WHAT NOW?: A post install guide.

[accident]

** RECENT CHANGES:
5/03/2010:
- replaced EMM as the recommended FREE editor if you need help with nfo files. The required donation to save using yanfoe doesn't sit well with me.

4/17/2010:
- updated section 1 for changes that happened around R1600 for
- updated the skin section for the new mjb.forceIndexOverwrite option.

This guide assumes your up to date on YAMJ. You can use my YAMJ BROKE: WHEN TO UPGRADE GUIDE to help take the mystery out of when you should update.

IF YOU NEED HELP INSTALLING YAMJ, TRY YAMJ START HERE GUIDE

So you took the plunge, installed YAMJ and now your wondering what next?

TOPICS IN THIS GUIDE:

1: How to change yamj settings and speed up yamj a little.
2: How to change skins.
3: How to upgrade YAMJ.
4: How to fix movies and tv shows that were detected wrong. (and how to get source to not say unknown).
5: How to combine movies into a "BOX SET" with only 1 poster in the list of movies.
5a: Using multiple NFO files for misdetected and boxed sets
6: How to change artwork (movies posters, backgrounds, set images) that you don't like or are missing.
7: How to get the HD list to show 720 and 1080 movies seperately.
8: Extras: Trailers (including auto-downloading), dvd extras, etc.
9: How to modify the list of categories and genres.
9a: changing genre and categories to make upgrading easier
10: How often do I need to run YAMJ? (day to day usage)
11: I really wish YAMJ did ____. How to get new features added

Let's get started.

1: How to change yamj settings and speed up yamj a little.

A recent change to YAMJ is to help make upgrading yamj really fast and easy. On a simple default install you probably ran the gui and made a jukebox. Many parts of this guide will be about changing settings to YAMJ, so lets go over changing a couple settings. One great place to start is speeding up YAMJ.

- How to change a setting?

The first thing you want to do it get your properties file ready to add settings into it. In your YAMJ folder (the one with the program), you'll see a properties folder. Take the moviejukebox.properties file and move it into the base folder (the folder with categories.xml in it). This is going to be the file you add your settings into. Those settings can be found in the moviejukebox-default.properties file. Resist just changing the settings there it will make upgrading a pain.

- Speeding up YAMJ, your first properties change.

4/19/2010: THIS SECTION OF THE GUIDE IS WRITTEN FOR CHANGES NEAR r1624 OF YAMJ. For the speedup to work, you need to be on r1624 or newer.. You can find those versions at: yamj latest section of mediaplayersite.com

A recent modification to YAMJ is an option called threading. What threading does is allow yamj to do multiple things at the same time. by default to make sure everyone can run it successfully, yamj only does 1 thing at a time.

The first thing we need to do is copy the settings to our properties file. Open up moviejukebox-default.properties and find the below section:

Code:

################################################################
## Multi-thread processing parameters
# Only change these values if you know what you are doing.

# This parameter defines the number of processing threads, it defaults to the number of CPU cores
# Set a smaller value to reduce the CPU load
#mjb.MaxThreadsProcess=1

# The global limit of web downloading slots.
# Downloading slots do not take CPU power (most of the time :) ), so a higher value here is usual
# per host limits are also used (see MaxDownloadSlots)
# 0 means the same as MaxThreadsProcess (above)
mjb.MaxThreadsDownload=10

Just copy that and past it into your moviejukebox.properties file that you moved in the last step. You'll notice there is a third option in that section we didn't touch. unless you know what your doing I strongly recommend you never touch that third download slots line.

- What settings should I use?

There is no default perfect setting and its hard to guess exactly what will work best for your computer but here is my recommendation that has worked great for me:

If you have a low end cpu (like the atom processor models of WHS), or only 512M of memory I recommend you change mjb.MaxThreadsProcess to 1 or 2. it will run slower but it will allow your whs to run more effiecent

If you have a single core cpu, I recommend 2 maxthreadsprocess.

for every 512M of memory you have, I recommend 1 maxthreadsprocess

NOTE: the default is not 1, its actually the number of cpu cores in your machine.

Assuming you have 2Gigs of memory, this is what your settings in moviejukebox.properties should look like:

Code:

mjb.MaxThreadsProcess=4
mjb.MaxThreadsDownload=10

NOTE: you'll notice # is missing in front of MaxThreadsProcess. Your setting will not take effect until you change it.

- Why can't I just raise them really high and run even faster?

Some setups this theory does work but every thread means more memory that YAMJ needs. When you run out of memory windows slows down because it starts to use the hard drive as memory, this can actually result in yamj taking longer. also if you may need to use your computer at the same time, your using up all your memory and processing power for YAMJ making it really hard to do anything else.

- If your running it directly from a Windows home server, you might want even lower settings.

