episode image.

So i created one with MTN and that file is this
E:\TV\Survivorman\Survivorman 103 Costa Rica(Dvd).avi
and lives in the same directory.

If I browse videos in MP file browser, the thumbnail is used but since TV Series uses the DB it isn't the same.

Thanks.

[gamejester]

Do you mean you have a .jpg of the same name in the folder? think you have a typo in your description.

Why do you not upload your episode jpg to thetvdb.com; that way the rest of the comunity can make use of them and they will work with MP tvseris plugin.

[BobMysterios]

There are restrictions about what the content can be. IE - no spoilers

I think I can figure it out using some database trickery.

I can run the thumbnail script mentioned above on all my tv episodes
then run sqlite3: A command-line access program for SQLite databases to access the db
write a little sql - schedule it - and poof - done.

databases are what I do for a living, hopefully the sqlite syntax is robust enough to do what I want. I'll post my script if it works out.

[gamejester]

The whole *spoiler* thing is a bit vague and open to everyones own opinion within reason. You need enough of an interesting picture to know what the episode is about when browsing so you know if you have already seen it, but do not want to give anything important away in a long running season that follows on.

Does your episode grabber just grab a random framme or are you looking to grab a specific image? If it is just a random framme then it will not be suitable to upload to thetvdb.com anyway.

There are no graphics stored in the db as blobs or anything, they are just standard files on your hard disc. Not even sure if there is a pointer to the epiosde image in the db (would have to check); think you just need a file with the correct name in the right place.

Give it a try. copy your epiosde files to
C:\programdata\teammediaportal\mediaportal\thumbs\mptvseriesbanners\%name of show%\episodes\1x1.jpg

That is the path for vista, is it different for XP.

name the file:

SeasonxEpisode.jpg

[BobMysterios]

Using MTN (link above) and a little bit of scripting and sql I was able to emulate what I was looking for.

First I create thumbnails of my videos (Problem - it currently creates thumbnails for all videos)
Basically I have a sql script that executes against the DB and updates the ThumbFileName to the EpisodeFilename (but I replace .avi with .jpg)

By doing this for episodes without thumbnails I keep all the updated thumbs and only use mine when needed.

Sadly, until I figure a way to pass a string of long file names via DOS Batch commands I'm not going to use this. I do NOT want 1 .jpg for every .avi in my movies directories.

So, unless someone is a DOS Batch guru (i spent a few hours this AM with little luck) this was an interesting but not fruitful little sidebar.

[Caramel]

to perform ops on a list of files in batch try

for %%i in (*.*) do <command to perform using %%i as filename>

that will iterate through current dir all files matching the *.* (can change to *.avi if required) and perform the command on each file

you can also use for statements to iterate through a text file and use each line to perform a command - syntax i cannot remember of top of head but should not be har to find out

[Weeji]

I am currently developing a program to make mp-tv series use a thumbnail generated by movie thumbnailer if thetvdb.com doesn't have anything. It should be finished and ready within the next day or 2. I know what some of you are thinking, "Why not just upload them to thetvdb.com?" Well, I was, until they deleted the tv series that I was updating. After I became frustrated enough with all that, I decided to take matters into my own hands and start on this.