Kodi users: Concert and Music Videos - Please Read

[rjpinca]

This works for me.
Thank you Garry!

 

[HomerJAU]

The next MMH version has some new tools and functionality to help better support getting Kodi concerts into the Kodi music library and User Interface:

Version 4.2.1 (May 26 2021)
-------------
New Features:
Batch Creation Tools: Added recursive auto Creation of CUE files for Kodi Music Video folders
Batch Creation Tools: Added recursive auto Check for CUE creation Kodi Music Video folders
Split & Rename Concerts tool: Added option to export to MP4 (tagging supported)
Chapter Editor: Added support for MP4
Extract Audio from MKV tool: Now supports converting multiple M4A files to MKA and FLAC

Changes:
Edit Chapters in MKV tool renamed to 'Chapter Editor' (now supports MP4 chapters)
Improvements to tagging workflow in Split & Rename concerts
Extract Audio from MKV tool: Last Output type is set on opening the tool
Chapter Editor: Attempts to load Artist and Album (or Concert) name from existing NFO or folder name
Chapter Editor: Add track artist supports where track artist not same as album artist - new
Track Name Editor, Rename & Tag tool etc: Added Unicode support when pasting from a website
MMH: Added unicode support for CUE and NFO files
Updated mkvtoolnix components
Updated PDF docs

Fixes:
Batch Creation Tools: Creation of NFO files did not run in recent builds - fixed
Chapter Editor: MKV Chapter times were a few milliseconds out - fixed
Chapter Editor: Chapter names with Unicode characters were shown incorrectly - fixed
Extract Audio from MKV tool: Failed to convert multiple input MKVs if contained only 1 audio stream - fixed
Track Name Editor: Display of multi artist release tracks fixed


The batch CUE creation tool is super fast and working now. Recursive scanning of all sub folders in your Kodi music video library will create a CUE for every folder.

That’s going to allow users just add their old music video source as a new music source, scan and all the videos will appear in the music library and music UI.

The new batch CUE creation tool is super fast and working now. Recursive scanning of all sub folders in your Kodi music video library will create a CUE for every folder.

This won't damage your music database. If you don't like what you get, delete the new concert music source (from Kodi Settings, Media, Music) and clean. All the music videos are removed and you a back to before you tried this.


Batch Creating CUE Files:
The new MMH Batch CUE tool (in 'Batch Creation Tools') now supports creation of:

• A single CUE file for multiple MKV or MP4 files in a single folder
• A single CUE file for a single MKV or MP4 file with multiple chapters in a single folder

NOTE: A single CUE file for a single MKV or MP4 file with multiple chapters in a single folder uses the Chapter Names embedded in the MKV or MP4 file. Ideally the chapters names would be the song titles. MMH has a ‘Chapter Editor’ tool that supports renaming chapters from a Musicbrainz lookup or by a Copy and Paste from a track list. Of course, you can also manually edit the CUE file MMH creates and change the Track names in each cue file prior to scanning into Kodi or playback in another player (e.g JRiver).

CUE Files for Concerts in Kodi:
CUE files allow your Concert folders to be added to Kodi’s music library (not Kodi’s Music Video library). All the files in a concert folder can be viewed in the Kodi user interface as songs, concerts appear as ‘albums’. If your music video is a single MKV or MP4 file with chapters, you see each chapter as a ‘song’ and can play any chapter in the file by selecting the song in Kodi.

If you add your Concert folder as a Music Source in Kodi’s Media Settings, when Kodi reads each CUE during a music scan it creates an ‘album’ and ‘songs’ for the concert’s artist by reading tags from the cue file. User do not need to create NFO files (a requirement for Kodi’s Music Video library). A single CUE file in each folder contains enough information for the Kodi music scan to create data in the music database. Furthermore, the Kodi scan can use one of its music scrapers to find additional data online during the scan process, assuming your Artist and Album (concert name) match one of the online databases.

When you select Cue Creation in the Batch Creation tool, you get an option to ‘Check for Missing Chapter (song) names’. This option performs a recursive search from the selected Source Directory but does not save any CUE files. It checks for issues that should be fixed where artist, album and chapters names cannot be found (if a single file with multiple chapters) by MMH, allowing users to fix the issues prior to a full CUE creation run.

Click: ‘Check for Missing…’ option

Click: ‘Start Processing’ to run a Check

All the folders under the Source Directory are loaded into the Information list and if there is an issue the Error flag is shown against the folder as shown in the next screenshot:

Check Issues Reported (above):
Not All Chapters are named after songs: Occurs when a single file with multiple chapters has chapter names that do not contain Song Titles that would be used in the CUE file if it were created.

