hansolo77 11 Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 Sorry if this has been asked before.. Does Kodi support Emby's chapter images? I have my server configured to scan and create chapter images for movies right now (I don't have a bunch of movies, so I thought I would experiment with them first). I can see where Kodi would show them by having a video playing and selecting the bookmarks option. However, all I see is the chapter names with black boxes. Is there a setting somewhere I need to change so Kodi knows to look for them in a different location? Or are chapter images just not possible because of how Emby stores them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelblue05 4130 Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 (edited) The feature is only available with direct paths. Kodi limitation, it doesn't add chapter images if the path to content in database starts with anything else but local drive letter or network share (smb) Edited December 10, 2015 by Angelblue05 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hansolo77 11 Posted December 10, 2015 Author Share Posted December 10, 2015 (edited) Do we know how Kodi looks for Chapter Images? For instance, does it maybe look for them in a subfolder from the media (ie; "D:\Videos\Movies\blah blah\Chapters") that we can maybe just configure Emby to save them there like we do the metadata rather than a centralized location like we do for the Actors? That's another issue I've had, is where Kodi fails to load actor images. I assume this is related to the same limitation. Perhaps a better route to go would be to ask the Kodi team if they have plans to implement remote locations for chapter and cast/crew images. EDIT - I posted a new thread over in the Kodi forums here: http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=251493 Then I had a thought. Is there maybe a way to have the Emby addon we use to import the Emby database into the Kodi library tell Kodi where to find these files? Since all the metadata is obtained at the moment Kodi's library is updated, it should be receiving this information from Emby. As it works right now, it appears as though the Emby addon is overriding Kodi's online scrapers and telling it to use the metadata Emby provides. If that's the case, couldn't it be as simple as adding some extra code into the addon to inform Kodi of where the extra bits (ImagesByName, Chapter Images, etc) are located? Or am I thinking too simply, and there'd have to be a re-write to Emby's code to manually store each location into the metadata files? Edited December 10, 2015 by hansolo77 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelblue05 4130 Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 (edited) Cast crew image is fixable, I just haven't got the time to get around it yet. For chapter images, Kodi actually look at the path, if it doesn't start with a drive letter or network, it doesn't load chapter images (you can't get chapter images over upnp, dlna, etc). The only way would be to see if it can be changed in the Kodi code. So for now, your fix is to use direct paths instead of plugin redirect. But then you'll lose emby features such as cinema mode, direct streaming/transcode, etc. Edited December 10, 2015 by Angelblue05 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hansolo77 11 Posted December 10, 2015 Author Share Posted December 10, 2015 Ew yucky. Too bad we can't marry the two. I'd love for the cast/crew stuff to work. Keep me updated on that progress. lol I guess for the Chapter Images, even though that was my initial point of creating this thread, I'll just bow out and hope the Kodi guys can work something out. I wonder why that stuff doesn't work with upnp/smb. I mean, it picks up the media locations just fine for the video. Oh well. Thanks for explaining it nonetheless. And thanks for getting my hopes up on getting the cast/crew working eventually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelblue05 4130 Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 Yes. It's there on our trello board. Someone else had requested to get chapter images working. So I dug into the code and saw that no matter what, there's just no workaround this particular problem. I do not know the reason behind it, could be perhaps, to provide better performance for those type of access where usually, you want to have limited metadata transfer to load the listing faster, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hansolo77 11 Posted December 10, 2015 Author Share Posted December 10, 2015 Wow what a disaster. I thought I'd experiment and give Kodi a try without using Emby. Uhg. It doesn't seem to pick up ANY of the metadata I've scraped and saved using Emby. All of the extra artwork is being ignored and so is the xml data that stores things like the movie title (Harry Potter 1 changed from Sorcerer's to Philosopher's, etc). It also loses all the sorting (so the Harry Potters, Hobbits, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, etc.. they're all out of order, something I fixed in Emby). There's going to be so much more work involved to get this set up, going through and changing sort titles and rescraping artwork. It's just not worth it. Especially if I have to do this for every new Kodi device I would install. All this just so I could get Chapter Images lol. I saw your reply to my thread, hopefully the devs will see it and offer a fix. In the mean time, would you need assistance in troubleshooting/testing a new version of the addon to make the cast/crew images work? I'm very keen to help with that if you do. I didn't realize I was even missing that stuff when setting this all up originally until I started scraping in metadata without Emby. Seems like Kodi is broken in that respect too. It's surprising.. why don't they have it setup to scrape for MISSING stuff, rather than "this way or that way only"? Seems like a mode to pick up what is missing would really be a smart way to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xnappo 1593 Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 If you were willing to do that, just use direct paths. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelblue05 4130 Posted December 11, 2015 Share Posted December 11, 2015 Exactly what xnappo said. Sure you lose out on emby features, but at least the metadata management is still handled by emby and you get chapter images (since it's important to you). