OFFLINE Movie player with thumbnails/description?

[Dochartaigh]

Trying to rig up something for my NON-tech-savvy parents to play movies off an external HDD at their summer place. THEY DO NOT HAVE INTERNET!!! HAS to have movie thumbnails with a brief description of the movie. I've literally been trying to get this to work for over 10 years now...

I have a 2014 Macbook Air (preferred) to run this, or a Raspberry Pi 4 as well. Do not want to drop $150+ on a 4+ year old Nvidia Shield (which seems to be what many recommends... which I'm still pessimistic that it'll work properly offline).

KODI has been a clusterfuck... RP4 worked for a couple days then "one or more items failed to play" error on every movie. KODI on Mac is even more fucked... "namespace" error on 6x different versions (tried latest version, then 4x v20 and v21 nightlies, then a 2019 version too as I'm on older Mojave OS)... ONLY fix is to turn off local thumbnails/metadata which would defeat the purpose of an off-line library... funny part is it STILL crashes on Mac even when I turn that off lol...

PLEX is NOT friendly to offline use - repeated verbatim online whenever I research this, and I've been trying it for about 10 years now (complete with setting up a 'fake' non-online wifi network between old laptop for plex server and whatever chromecast/firestick/roku I have plugged into the TV). Last time I tried it offline it wouldn't play movies without downloading codec's (which to manually add ALL of them takes advanced coding and still doesn't work sometimes people say... and I'm not launching 3000+ movies to have it download ALL the possible codec's lol).



So what else can I try? I still can't believe it's 2023 and there's no program to download a friggin thumbnail and a single sentence description of a movie, which can then be saved locally so it doesn't need internet.

Right now I have the Macbook booting into Windows 10 Bootcamp where Kodi seems to (at least initially) run better... but having Kodi fail on both the RP4 and on MacOS right after another makes me not very hopeful... Also read about Emby, but as that's a dual server/player setup like Plex I'm also hesitant to use it (since Plex has NEVER worked properly offline).

Worse case I'm having them use Finder on the Mac to manually double-click on a movie on the HDD which will then launch in VLC Media Player – but without movie descriptions they don't know what 70% of these movies are, so that's going to be a pain for them. This is why I really, really, want a simple interface with thumbnail/description to help them navigate.

[BIL]

Having recently undertaken an uncannily similar trial (setting up my elderly, tech-unsteady parents with a nice fat HDD of movies to click n' watch via VLC)... it sounds brutal, but fearing a trainwreck ("Howw do i open teh web zone???"), I just wrote short two-line summaries for the films and printed it for 'em. Ghetto viewing guide of sorts. Three copies, one to be kept by the TV at all times, in case the others get left under a tree and blow into the sea, or are eaten by scorpions, or find some other novel fate.

Boof, job done, no need to click "Les Innocents (1968)" wondering if it's a creepy ghost tale or a creepy sex movie. So far it's worked, although I know to brace myself - the same way you might dread that bowl of corn flakes exploding into flames in certain less-culinary minded hands, solving cold fusion but also burning down your house.

I write for a living, so I didn't mind at all, but yeah, YMMV. 3; It was only like fifty or so, could get rough with some of the towering archives I've seen bonafide movie buffs keep on-hand.

I'd be interested to hear of a solution like you mention, too. It sounds pretty obvious in hindsight.

[Krushal]

Spoilered because some wrong assumptions ...

Spoiler

I wonder if something like Batocera would work for this.
It's a Linux-based OS for retrogaming, see this video, for example.

It should be possible to install a media-player core and strip back the UI to just that core.
Getting thumbnails and descriptions of each movie detected is the tough part. Doubt you can auto-scan files and "scrape" a website (like with games), but if you manually downloaded these files I bet it's possible.

Could be a pain to set-up, but worth investigating, maybe? Codec support should be good at least (uses ffmpeg & libretro under the hood).

[BareKnuckleRoo]

This is why I really, really, want a simple interface with thumbnail/description to help them navigate.

No idea what to suggest for a more robust media setup, but I thought of a workaround for description + custom thumbnails as an option until you can get something more thorough working.

Put each movie file into its own folder, name it something like [Movie name] - [Description] and then change the folder to use a custom thumbnail. Windows 7 / 10 has a fairly large text limit for this kind of thing especially if you make the folder view size large.

The downside is you'll have to make custom .ico files for everything and manually enter descriptions for every single movie they have.

