Kodi users: Concert and Music Videos - Please Read

[HomerJAU]

The Problem:
Many of the Music lovers here have struggled at times to get our Concerts into Kodi for playback.

The Kodi Music Video library has only minor updates over the years as its caught between 'Music' and 'Videos' with music video data stored in the Kodi's video database, but the artist meta data in the music db.

Up until now. users have needed to create NFO files for music videos and concert videos to get them into the Music Video libray. Some have just settled to get them into the Kodi Movie library or play them as 'files'.

The two main problems most have are due to all concerts being sourced as Blu-ray or DVDV conversions (and some TV captures) where the concert is in one single file (Of course a Concert is one long continuous musical event). You get to play the entire concert but its difficult to play a specific song or create play lists containing specific concert 'songs' (example: A David Gilmour playlist with songs from various Pink Floyd and his own solo concerts).

One way around this is to split a single concert video (mkv file) into chapters, with this a user can jump to any song and create playlists. But Kodi has always had a small glitch (pause) when users play all the concert song files in sequence, as Kodi opens the next video. This is especially the case when playing HD video high bit rate TrueHD/Atmos or DTS-HDMA streams. Splitting takes extra time too.

I've always split my concerts and just 'lived' with the glitch, but I know some that can't stand the glitch so use a single file and live with not being able to easily play any song at any any time.

GOOD NEWS - THESE PROBLEMS ARE NOW SOLVED!
I stumbled across a relatively easy way to get Concerts from my BDV and DVD rips into Kodi's Music library.

If I take a single big Concert file and create a CUE file at the Chapter breaks, add the Video File and CUE to a new folder under a Music Source and scan with Kod Music, the Concert appears as an Album' under the audio library Artist and shows each chapter as a song. I can choose to play any track just like playing an audio album. Kodi switches to full screen video playback automatically, just like I am playing a Movie. If I have 'Auto Play next' enabled, there is no glitch between songs/chapters. My iphone/iPad remote apps can play all of my concerts as a complete album OR I can pick and choose which songs to play, queue my favorites etc.

I've done this with a fresh Kodi 19.1 install with no Kodi customization. It just works!

Here's screen shots (Aeon Nox Silvo skin):

For anyone wondering how they can create a CUE from an MKV with chapters:
There's a tool in Music Media Helper that edits MKV chapters tool and can rename the chapters based on a MusicBrainz lookup. This tool can also create a CUE file from that chapter data (including the MusicBrainz track names) with a click. So its pretty much automated. This tool can also change the default audio stream. (Media Helper is free but Windows only).

Music Media Helper also has a tool to create M3U saved playlists (supported by Kodi) that can contain a mixture of audio and video files and I'm just adding support to add a songs embedded in a single concert MKV with multiple chapters. Beta testing tomorrow.

With this CUE discovery I can now do everything I want with my Concert Videos in the Kodi Music library! (Whoa!).

I'm hoping our resident music Devs can take a look at this as now Music Videos can reside within music database and maybe there's now more that can be done to integrate concerts into the Music world (an easy way to identify 'audio only' and 'music video'?). I've had a play with 'Folder Nodes' but I'm only learning, I'm sure @"DaveBlake" and @black_eagle could do wonders to truly integrate Music Video into Music!

Happy Days concert & Music Video lovers!!

I'm looking forward to the discussion...

(to be honest I was torn between absolute elation and total frustration - if only I'd known this earlier

THX
Garry

Example CUE for a Convert MKV file:

REM GENRE "Rock"
REM GENRE "Concert"
REM DATE 2008
REM COMMENT ""
PERFORMER "The Police"
TITLE "Certifiable Live"
FILE "The Police- Certifiable.mkv" WAVE
TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE "Introduction"
PERFORMER "The Police"
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 02 AUDIO
TITLE "Message in a Bottle"
PERFORMER "The Police"
INDEX 01 00:42:43
TRACK 03 AUDIO
TITLE "Synchronicity II"
PERFORMER "The Police"
INDEX 01 05:28:40
TRACK 04 AUDIO
etc...