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hansolo77 11 Posted December 11, 2015 Author Share Posted December 11, 2015 (edited) But if I don't use Emby, the metadata Emby has isn't picked up by Kodi. That's the reason for my reply about my findings. If I use direct paths and bypass Emby altogether, it's more hassle than it's worth. When I use Emby, the limitations are simply Chapter Images and Cast/Crew images. When I don't use Emby, the limitations are no metadata, no extra art, no proper sorting, and it picks up every movie's "trailer" as a separate movie. And whatever scraping and file management I do will need to be done with all other Kodi devices in the house (which is up to 3 right now). With Emby, all that's already taken care of. And once the Cast/Crew part of addon is working, that's one more bonus. I realize the topic of this post was "Chapter Images?" but in reality, I think it is a more broader spectrum. What's important to me is the metadata I already have. Since Kodi can't access the metadata already existing, I'll just stick with Emby. Edited December 11, 2015 by hansolo77 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vidman 589 Posted December 11, 2015 Share Posted December 11, 2015 (edited) But if I don't use Emby, the metadata Emby has isn't picked up by Kodi. That's the reason for my reply about my findings. If I use direct paths and bypass Emby altogether, it's more hassle than it's worth. When I use Emby, the limitations are simply Chapter Images and Cast/Crew images. When I don't use Emby, the limitations are no metadata, no extra art, no proper sorting, and it picks up every movie's "trailer" as a separate movie. And whatever scraping and file management I do will need to be done with all other Kodi devices in the house (which is up to 3 right now). With Emby, all that's already taken care of. And once the Cast/Crew part of addon is working, that's one more bonus. I realize the topic of this post was "Chapter Images?" but in reality, I think it is a more broader spectrum. What's important to me is the metadata I already have. Since Kodi can't access the metadata already existing, I'll just stick with Emby. You still use the emby for kodi addon (and hence embys metadata) ,just select the "use direct paths" option in the emby for kodi settings then do a reset (also found in Emby for kodi settings) Edited December 11, 2015 by Vidman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hansolo77 11 Posted December 11, 2015 Author Share Posted December 11, 2015 (edited) I'm on my way to work right now, but I looked at those settings last night and didn't see anything. I'll double check tonight. Are you referring to the setting that says to not use the redirect? Edited December 11, 2015 by hansolo77 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelblue05 4130 Posted December 11, 2015 Share Posted December 11, 2015 Yes that's the one. Found under the sync option tab. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hansolo77 11 Posted December 11, 2015 Author Share Posted December 11, 2015 Exactly what xnappo said. Sure you lose out on emby features, but at least the metadata management is still handled by emby and you get chapter images (since it's important to you). Yes that's the one. Found under the sync option tab. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Ok I will give that a try. What Emby features will I lose? As long as I get the metadata (episode details, sorting) and the pre-existing artwork (like episode thumbs, season art, disk art, logos) I'm happy. If doing this will give me Chapter Images, that's a good step forward. If it DOES, I wonder why it defaults to using the redirect mode, as it seems this way is better. I suppose there are probably devices that require the redirect. I don't mind experimenting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
im85288 1493 Posted December 11, 2015 Share Posted December 11, 2015 Personally I always use direct paths, you gain quite a lot eg. Being able to use Kodi addons that rely on direct paths (tvtunes, cinema experience etc etc). You lose the ability to have transcoding done and being able to use the Emby cinema mode. You will get chapter images etc, experiment and I'm pretty sure you'll be posting back saying it exceeds your expectations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelblue05 4130 Posted December 11, 2015 Share Posted December 11, 2015 (edited) The main reason for plugin paths is to have access to direct play/direct stream/transcoding process without having to change the content's path. Plugin paths gives us control of what happens before playback, so we can add emby cinema mode, or load additional parts in the currently playing Kodi playlist. This is why it's default, because it brings the emby experience to Kodi. And for most people, it will be a good experience. Granted, the way we do things is a workaround, because Kodi never intended on having plugin paths directly inserted into their database. The right way to do this would be to use strm files containing plugin paths inside, but you can understand creating a strm file for everything on your emby library, on each Kodi device would be excessive. So we bend the rule to make things easier to maintain. Anyway, this is why there are certain things that do not work correctly using this method. But the list is so limited, and the benefits usually outweights the negative. Anyway, this is what you would be missing out on. We do have the option to add content using the real path to content (direct paths). This is the way Kodi actually works. The playback is fully up to Kodi, so it's faster to launch playback on low powered devices. However, the add-on is still in charge of handling the metadata aspect. It will keep doing what it already does, minus controlling what happens at playback. Some add-ons also depend on having direct paths in database to function correctly. I hope this helps clarify. *TV Tunes does not require direct paths. It should work correctly regardless as I've made sure of that. Edited December 11, 2015 by Angelblue05 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
