Correct folder layout for TV Series

[iceman89610]

Hi Guys,

I have been using Thumbgen for my movies and that works for fine for what I want but now I want to move onto TV Series and for theis, I don't understand Thumbgen at all so i decided to have a look at Y2M and so what that could do.

Could some please explain to me how this copes with TV Series and how the folder structure need to be setup for this to work (assuming that Y2M can handle tv series).

What I would like to see on my Med500x2 is the following layout:

Enter TV Series on movie wall -> Enter Required Series Folder -> Enter Required Season -> Choose Episode

Is this possible with Y2M??

Thanks in advance.

Steven

[Unreal]

The recent 2.0.6 firmware update had a number of improvements for TV Series, so you may want to read up on that.  YAMJ has great support for TV Series, but it is via (X)HTML and Mede8er does not support that.  Mede8er uses a folder structure with an about.jpg and folder.jpg (plus improvements mentioned in 2.0.6 firmware).  I haven't looked very deeply into the 2.0.6 enhancements for series yet, but I suspect I will just stick to what I'm doing now...put each episode in it's own folder with an NFO file.

For example:

Series Name (in this directory include a folder.jpg for the whole series)
--Season 1 (in this directory include a folder.jpg for the first season)
----s1e01
------Episode_Name.mkv
------Episode_Name.nfo
----s1e02
------Episode_Name.mkv
------Episode_Name.nfo
...
--Season 2 (in this directory include a folder.jpg for the second season)
----s2e01
------Episode_Name.mkv
------Episode_Name.nfo
----s2e02
------Episode_Name.mkv
------Episode_Name.nfo
...

To keep Y2M/YAMJ acting on the files as movies (rather than switching to the TV series mode which is not compatible with the Mede8er), include the <movie> tag in each NFO file.  At minimum...

<movie>
   <id>IMDB_ID</id>
</movie>

...where IMDB_ID is the id number (including the tt) in IMDB for that particular episode.

For a specific example, Battlestar Galactica, Season 3, Episode 1.  The folder structure would be like this...

Battlestar Galactica
--Season 3
----s3e01
------Occupation (2006).mkv
------Occupation (2006).nfo

The "Occupation (2006).nfo" file would contain at least the following...

<movie>
   <id>tt0793695</id>
   <thumb>http://www.thetvdb.com/banners/seasons/73545-3-8.jpg</thumb>
</movie>

After running Y2M/YAMJ, if you find some episodes are missing information, then just fill in the missing fields in the NFO for that particular episode and re-run Y2M/YAMJ.  You can use something like YANFOE to update the NFOs if you like, but I prefer to just manually edit the NFO files (I find that easier and faster, but your experience may vary).  It is a bit of work to setup, but once its done the results are great and you only need to do it once (for each series).  To make it look even nicer (imho), I use the skin described here...

http://www.mede8erforum.com/index.php/topic,8279.0.html

If you need help with NFO tags, use this...

http://code.google.com/p/moviejukebox/wiki/NFO_Files#XBMC_NFO_movie_XML

Hope that helps.