A single location for all video?

[robbc]

I am getting very close to replacing my ReplayTV (along with a bunch of other components) with my shiny new SageTV box. The one thing stopping me is the confusion between:

Recordings - Current recordings
Archived Recordings - Recordings tagged as archived?
Imported Videos - 450 ReplayTV shows

I think I want a single location to find items, preferably organized by category. For example "Modern Marvels", "Drama", etc. Looking in three locations for a movie I recorded is annoying.

Any suggestions on how to organize DVDs, local recordings, prior imported recordings, etc. so they are in a central location?

Thanks

[GKusnick]

In a sense they are all in one place, i.e. there's only one database containing all your media. The various screens are just different ways of filtering that database. Some of the third-party skins may provide different filtering options than the standard UI; check the Downloads section for details.

There are also third-party tools for importing programs into the SageTV Recordings list instead of into the Imported Videos section, assuming you have episode info available.

As for the Archived section, I personally never use that feature for just this reason. I prefer to keep all recorded TV shows together in the SageTV Recordings list, no matter how old they are.

However I do consider movies and music videos to be separate categories from recorded TV, so I don't mind looking in different lists for those. So the notion of "all video in one place" doesn't really work for me.

[Opus4]

BTW: You can combine archived recordings into the SageTV Recordings screen by using the Options command on the Recordings menu & changing the Display Filter setting.

Other than that, the default STV lists imported videos and recordings separately.

- Andy

[robbc]

Thanks, that clears things up a little. I went hunting for a program importing into the recordings list but could not find it. Do you by chance remember it, or maybe a keyword or two.

I have episode information for my ReplayTV recordings (XML) and I am going to convert them to the .properties style for SageTV importing. At least that's what I am going to try. I have found only fragments of documentation, no real how to. Stranger69 provided me the threads that refer to this process. I wonder if the .properties file can specify which logical category the files go into (Import vs. Recording)?

Originally Posted by GKusnick

In a sense they are all in one place, i.e. there's only one database containing all your media. The various screens are just different ways of filtering that database. Some of the third-party skins may provide different filtering options than the standard UI; check the Downloads section for details.

There are also third-party tools for importing programs into the SageTV Recordings list instead of into the Imported Videos section, assuming you have episode info available.

As for the Archived section, I personally never use that feature for just this reason. I prefer to keep all recorded TV shows together in the SageTV Recordings list, no matter how old they are.

However I do consider movies and music videos to be separate categories from recorded TV, so I don't mind looking in different lists for those. So the notion of "all video in one place" doesn't really work for me.

[robbc]

Originally Posted by Opus4

BTW: You can combine archived recordings into the SageTV Recordings screen by using the Options command on the Recordings menu & changing the Display Filter setting.

Other than that, the default STV lists imported videos and recordings separately.

- Andy

Thanks. Good to know its an interface issue and not a core design issue. I have looked at some interface STVs but so far haven't been comfortable installing them. Sounds like its time to make some backups and spend time trying them out. Any general suggestions on which ones to try?

[GKusnick]

I believe Nielm's web server now supports import of show info in XML form. The exact XML format is probably not what you have currently, so you'd need an XML-to-XML converter, but that's no harder than converting to .properties files.

I haven't tried the .properties import myself, but I believe that files imported that way remain in the Imported Videos section, whereas files imported through the web server go into the Recordings section. Not 100% sure on that however.