gmacman 3 Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 I wanted to try to better understand the Home Video issue with the Kodi Emby addon. I know the ability to view home videos currently is only available on the Beta and I'd like to fully understand it's use/benefits/trade offs before I have our devices (if it makes sense to do so) move over to the Beta version. We currently run the Kodi Emby addon stable version (1.1.62) on 5 (yes, I said five) FireTVs. Some are 1st gen, some 2nd and even one stick added to the mix.What I understand about home videos and KodiKodi does not distinguish between home videos and "Hollywood" real type movies and thus will try to scrape home videos as if they are produced movies. And will incorporate those home videos into the regular "movies" category.Am I correct in my noob understanding of the issue? What my situation looks like todayLike many others I have tons of media. I have lots and lots of real movies (my "Hollywood" label is what I'm talking about here) as well as TV shows all loaded on a NAS device running Emby that feeds this media to the 5 FireTV boxes around the house. So that my family can view whatever movie or TV show they wish at their respective TV.The Emby server (the NAS) then syncs watched status, etc. with the local Kodi databases on the 5 client devices (the FireTVs). This works very well. So well in fact that my wife is very happy with me and my life is very pleasant (yes, my marriage is working thanks to the efforts of Angelblue05, xnappo, etc.).What I want to be able to do in Kodi with home videosAlso like many others I have tons of home videos. I would like to be able to watch the video "movie" I made of my son's soccer season on my TV in the same manner as I watch a movie. I would like to have a category ("Home Movies" let's say) in Kodi so that I can easily watch the soccer "movie" after I've watched Chariots of Fire.Within the Emby server I can set up a "Media Library" with a content type of "Home Videos" pointed to a specific directory on my NAS where I keep these home video media files. But since I'm currently running the stable version of the Kodi addon there is no way (I think) to view that media in Kodi.How to accomplish what I want using the Kodi Emby addon?So, is it correct that with the new Beta addon version that I can set up a new media library in Emby (assign it a content of "Home Videos") and then I will be able to view it within Kodi on my FireTVs? And if so, is there anything I need to do with the skin I use for Kodi on those devices (Metropolis is my skin of choice)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xnappo 1593 Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 (edited) The whole issue is that by default, many skins have a 'MOVIES' menu entry that points to 'All movies in the Kodi database'. This will end up including all your Home Movies. You simply need to change that menu entry to point to 'Video Addons'->'Emby'->'All Movies' instead(this isn't exactly right, but you get the idea I hope). This is the 'Emby' All Movies node, which knows how you have your View set up on the server, and knows to separate 'Home Movies' from 'Hollywood Movies'. You then create additional pointers to anything not in your 'All Movies' view, including maybe 'Kids' or 'Home Movies'. Make sense? Edited January 4, 2016 by xnappo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmacman 3 Posted January 5, 2016 Author Share Posted January 5, 2016 The whole issue is that by default, many skins have a 'MOVIES' menu entry that points to 'All movies in the Kodi database'. This will end up including all your Home Movies. You simply need to change that menu entry to point to 'Video Addons'->'Emby'->'All Movies' instead(this isn't exactly right, but you get the idea I hope). This is the 'Emby' All Movies node, which knows how you have your View set up on the server, and knows to separate 'Home Movies' from 'Hollywood Movies'. You then create additional pointers to anything not in your 'All Movies' view, including maybe 'Kids' or 'Home Movies'. Make sense? Yes, that makes sense. Let me ask tho two follow up questions. First, the actual editing of the pointing in the skin menu is done by editing the skin? That is, the skin's xml files? Or do some skins have that as an editable option from their various menu options (meaning that I would not actually do the editing of the file myself)? I'm fine with editing the xml files if I need to, just wondering if there are skins that have that flexibility "built in". Second follow up (wait, I think I actually asked like 5 questions in that first one, oh well). Do I still create separate distinct libraries within the server side using as I mentioned the content type of Home Videos so that Emby won't try to use its normal scraping? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xnappo 1593 Posted January 5, 2016 Share Posted January 5, 2016 Almost all skins have the ability to edit the home screen menu - the only one that doesn't as far as I know is Confluence - so no need for any XML edits! For your 2nd (or 5th question) yes - I think that will work - but make sure to UNCHECK the grouping of those 'random' collections in the user's library view options on the server. xnappo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HPBirkeland 4 Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 I'll try to jump onto this thread, as I have the exact same issue, and I don't really understand this. For what it's worth, I use the Mimic skin. The whole issue is that by default, many skins have a 'MOVIES' menu entry that points to 'All movies in the Kodi database'. This will end up including all your Home Movies. You simply need to change that menu entry to point to 'Video Addons'->'Emby'->'All Movies' instead(this isn't exactly right, but you get the idea I hope). This is the 'Emby' All Movies node, which knows how you have your View set up on the server, and knows to separate 'Home Movies' from 'Hollywood Movies'. You then create additional pointers to anything not in your 'All Movies' view, including maybe 'Kids' or 'Home Movies'. Make sense? My Movies entry in the Kodi main menu points to (Default select action): ActivateWindow(10025,library://video/Emby - Filmer/Filmer_all.xml/,return) where "Filmer" is my Movies folder on the server. Exactly how do I "create additional pointers to anything not in your 'All Movies' view, including maybe 'Kids' or 'Home Movies'."