Your WHS server is doing other things in the background, for instance it might be moving files around, virus scanning, defraging, you may be remotely connected to it, or a computer running a backup and its probably where the videos your watching are stored. setting it too high can actually cause video playback to stutter while yamj is running. If your automatically running yamj once or twice a day you may want to lower the settings to make sure the WAF (wife approval factor) of your recent popcorn hour purchase stays as high as possible so when your ready to buy more for other rooms or that next gadget its a little easier to get budget approval.

2: How to change skins.

Every skin has its own install instructions so lets go over the basics that you'll do for any skin. You should always check with the skin install instructions for more detailed information.

- Overview of the skin change process:

• Download and unzip the skin to the skin folder
• Change the skin in your moviejukebox.properties folder
• Delete the jukebox or turn on the overwrite settings
• Run yamj to rebuild the jukebox
• clear the cache on the pch/nmt
• go into YAMJ on the pch.
  

If you want a simple to follow example of changing to the Aeon skin and making a few changes to the aeon settings, check out the WHS+AEON GUIDE. You can skip to the aeon and aeon settings sections about 2/3rds of the way through the guide.

BEFORE YOU START: One of the common problems from the START HERE guide is the websites yamj uses may be down. Depending on how you use and store your media this can be a major issue during a skin change. I personally check that http://www.imdb.com, http://www.thetvdb.com and http://www.moviedb.com are up before I make a major jukebox change. If any are down I wait until they are all up to make the changes. Making a backup of the jukebox folder may take longer than yamj to make a new one but will save you if something goes wrong

- Download and unzip the skin to the skin folder.

This is pretty straight forward but take the skin file you downloaded and unzip it into the skins folder. The skins folder is in the same folder as the rest of YAMJ and you'll see a folder called default and default-sd (plus others).

If your looking for skins, the a100 series forum or mediaplayersite.com are the best places to check.

- change the skin setting in your moviejukebox.properties file.

If you don't have a moviejukebox.properties file in your yamj folder (the one with categories.xml in it) then see step 1 above for how to get ready to make changes to yamj settings.

From the moviejukebox-default.properties file you want to find the below section and copy it into your moviejukebox.properties file (or copy and paste the below).

Code:

# Path to the skin to use when generating the Jukebox
# the default skin is geared toward HD displays
# an additional skin named "sd" is for Standard Definition displays
mjb.skin.dir=./skins/default

You need to modify the above to change the word default to the name of the folder you made for the skin. for example if your folder for the skin is aeon1234 then the setting should be: mjb.skin.dir=./skins/aeon1234

- Delete the jukebox or turn on the overwrite settings

A new skin is going to need to almost completely remake your jukebox. If you want a foolproof way to upgrade a skin, delete the Jukebox folder completely. This folder is where you set the YAMJ output in the guitool when you first installed it. However YAMJ is going to run really slow when it makes the new jukebox.

(ACCIDENT'S TRICK: instead of deleting the Jukebox folder, rename it to something else like OLDJukebox. YAMJ will make a new one and if you don't like the skin or something went wrong, you can quickly get your old jukebox back by deleting the new Jukebox folder and renaming OLDJukebox back to Jukebox. don't forget to clear your nmt cache if you put the old one back. Also they can be rather large so once your happy with the new skin, delete the OLDJukebox folder).

A second option is to delete all the files and folders from the Jukebox folder EXCEPT the .xml files. (in windows, sort the files by type and you can quickly highlight and delete all the other files except the xml files).

The last option and the one I normally do is to delete the .css files and resources folder from the jukebox and then change moviejukebox.properties to add in the below settings:

4/19/2010: mjb.forceIndexOverwrite=true added for recent YAMJ changes.

Code:

mjb.forceIndexOverwrite=true
mjb.forceThumbnailsOverwrite=true
mjb.forcePostersOverwrite=true
mjb.forceHTMLOverwrite=true
mjb.forceFanartOverwrite=true
mjb.forceBannersOverwrite=true
mjb.forceVideoImagesOverwrite=true

The above has almost the same effect as deleting the Jukbox folder except it doesn't need to re-download the original artwork from internet websites. Its not much faster but it does speed it up a little bit. In my case, because of the size of the my jukebox it actually takes me longer to delete the jukebox then run YAMJ with the above settings.

If you choose method #3, after you finish with skin changes make sure you remove these options from moviejukebox.properties or change them to false instead of true. It will dramatically slow down YAMJ for your normal usage if you forget this.

- Change skin settings.

Most skins have options you change. In your skin folder (the one you made earlier) you'll almost always find skin.properties and skinoptions.xsl. These files can be edited with a text editor like notepad or notepad++. You should check with the skin to see if there are other files to make changes.

