TV Series

Intro

The TV Series selection is the first selection on the main menu.

Selecting this will allow the user to browse through a database of television series that either the user has downloaded, or recorded, or backed up by some other means. This uses the xTVDB plugin.

Installation/Setup

In order to utilize the TV Series selection, the xTVDB plugin must reside in the xlobby/plugins directory. To get the plugin working correctly for everything to be displayed in the skin takes some setting up. For starter the user has to pay attention to how the files are formatted and placed in a properly labeled directory. Below is an image that shows a directory/file structure that has worked successfully.

The plugin includes an ini file called xTvDB.ini in the plugins/xTVDB directory. This ini file defines how the plugin will query the online TV Database, and create an xlobby database based on results associated to the file types defined in the ini file. The ini file is broken down into sections and the main ones are defined below.

[alias] - defines the users TV shows to search

[folders] - indicates as to where to search for the episodes. A "1=" indicates shows online, a "0=" indicates an offline (DVD/Bluray) location

[folders]

1=c:\Series\

[general] - indicates additional information for the plugin to retrieve, and to look for what type of file extensions to associate to. Video file extensions are defined by the "exts=" line, picture files (coverart/fanart) is defined by the "imgexts=" line. By default "mediainfo=false" is set and may not be working correctly, do not change. The "output=" line defines the location for the resultant database. Stills (download still images) is set to true, and the user can experiment with the "updates=" setting...currently it is set to 10. See below for the examples.

The next two .ini entries are meta-masks in defining the file naming/locations. I don't totally understand how to "read" meta-masks, but if you follow the directory structure outlined above, the you will match one of them. The [regex] defines online content, and [regexoffline] is for offline content.

The next three entries define what information will be included in the database. I'm not going to define each line, but the resultant database will be in three levels. The top level is the series. The second level is the season. Finally the third level is the episode. No changes were made so this is how the ini file is currently.

So now if the ini file has been modified in accordance to your setup, save and exit it.

Now open the XTvDbConfig.exe tool. It will open to the following window.

This first screen is not really used except to click on the "Search" button. If anything, it just test if the user has an internet connection. Other than that, the user should just click on the "control" tab, and the screen will change to this.

Now click on the "Update" button, and if all works out, then the window below the "Update" button should show the following:

Now close the config file and start Xlobby.

Operation

Once xStreamed's main menu shows, select the TV Series selection (default start selection).

The user will be presented with the TV Series screen where a graphic list of TV series will be listed. Also there will be a synopsis on the TV series. The backdrop fanart will change in accordance to the selected TV Series.

Main TV Series screen

Once the TV series is selected, the user will then be presented with the screen asking to select the season. By default it is the "List" view that is displayed and scrolling up/down will select the different seasons available. Navigating right will select the "Menu" side button which will open an overlay to allow the user to:

A) Select a different view (Large Icons, Small Icons, Coverflow)

B) Navigate directly to different screens (Main menu or Settings)

C) Additional options that affect the TV Series selection such as delete a season or refresh the database

TV Season selection screen (List View)

TV Season selection screen (Large Icon View)

After the season is selected, the user then selects the individual season to watch. Again by default, the database is shown as "List" view, but the user has the option for selecting any of the other views by navigating right - to the Menu selection screen. Again this will open an overlay, where the user can select a new view, or jump to a different screen, or to refresh the TV Series database.

TV Episode selection screen (List View)

If the file types has been setup correctly, by selecting the episode, should open the appropriate player for playback.