Fix: Rename the Chapters using MMH’s ‘Chapter Editor’ or ignore the error and edit the CUE file that will get created.

If you double-click on this error type in the Information List (above), MMH opens its ‘Chapter Editor’ tool for the file.

NOTE: If you ignore this error MMH will create a CUE without valid Song Titles. (Not good for Kodi).

Minimum Data not found: Occurs when MMH could not find both the Artist and Album (concert) names to use as those tags in the CUE file if it were created (the CUE would not be imported into Kodi).

Fix: This error can be fixed by renaming the concert folder to the expected format or creating an NFO file (MMH’s ‘Scrape a Concert Folder’ tool will create NFO files).

NOTE: MMH performs the following to attempt to get the Artist and Album names:
• Reads the concert folder name, expected naming format: ARTIST - ALBUM (YEAR)
• Looks for an NFO file (compatible with Kod’s Music Video library)

If you double-click on this error type in the Information List (above), MMH opens its Windows Explorer at the folder.

When the errors are resolved:

disable the ‘Check..’ option

Click: Start Processing

All the CUE files will be created (one per concert folder)

You are now ready to scan into the Kodi Music library.


What comes next:
Before final release I'll add a batch join (append) of split MKVs back to one MKV with chapters - Now released in 4.2.1
I'd still like to get MMH's batch CUE tool to copy music video concert.nfo data to album.nfo for the music library

I'd like to do a full 'How To' write up on to setting up Kodi and how to do all this for existing users and post in a new thread here and of the Kodi forum.

THX
Garry

 

[HomerJAU]

Here's some screen shots of Kodi's Estuary skin with a mixture of audio and concert videos for an artist. These are 'out of the box' views, no skin customization:

An audio album highlighted:

A concert video highlighted (note the cover is a video aspect ratio):

The Songs view for a concert video (this is a single MKV file with chapters and a CUE file):

And the Kodi screen when a concert video track is played: (The quality of this 1976 video is not great of course):

 

[Mickb]

Hi,
I'm staring to delve into this - I've created an MKV from MakeMKV with the atmos audio (in this example Hams Zimmer).

In MMH, I can see options to create MKA files, & these play fine individually, however I'd prefer a single MKA & use the cue file method, as described previously.

I can't see an option within MMH to create a single MKA, what am I missing?

thanks!!

(sorry, just to clarify, I'm trying to create an audio-only version at this stage)

 

[HomerJAU]

You can create an mka file using MakeMKV from your disc or use the free MKVToolNix program to convert your MKV file to mka.

 

[Mickb]

You can create an mka file using MakeMKV from your disc or use the free MKVToolNix program to convert your MKV file to mka.

thanks - now using MKVToolnix to do this - seems to work fine

 

[letting1]

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!

Can anyone tell me if this approach works as well with Kodi Nexus 20.4 on Windows? I want to make sure I can build playlists with songs from concerts that are added to the music library using this approach. Many thanks @HomerJAU for all your contributions.

 

[HomerJAU]

Yes. Cue files still get scanned into the Kodi Music Library is the concert folders are in a ‘Music Media’ library folder. Don’t put the concert folders in a Kodi ‘Music Video’ media library folder. This is still supported for Kodi 20 and upcoming 21.

You can also create playlists for any video/audio file using MMH’s Playlist tool with or without of the use of cue files or whether the file is in a Kodi ‘music’ or ‘music video’ library

I haven’t tested it recently but the MMH Playlist tool can accept any audio or video file and any song from a cue file when creating/editing Playlists for Kodi. (Example: add just the 4th song from a cue file to a playlist)

See the MMH PDF file for more information.

 

[paligap]

I have a folder with concerts and a folder with music video collections. As of now, I use them as video sources in Kodi. I originally used the Split & Rename function of MMH to create separate MKV files for each song and minimum data NFO files.

Yesterday, I used the Scrape Concert Folders function to create NFO files with more information. This worked pretty well, but on about a third of the concerts and video collections, nothing was found, even after multiple editing attempts in the Concert Title field.

Then I started thinking about this thread, and whether submitting my concerts and video collections as Music sources instead of Video sources might work better, partially because I've recently switched to the Artist Information Folder method for my Music sources.

