The naming of movie files is an important first step and is covered at this link.
It is common to include the Season and Episode in filenames of TV Series (e.g. S1E3). These are used in harvesting metadata off the internet. If the movie doesn't have an assoicated nfo file they are also used in populating the Keyword Hierarchy, and therefore used in the display of the playlist. However, if the movie has an nfo file containing these fields, those values take precedence for use in the playlist.
See below for more details about filenames.
For the purposes of this article you should set the following flags 'on' in Metadata Retrieval Settings
A single parent folder holding all TV series and shows in subfolders - Used in the filter of the playlists Each folder which contains episodes of a TV series only contains movies from a single Season and does not contain any movies which are not part of the series. Each folder which contains episodes of a TV series should simply be called Season nn. Deviation from this introduces various effects which I have not covered. Each folder which contains episodes of a TV series also contains a file called tvshow.nfo. See next. The tvshow.nfo file contains a <tvshow> parameter - Ensures that the Category, on the Mezzmo database, is generated as TV Show, and is used in the filter. The tvshow.nfo file contains a <studio> parameter - Provides the main key to the list of series as presented to the user if using my recommended Keyword Hierarchy.. Each movie filename includes the Season and Episode in the form SxxExx - Populates the Disc/Season for use in the Keyword Hierarchy
Each folder which contains TV shows only contains movies from shows and not episodes of a series. Each folder which contains TV shows also contains a file called tvshow.nfo. See later, but this should include <tvshow>, <title>, <genre>, and <studio>. The tvshow.nfo file contains a <tvshow> parameter - Ensures that the Category, on the Mezzmo database, is generated as TV Show, and is used in the filter. The tvshow.nfo file contains a <studio> parameter - Provides the main key to the list of series as presented to the user if using my recommended Keyword Hierarchy. The <studio> should be the prime key to the program for display to the user. It will normally be equal to the folder name in which it resides, but if that folder simply contains a season's episodes, then it will be equal to the parent folder.
The first thing to do is to ensure that every movie has an entry in the Category field. Checking this field will normally be the first action in the playlist filter. The field's population is described in the sections below.
In order for any Active Playlist to work, each movie's Mezzmo database record must contain non-blank values in each of the fields quoted in the Keyword Hierarchy. Many of these can easily be generated by including them in nfo files. Unfortunately, the Keyword field cannot be populated in this way, and requires visiting each database record individually to populate it.
See the existing documentation- below - for these, but note that these require the 'Get text data from the file path' option to be ticked in Metadata Retieval Settings Supported file name styles
Control of metadata in Home Movie folders can be controlled at the movie.nfo level or by use of a tvshow.nfo file. These are mutually exclusive - data from movie.nfo files cannot replace or supplement data from the tvshow.nfo file.
The Category of all movies in a folder can be set to “Home movie” by creating a tvshow.nfo file in the folder, and setting its major parameter to <homemovie>. This also succeeds in populating some (all?) other fields from the tvshow.nfo file. Note that presence of the tvshow.nfo file causes Mezzmo to ignore any individual movie nfo files.
Individual movie nfo files can also be used to populate the movie's Category with “Home movie”. This is achieved by having a movie nfo file containing the major parameter <homemovie> and ensuring that the radio button “Get text data and artwork from XBMC (.nfo and .tbn) files) is set. This also succeeds in populating some (all?) other fields from the nfo file.
E.g. The following contents of a movie.nfo file or the tvshow.nfo file populates fields in the relevant movies as indicated:
<homemovie> sets Category to Home movie <genre>GEN</genre> sets Genre to GEN <actor>ACT</actor> sets Actor to ACT <studio>STUD</studio> sets Production Company to STUD </homemovie>
Movie filenames in the format YYYYMMDDHHMMSS, optionally followed by a text string, assign a Category of Home movie if the year begins with '20'. Movies prior to 2000 don't.
No other filename format - which also includes a text string - receives a Category of Home movie.
Movie filenames in the format YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS - without a text string - assign a Category of Home movie if the year begins with '20'. Movie filenames in the format YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS - with a text string don't assign a Category. Some files in the format 'nnn nnnn' lose the digits after the space.
Create an nfo file for the movie (giving it exactly the same name as the movie except for the file type). Enter the Subcategory in the Genre field in the nfo file. It must also have a <movie> parameter.
e.g. <movie> <genre>Away Days</genre> </movie>
Make Genre part of the Keyword Hierarchy.
You need an nfo file for each movie, containing the <movie>, <genre> and <actor> parameters as follows:
The presence of the <movie> parameter causes Mezzmo to allocate a Category of “Movie”.
The Actor field is used to hold the Subcategory. So add an Actor called “By Genre” into each movie's nfo file. Movies are segregated by Genre within the Subcategory.