Some skins (like aeon) also have hacks/modifications made by other users of the aeon skin. ejp keeps a list of these in his thread. most of them are just copying their files over the aeon files but check with their install instructions for exact instructions. If use use these hacks, you may want to wait a day or two to upgrade Aeon as new versions come out. The old mod versions may not work with new Aeon versions right away.

- Run yamj to rebuild the jukebox

At this point, all you need to do is run YAMJ and wait for it to make the new jukebox. If your using a skin with a lot of settings you know you want different right away you should probably make those changes now. If you want to play it safe to make sure you installed the skin correctly, just run yamj and let it put in the default settings for the new skin.

- clear the cache on the pch/nmt

A hidden feature on the NMT/PCH units is a small cache to speed up using it. In the case of YAMJ and skin changes this can make it look like you didn't change settings or installed it wrong. Clearing the cache is a smart thing to do for any change to YAMJ or SKIN settings that has an effect on the jukebox look, feel or playerpath/where movies are stored.

from your TV: press the settings/setup button in the remote. Scroll Down and select the maintenance menu. Press the file mode button to make the clear cache option appear and press select/enter on the remote. Wait a moment while the little circle spins, then press the source button on the remote to get back to the main PCH/NMT menu.

- go into YAMJ on the pch.

Your now ready to check out your new skin! Enjoy.

- How to upgrade a skin or make skin setting changes.

If your running a skin making no changes to the skin or the skin properties then you can actually follow the above steps to install a new skin to upgrade. you should save the old skin, do not assume you can download the old version again if the new skin breaks something you need to enjoy your jukebox.

If your running a skin you modified or make changes to the skin settings there is no fast way to upgrade. Your going to need to put all your settings into the new skin before you run yamj again. The skin should have upgrade instructions but at minimum you'll want to turn on the overwrite for HTML files. (see above for how to do this).

3: How to upgrade YAMJ.

If you followed my START HERE guide, you probably installed an official version of YAMJ and running the default skin (look and feel). Most people try YAMJ because they really like the look and feel of a different skin. Most skins do require a newer than official release(developer release) of YAMJ so you need to upgrade already. official releases have version numbers of x.y (1.7 was the latest at the time I wrote this). Developer versions have revision numbers (r1305 being the latest when I wrote this). Skins will almost always say the R# they need at minimum to run.

If you followed step 1 in this guide, upgrading will be really easy. If you have made changes to moviejukebox-default.properties the first thing you need to do is go back to step 1 and move all your changed settings to your own properties file.

Now that your ready to upgrade and have downloaded the newer version of YAMJ already all you need to do is unzip and copy over all the files in your YAMJ program folder. YAMJ will not overwrite your settings or custom skins if you made them in the correct place, with 2 exceptions.

If you have modified genres.xml or categories.xml do not replace these files with the new version. We will go over what these files do and how to change them near the end of this guide but for the purpose of upgrading these are the 2 files you need to be careful with when updating. All other files its safe to replace. If your modifying the bat file or anything else in the YAMJ folder be careful of those files also. If your not sure if you changed any of them, you haven't. its a more advanced user way to running YAMJ and you'll know if your changing them.

- I just upgraded what now?

There is nothing special to do after the upgrade. If your upgrading because a skin requires it, I would go back and add in your skin. If your upgrading to upgrade a skin, please see the upgrade skin warning in part 2 to make sure you don't destroy your settings.

If your upgrading because it might fix a bug or just because you haven't upgraded lately, run YAMJ and enjoy the new features or fixed bug you may have been having.

- upgrading java or mediainfo

time to time java will tell you when it needs to be upgraded. I always upgrade java a week or more after it has an update available. The bubble is a little annoying time to time but theres a chance YAMJ will break with newer versions of java so if you want a reliable yamj install, wait to upgrade java because it will give the writers of YAMJ a chance to check it against the new version.

Mediainfo you'll probably never need to upgrade. Right now if your using a lot of bluray rips and isos, you may want to also upgrade mediainfo when you upgrade yamj. There is almost no support for bluray in mediainfo at the time this guide was made so a future mediainfo may support it better. If your not using bluray rips (ISO OR BDMW/STREAMS FOLDER) then you can skip mediainfo for now.

4: How to fix movies and tv shows that were detected wrong. (and how to get source to not say unknown).

As you probably noticed, YAMJ couldn't guess the names for all of your movies and tv shows. This is common, YAMJ tries to use the filename to guess and depending on how your files are named that can make a big difference to your success the first time you run YAMJ. however this doesn't mean you need to change the filenames to fix it.

If you need more of a gui interface to help you save artwork or create nfo files, Ember Media Manager is an excellent FREE program to help you out.

NOTE: I recommend you rename tv shows anyway even if you use EMM, there are other reasons for this that I will explain below.

- Manual methods:

- changing the filenames

When naming files, avoid using - or [] (brackets). These have special meanings to YAMJ.