Would that possibly yield better results than the Video source/NFO method, or am I confusing two different approaches? If the former is true, would I still have to use the CUE file method, and if so, would I have to merge the separate MKV files (or just re-rip)? I'm on Kodi 21, if that makes a difference.

One last thing: From the MMH documentation, it appears that MMH searches the Movie Database for the concert's (or collection's) metadata. Where does the art come from? I was surprised when I got no results for Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars: The Motion Picture [50th Anniversary Edition]. I tried under many different titles, but the only things that came up were some documentaries about the concert or tour. Would it matter if the Movie Databse considers it a movie instead of a concert?

 

[paligap]

So I used the Batch Split and Join MKV Files function in MMH to merge the previously split MKV files and create CUE files for the subfolders in my music videos collections folder. The merged MKV files all play fine with included chapters using VLC on my PC. However, when I open the CUE files in VLC, only about a quarter of them play. That makes me wonder whether the merged MKV files will play with included chapters that appear as songs in Kodi. Here's an excerpt from a CUE file that plays:

REM GENRE "Rock"
REM DATE 2020
REM COMMENT ""
PERFORMER "Devin Townsend"
TITLE "Empath 5.1"
FILE "Devin Townsend - Empath.mkv" WAVE
TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE "Castaway"
PERFORMER "Devin Townsend"
INDEX 01 00:00:00

Here's an excerpt from another CUE file that plays:

REM GENRE "Rock"
REM DATE 2006
REM COMMENT ""
PERFORMER "Metallica"
TITLE "The Videos 1989_2004"
FILE "Metallica - The Videos 1989_2004.mkv" WAVE
TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE "One"
PERFORMER "Metallica"
INDEX 01 00:00:05

Here's an excerpt from a CUE file that does not play:

REM GENRE ""
REM DATE
REM COMMENT ""
PERFORMER "Gentle Giant"
TITLE "Interview"
FILE "Gentle Giant - Interview [Atmos].mkv" WAVE
TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE "Interview (Dolby Atmos mix)"
PERFORMER "Gentle Giant"
INDEX 01 00:00:00

Here's an excerpt from another CUE that won't play:

REM GENRE ""
REM DATE
REM COMMENT ""
PERFORMER "Jethro Tull"
TITLE "Too Young to Die!"
FILE "Jethro Tull - Too Old to Rock'n' Roll [Video].mkv" WAVE
TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE "Prelude (TV film)"
PERFORMER "Jethro Tull"
INDEX 01 00:00:00

Is the likely culprit the lack of "GENRE" and/or "DATE," or the parentheses and info in song titles? Either way, would it be better to correct the information in the source files and reun the merges, or simply edit the CUE files?

 

[HomerJAU]

To add Concerts to your Kodi Music Library (database) you need to set up the media files with Kodi’s music (audio) tagging requirements as music is set up for audio playback, we found a hack to get videos in there.

You can use mp4 files for concerts as those video files can be tagged with most taggers easily (MMH will do this). Or you can use a CUE file with any video file (MKV with or without chapters). So no need to rerip or join previously split concerts (into individual song files).

You can use MMH’s Extract Audio from MKV to convert MKV to MP4 (drag and drop all MKV files onto the grid, adding multiple files tells MMH not to attempt to split just convert). You can tag the files in that tool.

MusicBrainz has more data the TMDB but both lookups are sensitive to pretty much the exact release name. You can try a manual look up and visually find the release. For you David Bowie MusicBrainz has it listed without the 50th Anniversary in the title in its release group.

EDIT: The button in MMHs Artist Name text box MusicBrainz lookup dialog will open your browser at the MB website. You can search for the Artist then try and find the release and either copy the ID or use the MB title text back in MMH. (See PDF docs)

Kodi’s Music Video library needs NFO files (xml text files). Kodi only needs basic data: Artist, Title, Album, TrackNo, but can also use Year.

 

[HomerJAU]

Is the likely culprit the lack of "GENRE" and/or "DATE," or the parentheses and info in song titles? Either way, would it be better to correct the information in the source files and reun the merges, or simply edit the CUE files?

It could be the square brackets or single quotes in the file name. Have a play and let me know what the issue is and I can get MMH to change the characters, brackets or otherwise resolve the issue when it creates the cue files

 

[HomerJAU]

Would it matter if the Movie Databse considers it a movie instead of a concert?

It appears TMDB has both ‘movies’ and DVD/BD releases. If you open your browser to the TMDB website and search for David Bowie then click on Movies you can find your release:

https://www.themoviedb.org/search?query=David+Bowie

 

[HomerJAU]

Would it matter if the Movie Databse considers it a movie instead of a concert?