<movie> <genre>Thriller</genre> <actor>By Genre</actor> </movie>
It is highly recommended that every folder which contains episodes of a TV series should contain a record with the name of tvshow.nfo
It is also recommended that the filename of every file which contains an episode of a TV series should include the Series and Episode in the format SnnEnn. The number of digits - nn - doesn't matter, but there should not be a space in the middle of the string - such as S01 E01. Season and Episode are sometimes generated within the movie's nfo file, and take precedence over those from the filename. These are only valid if purely numeric (e.g. Not “Season 1”).
Nothe that, if Show/Season is specified in the Keyword Hierarchy, then it is displayed to the user as “Season nn”.
E.g. Blackadder S1E1.mp4
There are two possible ways of storing your TV Series movies, as in the following examples:
Blackadder
tvshow.nfo
Series 1
s1e1.mp4
s1e2.mp4
etc.
Series 2
s2e1.mp4
s2e2.mp4
etc.
OR
Blackadder
tvshow.nfo
s1e1.mp4
s1e2.mp4
s2e1.mp4
s2e2.mp4
etc.
Each of these is equally valid, but each folder must contain a tvshow.nfo file.
The population of TV Show in the Category, during import or Maintain Playlist, if:
The video gets a Category of TV Show if irrespective of the movie's file name, it has an associated nfo file containing an internal overriding parameter of <episodedetails>.
e.g. must have header and trailer like this <episodedetails>
<title>Episode 2</title>
<showtitle>The All New Alexei Sayle Show</showtitle>
<actor>
<name>Angus Deighton</name>
<role></role>
</actor>
<season>2</season>
<episode>3</episode>
</episodedetails>
The movie also gets a Category of TV Show if it has no associated nfo file but its filename contains a Season and Episode in the format SxxExx, and its folder contains a tvshow.nfo file.
The movie does NOT get a Category of TV Show if it has no associated nfo file containing the overriding <episodedetails> parameter, and there is no tvshow.nfo file in the folder.
So each TV Series folder must contain a tvshow.nfo or each movie must have its own nfo file. In Maintain Playlists my Keyword Hierarchy consists of Actor, Series, Season. Individual movies are distinguished by their Episode. So, with my Keyword Hierarchy, Actor, Series, Season and Episode must all be non-blank on every movie on the database. Otherwise, the movie won't appear in the playlist.
The <episodedetails>. This should be the overriding parameter within this file.
<title>. The file may contain a <title>. This is moved into Title and Sort Title on the database, and may then appear in the Display Title. In the absence of an nfo record the movie filename goes into Title and Sort Title
<season> and <episode> in the nfo file are very important. These fields may also appear in the movie's filename. If present in the nfo file, these populate the Season and Episode in the database and so take precedence for use in the Keyword Hierarchy of the playlist. Otherwise those from the filename are used to populate the Season and Episode in the database, and therefore the Keyword Hierarchy.
<season> and <episode> must contain digits only. Presence of alpha characters will make them invalid for use in the Keyword Hierarchy. So the movie won't appear.
Actors from the nfo file go into Actor on the database and are of equal standing to those off the tvshow record. See more under tvshow.nfo.
Example of a minimum nfo file.
<episodedetails> </episodedetails>
It is recommended to have a file called tvshow.nfo in every folder which contains episodes of a TV series. This record is important to cause the Category of each movie on the database to be set to TV Show and to supply the Series Title etc.
<tvshow>. It is important to have an overriding parameter of <tvshow> to cause the Category of each movie on the database to be set to TV Show.
<title> The field in this parameter populates the Series on the database, and subsequently may appear in Album/Series in the Keyword Hierarchy. I encountered a bug when I mistakenly had <title> and <studio> both specified in tvshow.nfo. This resulted in duplcate files appearing in playlists, even though the Title wasn't mentioned in the filter or the Keyword Hierarchy.
<genre> should be specified on this record if it is part of your Keyword Hierarchy.
<year> etc. Any other components which you may have specified in your Keyword Hierarchy, and which refer to the Show or Series - rather than an Episode - should be specified in the tvshow file. e.g. <year>
<actor>. The contents of any Actor(s) or Name(s) parameter goes into the Actor field on every movie. From there it is treated as Artists/Actors and Album Artist in the keyword Hierarchy, which subsequently controls where it appears in the Mezzmo user interface for the playlist. Actors and Names may also be specified in movies' nfo files. These are treated identically to those in the tvshow file. I specify Actors in the tvshow file in capitals preceded by a . (period). This makes them appear at the start of the playlist and appear emphasised. Actors who make guest appearances in individual episodes can be entered in normal font in the episode's nfo file, without the period, and appear lower in the list.
Example:
<tvshow>
<title>Blackadder</title>
<genre>Comedy</genre>
<studio>{TV Show Name such as "Blackadder"}</studio> Goes into Production Company on database, and then Production Company in Keyword Hierarchy
<actor>
<name>.BLACKADDER</name>
</actor>
</tvshow>