MOVIES:
There is a lot of information you can put into a filename to help YAMJ out. If you were to go all out the format for a movie is: Moviename.(year).source.info.language.ext

example: The Terminator (1984).BLURAY.X264.DTS.GERMAN.mkv

If you have a movie that is in many parts (several files), you can add [cd1], [cd2], [cd3] near the end of the name. DISC# and PART# also work, I just like cd# because its shorter.

example:
The Terminator (1984).BLURAY.X264.DTS.GERMAN.[CD1].mkv
The Terminator (1984).BLURAY.X264.DTS.GERMAN.[CD2].mkv

you can also leave out a lot of information, the only thing really required is the Name of the movie but adding year can be helpful if the movie is detected wrong or when there are several movies with the name name released in different years

If your renaming a movie because it was detected wrong, make sure you match the name to what http://www.imdb.com calls it. for example Terminator 2 is really called: Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Now the : is not a valid character in windows filenames so just remove it (in fact windows will remove it when you rename the file for you, just cut and paste).. Adding the year again is help so terminator 2 should be called Terminator.2.Judgment.Day.(1991).avi

Remember, -'s aren't good to use in a name so if you have a movie with a - in the name change it to a period. example: Mary-Kate and Ashley in Action! should be Mary.Kate.and.Ashley.in.Action!.(2001).mp4

(SPECIAL NOTE: I recommend using .'s instead of spaces. While 99.9% of the time spaces are ok, there are a couple times they might cause problems. I wouldn't go over your entire library to fix the spaces but if you have trouble with just 1 movie, keep this in mind.).

BDMW/STREAMS and video_ts rips still need folders with those names for the PCH to play them correctly. In that case you want to make a folder for the RIPPED disc and name the folder correctly for the movie/tv show.

Example: Terminator.(1984)/VIDEO_TS/files

TVSHOWS:

Just like movies the same applies but you need to tell it what episode. With all the possible information added the format I find to be the most reliable is tvshowname.(year).S##E##.source.info.languge-episodename.ext

You'll notice the dash. This is where YAMJ has special meaning for it. If you add the episode name it should be on the end after the dash (-). anything after a dash is considered an episode name even if its a movie file.

TV shows the year might actually be bad. Your tv show name should exactly match what http://www.thetvdb.com calls it. A great example of why is Battlestar Galactica. The original version is called Battlestar Galactica, the recently on syfy version is actually called Battlestar.Galactica.(2003) everyone seems to follow the same format that when a tv show is remade you use the year it first aired so even the 2009 episodes are called 2003. Doctor Who is another great example of this.

There is a way to override the filename we are about to get into however when YAMJ groups together tv shows, it takes all the same names so in the above example if you have both versions of battlestar galactica, YAMJ thinks they are all the same show and tries to make 1 nice looking page per season. You really want to fix all your tv show filenames so there is no overlap in this area. Also keep this in mind when you make box sets below, I recent interesting problem I ran into was my original star trek episodes were added to the box set for star trek movies because the tv show name matched the box set name.

Use http://www.thetvdb.com to find the season and episode numbers.

Special episodes. Some tv shows has many special episodes. http://www.thetvdb.com will show these epsiodes in both the special season and the season it aired. The special season is season 0 to yamj, and the episode number needs to match thetvdb.com. For example if you have the fan documentary Firefly, you'll see its a special episode number 3 So you'll name that video file Firefly.S00E03-Done.The.Impossible.avi (a side note, theres also an episode for Serenity so if your a firefly fan and you want firefly and the post series serenity movie in the same box set, call serenity Firefly.S00E02-Serentiy.mkv).. Firefly is also an excellent example of making sure episodes line up. http://www.thetvdb.com has firefly in Aired order, if your a fan you know thats wrong but to get YAMJ to find the correct information it needs to match. (note you can use nfo files to fix this order)

For more information on naming files and all the options see: YAMJ WIKI: FILENAME SECTION

- Overriding the filename: NFO files.

If your using EMM, it can make the nfo files for you.

NFO files are quick ways to help YAMJ find the cover art (dvd cover/movie poster) or tell it what movie/tv show a file is. There are 2 formats these can be in.

All NFO files should match the name of the video file they are for except have .nfo at the end. (terminator.(1984).nfo for example).

If you have a folder with the name of the movie or tv show (for blu/dvd rips) name it the same as the folder with .nfo at the end but put the file in the folder.

example: Terminator.(1984)/VIDEO_TS the Terminator.(1984).nfo file should be in the same place as teh video_ts folder.

You can also name it the same as the folder and with tv shows I highly recommend this method..

example:
.. Firefly/Season1/videos
.. fireFly/Season1/Season1.nfo

For tv shows, you just need an nfo file for the lowest episode number in that folder (so S00E01 is lower than S01E12 for example). I still recommend the above foldername because it can fix issues that might pop up later with tv shows and nfo files.