It appears TMDB has both ‘movies’ and DVD/BD releases. If you open your browser to the TMDB website and search for David Bowie then click on Movies you may find your release:

https://www.themoviedb.org/search?query=David+Bowie

Musicbrainz has it listed here: Two releases (one is the 50th anniversary). MMH searches for the Release group title then populates all the groups releases:

https://musicbrainz.org/release-group/b56cbd72-4ee1-46e9-a0d7-329f25800840

Copying the GUID into the MMH MusicBrainz tagging dialog’s ‘Album Name’ text box, click Find and MMH will get that exact Release Group. The GUID is the 36 characters at the end of above link (you can copy from your browsers address text box:

 

[LuvMyQuad]

It could be the square brackets or single quotes in the file name. Have a play and let me know what the issue is and I can get MMH to change the characters, brackets or otherwise resolve the issue when it creates the cue files

Is the likely culprit the lack of "GENRE" and/or "DATE," or the parentheses and info in song titles? Either way, would it be better to correct the information in the source files and reun the merges, or simply edit the CUE files?

Also, check the actual file title and the filename in the Cue. Only half of the title is there.in the cue.

 

[HomerJAU]

Can you please give me the two (actual file name vs. File name in CUE)

 

[paligap]

Okay, I have to admit I'm getting lost in this process. Here is how I got to here:

1. I used the Split & Rename Concerts function to separate MKV files with chapters, tag and name the resulting separated MKV files, and create "minimum data NFO files.
2. I used the Scrape Concert Folders function to create NFO files with more info and obtain artwork.
3. I used the Batch Split and Join MKV Files function to join the separated MKV files and create CUE files.

It occurs to me that tagging errors could have been introduced in Step 1, which might have led to some of the problems I'm having with the CUE files after Step 3. I tried removing single quotation marks and brackets from the FILE field in a couple of CUE files that won't play (and then changing the filenames of the CUE file and the MKV file to match), and that didn't work. Where does Step 3 go to get the information to create the CUE files?

 

[paligap]

Can you please give me the two (actual file name vs. File name in CUE)

Here's another example of a CUE file that won't play:

REM GENRE ""
REM DATE
REM COMMENT ""
PERFORMER "Gentle Giant"
TITLE "The Power and the Glory"
FILE "Gentle Giant - The Power and the Glory.mkv" WAVE
TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE "Proclamation (5.1 mix)"
PERFORMER "Gentle Giant"
INDEX 01 00:00:00

The file names of the folder, the CUE file, and the MKV file are all:
Gentle Giant - The Power and the Glory

 

[HomerJAU]

Okay, I have to admit I'm getting lost in this process. Here is how I got to here:

1. I used the Split & Rename Concerts function to separate MKV files with chapters, tag and name the resulting separated MKV files, and create "minimum data NFO files.
2. I used the Scrape Concert Folders function to create NFO files with more info and obtain artwork.
3. I used the Batch Split and Join MKV Files function to join the separated MKV files and create CUE files.

It occurs to me that tagging errors could have been introduced in Step 1, which might have led to some of the problems I'm having with the CUE files after Step 3. I tried removing single quotation marks and brackets from the FILE field in a couple of CUE files that won't play (and then changing the filenames of the CUE file and the MKV file to match), and that didn't work. Where does Step 3 go to get the information to create the CUE files?

If you want to add your concerts mkvs to the Kodi Music library (not Music Video library):

• Just load the MKV file with Chapters into the MMH Chapter Editor
• Use the 'Get Chapter Titles from Musicbrainz' button to get the track names (if your MKV does not have Chapter names already) or add the track/chapter titles by copy & paste etc (see PDF docs)
• Click: 'Save CUE'

Copy the mkv and CUE to your Kodi Source folder for your concert and when Kodi scans it will load the tracks from the CUE

 

[HomerJAU]

Here's another example of a CUE file that won't play:

REM GENRE ""
REM DATE
REM COMMENT ""
PERFORMER "Gentle Giant"
TITLE "The Power and the Glory"
FILE "Gentle Giant - The Power and the Glory.mkv" WAVE
TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE "Proclamation (5.1 mix)"
PERFORMER "Gentle Giant"
INDEX 01 00:00:00

The file names of the folder, the CUE file, and the MKV file are all:
Gentle Giant - The Power and the Glory

Wil the mkv play without the CUE?