NFO file fails to resolve file with mysterious error

[specific]

I'm ripping a bunch of the kid's movies to the Boxee, and I'm having some trouble with one of the Pokemon movies. The title in question is Pokemon - Jirachi Wish Maker, which is in IMDB, but I can't find it via search when the automatic naming failed. So, I went off and made an NFO file via the neat online tool, named it the same, dropped it in my movie folder, and went to identify it. I select the file, select Identify, select NFO, but then I get the error "Manual Resolve: There were no details available for this title." So..what the heck does that mean, and how can I make it work?

The file name(s) are: "Pokemon - Jirachi - Wish Maker (2004).mkv" and .nfo. I've tried several variations of hyphens to see if that makes any difference, and it doesn't.

The NFO file contains:

<movie>
    <title>Pokemon: Jirachi - Wish Maker</title>
    <rating>50</rating>
    <year>2004</year>
    <outline>Ash, Pikachu and friends (minus Misty) were visiting a festival celebrating the appearance of a comet when they stumble upon a mysterious rock-like crystal...</outline>
    <runtime>81 min</runtime>
    <thumb>http://cf1.imgobject.com/posters/c7c/4bc98391017a3c57fe03cc7c/pokemon-jirachi-wish-maker-cover.jpg</thumb>
    <mpaa>U</mpaa>
    <id>tt0420076</id>
    <trailer></trailer>
    <genre>Family,Foreign</genre>
</movie>

[M1ster_Happy]

Try blanking your id. Even though it exists on IMDB it must not exist in the boxee database, especially if you couldn't find it when the naming failed. By leaving the id in the NFO it will still try to use the IMDB information in some form:

<id></id> - If you set an IMDB ID (for example tt0499549) then it will get the details from the IMDB page, if you remove the tag or leave it blank (<id></id>) it will use only the details in the NFO itself.

(from here)

Hope that helps.

... what was the 'mysterious rock-like crystal'?

[specific]

Aha! That fixed it! Many thanks

And I have no idea what the crystal is I look forward to finding out tomorrow when the boys watch the movie!

[applebyter]

I'm having the same problem, but the NFO file doesn't have an <id> tag. None of the NFO files for this series have an <id> tag as all data is in the NFO files. This one file consistently is not identified and I get the same error message when I try to resolve from the unidentified files list. I've tried wiping the database and rescanning and I still get the error for this file (and 3 others from other shows). I've attached the NFO file in question.

Richard

[mbryanr]

try this to validate your nfo files <thanks twistybox>

http://www.validome.org/xml/validate/

Guidelines
http://forums.boxee.tv/showpost.php?...48&postcount=3

[applebyter]

I've checked that the file is syntactically correct using:
http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_validator.asp
It returned that there were no syntax errors.

I couldn't find a way to get validome.org/xml/validate to do just a syntax check it seemed to require a schema or DTD for the XML file.

The file was created by copying an existing NFO file that Boxee Box does recognise and editing in the details by hand for the show. I can't see any errors.

Any other ideas?

[Ronald]

I've checked that the file is syntactically correct using:
http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_validator.asp
It returned that there were no syntax errors.

I couldn't find a way to get validome.org/xml/validate to do just a syntax check it seemed to require a schema or DTD for the XML file.

The file was created by copying an existing NFO file that Boxee Box does recognise and editing in the details by hand for the show. I can't see any errors.

Any other ideas?

The problem might not be in the content of the file, but simply in its name.

That filename contains no hint at what TV show it belongs to, and the season number uses only a single digit, which I think is nonstandard. And remember that even though the NFO itself specifies both season and episode numbers, the filename still has to follow the standard format.

Personally I always use the TV show name as a prefix substring for each episode filename, and always use two-digit season and episode numbers in the string form sXXeYY (so for your case "s00e03").

Another possibility, considering the short runtime, is that the video file is simply too small to get detected as a valid file for the library. I think the default setting for that is 50 MB, but you can modify this in one of the submenus at Settings/Media/Advanced.

Best regards: Ronald

[applebyter]

I think I've found a solution. The episode NFO files did not have an <id> tag but the tvshow.nfo file did. I've removed the <id> tag from the tvshow.nfo file and on my latest rescan the four files that were not having their episode NFO files recognised have now scanned correctly.

The file size was ok, as I have modified the default setting on file size to be 10MB to suit some of my short files from DVD extras. As I access these files from multiple devices and services I don't want to conform to Boxee's verbose naming convention, which is why I'm using the NFO files. From the documentation I can find the NFO files are supposed to be used as the sole source of information if there is no <id> tag in the files and the tvshow.nfo file is supposed to be used as the "marker" to indicate that all files in a directory and any sub-directories belong to that show.

