FanArt for SageMC - Tutorial & Finding Images

[Brent]

As many SageMC users already know by now SageMC 6.3.8a was released last night. And with that release came a bunch of new "behind-the-scenes" improvements and bug fixes. But what some may not have realized yet is one new feature can add the "cool UI" factor to your SageMC setups. That feature is FanArt

Some who are familiar with FanArt & HTPCs already know what I'm talking about but if not I describe what FanArt is, how to set it up in SageMC and where to find your custom FanArt backgrounds in this GeekTonic post about FanArt in SageMC

If you're just looking for places to find your FanArt background images here's the list I've found thus far (also noted in the GeekTonic article):

• NEW! SageMC FanArt Pack 1.1 from vexhold - includes fanart already renamed for use in SageMC. This should be your first stop for multiple fanart image files
• Movies FanArt database searchable by movie name at (1920x1080 max) at www.meligrove.com
• TV FanArt at http://www.thetvdb.com/
• Music Artist FanArt at http://www.htbackdrops.com/
• Movie & TV Posters & Promo Shots at http://www.celebutopia.net/forum/
• Movies FanArt Images (1280x720 Max) at http://moviebackdrops.com/
• Multiple-file Movie FanArt "Pack" Download available on the SageTV forums
• Multiple-file FanArt "Pack" Downloads are available at the MeediOS forms
• Multiple-file Music FanArt "pack" Downloads are availabe at the XBMC forums
• Multiple-file TV Fanart "Pack" Downloads available here
• HQ Movie Posters Available for download for a small fee or via subscription at http://www.movieposterdb.com/

If you know of other locations for FanArt, post a reply below to let everyone know.

By the way, thanks to Mike (MeInMaui) for a job well done and for bringing us this FanArt feature as well as the last few updates to SageMC - we REALLY appreciate it!

[MeInMaui]

Very nice writeup on GeekTonic, Brent. Thanks!

Aloha,
Mike

[jaminben]

Very nice Brent, Some handy links

[QueOnda]

Again, you continue to be a great source of information and news.

[viperdiablo]

Cool feature. Followed the instructions on Geektonic but I cant seem to get it to work. I downloaded the image for The Last Samurai. Put it in the media fanart videos folder. When i download the image do I have to change the name of the file to the last samuria or leave it alone. I changed the path to the correct folder. And I changed the GUI option to enabled. Any help is greatly appreciated thanks.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by viperdiablo

Cool feature. Followed the instructions on Geektonic but I cant seem to get it to work. I downloaded the image for The Last Samurai. Put it in the media fanart videos folder. When i download the image do I have to change the name of the file to the last samuria or leave it alone. I changed the path to the correct folder. And I changed the GUI option to enabled. Any help is greatly appreciated thanks.

oops. My instructions missed a step. I just added it as step #3.3 but I'll repeat it here. This is for the situation where you are storing your image files in a central directory:

Rename all image files to match the name of your media file exactly. For television shows, it should match the TV show name (like Fringe.jpg for Fringe), for Music it should match the artists name (like Aerosmith.jpg for Aerosmith), and finally for Movies it should match the movie title (like DarkKnight.jpg for a movie you've named DarkKnight). [NOTE: If you have any media files with the following characters in the name: ( \ / : * ? " < > | ) leave out these characters when naming your FanArt background files.]

[jaminben]

When you use the centralized database the fanart image must be named exactly the same as the movie.


edit:

Ooops, beaten by a few seconds.

[vexhold]

Followed the steps and the images arent appearing.

Do you need to refresh something?

I did the Single Folder with the sub folders option.

DVD Path: DVDs\Cars\Cars.mkv

Fan Art name: FanArt\Movies\Cars.mpg

[Brent]

Originally Posted by vexhold

Followed the steps and the images arent appearing.

Do you need to refresh something?

I did the Single Folder with the sub folders option.

DVD Path: DVDs\Cars\Cars.mkv

Fan Art name: FanArt\Movies\Cars.mpg

Your fanart name should be:

FanArt\Movies\Cars.jpg

instead of mpg

[vexhold]

LOL sorry, they are jpg not mpg

Working on too many things at same time

[Brent]

It should show up then. Exit the Cars details screen and then re-enter - it should show up.

• Are you using the latest version of SageMC 6.3.8a?
• Did you set the Settings>SageMC>Paths>Media Bkgrnd File Path to FanArt\Movies\
• Did you enable FanArt Settings? >SageMC>Main>GlobalUI Options>Display>

If you've done all of these things I'm not sure why its not working for you.

[vexhold]

yes, unfortunatley ave done all of those things.

Ive tried refreshing meta, import folders, restarting sage, etc


Oh well, guess Ill just mess around and see if I can get something to click right.

Thanks.

[Brent]

You shouldn't have to refresh anything. It just appears after you put the image in the proper file folder with the proper name and then you exit that media screen and re-enter and it appears.

Try copying that cars.jpg image file to your DVDs\Cars folder and rename the image file to background.jpg

See if that works.

[bialio]

Does the name gave to match exactly? For instance, episodes of recorded TV have all kinds of stuff besides the Show title in it.

btl.

[jaminben]

Originally Posted by vexhold

yes, unfortunatley ave done all of those things.

Ive tried refreshing meta, import folders, restarting sage, etc


Oh well, guess Ill just mess around and see if I can get something to click right.

Thanks.

Try a diffrent film with fanart, does that work?

Or

Try closing sage, remove the film from your movies folder, open sage and rescan for movies, make sure cars isnt still listed, close sage, copy the movie back to your movie folder, open sgae and rescan movies again. This normally works for me if it doesnt appear first time.

Your image must also be a .jpg and not a .png which I've noticed some fanart sites use.

[peternm22]

I noticed that the themoviedb.org has an API available. Any chance of this being used to automatically grab fan art in the future?

Also themoviedb.org seems to have Plot descriptions, actor listings, and crew information. Perhaps this might be more reliable than IMDB since there is an actual API available for it (not just screenscraping IMDB). The IMDB search seems to break every now and then when IMDB changes their site around.

Thoughts?

[viperdiablo]

I just cant seem to get this to work. Just wondering in settings it says i am running stv version 6.3.8a but for sagemc.jar version it says 6.3.8 is this correct? Java is 1.6.0_07

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by viperdiablo

I just cant seem to get this to work. Just wondering in settings it says i am running stv version 6.3.8a but for sagemc.jar version it says 6.3.8 is this correct? Java is 1.6.0_07

Yep, this is correct, the jar did not change for 6.3.8a


Dirk

[bialio]

How do you name files for TV shows that have a special character in the Title. For instance,

"Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles"

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by bialio

How do you name files for TV shows that have a special character in the Title. For instance,

"Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles"

FYI, if there are any characters in the title that are invalid for windows file names, just strip them out. Also, if you are using the central folder, keep in mind that it should be local to each client you are using, not on the server (unless you are running the UI on the server or are using an extender or placeshifter client).

Aloha,
Mike