[Dochartaigh]

I write for a living, so I didn't mind at all, but yeah, YMMV. 3; It was only like fifty or so, could get rough with some of the towering archives I've seen bonafide movie buffs keep on-hand.

My problem is there's around 3,000 movies... not even counting TV shows and documentaries and such... not going to work in the long run either, when they're going to bring the HDD over to get updated a couple times a year (where I might purge some movies, leave others, add even more, etc.).

I wonder if something like Batocera would work for this.
It's a Linux-based OS for retrogaming, see this video, for example.

That's pretty much what I just tried on my Raspberry Pi 4 - custom made gaming images type of OS - in my case I actually sought out one specifically made for home media centers, but nearly every single image for retro gaming would most likely run either Kodi itself (based off the old XBMC from back in the day), or something branched off from Kodi. Have had bad luck with those, and have been trying it since probably around 2016 with the Raspberry Pi 3 came out. Kodi program on Windows itself (or Mac OS) would be near identical to Batocera running Kodi on that same laptop.

Put each movie file into its own folder, name it something like [Movie name] - [Description] and then change the folder to use a custom thumbnail

Actually tried several different plugins for Mac which are supposed to add-in custom thumbnails - none of them worked properly. Also the same problem of having 3,000+ files to do this for so really need an automated solution.

[Krushal]

Okay, I assumed that Libretro would have a robust video player core, but that's not the case.
Does seem like it's Kodi or bust at the moment. Kind of crazy.

Going off BKR's suggestion ...

Spoiler

On Linux you could create launcher files (.desktop or whatever) to run MPV/VLC, embed any image file as an icon (doesn't have to be .ico) and use the "comment" field (tooltip) as a movie description.
Launch straight into a full-screen file manager (at the directory with all the launchers), with no tooltip delay.
Linux over Windows because of better customisation, less overhead and no mandatory scanning/indexing nonsense after boot.

Could be automated with shell scripts, but a lot to learn if no experience.

EDIT:
I'm surprised that Kodi doesn't "just work" on R-Pi.
Had a look at the Kodi Wiki. Have you tried any of the "Easy / Kodi centric" Linux distros?
Haven't seen you mention LibreELEC / OSMC / XBian. I'd say try those.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

If they have internet, something like BIL's suggestion could work. Make a basic HTML file with the movie name and the link to the Wikipedia page for each one (or a review site or whatever). Then just copy and paste the movie filename followed by finding a URL to link to for each one. Then set it up as MOVIE GUIDE that they open up in their browser and click the URLs to read the reviews for each one? Will require less typing that way on your behalf, hopefully, but there's always the risk of links breaking, and shouldn't be particularly daunting unless pulling open a web browser scares them.

[Dochartaigh]

I'm surprised that Kodi doesn't "just work" on R-Pi.
Had a look at the Kodi Wiki. Have you tried any of the "Easy / Kodi centric" Linux distros?
Haven't seen you mention LibreELEC / OSMC / XBian. I'd say try those.

LibreELEC, which runs Kodi only, is the standalone distro I used on my Raspberry Pi 4 just the other week - failed like the rest. Also tried a different flavor of it (think highly based on Kodi and/or the old base XBMC code), called OSMC - even worse from a file/movie-browsing perspective (both were official installs from the Raspberry Pi foundation's "Raspberry Pi Imager" program).

Want to say I tried it inside their regular desktop/Linux OS, Raspian (or whatever version it is now) as well to ill effect (but could have been thinking of Plex).

Honestly I've been trying this for like a decade now for my parents, ever since I learned to hack an Amazon Firestick... then tried it when the RP3 came out in 2016ish... back when everybody was still calling it XBMC... has NEVER worked on Raspberry Pi or anything else when offline.

If they have internet, something like BIL's suggestion could work.

They do not

Trying to rig up something for my NON-tech-savvy parents to play movies off an external HDD at their summer place. THEY DO NOT HAVE INTERNET!!!

For an update, I last said I was booting my Macbook Air into Windows 10 then gave it to my parents for another week at their place... SAME EXACT "One or more items failed to play" error came up, again, on the 3rd device, and (losing track here...) but think like 8x different versions of Kodi, with all of them failing. Def probably points to something in my library it doesn't like, maybe with the filenames... but literally 99.9999999999% of movies you download have spaces, dashes, and periods in their names so it's not like I'm using weird funky naming conventions here... literally 'industry standard' practices all around (and again, EVERYTHING has worked with Plex for ages now - this SAME EXACT library...).

