So I keep muddeling through this process and I've noticed a few strange things with how Kodi manages its library. Or maybe I'm just missing something.
Here is my setup. Music files are located in either a "Stereo" root directory or a "MCH" root directory. Music Videos are in their own root directory. Within every root there is a Artist/Album/track file structure. All music files are tagged. All music videos have corresponding NFO files created with Homers amazing MMH tool.
In all cases except for music tags, I omit the word "The" from artists names. So "The Beatles" is represented as "Beatles" in the artist file structure. Music tags use the name "The Beatles". For the NFO files I use "Beatles".
All artist information is stored in the "Stereo" root directory artist folders. Most of it was arranged by MediaElch, another great program. It includes artist NFOs, fanart, thumbnail, logo, etc. When Kodi scans the files it also adds additional stuff (information folders) that I don't think it actually uses. There is nothing but audio tracks in the MCH artist/album folders. There is nothing but MKV tracks and NFO files in the Music Video artist/album folders. Kodi is directed to take artist info and artwork from the stereo root for both the MCH artists and the Music Video artists.
It all works great Until....
1. You have an artist for which you have MCH albums but no stereo albums.
Or
2. You have Music Videos for a band whose formal name includes the word "The" like "The Beatles".
In the case of #1, I have tried to create a stereo side artist folder with the standard info in it. MediaElch will scrape info for it and provide the normal info, but Kodi never sees it. Kodi wont scrape for that artist either. I assume this is because there are no stereo stereo tracks with tags for it to read. I have to resort to configuring the artwork manually by directing Kodi to the proper stereo side artist info.
For #2, since the Music Video NFOs use the full name for the artist ie: "The Beatles", it cant find any info in the stereo side since that artist folder is called "Beatles". And in this case, Kodi looks at folder names, not tags, which is different than what it does in case #1. I could rename the stereo artist folder as "The Beatles" which would work, but when Kodi sorts video artists, "The Beatles" will show up in the T's alphabetically, next to "The Who", "The Rolling Stones", "The Doors", "The Flaming Lips", etc. This is because there is no music video sorting option to that allows for the disregard of common articles like "The". This option is available for sorting music albums however. Again I have resorted to manually configuring the artwork for artists that begin with "The". It also works out if I use "Beatles" instead of "The Beatles" as the artist name in the video NFO files. The result is the same but the 2nd option seems easier.
Am I missing anything? It all works and all the artists show up in the library they way I want, But the process leaves something to be desired. They need to add an option for videos to exclude common articles like "The" when sorting music videos.
Still, having all this video on demand is very cool.
Here is my setup. Music files are located in either a "Stereo" root directory or a "MCH" root directory. Music Videos are in their own root directory. Within every root there is a Artist/Album/track file structure. All music files are tagged. All music videos have corresponding NFO files created with Homers amazing MMH tool.
In all cases except for music tags, I omit the word "The" from artists names. So "The Beatles" is represented as "Beatles" in the artist file structure. Music tags use the name "The Beatles". For the NFO files I use "Beatles".
All artist information is stored in the "Stereo" root directory artist folders. Most of it was arranged by MediaElch, another great program. It includes artist NFOs, fanart, thumbnail, logo, etc. When Kodi scans the files it also adds additional stuff (information folders) that I don't think it actually uses. There is nothing but audio tracks in the MCH artist/album folders. There is nothing but MKV tracks and NFO files in the Music Video artist/album folders. Kodi is directed to take artist info and artwork from the stereo root for both the MCH artists and the Music Video artists.
It all works great Until....
1. You have an artist for which you have MCH albums but no stereo albums.
Or
2. You have Music Videos for a band whose formal name includes the word "The" like "The Beatles".
In the case of #1, I have tried to create a stereo side artist folder with the standard info in it. MediaElch will scrape info for it and provide the normal info, but Kodi never sees it. Kodi wont scrape for that artist either. I assume this is because there are no stereo stereo tracks with tags for it to read. I have to resort to configuring the artwork manually by directing Kodi to the proper stereo side artist info.
For #2, since the Music Video NFOs use the full name for the artist ie: "The Beatles", it cant find any info in the stereo side since that artist folder is called "Beatles". And in this case, Kodi looks at folder names, not tags, which is different than what it does in case #1. I could rename the stereo artist folder as "The Beatles" which would work, but when Kodi sorts video artists, "The Beatles" will show up in the T's alphabetically, next to "The Who", "The Rolling Stones", "The Doors", "The Flaming Lips", etc. This is because there is no music video sorting option to that allows for the disregard of common articles like "The". This option is available for sorting music albums however. Again I have resorted to manually configuring the artwork for artists that begin with "The". It also works out if I use "Beatles" instead of "The Beatles" as the artist name in the video NFO files. The result is the same but the 2nd option seems easier.
Am I missing anything? It all works and all the artists show up in the library they way I want, But the process leaves something to be desired. They need to add an option for videos to exclude common articles like "The" when sorting music videos.
Still, having all this video on demand is very cool.
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