This topic will explain the steps involved in creating a Movie Boxset Media Collection and the things to consider.

There are various ways Boxsets can be configured. Each with their advantages and drawbacks. In this tutorial we will focus on the 2 most common implementations.

• Scenario A, where you create a new Movie Boxset Media Collection using shortcuts to movies stored in another Media Collection like “Movies”.
• Scenario B, where you create a Movie Boxset setup inside an existing Media Collection like “Movies” using nested folders.

Fictitious setup

For this tutorial we're going to use an imaginary, existing Media Collection and folder structure to better explain what you need to do. We're also working on a Windows 7 machine, so some steps might use slightly different names for buttons and menu’s then what you would see on your machine if you're running Windows Vista.

Let’s say we have the following folder structure:

D:\Movies\District 9 (2009)\
D:\Movies\Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone (2001)\
D:\Movies\Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets (2002)\
D:\Movies\Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban (2004)\
D:\Movies\Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire (2005)\
D:\Movies\Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)\
D:\Movies\Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)\
D:\Movies\Kung Fu Panda (2008)\

This folder structure is used in a Media Collection called “Movies”.

We assume that the above or a similar setup is already in place on your machine.

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Scenario A

In this scenario we're going to create a new top level movies folder with a boxset folder in it for the Harry Potter collection. Inside that Harry Potter folder we're going to create shortcuts that point to your actual movie folders.

Configuration Steps

• Create a new folder on your `D:` drive called “Movies (Boxsets)”
• Inside that folder create a new folder called “Harry Potter”
• Go to D:\Movies and highlight the Harry Potter and the xxxxxx (yyyy) folders. (click on the first, hold the SHIFT key and click on the last so all folders will be highlighted)
• Right-click on any of the hightlighted folders and from the context menu select “copy”.
• Navigate back to the newly created Harry Potter folder in D:\Movies (Boxsets)\Harry Potter
• Right-click anywhere in the right side of windows explorer. From the context menu select “Paste shortcut”. Alternatively you can also choose “Edit > Paste shortcut” from the top menu bar in Windows Explorer.
  (important: do not select “paste”, but choose “paste shortcut”, otherwise you will make an entire copy of the movie folders instead of a link to the original ones)
• You will now see shortcuts inside the D:\Movies (Boxsets\Harry Potter folder that end with - Shortcut. There is no need to remove this as it will not be shown in Media Browser.

The result of this will be a folder structure like this:

D:\Movies\District 9 (2009)\
D:\Movies\Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone (2001)\
D:\Movies\Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets (2002)\
D:\Movies\Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban (2004)\
D:\Movies\Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire (2005)\
D:\Movies\Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)\
D:\Movies\Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)\
D:\Movies\Kung Fu Panda (2008)\

D:\Movies (Boxsets)\Harry Potter\Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone (2001) - Shortcut
D:\Movies (Boxsets)\Harry Potter\Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets (2002) - Shortcut
D:\Movies (Boxsets)\Harry Potter\Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban (2004) - Shortcut
D:\Movies (Boxsets)\Harry Potter\Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire (2005) - Shortcut
D:\Movies (Boxsets)\Harry Potter\Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) - Shortcut
D:\Movies (Boxsets)\Harry Potter\Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) - Shortcut

• Now launch the configurator and add a new Media Collection.
• Point the new Media Collection to D:\Movies (Boxsets) and set an optional icon for the collection.
• Exit the configurator and launch Media Browser.
• You will now see a new Media Collection on the Enhanced Home screen that has your Harry Potter Boxset in it.

Repeat the above for each Boxset that you want to create.

Important note: If you use shared folders that are used on multiple systems, make sure that you create the shortcuts using a network share (UNC path).

Instead, create a shortcut to `\SERVER\Movies\Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone (2001)`. Otherwise the shortcut target will be unavailable on the other systems.

You will probably want to add custom artwork for the Harry Potter folder. You find information about how to this below under “Adding artwork to the Boxset Folder”.

Benefits, Known Limitations and Additional Notes for Scenario A

• [Limitation] This method or organisation is known to cause duplicates when indexing movies by metadata such as actor or genre.
• [Note] If you move the actual movie folders, it’s likely that the created shortcuts are broken. The target is no longer available. You will need to recreate the shortcuts after you've moved them
• [Note] In case of DVD Rips stored in a video_ts folder, create the shortcut to the parent folder. Do not create the shortcut to the video_ts folder.

