Overview

How to organize, display and play all your videos in MediaPortal.

Videos

Once you have completed the basic setup of MediaPortal, or the Client setup on all your clients, you will have access to all your videos in the folders you selected in Videos > Video Folders in Setup.  This allows you to browse them using 'Shares' view in MediaPortal Videos much like Windows Explorer. You may even 'lookup' your videos and 'grab' covers, and information from the internet (usually IMDb by default).  In reality this adds them to your Videos Database.

See Movies, TV Series, Online Videos, Home Movies, DVDs and Blu-rays to learn more about all the ways to organize and watch your videos using MediaPortal.

Databases

To organize your videos, display them with fanart and information and get the full benefit of MediaPortal's media center features, you may create a database of all your videos. You can add the folders you wish, grab all the artwork and information you need, organize and display them using different views, such as by genre, year, etc.

Databases offer considerable more functionality than simply browsing your media files.  MediaPortal, and most extensions, use SQLite for your media databases. They are stored in your User files -> Database Folder: e.g.

• ...\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\database

The method of creating a database is essentially the same throughout MediaPortal:

• scan the media folders on the drives you select for files that match the video extensions you select
• match those media files to an online database(s) of your choice
• download the artwork and information and store it in your database

If you have a lot of media files the initial creation can take some time, depending on the options you select, such as how many fanart images, etc. In most cases you can update the database either automatically, based on a schedule, or choose when to add new videos to your database

Media Filenames

When matching your media files to lookup data in online databases it is unlikely you will ever get perfect matching, especially on IMDb where there are so many movies with the same name, sometimes even in the same year. Thus naming your media files accurately can save you considerable time matching movies manually.

There are tools available to rename your media files for you, some listed in our Extensions Downloads:

• theRenamer
• FileBot TV Renamer and Subtitle Downloader

Network Setup

Unlike TV and Radio, MediaPortal does not officially support networking your media databases. Thus you need to update each database on each client PC.

The only plugin that fully supports a network setup with centralized database is My Films.

Related

TopicsDVDs and Blu-rays
How to play DVDs or Blu-ray Discs (BDs) in MediaPortal
Home Videos
How to watch your home videos in MediaPortal
Movies
Which Movie plugin to use to create your Movies database with covers, fanart, info and more?
Online Videos
How to watch videos, even TV streams, from online websites.
TV Series
How to view TV Series in MediaPortal