Problem with playlists

Help and Support
1

Hi there,

Im having difficulties setting up seperate playlists for my girlfriends movies and tvshows. Strange thing is, the movies playlist works flawless while the tvshows playlist only brings up a black/empty screen.

The tvshow file looks like this:

(leaving out all the > brackets at the front and the end where needed)

?xml version=“1.0” encoding=“UTF-8” standalone=“yes” ?>
smartplaylist type=“tvshows”>
name>Girlfriends Shows</name
match>all</match
rule field=“path” operator=“startswith”>
value>/media/Extern 8TB/girlfriends stuff/Shows</value
/rule>
order direction=“ascending”>tvshow</order
/smartplaylist>

Any ideas what I am doing wrong here? Thanks in advance.

2

Providing a lot should give some indication.

To get a better understanding of the problem you are experiencing we need more information from you. The best way to get this information is for you to upload logs that demonstrate your problem. You can learn more about how to submit a useful support request here.

Depending on the used skin you have to set the settings-level to standard or higher, in summary:

  • enable debug logging at settings->system->logging

  • reboot the OSMC device

  • reproduce the issue

  • upload the log set either using the Log Uploader method within the My OSMC menu in the GUI or the ssh method invoking command grab-logs -A

  • publish the provided URL from the log set upload, here

Thanks for your understanding. We hope that we can help you get up and running again shortly.

OSMC skin screenshot:

normal_logging
normal_logging1920×1080 764 KB

3

Thanks, but im pretty sure its not a system related mistake, but me missing the right step to set up the playlists file. I dont think a log would help here.

I just realized, that the file content doesnt show up correctly in this forum, I think this has something to do with the editor system. So i just repost my file here, leaving out all the > brackets at the front and the end where needed.

?xml version=“1.0” encoding=“UTF-8” standalone=“yes” ?>
smartplaylist type=“tvshows”>
name>Girlfriends Shows</name
match>all</match
rule field=“path” operator=“startswith”>
value>/media/Extern 8TB/girlfriends stuff/Shows</value
/rule>
order direction=“ascending”>tvshow</order
/smartplaylist>

4

This info does not help to understand what could be the root cause of the black screen … but the log set could as requested.

5

Its not a black screen in sense of computer terms (error), but a completely empty menu. I will try to make a log as soon my gf isnt at the TV anymore and I can “make my stupid computer stuff”.

6 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<smartplaylist type="tvshows">
    <name>Girlfriends Shows</name>
    <match>all</match>
    <rule field="path" operator="contains">
        <value>/girlfriends stuff/Shows/</value>
    </rule>
    <order direction="ascending">sorttitle</order>
</smartplaylist>
7

Thanks darwindesign, but this produced the same phenomenon.

I was able to grab a log:

https://paste.osmc.tv/izerexizes

You will see, that I tried to grab the tvshows at the end.

9

I took a working smart playlist and just substituted the info you posted in this thread. I see from your log that your actual file path is something other than what was posted here as it is in a completely different language. If you can’t work out what your file path should be then please reboot twice, play a few seconds of a show in your girlfriends share, and then upload a new log.

11

The path I use is correct. I didnt want to wave her name around in my first post, so I changed the path in the file i posted here.

The reason I know the path is correct is because I also used a working file. Like I wrote, I have the exact same playlist for her setup, but for movies. Thats why Im irritated, the same file doesnt work for tvshows.

12

Did you try remaking it inside of Kodi instead of manually editing the xsp file? I know what I posted works as I tested it. If you want you can PM me a link to your log.

13

No, but I will try that next.

I can send you my corresponding working movie playlist with the correct path and the not working tvshows playlist.

14

I would actually prefer to see a log with a video playing from that location.

1 Like
16

Thanks a lot to darwindesign, it works now.

First thing is, I forgot to add the “gf-tvshows” folder to the library.
I did add the parent folder though, but Kodi seems to automatically assume, that all subfolders must be movies. So the newly created “gf-tvshows”-subfolder was empty (of course).

I will tag darwins last post as solution and send my regards.

1 Like
17

Playlists only pull from the Library. In this case the source path was not added to the library as a TV show yet, and as such there was nothing in the database to match that playlist to.

18

To be more precise: I made a logical error.
I did include the parent folder “/girlfriend stuff/” to the library, but didnt specify, if it contains movies or tvshows. Kodi automatically assumes, that video files must be movies, so all subdirectories of “/girlfiend stuff/” (not only “/movies” but also “/tvshows”) were assumed to contain movies. Thats why the scraper didnt find any new content (was looking for movies and not tvshows) and the menu was blank.

19

Not quite. Kodi does not assume anything as it does not automatically set content for any folder. When you set content on a folder as a movie (or other type) it encompases everything below it in the file structure except for any folders that have had content set specifically for them. If your folder structure is

GF stuff
|__movies
|__TV Shows

Then optimally the sources should be set only on the movies and TV shows folders and nothing above that in the file path. Although you can set GF stuff as movies, and TV Shows as TV and it will work, this is quite confusing with no benefit I can think of. Likely even better would be to name the two folders as GF-movies, and GF-TV to make it even easier to keep track of your sources.

20

Reason for that mess is, that I just started to make subfolders inside the “GF Stuff” folder. Before, we only had this folder with exclusively movies inside.

I recently created both subfolders inside this folder, because she started to watch shows on the vero. So the (now) parent folder (with all its new subfolders) was still tagged with movie contents. Thats what i meant with “automatically assume”.

Maybe someone will sometime profit from my mistake.