Anyway, even opened a Github issue report on the error, complete with screenshot and error log.... but since this has been going on for SO very long, I don't have high hopes that it'll be fixed...

[emphatic]

Can I assume you will set it up for them using an Internet connection, then just turn it over to them?

If so:

https://www.team-mediaportal.com/news/m ... 31-release

It's free, stable and can be used with a PC remote/keyboard/mouse/gamepad
The interface can be configured to only show whatever options they need (music, tv-shows, movies, shutdown)

Here's an (quite old) video of the movie section if you use a plugin called Moving Pictures:
https://youtu.be/SBmnKZB3iis?t=289

I use this everyday, so if you need help setting it up, just PM me.

[Dochartaigh]

Can I assume you will set it up for them using an Internet connection, then just turn it over to them?

Yes, I initially set it up with an internet connection to get all the artwork and descriptions onto the device.

If so:

https://www.team-mediaportal.com/news/m ... 31-release

Thanks, might give it a try... but it's also based off the XBMC/Kodi code like the plethora of other programs I've tried... so don't know how it would be any different, especially since it seems to be a less widely used version (which people say MediaPortal is very convoluted to setup, and only really meant for TV shows and DVR).

Also, have you personally used MediaPortal extensively offline with thumbnails, metadata, descriptions of movies and that sort of thing? So far it seems like many work great with an internet connection, then fall apart when there's no internet.

[emphatic]

Thanks, might give it a try... but it's also based off the XBMC/Kodi code like the plethora of other programs I've tried... so don't know how it would be any different, especially since it seems to be a less widely used version (which people say MediaPortal is very convoluted to setup, and only really meant for TV shows and DVR).

Also, have you personally used MediaPortal extensively offline with thumbnails, metadata, descriptions of movies and that sort of thing? So far it seems like many work great with an internet connection, then fall apart when there's no internet.

If I have no internet, all of the thumbnails and meta data is stored in the database generated when you import all of the media (here you'll need an internet connection, naturally), only RSS feeds and weather won't work, but those are of course optional.

It is not based on XBMC/KODI. MediaPortal has a frontend/backend setup, so you'll have to run the Configuration.exe first unlike XBMC, but that's easy if I provide screen shots for you what to tweak, which I'd gladly help you with. It's also much more forgiving when importing media (no need to have each movie in it's own folder with as careful naming etc) than KODI is, the latter I try once a year or so to see if it can match MediaPortal's ease of media import, which IMHO, it can't. I've yet not found any codec type it's not been able to play, if you have odd file extensions other than .mp4, .mkv, .avi, .mov (like .dat or .hdmov) you'll need to add the extension so the media player will correctly know what to do, but that's a one time thing.

I use it with an Intel NUC I've had for many years and while it can't play 4K videos, it has no problem playing 1080p x265 material for example. The video quality is top notch too.

Adding media to it is as easy as having two different folders, one containing movies and one containing tv shows (optional). You can of course have several locations on different hard drives etc, then starting the import, either from the backend or by running MediaPortal while connected to the internet. When everything has been scraped, it's all saved for offline use. Mediaportal is still a 32 bit application, but 64 bit is coming soon (I'm using a 64 bit beta version now).

Edit: Uploaded a short video: https://youtu.be/uWgbdSwc6mo

[Dochartaigh]

It is not based on XBMC/KODI. MediaPortal has a frontend/backend setup, so you'll have to run the Configuration.exe first unlike XBMC, but that's easy if I provide screen shots for you what to tweak, which I'd gladly help you with. It's also much more forgiving when importing media (no need to have each movie in it's own folder with as careful naming etc) than KODI is, the latter I try once a year or so to see if it can match MediaPortal's ease of media import, which IMHO, it can't. I've yet not found any codec type it's not been able to play, if you have odd file extensions other than .mp4, .mkv, .avi, .mov (like .dat or .hdmov) you'll need to add the extension so the media player will correctly know what to do, but that's a one time thing.

Both MediaPortal's Wiki says "The MediaPortal source code was initially forked from XBMC (now Kodi)", and Kodi's Wiki says "Derivative applications such as MediaPortal and Plex have been spun off from XBMC or Kodi"... so it's DEFINITELY a fork of, and based off Kodi – this is why I still have worries about trying a different flavor since NO other flavor has worked for me (including the original Kodi).

I've also had no issue with movies either being in the root directory (usually movie file + .SRT subtitle file named the same), or if the movies are each in their own folder (usually named same as the movie name – always scans them properly and adds them to the library, and can usually be played for a few days before it bricks on my parents. Also only maybe 0.5% of movies aren't found - it's scrubber seems pretty robust to me.

