Using Movie Sheets

A movie sheet is a jpeg image that shows the detail information of a movie or video, along with graphic images such as the movie poster, and various scenes from the movie.Some of the information usually included on the move sheet is a description of the movie, the genre, a list of the actors, the director, the star rating, the MPAA rating, the release year, and the runtime.It can also include information about the media such as the encoding type, audio bitrate, audio channels, video bitrate, video framerate, aspect ratio, and file size.

 

For Windows users, probably the easiest way to generate a movie sheet is to use a program called ThumbGen.ThumbGen uses templates to define the information and graphics which will appear on the movie sheets.You can use one of the many templates already designed by other users, or you can design your own template.ThumbGen extracts the movie information from various internet movie databases to display on the movie templates.This makes an easy automatic way of obtaining information and graphics for your movie collection. If your videos reside on a Mac or Linux machine, you can still generate the ThumbGen files on a Windows machine, and copy them to your video directory.

Here are some sample movie sheets.

  

Avatar Movie Sheet

Sleepy Hollow

 

For movies or videos which don't have internet movie database information, you can manually create your own movie sheets using any graphic editor such as Photoshop.

ThumbGen can also create posters (thumbnails), and information (.nfo) files which contain just the movie information without the graphics.Roksbox can use these information files in place of XML files to display the movie information on the Roksbox screens.This is a nice alternative to manually creating individual XML files for each movie when using the Roksbox directory structure method.

If available, Roksbox will use the movie sheet and information file whether you are using the directory structure, or a single XML file.If you are using the directory structure, the movie sheet and information file must be in the same folder as the movie.If you are using a single XML file, the movie sheet and information file can be in the same folder as the movie, or it can be in the folder where your poster is located (specified in the XML file).

Use the following naming conventions for the thumbnails, information files, and movie sheets:

Thumbnail:<filename>.jpg

Information Files:<filename>.nfo

Movie Sheets:<filename><.ext>_sheet.jpg

The correct setup in ThumbGen under Options -> Input/Output Naming would be:

Thumbnail:$M\$N.jpg

Movieinfo export:$M\$N.nfo

Main moviesheet:$M\$N$E_sheet.jpg

This will place the files in the same folder as the movie. To use a different folder, change the appropriate entries.

In Roksbox, if a movie sheet is available for a movie, it will show up in place of the normal detail screen when you select a movie from the standard poster screen or from the grid screen.Also, if you use the grid screen, the information from the ThumbGen information file will appear in the information box that appears for the movie that is focused.

For complete information on installing and using ThumbGen, visit the ThumbGen website at http://thumbgen.org.You don't need the ThumGen Designer unless you want to design your own templates.

Since Roksbox uses the bottom half of the movie sheet to provide play and exit options, the best movie sheet templates to use are the ones which do not have any text information on the bottom half.The following templates work well with Roksbox, but you can experiment with others to find which ones you prefer.

http://www.wdtvlive.net/showthread.php?1-Dribblers-Template-Mega-Pack

http://www.wdtvlive.net/showthread.php?179-Lstar337-s-Split-Sheet-Templates

A complete list of available templates is at:

http://www.wdtvlive.net/forumdisplay.php?10-Moviesheets

 

 

 

Steps to use ThumbGen to generate posters, movie sheets, and information files for Roksbox:

 

 

  1. Download and install ThumbGen from http://thumbgen.org.
  2. Download and install a ThumbGen template from http://www.wdtvlive.net/forumdisplay.php?10-Moviesheets. (Templates with no text in the bottom portion work best in Roksbox.)
  3. Make the following settings in the ThumbGen Options:

General

Generate:

Thumbnail

Movie information

Main moviesheet

Main/Extra moviesheet metadata

Moviesheets

Current Moviesheets Templates:

Main: (select your preferred movisheet)

Input/Output Naming

 

Thumbnail:$M\$N.jpg

Movieinfo export:$M\$N.nfo

Main moviesheet:$M\$N$E_sheet.jpg

Main/Extra metadata: $M\$N$E.tgmd

 

After ThumbGen is setup properly, use Process files/folders to generate the files. Refer to the ThumbGen documentation at http://thumbgen.org for complete information on using ThumbGen.

You can also use ThunbGen nfo files to organize your video categories. For more information on using nfo files to organize your categories, click here.

NOTE: ThumbGen is a Windows application and does not run under Linux/Mac. If your videos reside on a Mac or Linux machine, you can still generate the ThumbGen files on a Windows machine, and copy them to your video directory.