Format 1: The Flat NFO File.

Somewhere in the nfo file, if you have the url to imdb, thetvdb and/or a jpg image yamj will use those urls to figure out what the file is. they are just a simple txt file.

Examples:
If you want to change Terminator to a non-english poster you found on the internet

Code:

http://www.impawards.com/1984/posters/terminator_ver3_xlg.jpg

If Terminator 2 was not detected correctly:

Code:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103064/

If the TV Show battlestar galactica (the newer series) was detected wrong

Code:

http://thetvdb.com/?tab=series&id=73545&lid=7

NOTE: There was a bug fixed in r1414 about misdetected thetvdb.com urls in nfo files. If the above last example didn't work for you check your version number and consider upgrading (link at top of guide for upgrade help)

An example isn't given but you can have both the url to imdb and the image in the same file. ditto for tv shows and their poster.

FORMAT 2: The extended XBMC xml format.

There are actually 2 versions of these files, tv shows are slightly different than movies so you need to get the correct template from the wiki. again EMM will make these files for you, this is if you want to manually do it.

The full format will allow you to change anything on the screen that YAMJ may have found. If your using box sets (below) you may have to use this format if you want to supply the ID of the movie also. you can't mix flat and xmbc format.

When making a full format nfo file, you only need the parts your changing in the file. Below is an example of the common needs I personally use them.

Renaming a movie to the english name (example is disney's ponyo which is not the original name, the original is in japanese: Gake no ue no Ponyo)

Code:

<movie>
  <id>tt0876563</id>
  <title>Ponyo</title>
</movie>

The only other time I use an nfo file personally is for box sets which we'll cover in a moment. however, there are people with dvd rips who use it to change the duration, source and resolutions. In fact for bluray isos, at the time of this guide you need to use nfo files for resolution and duration.

TV SHOW NFO NOTE: The nfo file is for the tv series/season combined. There is no place to put the episode name that MUST be in the filename. also to make sure they are grouped together correctly I recommend just changing the tv show names even if you overide them with nfo files.

For more information on NFO files and the full set of options, see: YAMJ WIKI: NFO FILES

5: How to combine movies into a "BOX SET" with only 1 poster in the list of movies.

As anyone who buys movies knows, the triliogys or series come combined in box set for the movie. YAMJ can also be used like this and very helpful when the titles may not be similar. movies can also be in more than 1 box set if you desire (and handy if you want a holiday movie box set but may still want trilogies combined like the home alone series of movies)

You can make sets in the filenames and there is information on the wiki about this however I strongly recommend avoiding this and just going to full format nfo files. If you ever have both an nfo and filename the filename sets do not work as expected

Again, EMM has a tool to quickly group together movies into a box set. If your using EMM, you don't have to follow these instructions.

Since we went over NFO files already, lets give some real life examples.

Example 1: 2 movies detected correctly, just need to box set them.

movie 1, The.Terminator.(1984).avi
movie 2, Terminator.2.Judgement.Day.(1991).avi

Both NFO files are identical:

Code:

<movie>
  <set>Terminator</set>
</movie>

When YAMJ makes the box set index, it sorts the order by name (omertron this really should be year). You can order the movies:

movie 1, The.Terminator.(1984).avi
movie 2, Terminator.2.Judgement.Day.(1991).avi

Movie 1 NFO code:

Code:

<movie>
  <set order="1">Terminator</set>
</movie>

Movie 2 NFO code:

Code:

<movie>
  <set order="2">Terminator</set>
</movie>

If a movie is detected wrong and you want to provide the IMDB ID: Terminator.2.Judgement.Day.(1991).nfo

Code:

<movie>
  <id>tt0103064</id>
  <set order="2">Terminator</set>
</movie>

If you want to put a movie into 2 different sets: home.alone.(1990).nfo

Code:

<movie>
  <sets>
    <set>Christmas Movies</set>
    <set order="1">Home Alone Movies</set>
  </sets>
</movie>

note in the above example order does not have to be used in every set even when part of multiple sets. You can add more than 2 and with all nfo files, if you needed ID or wanted to change the title or anything else you can put into an nfo file just keep adding those options. I recommend not having blank options so trim down the blank template. After about the 50th nfo file you make you wont even need the template.

SPECIAL NOTE: TV shows with seasons are already in a box set. At this time you cannot add box sets into another box. If you also want this option, please complain at the feature request on the YAMJ ISSUE WIKI

REMEMBER: If you read this whole guide, I have run into a problem where tv show seasons were mixed with a movie box set (not the box in box but a dozen movies and then the individual seasons). Try to name your box set names unique (star trek the originial season and the star trek movies is the one i ran into). Also if you name the box set identical to one of the movie names, when your in the alphabet index the set will appear with the individual movie (Terminator the box set and Terminator the movie for example).