 

[Q4-Bert]

I use a Shield-TV Kodi 19.0 created a folder With a Rip of Tango in the Night MKV created a Cue file. in the same directory, but the album does not show up in "Music" as I understood not using the Video source, the Cue was generated with the MMH, I cleared my whole library to be sure, I had scanned the library, added the directory as SMB zero config from the NAS (I can play the MKV with Kodi when using video file play):

REM GENRE "Rock"
REM DATE 1988
REM COMMENT ""
PERFORMER "Fleetwood Mac"
TITLE "Tango in the Night"
FILE "Fleetwood Mac - Tango in the Night RESTORED.mkv" WAVE
TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE ":The Chain"
PERFORMER "Fleetwood Mac"
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 02 AUDIO
TITLE ":Everywhere"
PERFORMER "Fleetwood Mac"
INDEX 01 05:34:00
TRACK 03 AUDIO

 

[HomerJAU]

I'm using Kodi 19.1 and I know that had a fix for CUE file scanning.

Is there an update for Kodi on the Shield TV to 19.1?

 

[Q4-Bert]

Not yet, as far as I know. It's auto updating.

 

[HomerJAU]

You can get Kodi 19.1 from here for Android but I’m not sure which one you should grab. You can do a Google search maybe?

https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/xbmc-foundation/kodi/kodi-19-1-release/

 

[rjpinca]

Thanks Garry. This is great news!

I have an Intel NUC8i3BEK loaded with the development release of LibreELEC/Kodi that supports 4K HDR, and this does not work.
- LibreELEC: devel-20210427181309-090e00d (Linux v5.12.0)
- Kodi: 20.0-Alpha1 (19.90.101)

Also, if I try to play the .mkv file directly (as a "file"), chapter skip does not work. I have to physically remove the .cue file, then chapter skip works. ???
Oh well - I'll just wait for the official Kodi v.20 release. I really like having the 4K-HDR support in this development release!

 

[HomerJAU]

I use the same Kodi 20 alpha LibreElec build for HDR too. The CUE trick doesn’t work on this build. We’ll have to wait for a new HDR build. I’m pretty sure installing LibreELec with Kod 19.1 would allow scanning into the library, then reinstall Kodi 20 alpha would then play the MKV video from the audio library and we’d have HDR too. I might try that this weekend.

Kodi 19.1 it the only official build that scans CUEs for MKV into its audio library.

 

[rjpinca]

I was reading in the either the Kodi or LibreELEC forum that it was the Linux version (v5.12.0) in LibreELEC that adds the support for 4K HDR - not sure if the Kodi version has anything to do with HDR. ???
Is it possible to leave the LibreELEC version (with 4K HDR) alone, and just install Kodi 19.1? Or are the Kodi and LiberELEC versions closely linked together?

 

[HomerJAU]

No there’s Kodi changes in LibreElec needed to support HDR. It’s not just Linux 5.12.

The community LibreElec build for HDR we’re using needs new build with latest 19.1 Kodi, or the 19.1 Kodi music scanning changes included in the Kodi LibreElec build.

 

[MagnumX]

Do concerts with video really belong in the music section of KODI? I can kind of see either standpoint.

Most BD and concert albums already have chapter markers in them. You can label them with the chapter editor in MKVToolnix and they then show up in KODI under bookmarks when you play the album and even get little picture snapshots if it has video. Just click and go. No gaps.

You can then use MKVToolnix to create an audio only version with chapter names already present from the previous steps. This one does show up in Music just like a cue album, but there's no video so you can watch a visualizer if audio isn't passed through ir run a slideshow even if it is. Oddly and unfortunately there are slight gaps when coming to the next chapter/track, which I don't understand since a MKA file is the same as MKV without the video. It shouldn't have gaps. I'm guessing there's a small bug that needs fixed there.

The other downside is I see no way to get KODI to show the album art with MKA. I can attach it to the file itself as an icon on my Mac (shows up in Mac file lists), but KODI ignores it.

So in those regards the cue method outlined above would work better, but if you don't want the video I'm guessing more steps would be needed to avoid it and you might not get all the other benefits (gapless and music listing).

 

[HomerJAU]

The two Kodi screen shots in my OP is what you get when an a MKV with a CUE is scanned into the Kofpdi audio (music) library.

