Glad to hear you got it sorted out. I personally consider using MySQL more trouble than it is worth but if you want share content and keep track of watched items across multiple installations it is definitely the best way. This is one reason why MediaBrowser looks like an interesting alternative to Kodi, although I think it still need to mature a bit.
Jitterjames -- also when you said that GenXML doesn't actually generate the information and really is just grabbing information from Kodi (which is generated from a scrape). Where can I find the actual Kodi information if I wanted to change the data (say, if actors are missing).
That is not what I said. I said (or meant) that the VC command which announces songs is asking Kodi for information and that this has nothing to do with GenXML, and nothing to do with your PayloadXMLs.
If you want to edit metadata for items in your Kodi library I think you need to either do it in Kodi or in MySQL.
If actors are missing, then normally you don't need to do this manually, you just need to set Kodi up to automatically look for this information using scrapers. I guess it depends on what kind of content you have in your library. Certainly with mainstream English movies etc. it can always find this information automatically. But this all a matter of learning how to use Kodi, not VC.
The other question is, is there any way to exclude certain videos from VC announcing the name and actors? I ask because I have a Screensaver add-on that cycles between a few videos (ambient visualizations, fireplace, etc.) but VC also announces those. I want to exclude those from the list. Sorry, don't really understand XJson.Raw so need some guidance.
Do I just go into XBMCpayloads and look for, say, the fireplace entry and delete it?
Thanks!
Again, editing your XBMC payloads will have absolutely no effect on this. Those payloads are (normally) only used for creating the voice commands so that you can ask for media items by name.
If you want to exclude certain items then you need to find a way to identify those items. If you can post a log of how the current command is working with normal items and then with the screensaver items, I can look to see if there is an easy way to differentiate between them. It is probably just a question of using a logic block, and possibly a regex action.