For more information and all options with Boxed sets see: YAMJ WIKI: BOKED SETS

5a: Using multiple nfo files to make life easier

MULTIPLE NFO FILES:

YAMJ will use multiple nfo files if found. This can be handy to help you keep tv seasons and box sets under control depending on how you save them. This is best explained with an example:

TV SHOW:
- heroes <-- folder name
--- heroes.nfo <--- see below for contents
---Season1
------video files
---Season2
------video files
---Season3
-------video files

heroes.nfo contents:

Code:

http://thetvdb.com/index.php?tab=series&id=79501

The above example you'll see that the NFO file is stored with the season folders. YAMJ will actually look for an NFO file named the same as the folder in this location. If this was a TV show that was detected wrong, instead of several nfo files which you need to name correctly and remember when the next season starts to include you can take 1 nfo file and give YAMJ the information it needs no matter how the files change.

MOVIE:

- American.Pie (folder)
---Amercan.Pie.nfo (contents below)
---American.Pie.1.avi
---American.Pie.2 (folder)
------VIDEO_TS
---American.Pie.3 (folder)
------VIDEO_TS

American.Pie.nfo Contents:

Code:

<movie>
   <set>American Pie Collection</set>
</movie>

If all of your movies were single files, then the folder option for nfo files is a valid name. however in this example you'll see a mix of video_ts folders and regular video files. You can make an nfo for each one but if YAMJ is detecting the movies correctly and all you want to do is combine them. Staying within 1 folder of all the videos with an NFO file named after the folder does the trick. In the future when the next movie comes out just put it into the folder named correct and it will automatically go into the bex set with no additional effort on your part.

6: How to change artwork (movies posters, backgrounds, set images) that you don't like or are missing.

Time to time YAMJ can't find artwork or maybe you don't like what it found or want to change it anyway. You can supply your own artwork and supplying your own artwork actually speeds up YAMJ, especially on new libraries when you change skins or something that requires you to rescan everything. Not to sound like a broken record but this is one of the features of EMM.

Types of artwork used by YAMJ:
- Poster: This is the image of the box cover for movies/tv shows
- Banner: Some skins can use banners for movies/tv shows.
- Fanart: this is the background (image) behind the details that some skins can use. There is also some skins that can use 2 different images but yamj will only find 1 for you.
- Video Image: This is the single frame image used by some skins in the tv show episode information
- Set image: Same as poster but a different image for a boxed set.

Just like nfo files or extras (see below), all you need to do is name the image correctly by using the filename of the video and add the appropriate ending to teh file. Set images have a slightly different name. you same the image in the same location as the video file.

An example of Terminator with all image types:

Code:

Terminator.(1984).avi           <- video file
Terminator.(1984).jpg   <-- poster
Terminator.(1984).fanart.jpg   <-- fanart
Terminator.(1984).banner.jpg  <-- Banner
Terminator.(1984).videoimage.jpg  <-- videoimage

An example of Firefly using the foldername

Code:

Firefly/    <-- folder
Firefly.S01E01.avi <-- episode 1
Firefly.S01E02.avi <-- episode 2
Firefly.jpg
Firefly.fanart.jpg
Firefly.banner.jpg
Firefly.S01E01.videoimage.avi
Firefly.S01E02.videoimage.avi

You'll notice in the above each episode got its own videoimage, but the show itself (the folder) got the rest of the. This is because a tv show can have a video image per episode but a tv show can only have other images PER SEASON. Seperating your tv shows into seperate folders per season will help you get all different artwork.

The below is an example of a set image. Set images are named Set_setname_1.jpg (note: I am not sure but fanart might also be supported by yamj and some skins) Set images are saved next to one of the videos in the set. these are the image you'll see in the movie list where the box set appears.

Code:

\movies\Terminator\  <-- folder name
Terminator.(1984).avi
Terminator.2.Judgement.Day.(1991).avi
Set_Terminator_1.jpg

There are options to change the "token" in the filename for each image type for those upgrading from another jukebox. There are also options for those with Folder images, etc. See YAMJ WIKI: ARTWORK for more information.

7: How to get the HD list to show 720 and 1080 movies seperately.

While day to day you probably don't care what HD resolution a movie or TV show is saved at, but there are times when you want to show off your home theater or PCH/YAMJ Setup. For those times, you may want to quickly find your best videos. By default, YAMJ has a category called HD but you can change this to be 720 and 1080 (2 seperate options).

In your skins folder, edit the file skin.properties and edit the following setting: highdef.differentiate=false It should be: highdef.differentiate=true

After you change the setting, just run YAMJ for the setting to take effect and the new indexes to be created.