[emphatic]

Huh, I really wasn't aware of the history of the code. I guess you learn something new every day. Anyhow, I made two more unlisted Youtube uploads with installation and setup if you wanna give it a try. I can PM you the links if so.

[drauch]

I can't really fathom anything pre-built that's going to pull both a picture AND a brief summary of each film. I just don't think it's very practical for most, which is why it seemingly doesn't exist, and the file names would have to be very clear to be accurate. I'm under the assumption these are either ripped/downloaded, so even doing that you're going to have a ton of discrepancy.

The picture part seems easy enough. I feel like something could be written with Wikipedia's .API or even IMDB's for the summary or tagline (and I guess potentially the picture). I've been automating long, tedious bullshit lately for my own stupid projects (renaming 20K+ files), but my working knowledge is super limited and I'm just altering powershell shiet.

Outside of this I feel like Roo's is the most logical, if conversely the most tedious.

Or just say fuck it and print screen the IMDB page for everything and create a guide they could browse through, see the pictures/descriptions, then open the file in its respective directory.

I truly don't think there's an easy way for this, especially for something not connected to the internet.

[Dochartaigh]

I can't really fathom anything pre-built that's going to pull both a picture AND a brief summary of each film. I just don't think it's very practical for most, which is why it seemingly doesn't exist, and the file names would have to be very clear to be accurate.

Just to make sure we're talking about the same thing – there's literally a hundred+ programs which do this. 'Scrapers' as they're called are used for everything from music/MP3's, to video games, to movies and TV shows... nearly every program we've been talking about here (Kodi, XBMC, MediaPortal, Plex, etc.) have these scrapers built in and they're pretty darn accurate... (entire websites, and many of them, dedicated to the artwork and descriptions used in these).

So the above part is done... the hard part is that nearly all of these systems HAVE to have an (seemingly constant) internet connection to work properly - which my parents do not have (and is not available at their vacation place... and no, they're not getting a satellite dish or whatever for beamed internet lol). Second issue is reliability... like Kodi seems to crap-out even when I DO have internet access lol.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Just to make sure we're talking about the same thing – there's literally a hundred+ programs which do this.

I mean, I get you make it sound like it should be easy to automate this, but if you've been trying to find a solution to this for over 10 years as you say, isn't it possible you should use a more simplified approach? The more complex a solution you use, the more headache it is if it breaks when you're not around to play tech support. Even if it requires a bit more work on your end either setting it up, or teaching your parents how to use a particular setup, it sounds like you're trying to use a fairly complex setup that has plenty of opportunities for going wrong. A less complex setup like BIL suggested where you just compile a binder with pages they can flip through like their own personal movie guide you made for them that's sorted alphabetically might well be the easiest solution, and they'd hopefully appreciate the effort you put in. It'd be perfect, and something physical is the sort of thing older folks who aren't tech savvy tend to love. It might take a weekend of typing work to get setup with their current movie library, but having that and then just the files opened in something like VLC Media Player really does seem like a better way to get your folks going, especially if you've been banging your head against this for a decade.

[emphatic]

So the above part is done... the hard part is that nearly all of these systems HAVE to have an (seemingly constant) internet connection to work properly - which my parents do not have (and is not available at their vacation place... and no, they're not getting a satellite dish or whatever for beamed internet lol). Second issue is reliability... like Kodi seems to crap-out even when I DO have internet access lol.

Just to prove my point about MediaPortal working without an Internet connection: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57MHZj9kCHI (I had to add youtube-music to not get a content hit, so it's currently finalizing).

[drauch]

Mmm, perhaps came off more ignorant on the matter than I intended. But if Plex and such is using the metadata to get the info, then pull it from IMDB/TMDB, etc., I see how it would be feasible to get a description as well. I'm more in-line with thinking how I would use such a thing, where a description would be superfluous for something you had yourself, imo. If there are truly '100+' of these, they're still getting them from the same online databases, obviously. My whole hangup was accurately collecting said metadata automatically, which I've never had good luck with when organizing music tracks, pulling album art, etc. Granted, I have rather esoteric taste in some regards, so I get it. And it sounds like you're running into a similar thing, probably since most of this came from RARBG lol (RIP ).