One file with a CUE plays gapless on my systems and I can play any track by just clicking on a song title in the UI. I can also add any song from the concert to a playlist. You can’t do either of those if the same MKV with chapters in in Kodi’s music video library or if the MKV is added to the Kodi movie library or you play it from the Files menu.

Kodi is also displaying the cover as you can see.

If all you want is the audio you can convert to mka with a CUE and you get the same user interface with track names but Kodi plays audio only. With MAC you need to do it the hard way with MKVToolNix. On Windows Music Media Helper will convert to FLAC, MKA or M4A and tag and rename files all in one session or create a CUE with correct track names by an online lookup.

Kodi uses a file named ‘folder.jpg’ if it can’t find embedded cover art in the file. That will fix your problem I reckon.

 

[HomerJAU]

Here's what Kodi shows if I hit 'Information' about a concert 'album' in Aeon Nox Silvo after scanning the CUE. All this metadata Kodi found automatically during the scan off the web. I did nothing. This is what you get when you add Concerts to Kodi’s music library:

 

[MagnumX]

The two Kodi screen shots in my OP is what you get when an a MKV with a CYE is scanned into the Kofpdi audio (music) library.

One file with a CUE plays gapless on my systems and I can play any track by just clicking on a song title in the UI. I can also add any song from the concert to a playlist. You can’t do either of those if the same MKV with chapters in in Kodi’s music video library or if the MKV is added to the Kodi movie library or you play it from the Files menu.

Kodi is also displaying the cover as you can see.

If all you want is the audio you can convert to mka with a CUE and you get the same user interface with track names but Kodi plays audio only. With MAC you need to do it the hard way with MKVToolNix. On Windows Music Media Helper will convert to FLAC, MKA or M4A and tag and rename files all in one session or create a CUE with correct track names by an online lookup.

Kodi uses a file named ‘folder.jpg’ if it can’t find embedded cover art in the file. That will fix your problem I reckon.

The folder.jpg will only show up in the folder (I don't add surround albums to any database as I like them in a single folder as they are all surround only). The cue thing sounds like a royal PITA without Windows Music Media Helper. MKVToolnix will not separate mkv tracks by chapter (function not supported for this type of file is approximately what it said to me). To separate Kraftwerk's Catalogue into albums, I had to use Handbrake, which is not ideal since it forces you to re-encode the video (and the team has zero interest in a video passthrough option for what are in my opinion, inconceivable [read stupid] reasons). But the video wasn't that great there anyway, so I still made an album set with the video. MKVToolnix from there can easily create MKA versions, but I'm finding I don't like MKA because it's not gapless for unknown reasons (since it plays off a single file it really should be). As for being able to use play individual tracks from the file editor in KODI, the difference between that and starting the video file and selecting a bookmark (chapter) is really not a big deal as chapters access instantly (many cue-wav files take forever to load the next track, especially if they're sent over a network instead of on a locally connected drive; that may not be the case with cue-mkv files; I don't know since I haven't tried it).

I don't use playlists in KODI so that doesn't matter to me one iota. I like to select music I want to hear in real time (I leave playlists for the car or at work where I can't sit there and peruse). Either way, it would be nice if Team KODI could fix MKA gapless playback (MKV playback is of course gapless). I asked on their forums if there was a way to recognize an album cover for MKA (you can use a folder, but it won't show up on actual playback if it's not in the database) and I got no response. FLAC files, for example will show the folder.jpg (or cover.jpg, etc.) that's inside a folder on playback. Clicking on MKA files acts like it opens a folder of individual files, but they're all in one file in reality and it will not show a folder.jpg or cover.jpg regardless for that reason (simulated opening a folder). Individual FLAC files would go in a directory with the artwork and thus do show up on playback even without database support. KODI should probably support reading MKA files in as album/songs with a scan too and select a folder.jpg or cover.jpg or front.jpg in a folder as the artwork (or add-it using the album/artist scraper) after the fact. It shouldn't need a cue file to do this as chapters are already built into MKA files. It'd just be a matter of adding the code to store it automatically in the database. But it took them 14 years just to add basic reading of tags for M4V/MKV (not sure how well it works even so). They work on what interests them, not what users want.