8: Extras: Trailers (including auto-downloading), dvd extras, etc.

Extras will allow you to add items like trailers and extras found on a dvd into your library. while there is some ability in the nfo file, you'll find naming the video file for the extra correctly to be the best option.

SKIN NOTE: Trailers generally work in every skin but not all support extras. Most skins with updates last summer/fall should support extras.

By default, YAMJ supports trailer,bonus,extra as an extra. You can add more types/names by adding more to the filename.extras.keywords=trailer,bonus,extra in your moviejukebox.properties file.

For YAMJ to find and use an extra, you name the extra exactly the name of the file and add .[trailer-trailer name]. or .[bonus-bonus title], etc etc etc.

examples:
Terminator.(1984).[trailer-Theatrical Trailer].mov
Terminator.(1984).[bonus-Making of.avi

YAMJ can also download trailers from apple.com for you. It will see if there is a trailer for your movie and put it next to your video correctly named to work with YAMJ.

To active this feature add the below section to your moviejukebox.properties file:

Code:

################################################################
## Apple Trailers plugin parameters
#
# The desired resolution of trailers from apple trailers site
# Valid resolutions are: 1080p 720p 480p 640
# Choose only one of these values, if a trailer is not found at that resolution then a lower quality one will be looked for.
# Leave this blank or commented out to disable this feature
#appletrailers.resolution=720p
# Flag for selecting download of the movie trailers (true), or streaming over the internet (false)
appletrailers.download=false
appletrailers.max=3
# Use this parameter to determine if appletrailers.trailertypes lists trailer types to include (true) or exclude (false) from being downloaded or linked to
appletrailers.typesinclude=true
# This parameter should contain the trailer types you want to download.
# Examples are: tlr, tsr, clip
appletrailers.trailertypes=tlr,clip,tsr,30sec,640w

You will need to uncomment the resolution option and set the options to your desire. At the time of this guide there was changes to apple.com that will not allow a PCH to stream a trailer from their website, you MUST allow it to download the trailer. 480p (dvd resolution) trailers are generally about 40 megs, hd trailers are much larger. You also need to dl them before YAMJ can finish running so keep your internet speed in mind when setting up.

I also find that most skins work best with trailer. I personally dont like clips or teaser trailers or 30sec movie previews. Below are the settings I personally use which will give me 1 DVD or SD Quality trailer but no clips, previews or teaser trailers. My view, the trailer should never be better quality than the movie file and dvd is my lowest quality movie.

1/29/2010 UPDATE: Below you'll see trl added to appletrailers.trailertypes. clips, previews, and teaser trailers will download but trailers will not without it. Even if you use the defaults, you must add trl to them.

Code:

appletrailers.resolution=480p
appletrailers.download=true
appletrailers.max=1
appletrailers.typesinclude=true
appletrailers.trailertypes=tlr,trl,640w

NOTE: Recent changes to apple trailers website require YAMJ version r1317 or higher for trailer downloading to work

9: How to modify the list of categories and genres.

Categories and Genres may appear to be the same thing but they are controlled different

Categories:

Categories are items like Year, HD, Tv Shows, Extras, etc. You cannot add more categories to YAMJ, they are part of the code, but you may not want every categories to appear in the list. In the default skin (and many other skins) these appear at the top of the list.

To remove a category from list, edit the category.xml file found in the YAMJ program folder. Below is part the part of the file with extras turned off:

Code:

<category name="Extras">
    <enable>false</enable>
    <rename>Extras</rename>
  </category>

Maybe you want to rename what it says. Below is the extras turned on but renamed Trailers

Code:

<category name="Extras">
    <enable>true</enable>
    <rename>Trailers</rename>
  </category>

YAMJ needs to build an index for each category. If there are categories you will never use, I recommend turning them off and speeding up YAMJ a little.

GENRES:

Similar to categories you can take genres and combine them into a single genre. The genres come from your video files themselves so your list will differ from other people. There are a couple situations that come in handy for this which i'll go over in the examples below but for those with SD screens and large movie libraries, you probably don't fit the list down the left side of the screen. this will let you shorten it.

In the genres.xml you can change, add or remove anything you want. What names you need to use depends on your library and what IMDB called them. Sometimes IMDB has different spellings for the same genre, here is where you'll combine them.

The Genre name is what will appear on the screen, the Sub-genres is what will be added into the genre name and not appear on the screen.

Example one: Making removing horror from the thriller list.