[improvement needed]

• benefits of this scenario
• consequences of this scenario
• limitations
• additional notes

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Scenario B

In this scenario we're going to create a Harry Potter folder inside the existing movies folder and move the individual Harry Potter movie folders inside it.

Configuration Steps

• Go to D:\Movies in Windows Explorer and create a new folder called “Harry Potter”.
• Go back to D:\Movies and highlight the “Harry Potter and the xxxxxx (yyyy)” folders. (click on the first, hold the SHIFT key and click on the last so all folders will be highlighted)
• Right-click on any of the hightlighted folders and from the context menu select “cut”.
• Navigate back to the newly created Harry Potter folder in D:\Movies
• Right-click anywhere in the right side of windows explorer. From the context menu select “Paste”. Alternatively you can also choose “Edit > Paste” from the top menu bar in Windows Explorer.

The result of this will be a folder structure like this:

D:\Movies\District 9 (2009)\
D:\Movies\Harry Potter\Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone (2001)\
D:\Movies\Harry Potter\Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets (2002)\
D:\Movies\Harry Potter\Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban (2004)\
D:\Movies\Harry Potter\Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire (2005)\
D:\Movies\Harry Potter\Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)\
D:\Movies\Harry Potter\Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)\
D:\Movies\Kung Fu Panda (2008)\

• Launch Media Browser and open the Media Collection “Movies”.
• You will now see that the collection contains a Harry Potter folder in which the individual movies are shown.

You will probably want to add custom artwork for the Harry Potter folder. You find information about how to this below under “Adding artwork to the Boxset Folder”.

Benefits, Known Limitations and Additional Notes for Scenario B

• benefits of this scenario
• consequences of this scenario
• limitations
• additional notes

[improvement needed]

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Adding artwork to the Boxset Folder

Using either scenario A or B you will probably want to add some artwork to the new “Harry Potter” folder so it looks awesome. To do this you will need to:

• Find and download appropriate artwork for the Boxset Collection. A good place find this is the Fanart Section.
• After you've downloaded the image(s) you want you will need to place the image you want for the Boxset in the “Harry Potter” folder and name it “folder.png” or “folder.jpg” (if it’s not named that already)
• You can also add backdrops to this folder as well.
• In case you use Starkcovers it is also highly recommended that you create a “folder.dna” file in the “Harry Potter” folder. This will prevent the custom artwork to be processed by Starkcovers again.

In case of Scenario A it would look like this:

D:\Movies (Boxsets)\Harry Potter\backdrop.jpg
D:\Movies (Boxsets)\Harry Potter\folder.dna
D:\Movies (Boxsets)\Harry Potter\folder.png
D:\Movies (Boxsets)\Harry Potter\Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone (2001) - Shortcut
D:\Movies (Boxsets)\Harry Potter\Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets (2002) - Shortcut
D:\Movies (Boxsets)\Harry Potter\Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban (2004) - Shortcut
D:\Movies (Boxsets)\Harry Potter\Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire (2005) - Shortcut
D:\Movies (Boxsets)\Harry Potter\Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) - Shortcut
D:\Movies (Boxsets)\Harry Potter\Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) - Shortcut

In case of Scenario B it will would look like this:

D:\Movies\Harry Potter\Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone (2001)\
D:\Movies\Harry Potter\Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets (2002)\
D:\Movies\Harry Potter\Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban (2004)\
D:\Movies\Harry Potter\Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire (2005)\
D:\Movies\Harry Potter\Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)\
D:\Movies\Harry Potter\Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)\
D:\Movies\Harry Potter\folder.dna
D:\Movies\Harry Potter\folder.png
D:\Movies\Harry Potter\backdrop.jpg

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Additional information:

General notes:

• Boxset Folders will only show up if no filtering is applied. Because Boxset Folders don’t contain an actual movie they are hidden from view if you filter by genre for example.

Some related topics that might be worth looking at:

• What is the recommended folder structure for media collection...
• Where do I get artwork to customize Media Browser?
• How to setup a "Movies by Genre" / "Movies by Actor" / "Movie...

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