Why does Boxee find info for some movies and not others?

**agentlame** · October 25th, 2008, 09:58 AM

Originally Posted by manonfire

Does Boxee consider the folder the file is found in when deciding what it is called?

Sometimes, my files may have a rather esoteric name, but they are foldered correctly. Whereas my TV is usually well named.

well, you're in a uniquely ironic situation...

boxee considers the folder structure, when identifying tv shows, but not movies.

**manonfire** · October 25th, 2008, 10:04 AM

Bugger.

I'll have to have a gander and see how bad it is, currently I browse the folder structure off my NAS through a PS3 -> HDTV.

Been playing with Boxee on my Mac, and certainly loving it. I'll see how it gets on, I can tell that its pulling info from my NAS, so once its built up I'll see how bad it is.

Now just to find ATV cheap!

Sidenote: Here is a real example of Movies, on my NAS:

./Movies/007 - James Bond Collection/Live And Let Die - 1973 :
incite-lald.ue.xvid.cd1.avi
incite-lald.ue.xvid.cd2.avi

./Movies/Bourne Trilogy/Identity:
bid-cd1-dcn.avi
bid-cd2-dcn.avi

**chezzo** · January 5th, 2009, 05:26 AM

Originally Posted by agentlame

boxee considers the folder structure, when identifying tv shows, but not movies.

really? it doesn't seem to work very well!
i've just started using boxee, and have found that a large amount of my tv shows are given the wrong titles, even though they are foldered correctly

for example, i'd expect boxee to recognise that the file "Videos/Futurama/Season 4/12 The Sting.avi" is episode 12 of season 4 of futurama, entitled "The Sting"... instead it's recognised as this film

is it possible to change my foldering system slightly so boxee recognises my tv shows, or will i have to rename all the files to something like "Futurama.412.The Sting.avi"?

**pax85** · January 5th, 2009, 12:45 PM

Originally Posted by chezzo

really? it doesn't seem to work very well!
i've just started using boxee, and have found that a large amount of my tv shows are given the wrong titles, even though they are foldered correctly

for example, i'd expect boxee to recognise that the file "Videos/Futurama/Season 4/12 The Sting.avi" is episode 12 of season 4 of futurama, entitled "The Sting"... instead it's recognised as this film

is it possible to change my foldering system slightly so boxee recognises my tv shows, or will i have to rename all the files to something like "Futurama.412.The Sting.avi"?

You should rename TV Shows to: Futurama.S04E12.EXT and so on. The Episode Title is not necessary, because Boxee will retrieve it from www.thetvdb.com anyway. The folder structure is fine.

TV-Shows generally work perfectly for me. Boxee recognized all 17 shows that I watch.
But I'm generally rather puzzled by the movie recognition.
I usually use Movie.Name.Year.EXT. But there are a few that are always left out by Boxee. Rambo III or Hero Wanted for example

.

**chezzo** · January 6th, 2009, 02:43 AM

Originally Posted by pax85

You should rename TV Shows to: Futurama.S04E12.EXT and so on. The Episode Title is not necessary, because Boxee will retrieve it from www.thetvdb.com anyway. The folder structure is fine.

yes, but what i was actually asking was: is there any way i can keep my filenames in a format still understandable by a human being, while still having boxee recognise them? since agentlame said "boxee considers the folder structure, when identifying tv shows", i assumed this meant i'd be able to get it to recognise my tv shows by file structure alone, leaving the filenames unchanged

the thing is, i'm only a casual user of boxee and, due to the general buggy crashiness of the alpha release, i don't think i'll be using it to play all my videos and music any time soon. therefore i'd quite like to keep my filenames in a format that i can easily understand when i want to open them in other players.

also, on a side-note, this whole futurama thing also raises another question - futurama has 2 different ways of numbering its episodes and seasons - in the production order and in the broadcast order. i prefer to number them in the production order since this is the order the creators wanted. however, thetvdb.com has them all listed in the other order, although production order is still listed as "DVD season" and "DVD episode number". if i want to get boxee to work properly, is it going to force me to change all the numbers to how thetvdb.com wants them?

**agentlame** · January 6th, 2009, 03:12 AM

Originally Posted by chezzo

yes, but what i was actually asking was: is there any way i can keep my filenames in a format still understandable by a human being, while still having boxee recognise them? since agentlame said "boxee considers the folder structure, when identifying tv shows", i assumed this meant i'd be able to get it to recognise my tv shows by file structure alone, leaving the filenames unchanged

i should have been more clear... boxee places it's importance on filename. the filenames must follow this convention: http://forum.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=1147
what i meant was that boxee doesn't consider folder-naming at all, when identifying movies.

also, on a side-note, this whole futurama thing also raises another question - futurama has 2 different ways of numbering its episodes and seasons - in the production order and in the broadcast order. i prefer to number them in the production order since this is the order the creators wanted. however, thetvdb.com has them all listed in the other order, although production order is still listed as "DVD season" and "DVD episode number". if i want to get boxee to work properly, is it going to force me to change all the numbers to how thetvdb.com wants them?

the short-and-simple is: yes... right now, it's thetvdb or nothing. sorry to be so flat.

i hope that--as it progresses--boxee will find a more prominent place in your media life; if it does, it's best to just rename your files.

**chezzo** · January 6th, 2009, 07:56 AM

ok thanks for the help anyway

just one last question... is it possible to keep the episode name in the filename? i saw reference somewhere to being able to put "info" between the episode number and the extension, e.g. Futurama.S04E12.The_Sting.avi

**pax85** · January 6th, 2009, 08:10 AM

Originally Posted by chezzo

ok thanks for the help anyway

just one last question... is it possible to keep the episode name in the filename? i saw reference somewhere to being able to put "info" between the episode number and the extension, e.g. Futurama.S04E12.The_Sting.avi

Should be no problem, as long as Futurama.S04E12 is the 'prefix'.

**timofcourse** · October 16th, 2009, 05:41 PM

Bump on a slightly old thread, but how does Boxee handle movie titles that have invalid filename characters? For example, one of the movies Boxee doesnt recognize is the last Alien vs. Predator movie. IMDB has it as "AVPR: Aliens vs Predator - Requiem". Obviously, I cant put a colon in the filename.

Does boxee ignore these characters or is there a way to get around this issue?

Thanks!

**thlindblad** · March 13th, 2011, 05:42 AM

Although most movies are identified, there are a few which are NOT. If you need some examples, here are some: A Different Loyalty, From the Earth to the Moon, Riddle of the Sands.

I thought that putting an jpg-file with a 147x200 pixels cover image in the same folder as the movie, then Boxee would find this if finding nothing else OR there should be a way to choose this file. No????