 

[HomerJAU]

Using MkVToolnix to split an MKV/MKA into chapter files on page 18 in this PDF:

https://reva.blob.core.windows.net/mmh4/PDFs/How to Convert Atmos Blurays to Audio Files.pdf#page18
I’ve asked the Kodi music devs to read chapters directly from an MKV and MKA when scanned into the music library without a CUE, but it’s not difficult to create a CUE for an MKV or MKA (on Windows...).

I personally would not want to use Kodi only in File Mode.

 

[HomerJAU]

I have an Intel NUC8i3BEK loaded with the development release of LibreELEC/Kodi that supports 4K HDR, and this does not work.
- LibreELEC: devel-20210427181309-090e00d (Linux v5.12.0)
- Kodi: 20.0-Alpha1 (19.90.101)

I’ve asked the guy that did this LibreElec community build to do another one with the CUE fixes included. Keep you fingers crossed. It’s a mashup of code from several places to get HDR working in Kodi on Linux.

 

[MagnumX]

Using MkVToolnix to split an MKV/MKA into chapter files on page 18 in this PDF:

https://reva.blob.core.windows.net/mmh4/PDFs/How to Convert Atmos Blurays to Audio Files.pdf#page18
I’ve asked the Kodi music devs to read chapters directly from an MKV and MKA when scanned into the music library without a CUE, but it’s not difficult to create a CUE for an MKV or MKA (on Windows...).

It can get messy in terms of a file-based library with all the extra files. I've always thought ID tags should be used. Both M4V and MKV can hold ID Tag data within them. It should not be necessary to keep external NFO files nor should an MKV or MKA with chapters need a separate file for chapter information when they already contain them. When they're built-in, there's nothing to lose. I don't know how many times I've had to rebuild my movie libraries and then all the titles that aren't easily located or fail the name match due to adding extra information like directors cut or soundtrack labeling like (Atmos) to them make them a bear to rebuild and then to have to choose my artwork all over again. You'd NEVER have that issue if the ID Tags and artwork are stored in the file itself. I tried for over 10 years to get someone on Team KODI to care enough to add ID Tagging for movies, but they just didn't give a crap ("Scraping is good enough and if it's not, you can submit the code, but it better be up to our standards or we won't use it!").

I personally would not want to use Kodi only in File Mode.

I scan my 2-channel albums into a library (12,000+ songs). But I only have around 80 multi-channel albums. It's not worth the bother for so few albums, IMO. Worse yet, if I want to hear multi-channel, try and find them among 1000 other albums. It's easier to keep them separate, at least in file storage (probably doesn't hurt to have them in the library one way or another).

In fact, I wish KODI had tag data for how many channels albums have. It's a known fact KODI still cannot tell a file has Atmos or DTS:X or Auro-3D. I've had to label my movies with parenthesis (e.g. Filename (Atmos).mkv) so I can at least search for Atmos vs. DTS:X vs Auro-3D titles in my library. It'd be nice if there were a simple tag for music to indicate quad, 5.1, 7.1, Atmos, Auro 8.0 -> 13.1, DTS:X, etc. that could be searched as easily as alphabetical, date, etc. But again, with only around 80 albums, it's not that hard to remember (I still label the folder and/or file with the surround type, however).

 

[HomerJAU]

You can set up menu nodes that only show a specific source folder (e.g all your surround albums under a 'Surround' root folder,

You can also set up a menu node to only show albums with 'Atmos' in the folder name etc. I have a 'Quad Music' node that only shows Quad albums.

You are definitely doing things a hard way.

For movies I have NFO (XML) files. When I rescan my library of around 1000 movies its damn fast. There is NO looking over the internet as all my art and data is local (in each folder). Same with my Concerts (NFO files and local art). Scanning my 250 concerts is around 5 seconds over my network to a NAS.

 

[MagnumX]

You can set up menu nodes that only show a specific source folder (e.g all your surround albums under a 'Surround' root folder,

You can also set up a menu node to only show albums with 'Atmos' in the folder name etc. I have a 'Quad Music' node that only shows Quad albums.

