Tips, tricks and HOW-TO

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Let's discuss here about ThumbGen's usage and functions.

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Always at http://wiki.wdlxtv.com/TG_Templates_Support_Documentation you'll find the latest documentation for the templates support.

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Discussion moved here: http://forum.wdlxtv.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=28

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A small explanation regarding preferred info/cover collector:

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This is how you should process your TVShows for optimal results:



Accepted folder structure is:

[Name of Series]
- [Season 1]
- some episode name having a recognized episode sequence (like S01E03).ext
- [Season 2]
- some episode name having a recognized episode sequence (like S02E03).ext
...
[Name of Another Series]
- [Season 1]
..............

Recognized sequences for detecting season/episode (must be present inside the episode filename somewhere): S1E3, S01E12, 1x12, s1.e2

The program remembers your movie choice (you are asked to confirm the movie only once when processing first episode of the series) until it arrives to a new <Name of Series> folder.

It is VERY recommended to process the series separately from the normal movies by choosing TheTVDB.com as collector and a template for sheets that contains the %EPISODE%, %SEASON%, %EPISODETITLE%, %EPISODEPLOT% tokens.

IMPORTANT: There will be only a basic and simple support for generating sheets for TVShows/series in ThumbGen. I do not want to create a new TVSheetGenerator. Who needs more features must use TVSheetGenerator.

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In Options/Moviesheet is now possible to define priorities for the movieinfo sources: Preferred collector/Metadata/.nfo file/IMDb.



The program is trying to use them in the priority order (top-to-bottom). If the information from one source is missing the program attempts to get it from the next source and so on. First info found is preselected in the movieinfo combobox. If you change your mind during processing you can change the order on-the-fly in Results Page/Options and continue processing.

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Today I started for the first time to prepare moviesheets for my actual movies (not test folders anymore).

TIP:
* Choose to autogenerate only metadata
* Disable autorefresh for small preview
* If you do not care about the metadata preview then choose as main sheet a very basic/fast template (it will be rendered during generating metadata for the preview)
* Choose prefcollectors,
* Make sure both "do not autopopulate" background/fanarts are not checked
* Run it "auto" for the movies folder (let TVShows/series for a later separate processing).

You don't even need to bother about generating cover/folder.jpg/.nfo. Cover/folder.jpg u will generate later from metadata and .nfo file is completely obsolete if u generate metadata.

Then just sit and watch it working. Later you can choose some nice templates and batch generate sheets from the metadata.

The advantage of this method is that you sit and watch during metadata creation making adjustments if required but it goes very fast (no time spent to render sheets).
When metadata is properly ready you can start batch creating sheets without attending the PC. At that time nothing can happen the app will simply generate the sheets (maybe watch for overheating your CPU )

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Another tip:

blue-ray.com has a lot of high quality screenshots. Unfortunately it has no support for IMDb so its backdrops cannot be matched with the current movie. But if you check the Options/IMDb Settings/Auto fill IMDb ID for first movie returned by a collector that does not support IMDb then in most of the cases blu-ray.com returns as first match the right movie, it becomes the current movie IMDb Id and all screenshots from blu-ray.com are available for the current movie.

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Tip:

During automatic processing... when the red rectangle and the counter appear ... clicking somewhere in the active window will disable the countdown and let u adjust things manually

[migube]

Today I started for the first time to prepare moviesheets for my actual movies (not test folders anymore).

TIP:
* Choose to autogenerate only metadata
* Disable autorefresh for small preview
* If you do not care about the metadata preview then choose as main sheet a very basic/fast template (it will be rendered during generating metadata for the preview)
* Choose prefcollectors,
* Make sure both "do not autopopulate" background/fanarts are not checked
* Run it "auto" for the movies folder (let TVShows/series for a later separate processing).

You don't even need to bother about generating cover/folder.jpg/.nfo. Cover/folder.jpg u will generate later from metadata and .nfo file is completely obsolete if u generate metadata.

Then just sit and watching it working. Later you can choose some nice templates and batch generate sheets from the metadata.

The advantage of this method is that you sit and watch during metadata creation making adjustments if required but it goes very fast (no time spent to render sheets).
When metadata is properly ready you can start batch creating sheets without attending the PC. At that time nothing can happen the app will simply generate the sheets (maybe watch for overheating your CPU )

Tx will try this one