A quick startup pass

XBMC Media Companion (I think) has an interesting idea, it first makes a quick scan thru all the files and asks the user to choose the show if it can't be sure (like Battle Star Galactica if its the original or the remake) and when it's done with everything that needs user input (which only takes like a couple of minutes overall) then it goes on doing all its stuff like downloading or renaming or whatever else it needs to do.

Another thing XBMC Media Companion does which I like (because I am using XBMC so I am biased ) is to create .nfo files and put the posters/fan art in each show folder. This is better than a central cache IMO for a couple of reasons
-First you can manually go thru each folder and check exaclty what it has and has not found
-You can manually modify them or just delete the ones which are wrong instead of having to delete the whole cache for every show
-And most importantly for me it saves XBMC from downloading that info for every show.
-If you delete a show then you no longer need its information
-When reinstalling windows or formatting this would mean that the downloaded data is lost and you have to start over (I know you can install to another drive but still who remembers? ) but when the data is already with the media files one can be sure that it will survive

I just got XBMC installed and I am going thru my library to get it properly set up for XBMC, so my plan right now is to use Tvrename to properly sort everything then use XBMC Media Companion to download all the info but I am not sure if this will work properly and it seems inefficient to redownload the data using another program when Tvrename already has it.
So maybe just add an option to save the data already in the central cache to each folder, that way those who like it central and those who need it embedded with the media can both be happy

*This should've been in the feature requests

XBMC Media Companion (I think) has an interesting idea, it first makes a quick scan thru all the files and asks the user to choose the show if it can't be sure

Have you tried the "Folder Monitor" tab? The general idea there is that you point it at your media library, and it goes through trying to guess the shows and get them set up for you. It does sound like XBMC is a bit more streamlined, though.

Saving .nfo and .tbn files for XBMC, and having a "folder.jpg" are on my list of things I want to do soon. If the data that XBMC (companion) needs saved in each folder isn't too far off what I get from thetvdb, adding the option to litter your computer with those files wouldn't be hard to do.

Saving .nfo and .tbn files for XBMC, and having a "folder.jpg" are on my list of things I want to do soon. If the data that XBMC (companion) needs saved in each folder isn't too far off what I get from thetvdb, adding the option to litter your computer with those files wouldn't be hard to do.

LOL...Yeah I would love for TVRename to litter my harddisk :p
The files needed by XBMC are like this,

1. fanart.jpg
   Along with several fanart?.jpg for all the fanart it could find (it can manage which one is the main one, ie named just fanart.jpg) these are used as a background graphic[/*:m]
   
2. folder.jpg
   A wide icon acting as the main thumbnail for each show[/*:m]
   
3. season??.tbn
   These are the thumbnails for each season. Just a jpg file named as tbn[/*:m]
   
