HOW TO: Generate MovieSheets with Thumbgen

Let's see an example step by step how to generate MovieSheets with ThumbGen.

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There are three main steps:
1 - Configure Settings
2 - Select File(s)
3 - Select data and generate MovieSheet

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1 - Configure Settings

- Download the latest version of ThumbGen from here.
- Now download osdMod templates from here. (Check the lastest version)
- Unzip the file "ThumbGen.exe" in a new folder called "ThumbGen"
- Run the file "ThumbGen.exe."
- Without closing the program, return to the folder "ThumbGen", we have these automatically generated files and folders:

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- Open the folder "Templates" and copy the content from the folder "osdMod_Templates_X.X" inside, this folder contains the templates to generate the MovieSheets.

- Let's go back to the program and we will see the main screen.
- First, look for updates clicking the "Check upate" button at the bottom right:

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- Now we must set the sources of where we want to seek information and set the preferred sources, I have chosen the spanish main sources, but you can check the appropriate for your languaje or preferences:

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1: Check the source Alpacine.com, it has cover art and movie information in Spanish.
2: Check the source Alpacine.com as preferred for the covers.
3: Check the source FilmAffinity.com/es, which also has cover art and movie information in Spanish.
4: Check the source FilmAffinity.com/es as preferred to get the information.
5: Check the source MoviePosterDB.com, it has covers from all languages.
6: Check the source TheMovieDB.org has covers and backgrounds.

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Now we have to configure some options:

1: By checking this option we can change the title to prevent a bad title search.
2: Open the option menu.

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In the option menu we will see several tabs at the bottom, let's go configuring the options:

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1: Go to the tab "General".
2: Now go to the section that allows you to select what files will be generated and check "Moviesheet".
3: Check also "Moviesheet metadata" that will generate a file with the data obtained, this will enable us not having to make the whole process if we want to rebuild the MovieSheets with another different template.

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1: Go to the tab "Moviesheets".
2: Now we will set the maximum size should have the MovieSheets, first uncheck "No limit".
3: Set a size limit, it should work with "500000", but if you experience problems you could set it to "450000" or "400000", for example.

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1: Now jump to the tab "Advanced Settings"
2: Select the correct name to be taken by the MovieSheets according to the way we have to show them, in this case, is chosen the option to generate them with the generic name for WDlxTV firmware: "$M\$N$E_sheet"
3: Press "Ok" to save all settings.

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We have finished configuring the program, now we will select the films from we want to generate Moviesheets.

1: Go to file chooser.

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Select File(s)

Now we will open another window from which you can select the files, from this window we can slect to show archives already contain covers, moviesheets, metadata, etc... all of this will be indicated by an icon at the end of each filename. In addition, you can select to display only files that do NOT contain certain information by checking the boxes on the top.

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1: Check the files you want to generate moviesheets from.
2: Start the search.

NOTE: If the selected file has a previously generated moviesheet, we can see that it appears in the upper right, technical ifo appears below.

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We will return to the main window and we'll see a box to refine our search:

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1: Write the correct title of the film.
If in the title appears words as "dual", "subtitled", "SOV", etc., which are in the name of the file, maybe it won't find the movie, remove these types of words and set only the title, in this case "casino royale"
2: Start the search.

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After a search period, it will be opened another box with the found movies for that name, surely the title of these films will appear with its original title, the movie usually appearing the first will be the right, but if we see that the year is not the same of that movie we're looking for, we must select it appropriate:

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1: Select the right film.
2: Accept.

After selecting the movie, it'll begin looking for information on the selected databases. (It may take a while)

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3 - Select data and generate MovieSheet

It will be opened a new window from which we select data from all sources where it found information.

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We will see a new window with several areas:

1: "Search results", here will appear all the sources where information was found.
2: "Thumbnail / Cover", here will appear cover art selecting sources from "Search results"
3: "Movie information", here will appear the information of the film, we can select the source of this information from the pulldown menu "Info source"
4: "backgound / Backdrop / Fanart" here will appear the background images found.
5: "Menu" here we can set some parameters, here will appear previosly generated files for this film.
6: "Moviesheet", we can select the template from here and preview it before building.
7: "Menu Buttons", we can move from here to the next movie or go to the main menu.

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Start at the "Moviesheets" area.

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1: Update the template list .
2: Select the desired template, in this case "ESP_osdMod_SHEET."

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Now go to the "Search results" and "Thumbnail/Cover area"

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1: In this panel we will arrange all the information sources found. First we want to select the cover that will appear in our moviesheet. In this example we have choose the image "Image 1" at "MoviePosterDB.com"
2: Click this button to place this image as a cover in our moviesheet.

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Now let's go to the "Search results" and "Movie information" area:

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1: In this drop-down menu, select the information source of our movie, in this case "Preferred collector" is selected, but you can select:
"Preferred collector" will choose the information from the provider that we have chosen as a favorite on the main screen.
"Current collector" will choose the information from the provider that is currently selected in the "Search results".
"IMDb Movie Info" will choose information from the IMDb.com
"My own movie info" will choose the information from the .nfo file, if it exist.
"Metadata movie info" will choose the information from the metadata, if it exist.
2: Click this button to place this information in our moviesheet.

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Now go to the area "Search results" and "backgound / Backdrop / Fanart", from here we can select a custom background for each film, if you do not want a custom background, click the "Load from disk" button and search the template folder, you will see the default osdMod background, select it and click the button marked as "2" to set it as background.

- If you want a different background, you must do the following:

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1: Find a provider who has custom backgrounds (indicated by the first icon), in this case "TheMovieDB.org."
2: Go to the zone "backgound / Backdrop / Fanart" and press the button marked below the image you want as the background ,so that it will appears in the film moviesheet.

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Finally, return to the area "Moviesheet" from where we will generate the moviesheet:

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1: With these buttons we can preview the final result and change the data before generating the moviesheet.
2: Press "Generate", you will see that the boxes are marked to generate the overview and metadata as we did in the setup menu.
3: We reported that the synopsis is generated correctly.

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Now that we have generated our moviesheet, we will select the buttons at the bottom of what we do:

"I'm done! Go to next" skips to the next film.
"Skip movie" jumps to the next film.
"Adjust keywords ..." back to search for the movie again specifying the search words.
"Options ..." open the options menu
"Abort all" we go to the home screen even more films are selected.

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Ready! Here is the final result:

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This is another in SHEET format, so you can display the list of covers on the bottom:

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If this tutorial has helped, I encourage you to leave a small donation in order to continue developing. Thank you.