Re-reading, I'm seeing you're trying some of these major ones and having issues. As emphatic stated, you could just export/import the metadata (saw that Kodi allows this; Plex relies more on authorization from hosted servers), but that's not working for you. If that's the case I don't know who can help you here, honestly. Almost seems like a codec or incompatibility issue and would need more dedicated assistance from folks at the github/forum for whatever respective media server. But I mean, shiet, if this is seriously going on 10 years now just load this crap into Plex online and print screen each one. Knock it out over a weekend and go the Roo route. Or just buck up and use your phone as a hotspot for five minutes while you're at this cinematic cabin in the woods so ma and pa know what the fuck they're watching.

[Dochartaigh]

I mean, I get you make it sound like it should be easy to automate this, but if you've been trying to find a solution to this for over 10 years as you say, isn't it possible you should use a more simplified approach? The more complex a solution you use, the more headache it is if it breaks when you're not around to play tech support. Even if it requires a bit more work on your end either setting it up, or teaching your parents how to use a particular setup, it sounds like you're trying to use a fairly complex setup that has plenty of opportunities for going wrong. A less complex setup like BIL suggested where you just compile a binder with pages they can flip through like their own personal movie guide you made for them that's sorted alphabetically might well be the easiest solution, and they'd hopefully appreciate the effort you put in. It'd be perfect, and something physical is the sort of thing older folks who aren't tech savvy tend to love. It might take a weekend of typing work to get setup with their current movie library, but having that and then just the files opened in something like VLC Media Player really does seem like a better way to get your folks going, especially if you've been banging your head against this for a decade.

No offense to you guys, but you're not understanding the sheer number of files involved here: over 3,000 movies. Thousands of series episodes. Not only that but the library CONSTANTLY CHANGES!!! I'll be updating it whenever I see my parents (every couple weeks) where there will be a ton added/deleted as I constantly curate everything (I don't watch broadcast TV, just movies and series, so I watch a TON new content all the time).

For the magical binder idea... I don't even own a printer... Google says the largest 4" binder only holds 800 pages - and each movie/series/item would have to be on an individual page to facilitate the ability to add/remove at will (or would have to reprint EVERYTHING if there's multiple to a page)... we're talking about a minimum of FOUR 4" wide binders here... and you guys make it seems like this is the solution... sorry, but have to LOL at that

Not even talking about the ~multiple hour(s) it would be EVERY. SINGLE. ~bi-weekly UPDATE. to compare my new edited/curated library to the now-outdated binder, then pull/pluck and re-insert the new content... come on – that's just not going to happen.



The problem, just like the title says, is the "OFFLINE" part. These programs are actually stupidly simple. I setup new Plex libraries for my friends/family on a regular basis (that's my friend-job; along with maintaining their Raspberry Pi retro gaming devices too lol). WITH internet access, to have an entire library of 3,000+ movies setup you do this:

• Download Plex and sign-in
• Hit "+" in Libraries and select "movies"
• Choose the movies folder and hit "OK"
• On your Smart TV open Plex and sign-in, DONE!

Seriously, it's that easy. And these setups just run. Nearly ZERO issues... and because it works and looks SUPER similar to how smart TV's and set-top cable TV boxes have looked like forever now, even people who hadn't ever even owned a computer have VERY little issues using something like Plex (heck, my aunt who literally still owns a flip-phone was right at home within minutes).

...Now move the system OFFLINE... and it's a shit-storm - as this topic proves in excruciatingly painful detail lol (for me at least . That's the disconnect (literally and figuratively . That's the gap I need to bridge. So in my eyes, if it works perfect online, and there's already even mechanisms in programs like Kodi to move the artwork/metadata to a local folder... this really shouldn't be rocket science to get working offline, AND be easy to update, AND be easy to use, AND not give me all these issues! That's all this topic is about. I already have all these mechanisms in place which have been working great for years now... just need to get one working offline (which I will try MediaPortal if my last build my parents are getting bricks again).

[emphatic]

I already have all these mechanisms in place which have been working great for years now... just need to get one working offline (which I will try MediaPortal if my last build my parents are getting bricks again).

Mediaportal stores metadata in database files and artwork / thumbnails in folders locally. It won't work smoothly to copy over the pictures, but the databases can just be moved over if the root paths to the media are the same, like "d:\Movies". Should save you a lot of waiting if you have everything scraped in your own system already. Just make sure to keep a backup of the databases after you're done, because a power outtage could potentially corrupt it and without Internet, that's not as easy to fix as overwriting a database file.

[drauch]

You could automate almost everything we're suggesting (not suggesting a tangible printed binder, personally), but whatevs. Emphatic has given you the answers you seek. Try it.