ORIGINAL GENRES.XML FILE:

Code:

<genre name="Thriller">
    <subgenre>Horror</subgenre>
    <subgenre>Mystery</subgenre>
  </genre>

HORROR REMOVED:

Code:

<genre name="Thriller">
    <subgenre>Mystery</subgenre>
  </genre>

Adding Fantasy and another imdb sci-fi-fant genre to sci-fi

Code:

<genre name="Sci-Fi">
    <subgenre>Science Fiction</subgenre>
    <subgenre>Science-Fiction</subgenre>
    <subgenre>Sci-Fi-Fant</subgenre>
    <subgenre>Fantasy</subgenre>
  </genre>

Adding a new Reality Genre and putting News and Documentary into it:

Code:

<genre name="Reality">
    <subgenre>News</subgenre>
    <subgenre>Documentary</subgenre>
  </genre>

NOTE: This will not add new genres to your movies. To put your movies in different genres, you need to use NFO files. Again EMM can help or check the wiki for the format of the NFO files for genre.

9a: How to change the name of genres and categories to make upgrading simple

written by garp99

For anyone who has modified the categories.xml and/or the genres.xml files,
upgrading overwrites your changes.

To avoid that anytime you upgrade, the simplest way to resolve that is to keep and use a custom version:
- copy categories.xml to my-categories.xml
- copy genres.xml to my-genres.xml
- add these lines into the moviejukebox.properties file

Code:

# Genres file used for consolidating/renaming genres
mjb.xmlGenreFile=my-genres.xml

# Categories file used for enabling/renaming categories
mjb.xmlCategoryFile=my-categories.xml

Now next time you do an upgrade from a previous version (official or development) you will only need to look for any new changes and update your version (my-???.xml). Although these files are rarely changed by YAMJ.

10: How often do I need to run YAMJ? (day to day usage)

YAMJ only needs to be run if you make a change to your video library OR you changed a setting. If nothing changed, no need to run it.

For those with computers on all the time (like a Windows home server) may want to automatically run it once or twice a day timed to finish just before you would sit down to enjoy some videos. For windows, the WHS+AEON GUIDE has an example of this, for mac or unix users you'll do the same with a daily or twice daily cron job.

11: I really wish YAMJ did ____. How to get new features added

The developers of YAMJ (*ITS FREE*) work on it in their spare time. They have a general mix of bugs that need fixing, things not working right and things requested. If there is a feature you think is missing, you should ask for it. If there is a feature you want faster than another, you need to speak up that you want it too.

To add an enhancement request or comment/add your me also check out the Issues and Enhancements list. Anything just posted to the forum will never and the more popular the enhancement the better chance of it being added next.

[Omertron]

Might be worth explaining the version of YAMJ vX.Y versus the revision r1234 number in the upgrading section.
Most skins will say a certain revision number.

[samjaynes]

Very nice - thanks

Quick correction or visual note -

Quote:MOVIES:
There is a lot of information you can put into a filename to help YAMJ out. If you were to go all out the format for a movie is: Moviename.(year).source.info.language.ext

example: The Terminator (1984).BLURAY.X264.DTS.GERMAN.mkv

Your naming convention shows a period before the year, but the example does not reflect that.

Great article!!!

[accident]

Whew. some mistakes but draft 1 is completed.

[accident]

I know most decent guides get no replies but is anyone finding this useful?

[Omertron]

Lets get a Mod to add it to the FAQ section

[dc11ab]

I just stickied this guide here until we find a more suitable location. But it appears good to me as is. Great stuff, accident!

[accident]

Thanks,

You may also want to move up the start here guide, although I do reference it in this

[dc11ab]

Thy will shalt be done.

[accident]

danka

[indiejones]

Awesome accident
As a noobie here I hate asking too many questions and going from this site to the Wiki all the time is a slow process for me now I can just refer to your guide, I know there are so many end users out there that would love to get a Popcorn Hour and have all these features on it but are daunted by the process... where would we be without all this Knowledge/help

[accident]

I appreciate the kind words.. It's almost like a fulltime job to keep up with YAMJ and how you can use it.. my intention with the post-guide was to go over the things you'll most likely need to know or want to use and point you towards the full information if you may want to try to do more with it.

[MonoPestoso]

What is the correct way to edit the rating? I have tried using YANFOE and some movies will work but the majority of my movies will say NR. The only ones that seem to be working are rated G or PG.

[accident]

This may be a couple things..

Just in case, you need to run YAMJ after a change like this for it to take effect..

First thing to try is clearing the cache on the pch.. just go into the setup menu, down to the maintence section and then press the file mode button on the remote and press enter/select to clear the cache. Then see if the rating appears. What happens is the pch tries to speed up the interface by caching things you've seen already, it might be changing but the pch is still showing you the old screen.

Second thing to try is open one of the xml files for a video rated incorrect that you tried to fix in the Jukebox folder that YAMJ creates. About 20 or so lines down you should see: PG-13. If the rating is correct there and clearing the cache didn't fix it then you might have a problem with the skin your using. I think for awhile Aeon had a rating problem.

[accident]

I updated the guide to indicate that version r1317 is required for downloaded trailers to be playable.