4. tvshow.nfo
   This is the important file which has all the info about the show. It is like this
   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<tvshow>
<title>The Mentalist</title>
<rating>9.3</rating>
<season>-1</season>
<episode>0</episode>
<displayseason>-1</displayseason>
<displayepisode>-1</displayepisode>
<episodeguideurl>http://thetvdb.com/api/6E82FED600783400/series/82459/all/en.zip</episodeguideurl>
<plot>The Mentalist tells the tale of Patrick Jane who is employed as an independent detective working with the California Bureau of Investigation to solve crimes. He has refined his observations skills to a near perfect level and lends these skills to the CBI to help them solve cases. The team that he works with consists of the senior agent, Teresa Gibson, agents Kimball Cho &amp; Wayne Rigsby and the rookie, Grace Van Pelt.</plot>
<thumb>&lt;thumbs&gt;&lt;thumb&gt;http://thetvdb.com/banners/posters/82459-1.jpg&lt;/thumb&gt;&lt;thumb&gt;http://thetvdb.com/banners/graphical/82459-g4.jpg&lt;/thumb&gt;&lt;thumb&gt;http://thetvdb.com/banners/graphical/82459-g7.jpg&lt;/thumb&gt;&lt;thumb&gt;http://thetvdb.com/banners/graphical/82459-g6.jpg&lt;/thumb&gt;&lt;thumb&gt;http://thetvdb.com/banners/graphical/82459-g2.jpg&lt;/thumb&gt;&lt;thumb&gt;http://thetvdb.com/banners/graphical/82459-g.jpg&lt;/thumb&gt;&lt;thumb&gt;http://thetvdb.com/banners/graphical/82459-g3.jpg&lt;/thumb&gt;&lt;thumb&gt;http://thetvdb.com/banners/graphical/82459-g5.jpg&lt;/thumb&gt;&lt;thumb type=&quot;season&quot; season=&quot;1&quot;&gt;http://thetvdb.com/banners/seasons/82459-1.jpg&lt;/thumb&gt;&lt;/thumbs&gt;</thumb>
<mpaa></mpaa>
<watched>false</watched>
<id>tt1196946</id>
<tvdbid>82459</tvdbid>
<genre>Drama</genre>
<premiered>2008-09-23</premiered>
<studio>CBS</studio>
<actor>
<name>Simon Baker</name>
<role>Patrick Jane</role>
<thumb>http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTQ4NTUwODYyOV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNzEyNTUyMQ@@._V1._SX100_SY136_.jpg</thumb>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>Robin Tunney</name>
<role>Teresa Lisbon</role>
<thumb>http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTI2NzYyNTA4N15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNjA0NjQxMQ@@._V1._SX99_SY140_.jpg</thumb>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>Tim Kang</name>
<role>Kendall Cho</role>
<thumb>http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMjM1NTExNTg1MF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwODQ3MTkxMQ@@._V1._SX100_SY140_.jpg</thumb>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>Owain Yeoman</name>
<role>Wayne Rigsby</role>
<thumb>http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTUxOTYyNTQ1M15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNTEwMjEyMQ@@._V1._SX100_SY105_.jpg</thumb>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>Amanda Righetti</name>
<role>Grace Van Pelt</role>
<thumb>http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTMyODIzOTk1NF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwOTMwNjAy._V1._SX92_SY140_.jpg</thumb>
</actor>
</tvshow>
[/*:m][/list:u]
   Then inside each season folder there are two files names exactly as each episode but with differnet extnsions
   
   1. NFO
      which has the episode information formatted like this,
      <episodedetails>
<title>Red John</title>
<season>1</season>
<episode>1</episode>
<plot>This episode introduces us to the complex life of Patrick Jane, a police detective with a troubled past who has a keen eye for detail. When a man and woman are found dead in their home, many believe they are victims of a serial killer, but Patrick knows better and must prove that this was not the work of Red John.</plot>
<thumb>http://thetvdb.com/banners/episodes/82459-374699.jpg</thumb>
<watched>false</watched>
<credits>Bruno Heller</credits>
<director>David Nutter</director>
<aired>2008-09-23</aired>
<actor>
<name>Mary Alexandra Stiefvater</name>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>Mandy McMillian</name>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>Jeffrey Nordling</name>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>Zeljko Ivanek</name>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>Jack Plotnick</name>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>Michael Holden</name>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>Angela Martinez</name>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>Gail O'Grady</name>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>D. David Morin</name>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>Shaun Toub</name>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>Lana Asanin</name>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>Steven Culp</name>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>Tim Guinee</name>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>Tara Karsian</name>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>Mark Llewelyn</name>
</actor>
</episodedetails>
[/*:m]
      
   2. TBN
      A jpg file which has the episode thumbnail[/*:m][/list:u]
      All of this info is already downloaded from thetvdb so I suppose you can format it the same way.
      
      Currently I use three programs when I add another episode. First is SmartRename (just because it has right-click integration so its faster) to rename the file and place in its folder. Second is XBMC to scrape all the info about the episode along with its thumbnail. Third, optionally, is ACDSee to resize the images to 800*600 so my poor XBOX can handle it with its limited memory.
      
      Now all you have to do is make TVRename handle all of this automatically so I only have to use a single program

Cool. Thanks for the detail info. I've also got the specs from the xbmc site bookmarked, so I'll have a look into it. I'm using XBMC on an xbox myself, which will help motivate me to get this stuff done

I'm using XBMC on an xbox myself

You could've said that before I spent half an hour of my life typing all of that