? I have tried to make a new main menu entry called "Home videos", but there is still no option for home videos or even selecting an arbitrary folder vhen setting up this new entry. For your 2nd (or 5th question) yes - I think that will work - but make sure to UNCHECK the grouping of those 'random' collections in the user's library view options on the server. xnappo I don't see any checkboxes for any grouping. Screenshot, please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xnappo 1593 Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 In general, the latest beta removes Home Videos from the main library. If you do a resync they will go away and now only be available through Video->Video Addons->Emby - note that you can make a shortcut here. For #1, depends on the skin - what skin are you using and what addon version? For #2, here you go: In User->Settings->Home Screen settings: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HPBirkeland 4 Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 Thank you. As I said, I use the Mimic skin. And my addon version is 1.1.62, and server version 3.0.5781.9. I never saw the User->Settings->Home Screen settings screen before, so thanks for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HPBirkeland 4 Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 I still don't understand the Home Screen settings page. You have an entry called "Kids", I guess that would be my Home Videos. But I have nothing like that. In My Views I only have Movies (Filmer), Music (Musikk) and TV (TV-serier): And under View Styles I also have Pictures (Bilder). Boxes checked and unchecked here are like they were when I first saw them. And my Media Library page loooks like this: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vidman 589 Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 (edited) I think home videos doesn't have enhanced presentation option and can not to grouped as they don't download metadata same with music videos Edited January 18, 2016 by Vidman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xnappo 1593 Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 I have never used Mimic - I will install it and let you know how to add home videos to the menu later on (assuming you can with that skin). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HPBirkeland 4 Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 Thanks, that would be great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marcelveldt 736 Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 I have never used Mimic - I will install it and let you know how to add home videos to the menu later on (assuming you can with that skin). Yes you can, it also uses skinshortcuts and I thought it also has support for skinhelper (for smart shortcuts) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xnappo 1593 Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 (edited) Indeed, making shortcuts in Mimic is quite simple. Just go to Settings->Skin Settings->Home Window->Setup Menus and Widgets You can then either go to the bottom of an existing entry and do 'Add New', or edit one you don't need. Change the name as you please, then select 'Change Action'. You can then find Emby nodes in Video Library->Video Addon->Emby->[Node]. xnappo Edited January 20, 2016 by xnappo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HPBirkeland 4 Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 You can then find Emby nodes in Video Library->Video Addon->Emby->[Node]. xnappo Well, in there I have the following: -Create shortcut to here -Filmer (Movies) -TV-serier (TV shows) -Channels -Favorite shows -Favorite movies -Settings -Perform manual sync -Add user to session -Configure user preferences -Perform local database reset (full resync) Cache all images to Kodi texture cache (advanced) Sync Emby theme media to Kodi Nothing about Home videos. I see in your screenshot above that you have something called Kids. I guess that is similiar. How did you get that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xnappo 1593 Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 (edited) What version of the addon are you using? Home Videos is only in the beta. My 'Kids' section is a bit different - it is a 'Movie' library that I have chosen in views not to group with 'Movies'. [EDIT] I see you are using the stable version - so you can either switch to beta, or wait a week or so as I think we will push to stable soon. Edited January 20, 2016 by xnappo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HPBirkeland 4 Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 Ok, then I see! I'll just wait then. Thank you very much for your time and effort. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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