You are definitely doing things a hard way.

For movies I have NFO (XML) files. When I rescan my library of around 1000 movies its damn fast. There is NO looking over the internet as all my art and data is local (in each folder). Same with my Concerts (NFO files and local art). Scanning my 250 concerts is around 5 seconds over my network to a NAS.

It's not terribly realistic to store/transfer large KODI libraries complete with artwork to some devices like FireTV (via adbLink). NFO is not how KODI is really set up. It's designed to use scrapers with a certain filename format. Without a program to automate NFO generation (like Meta Data programs for M4V), that really would be a royal PITA.

 

[HomerJAU]

The nfo files are about 2kb each, hardly any space needed. poster files are under 1MB. Nothing compared to a 39GB concert or movie. They live in your movie or concert folders.

Here’s the one I use. It runs on a MAC too, it’s Java based.
https://www.tinymediamanager.org/
Once done all the data is local and you get to choose the images, whereas a Kodi scrape chooses for you and overwrites yours if you are not careful with your Kodi settings.

 

[HomerJAU]

I have an Intel NUC8i3BEK loaded with the development release of LibreELEC/Kodi that supports 4K HDR, and this does not work.
- LibreELEC: devel-20210427181309-090e00d (Linux v5.12.0)
- Kodi: 20.0-Alpha1 (19.90.101)

Apologies but I just discovered I'd made this change to Kodi. I just did this on a LibreElec NUC with same build and CUE files to music library works:

Add this to the Kodi advancedsettings.xml file in the Kosi userdata folder:

(this adds both MKV and MP4)

<musicextensions>
<add>.mkv|.mp4</add>
</musicextensions>

This adds .mkv files to the files Kodi recognises as Audio files in its music library.

Re-start Kodi after making the Advancedsettings change.

In Windows this AdvancedSettings.xml fileis in userdata folder in : C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\userdata

LibreElec you can connect to that folder on Windows PC by typing in this in file Explorer \\[IP Adrdess]\Userdata (example: \\192.168.1.104\Userdata)

If the file doesn't exist create it. This my advancedsettings.xml file: (copy and paste into a text file named: advancedsettings.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<advancedsettings>
<imageres>9999</imageres>
<fanartres>9999</fanartres>
<audio>
<minimumsamplerate>44100</minimumsamplerate>
<excludefromscan>
<regexp>\@eaDir</regexp>
<regexp>\#recycle</regexp>
</excludefromscan>
<excludefromlisting>
<regexp>\@eaDir</regexp>
<regexp>\#recycle</regexp>
</excludefromlisting>
</audio>
<video>
<excludefromscan>
<regexp>\@eaDir</regexp>
<regexp>\#recycle</regexp>
</excludefromscan>
<excludefromlisting>
<regexp>\@eaDir</regexp>
<regexp>\#recycle</regexp>
</excludefromlisting>
<excludetvshowsfromscan>
<regexp>\@eaDir</regexp>
<regexp>\#recycle</regexp>
</excludetvshowsfromscan>
</video>
<cache>
<buffermode>1</buffermode>
<memorysize>524288000</memorysize>
<readfactor>20</readfactor>
</cache>
<videolibrary>
<recentlyaddeditems>180</recentlyaddeditems>
<dateadded>2</dateadded>
</videolibrary>
<musiclibrary>
<recentlyaddeditems>180</recentlyaddeditems>
<dateadded>2</dateadded>
<artistseparators>
<separator> / </separator>
<separator> feat. </separator>
<separator> Feat. </separator>
<separator> with </separator>
<separator> ft. </separator>
<separator> Ft. </separator>
</artistseparators>
<artistextraart>
<arttype>banner</arttype>
<arttype>clearart</arttype>
<arttype>clearlogo</arttype>
<arttype>landscape</arttype>
</artistextraart>
<albumextraart>
<arttype>back</arttype>
<arttype>discart</arttype>
<arttype>spine</arttype>
</albumextraart>
</musiclibrary>
<songinfoduration>7200</songinfoduration>
<musicextensions>
<add>.mkv|.mp4</add>
</musicextensions>
</advancedsettings>