Can't playback files with special chars in filenames

Help and Support Vero 4K / Vero 4K +
1

Hi, not sure if this is a Kodi issue or an issue with the Vero linux setup, but I’ve been renaming my files lately to include special unicode characters that map to for example ? and : (using \uFE56 and \uA789 respectively), but it seems they can’t be playbacked…is there something I can do to make it work, or is it simpler to just abandon the idea? The folders are mounted as UTF-8, and my locale is en_US-utf8.
If I do an “ls” or check the filepath in the infor screen, they both display the expected character, it just can’t be played.

The log for these files looks like:
2023-08-30 19:29:12.569 T:2912 info : CAESinkALSA::Initialize - Requested layout FL, FR
2023-08-30 19:29:12.569 T:2912 info : CAESinkALSA::Initialize - set digital codec 0
2023-08-30 19:29:12.569 T:2912 info : CAESinkALSA::Initialize - Attempting to open device “default”
2023-08-30 19:29:12.575 T:2912 info : CAESinkALSA::Initialize - Opened device “default”
2023-08-30 19:29:12.575 T:2912 info : CAESinkALSA::InitializeHW - Your hardware does not support AE_FMT_FLOAT, trying other formats
2023-08-30 19:29:12.575 T:2912 info : CAESinkALSA::InitializeHW - Using data format AE_FMT_S24NE4
2023-08-30 19:29:12.577 T:2912 info : CAESinkALSA::Initialize - speaker layout 0
2023-08-30 19:29:12.860 T:2785 info : GLES: Maximum texture width: 4096
2023-08-30 19:29:12.863 T:7653 error : GetDirectory - Error getting library://video/movies/
2023-08-30 19:29:13.805 T:7653 error : GetDirectory - Error getting library://video/tvshows/
2023-08-30 19:29:21.822 T:2785 info : VideoPlayer::OpenFile: /mnt/Movies/Why.Him?.(2016).mkv
2023-08-30 19:29:21.825 T:7711 info : Creating InputStream
2023-08-30 19:29:21.947 T:7711 error : CFileCache::Open - </mnt/Movies/Why.Him?.(2016).mkv> failed to open
2023-08-30 19:29:21.948 T:7711 error : CVideoPlayer::OpenInputStream - error opening [/mnt/Movies/Why.Him?.(2016).mkv]
2023-08-30 19:29:21.948 T:7711 info : CVideoPlayer::OnExit()
2023-08-30 19:29:21.958 T:7664 info : Deleting settings information for files /mnt/Movies/Why.Him?.(2016).mkv
2023-08-30 19:29:21.985 T:2785 info : CVideoPlayer::CloseFile()
2023-08-30 19:29:21.985 T:2785 info : VideoPlayer: waiting for threads to exit
2023-08-30 19:29:21.985 T:2785 info : VideoPlayer: finished waiting

I will note, that the : replacement also shows ? in the log file, but I am honestly not sure if that is because it is a problem with the logfile, or if Kodi actually outputs it as the fallback char for the unknown \uA789

Grateful for any pointers, as it looks a lot nicer to have e.g. “The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies” as the filename rather than having to omit or cheat the : to a - or similar.

2

I just moved a file to my Vero V and renamed it “Why.Him?.(2016).mkv” and it played just fine. I assume this means that the issue is not with Kodi but rather with either your network source or your mount options. I’d question the logic of the endeavor though. If you want things to look nice then your making a library. That library isn’t showing the file names so what are you really gaining by naming files that potentially could cause you grief. The scraper isn’t going to work any better scraping “¡Three Amigos! (1986)” vs “Three Amigos (1986)”.

2 Likes
3

It’s the special unicode question mark that breaks it.

But I think I’ll give up on having the file views of my library look more similar to the original title and just remove the special chars.
Seems like a case of the work required to fix it vastly outstripping satisfying some mild OCD-like thoughts

4

Note that movies named/renamed on a Mac and copied over to a non mac can cause that type of problems. They don’t use real UTF8 but some non compatible look-alike crap.
This is especially a problem as linux sees it fine, but exporting it through sambe/nfs can make real problems.