[Ronald]

I think I've found a solution. The episode NFO files did not have an <id> tag but the tvshow.nfo file did. I've removed the <id> tag from the tvshow.nfo file and on my latest rescan the four files that were not having their episode NFO files recognised have now scanned correctly.

Yes, that makes sense. I did have a similar problem with a series for which the database has incorrect data, in the form of an incomplete episode list. Apparently this caused some episodes to be rejected as invalid when the ID tag allowed that database to be consulted.

The file size was ok, as I have modified the default setting on file size to be 10MB to suit some of my short files from DVD extras.

So I was 'preaching to the choir' there then, as you had already fixed what I was telling you about.

As I access these files from multiple devices and services I don't want to conform to Boxee's verbose naming convention,

I didn't want to do it either, initially, but with a huge media collection it was the most practical solution. Making NFOs for everything to be added to the Boxee library simply isn't practical. I'd still be sitting editing initial NFO files months into the future...

But using smart renaming tools I now have most of my video collection working in Boxee right now, which I couldn't have achieved with NFOs in the same amount of time.

And since I had to use the verbose name scheme for the shows and movies not having NFOs, I've decided to use the same notation for the few shows and movies that do use NFOs as well, just for consistency.

which is why I'm using the NFO files. From the documentation I can find the NFO files are supposed to be used as the sole source of information if there is no <id> tag in the files and the tvshow.nfo file is supposed to be used as the "marker" to indicate that all files in a directory and any sub-directories belong to that show.

That does make sense, but if it was consistently implemented then problems like you and I both have seen would never have occurred.

Even when an ID tag is present, this should never be used as an excuse to reject video files, NFO files, nor even a single NFO tag as provided by the user. The stuff found by a database search should only be allowed to complement missing fields in the user-provided data, but never replace and override them. And it should certainly never cause episodes to be ignored, and yet that is exactly what does happen for some cases.

Best regards: Ronald

[applebyter]

I've encountered this error again, and my previous system for dealing with it isn't working. I have ripped some Looney Tunes episodes from DVD and am trying to get my Boxee Box to recognise them.

I previously have had problems with Boxee recognising these files but eventually got them all recognised. Previously I would get two entries under TV Shows for Looney Tunes. Most of the DVD extras and one episode would appear in one entry and the rest of the episodes in the other entry. I think this may have been linked to having the TVDB id in the tvshow.nfo file. I renamed the <id> tag to <tvdbid> and then manually identified each episode and they then were happily recognised as one entry for Looney Tunes.

I have recently cleared the Boxee database and rescanned and identified all of my local media files. Now, all but one of the Looney Tunes DVD extras and one episode appear under the Looney Tunes entry in TV Shows. The one DVD extra that doesn't appear shows up under Moves, but with the correct details. The remainder of the episodes are all listed as unidentified files. When I try to manually identify them I get the error message "There were no details available for this title." When I'm trying to identify the files Boxee appears to find the NFO file and asks if I want to use this to identify the file. That is when I get the error message. If I try to use the search facility for the episode it says it can't find it, regardless of what I enter in the search field. Even giving a name that matches the Boxee naming convention for the episode.

Files are named as "YearxEpisodeNumber - Episode Name.mkv". This corresponds to how TVDB seems to list the episodes. I have NFO and TBN files for every episode and DVD extra file. I have a tvshow.nfo file in the subdirectory for Looney Tunes files. The episodes and extras are in sub-directories corresponding to main character for the episode. In the episode NFO files I've used my own season and episode numbering scheme to cluster episodes by character, rather than by year. (This has worked for other shows.) I've attached:

• the tvshow.nfo file,
• an example of one NFO file for a DVD extra that is recognised as I expected (0x01 - A Greeting from Chuck Jones.nfo),
• the NFO file for the one episode that shows up in Movies (there is a IMDB entry for it but I do not list it in an <id> tag) (0x06 - Irreverent Imagination.nfo),
• an example of one NFO file for an episode that is not recognised and which generates the "no details available" error message (1959x18 - A Broken Leghorn.nfo),
• and the NFO file for the one episode that is recognised as I expected (4x01 - Foghorn Leghorn with Henry Hawk).

(All NFO files are uploaded as TXT files to deal with this BB's limitations for attachments. They are named correctly as NFO files in my file system.)

In writing this I've just remembered that the one episode that is recognised is the one that does not appear in the TVDB. That is why it doesn't have a year in its file name. I'll play around with this some more and try renaming some of the other episodes and see what happens. I any case, if anyone has some ideas as to why these files are not being recognised I'd love some help.

Thanks.