Import Media Art from Drive? (1 Viewer)

[giosico]

I have done lots of searching and tried to get this to work for months.

I can not seem to get an existing movie library to import without MP wanting to scan from the internet.

I have XBMC will all my movies and media art working great.
I use XBMC to export

But MediaPortal does not seem to have a way to import that information.
It wants to re-download information from the internet
And when there is no net connection is just does nothing

I would prefer not to re-download media art on my internet connection again.

What am I missing. Surely MP can just use the same media art on the hard drive that XBMC uses?

Thanks in advance for any tips or trick.

 

[NickName]

Hi giosico,

I don't use anything extra or special in Mediaportal (MP) to manage movies, just standard MP functionality. I know there are great plugins to manage movies but I just can't be bothered investing the time. I know people do but I have 4 young kids and not much spare time. Anyway, enough excuses.

I just put the pictures in the same folder as the movie file. I have a folder called Adult (not p0rn, just movies suitable for us parents) and another folder called Kids.
In these folders I just put the movie files (no sub-folders) with pictures and subtitle (if required) files that exactly match the name of the movie (except for the file extension of course).
Example:
\Kids\Sponge Bob.avi
\Kids\Sponge Bob.jpg (I believe images can also be in PNG format instead, i.e. \Kids\Sponge Bob.png)
\Kids\Sponge Bob.srt

MP will then show one picture (i.e. of Sponge Bob) and when clicked, the movie plays.

So all you need to do is map/mount/enable your drive so MP looks in it and that will work. I have seen very occasionally some JPGs that don't work (due to internal format), so it's simply a case of getting another version that does display. If the drive is a mapped network drive, don't use the mapped name, rather use the UNC name.
Example:
F:\Kids\ (Don't do use if it is a mapped drive on \\RemoteComputer)
rather, do this:
\\RemoteComputerName\Kids\

Good luck,

Nick Name.

 

[giosico]

Thanks for the help.

I have read the instructions.
I can let MP get the art from the internet.

My question is how do I get MP to import the art from disk where the art was put there and is work by XBMC.

I am trying to avoid manually massaging the files and
I am trying to avoid having to re-download them again from the net.

Thanks in advance.

 

[NickName]

I'm sorry I have no idea.

MP will use art it finds alongside movie files as long as the art has exactly the same name as the movie file.

If the movie is in a sub-folder, you can name the picture "folder.jpg" and the folder will be displayed in MP with a picture. The problem with this method is that when you click on the picture in MP, it will open the folder and display the movie file. If you want that movie to be represented by a picture, you need a 2nd copy with the same name as the movie picture.
Example:
\Movies\Sponge bob\Sponge Bob.avi
\Movies\Sponge bob\folder.jpg
\Movies\Sponge bob\Sponge Bob.jpg

The above method also means to play a movie, you have to click twice. The first time on the folder to open it and the second time on the movie file to play it.

FYI. The method I mentioned that I use is so easy that my kids have been able to pick and play their own movies since they were 2 and half years old!

Am I right in assuming that you do not have your movies in the same folder/drive as the art?

On a side note: Mediaportal started off as XBMC but was branched, as XBMC doesn't support TV Tuner cards...