im85288 1493 Posted December 11, 2015 Share Posted December 11, 2015 Just to clarify TV Tunes will only scan (ie pull in new theme music) with direct paths enabled. If your happy to pay for them via the Emby theme music plugin then this is not an issue as playback works with both methods. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hansolo77 11 Posted December 12, 2015 Author Share Posted December 12, 2015 Gasp! I don't even use the Cinema features of Emby (like seeing trailers before the move starts, etc), and so far all my content is able to be streamed directly without transcoding. I'll definitely give the direct option a go later. I spent my whole time since coming home from work (at 5:30pm) updating subscribed forum threads to various other aspects of my hobby life. Haven't even had dinner yet and it's 9:30pm. I'll report back how it goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelblue05 4130 Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 (edited) Kodi will direct play, as long as the paths are correctly formatted so Kodi can access the file without the help of the add-on. With the plugin path, you can also achieve direct play for everything. It's just nice to have the options of direct stream or transcoding (I use Kodi to connect to a remote emby server and it's working great). This would not be possible in the direct paths scenario since Kodi can't find the file locally/network. Edited December 12, 2015 by Angelblue05 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hansolo77 11 Posted December 12, 2015 Author Share Posted December 12, 2015 Since I have a lot of content, I set the direct play option and rebuilt the Kodi db overnight. I just checked it before leaving for work and it's still not picking up the chapter images. Interestingly though, it does seem to be displaying a lot more of my pre-existing images. I can tell because a bunch of the stuff is now different than it was before and it's displaying them a LOT faster, which means before it was probably picking up the stuff as needed via the internet. This is definitely an improvement. I only checked one movie though, so maybe the chapter images DO work and they just weren't made for that movie. Is there a way to check on the Emby Server side of things? Like, find the path where they're stored and verified they're really there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
im85288 1493 Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 Did you enable the option in Kodi to generate chapter images? I'm pretty sure that needs to be done first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelblue05 4130 Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 (edited) When you have a chance, can you let me know what you find is different in metadata while using direct paths? Thanks. Be as precise as possible(where the info was different, and what action you took to make it display) The outcome should be exactly the same since the only thing that's difference between the methods is the path and file (chapter images being the exception). Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Edited December 12, 2015 by Angelblue05 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hansolo77 11 Posted December 13, 2015 Author Share Posted December 13, 2015 For starters, I'm using the Aeon MQ6 Skin. Whenever I previously looked at the info on a given title, there weren't any cast/crew images at all. The metadata was showing there were people there, but the images weren't. Kodi wasn't even scraping them. But after switching to direct mode, all those cast/crew images are now showing up. I also know that when I pause a video, the pause screen will show cast/crew information (just a list, no pictures) where as before those would only show up on streaming videos that Kodi had scraped. It never showed for any of my local content before. Another thing I noticed is that on the info screens, there is now a logo and clear art on the screen where previously this had not been the case. The placeholders were there but they never showed anything. When browsing my media, I notice all of the art is visible right away. Previously, when browsing movies for instance, it would lag a few seconds while Kodi went out and tried to scrape down a disk art or clear art/logo. Now it is super fluid and has no problem displaying these. The only thing now is that the Chapter Images still don't work. I'm not as upset about this (even though that's the title of the thread lol) because everything else that should have been working initially is now working like it should. The cast images working is huge for me. I don't think the skin supports crew images, but that's ok. In response to im85288 - I did not originally have this enabled, but I did enable it in my test to directly access the content (not using Emby). When I did that, I saw Kodi actively creating the chapter images while I was looking at the bookmark screens. When I restored my backup to the SD card where I had been using Emby though, it is disabled. I will attempt to re-enable it and then reset the Kodi DB again overnight and see if it does anything. It was my understanding though that by using the direct method, Kodi should then be able to use the already created chapter images Emby had created during it's daily scans, and not need to scan and create them. That's why I wanted to know if there was a way to actually check and see they were created in the first place. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelblue05 4130 Posted December 13, 2015 Share Posted December 13, 2015 (edited) I'm using plugin paths and I have no issues with cast crews. Same for artwork, there's no difference. The only trouble I get is when using playback via a homescreen widget for movies. The content loses it's type when added to the Kodi playlist. Luckily Kodi Jarvis has a fix for this, or it's being worked on where we can finally specify the content type when adding them to the playlist so the proper OSD behavior is applied. I will check for the rest. Edited December 13, 2015 by Angelblue05 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vidman 589 Posted December 13, 2015 Share Posted December 13, 2015 (edited) Nm Edited December 13, 2015 by Vidman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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