Searching for files

[dortmunder]

Hi.  I'm almost ready to buy a Q10 but would like to clarify something first.  All my videos have a filename chosen by me which means I have no interest in 'scraping'.  With my old WDTV LiveHub, pressing the 'Search' button on the remote brought up an onscreen keyboard and you would spell out what you wanted using the direction and Enter buttons.

Does the Q10 allow you search through your files in a similar (or maybe even easier) way?

And does such a search cover the entire disk and not merely whichever sub-folder you're currently in?

Thank you.

[dortmunder]

Perhaps I didn't express myself well enough.  If I took my existing HDD full of video files and fitted it to the Q10, would the Q10 be able to search the filenames of those videos (without having to 'scrape')?

Thank you.

[stl]

That's entirely software dependent. With an android box like the Q10 you can install almost any app from the playstore like in a phone or tablet so the answer is yes, with the right software. The best way to go would be using a media player like Kodi but there are others.

[maelor]

The Q10 comes with "Media Centre". This does not scrape files. and it does allow you to look through folders and then click on video or music files to play them.  But there is no Search option so It would not be suitable for you.

If you want to search, you would need to install a file manager app. Most Android file managers can be installed on the Q10. I use "File Commander" but you could also try "Fx", "Total Commander", etc.. "File Commander" allows you to search for any file anywhere on the Q10 and then click on that file (if it's a video or music file)  to play it. But you won't get the same range of controls that you have on Kodi!

Kodi will only scrape files which are within its Library.  When you first set up Kodi YOU will say which folders on the HDD you want  to be part of Kodi's Library.

Basically, these are defined as: Music (e.g. files stored in a folder named "music", and its sub-folders, on the HDD) and Video (e.g. files stored in a folder named "video", and its sub-folders, on the HDD).

But you can create any other folders you want: "holiday_videos"; "trip_to_usa"; etc. and then add them to the Kodi Library .... or not if you don't want to!

You need to read through the Kodi Wiki:
https://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Create_Video_Library
https://kodi.wiki/view/Naming_video_files/Movies

But there is another little trick you can do in Kodi. You can create a simple empty file (using something like Notepad) and save it with the name ".nomedia" and copy  this file in any folder, or sub-folder, on your HDD and Kodi will not scan or scrape any of the files in that folder or sub-folder to the Library!

[dortmunder]

That's very helpful, thanks so much for your time.  Out of curiosity, if Kodi scrapes files within Kodi Library, what would happen to "trip_to_usa" if you were to put that folder into the Library - there's not going to be an internet database of that, is there?!

[maelor]

what would happen to "trip_to_usa" if you were to put that folder into the Library - there's not going to be an internet database of that, is there?!

If you add the folder to the Kodi Library then all videos in that folder will be scanned to the Kodi Library and scraped from "The Movie Database" or the "Universal Movie Scraper". When it fails to find your videos it will generate a list of errors in Kodi's Event Log, but it will probably add the videos to the Kodi Library, but with a random screenshot from the video replacing the DVD Cover Image and with no details about the video.

But you can change the properties of any folder in the Kodi Library to "This directory contains" - Movies/Music Videos/TV Shows/None. If you select "None" then that will also stop the scrape taking place. Kodi is very flexible and has lots of settings which should get around your problem.