What it is
TVExplorer is a replacement screen for the My TV screen. It duplicates most/all of the functionality on the My TV screens. It is similar to Windows Explorer and/or the Malore Menus.
Very customizable to get the exact look/feel the user is after
Fully supports fanart/posters/banners.
Multiple different grouping/sorting/filtering settings.
Displays imported TV (videos that are TV but are not part of the Sage recording DB) alongside recorded TV. (It is possible to limit the scope of the imported TV search to certain directories using pathfilterexpressions or a property item. I recommend doing this with large dvd/bd collections)
Leverages metadata collected by BMT or mediascraper to determine if a particular video is TV and also displays season/episode information
Filters groups by Record Year, Original Airing Year, or Season/Episode.
Installation Instructions
Shutdown SageTV including the service if installing on the server
(If upgrading from 1.0) Delete the TVExplorer working directory (usually C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\STVs\SageTV3\SageMCE\TVExplorer)
Extract the latest "TVExplorer_XXX.zip" (where XXX = the TVE Version) file to your sage installation directory (usually C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV)
Make sure you are running sagex 6.6.1 or later. You can check what sagex version you have installed in TVEOptions -> Info. You can get the latest sagex version here.
Restart SageTV
Load an STV WITHOUT TVE installed. This is important. TVE will not import correctly if an earlier version exists. The easiest way to accomplish this is to load the base SageMC STV (My Menu -> Settings -> Load STV). See here for more info. Note: You will need to reimport your other customizations after upgrading TVE if reverting back to the base SageMC STV.
Navigate to My Menu -> Settings -> Import STVi
Browse and Select TVExplorer_XXX.xml (where XXX = the TVE Version). Yes to import the STVi.
Show TVExplorer on the main menu. You have 2 choices here: Edit sage_menu.xml (in your installation directory)
Shutdown SageTV
Add the following to your sage_menu.xml file in your sage installation directory
1.01.040 3/6/2010
-add Alpha option for overlay transparency setting in Group cell (TVE Options -> Browser -> Overlay Alpha)
-Fix bug where the watched count and/or banner for a group would not display (or show null) when entering TVE.
-Fix bug where ignoring indefinite articles during sort was sorting things it shouldnt. For example (A.I... was sorting with I, rather then A). the method will only use " " as a word separator now. previously it also used "." and "_". At the programmers discresstion they can optionally pass additional separators to the method.
-fixed bug where when a mediafile was deleted at the end of playback navigation was corrupted when returned to TVE. If a mediafile is deleted and the group no longer exists TVE will apply default focus. If the group still exists TVE will remove the deleted mediafile from the list and set focus to next episode in the episode list.
-fixed bug where if you deleted the only episode in a group (Focus on Episode -> Options -> Delete) navigation would get corrupted
-updated ortus api (0.5.03.265)
1.01.038 3/3/2010
-Fix "Episode Sorting" menu title so it makes sense
-Store the UIContext after a fork where it sometimes would not get passed properly to the fork
-Add grouping option "Title: Original Air Date". Update Cell Time Display for new grouping option so the time displayed is the original airing date when grouping by that date.
-Left Selection Panel Width is now configurable from the UI (TVEOptions -> Browser -> Left Selection Panel Width)
-Update some ortus api metadatamethod names for consistency
-Fixed bug where when a show was deleted it would remain visible in TVE until TVE was reloaded
-Group Options is now wholly TVE and not linked to SageMC options menus.
-Episode Options is now wholly TVE and not linked to SageMC options menus.
-Group Options available from EpisodeFilterPanel for the currently Selected Filter (ie the currently display Episode List)
-Added Option to NOT display recorded TV (that is not a filter). TVEOptions -> ImportedTV -> Display Recorded TV (Default Enabled)
-Added Option to Disable Deleting mediafiles. TVEOptions -> Main -> Allow MediaFileDeletion (Default Enabled)
-Fixed some bugs with navigation to/from Episode Filter Panel.
-update ortus.api (0.5.03.263)
1.01.028 2/4/2010
-Make Left Selection Panel scrollable to make sure all options are displayed
-Fix bug where Imported TV that was a DVD object would not display (or group correctly)
-add Disc information in episode panel when displaying tv dvd discs (follows same format as Season Episode information)
-use ortus method ( ortus_api_GetFilePathForSegment(mf, 0) ) to return the path to the mediafile
-add segment information (number of segments) to expanded episode info
-add ortus logging options (TVE Options -> Ortus Config)
-Fix menu highlighting to use Scaling Insets
-Expand "Play" and "Group/Select" Navigation options (TVE Options -> Navigation)
-When an Episode Title is unknown (ie no mediatile, episode title, or description) display the filename instead of "Unknown"
-Load and Save TVE Options method name updated to latest ortus method names
-Update ortus.api version (0.5.03.254)
1.01.025 01/17/2010
New Features:
Rework UI to add more customization options
Rework Options screen for better navigation
Movies can be grouped into a single item
Protect Options screen with password. The default password is "0000" (no quotes). The password is disabled by default.
Ability to load/save TVEOptions.properties files. Makes saving different configurations a snap and it can be used to deploy settings across multiple machines
Auto generation of playlists for "Play All" functionality
Bug Fixes:
Group operations (Set All Watched, Archive All, Delete All, etc) work as expected
Preview Window display issues fixed
original air date sorting issues fixed
sorting by season episode fixed
Removed the incorrect property item for the Load Fanart Deley
