Graphics/Icons for folders

Phydeaux · #1 01-14-2009, 01:23 PM

I've searched the forums and can't quite find what I'm looking for. What I'm wanting is to associate a graphic with a folder for TV series in a similar way to how graphics show up for my DVDs and movies. Further, I would like to see a graphic or icon for the individual media files within the various TV Series folders.

I'm organized like this, probably similar or identical to most people:

TV Series\Top Gear\Series 01\Episode01.avi , Episode02.avi , Episode03.avi.... etc.

This displays a Top Gear folder that says "12 Items" (there are 12 Series folders beneath). Drilling down into that folder I now see folders for the various series with "10 Items" etc in them, representing the number of video files in each folder. What I really want is to see a series relevant graphic instead of the generic folder graphic - something like the following:

I would like to use a "Top Gear.jpg" for the Top Gear folder, a "Series 01.jpg" for the Series 01 folder and a general "Top Gear Icon.jpg" for all the avi files (instead of the useless first frame that they currently display).

Note that I'm not talking about wallpaper within the folder - although I'm curious about how to do that as well...

How do I accomplish this or how do I need to re-organize my file/folder structure in order to accomplish this? Also, what types of graphics files can be used?

I'm using the latest beta of SageTV and the latest SageMC.

Thanks,
RLW

Peter_h · #2 01-14-2009, 02:54 PM

Currently, this can't be done.

This is a very highly requested feature.

This is a change that has to do with the way in which the files are handled in the sage core. So, changes with sagetv will need to be made.

You can do what I have and everyone else has done and put in a feature request under the support section. Hopefully, they make this change soon.

-Peter

popechild · #3 01-14-2009, 03:29 PM

Yeah, this has been requested many, many times. Peter, can you explain at all what it is that needs to be changed in the core that prevents this from being done at the Studio level? I was thinking about diving into Studio for a handful of minor things, but this was one of the ones on my list.

Peter_h · #4 01-14-2009, 04:32 PM

This would be best answered by someone more knowledgeable like mike (meinmaui).

My understanding is that the way sagetv pulls all of the media is on a filesystem structure. The files are found and then the folder and directory structure is stored in a database. It does not look for groupings and is not coded to. This is why when you use another view such as genre, all of your boxed set movie files or tv series files all appear there. All of the folders and directory structure is hidden to try to make it easier to navigate because in the end, you don't want to be going up and down through folders.

As far as I am aware, there is not anything to treat the files that are grouped together as a single entity with a tier under it. It simple doesn't know that it is supposed to be looking for that.

Sage would have to change the way it identifies these file structures and then change the way it handles them. More than likely, storing these in some type of database and adding a few steps to the configuration of media files.

Opus4 · #5 01-14-2009, 04:44 PM

There is nothing in the core that prevents an STV from loading an image for a folder path. Linking an image to a path just isn't a built-in feature of the core.

- Andy

Peter_h · #6 01-14-2009, 04:54 PM

Yes, but the only way to view these boxed sets (folders with episodes in them) is to view it in the filesystem view.

The fies are not handled the same way in the other views. Meaning, they are no longer grouped. Is that something that can also be changed in studio? In addition to that, would it have to be a manual process for each boxed set?

Phydeaux · #7 01-15-2009, 12:32 PM

And yet, this kind of works with movies. I have:

\Movies\Two Mules for Sister Sarah\Two Mules for Sister Sarah.mkv

After a DVD Profiler import there is now a folder.jpg in the same folder as the .mkv file (thumbnail copied from DVD Profiler) that shows up instead of a folder icon in my movies list. Why can't I just put a Top Gear graphic, renamed folder.jpg, in my Top Gear folder and have it show instead of the folder icon? I mean I know that doesn't work... but what's so different about that? Why does SageMC display the folder.jpg for the Two Mules... folder, but not if I just drop a folder.jpg into another folder?

If that alone could work, then I guess as a work-around to viewing the media files themselves as graphics or icons, you could make individual folders for each episode of a TV series.

RLW

popechild · #8 01-15-2009, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phydeaux

And yet, this kind of works with movies. I have:

\Movies\Two Mules for Sister Sarah\Two Mules for Sister Sarah.mkv

After a DVD Profiler import there is now a folder.jpg in the same folder as the .mkv file (thumbnail copied from DVD Profiler) that shows up instead of a folder icon in my movies list. Why can't I just put a Top Gear graphic, renamed folder.jpg, in my Top Gear folder and have it show instead of the folder icon? I mean I know that doesn't work... but what's so different about that? Why does SageMC display the folder.jpg for the Two Mules... folder, but not if I just drop a folder.jpg into another folder?

If that alone could work, then I guess as a work-around to viewing the media files themselves as graphics or icons, you could make individual folders for each episode of a TV series.

RLW

Yeah, if any given folder just automatically displayed whatever folder.jpg was located in it as its icon, that would enable doing pretty much anything we wanted to do in folder view.

Peter_h · #9 01-15-2009, 02:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by popechild

Yeah, if any given folder just automatically displayed whatever folder.jpg was located in it as its icon, that would enable doing pretty much anything we wanted to do in folder view.

That's an interesting and yet very simple way of looking at it. I wonder how difficult it would be to implement that.

That might work for filesystem view but it still doesn't group the shows or episodes in the other views. I would be fine with this though as the family has gotten used to the filesystem view.

Can Mike or Dirk comment on if this is doable or if we are completely wrong?

toony · #10 03-02-2009, 07:05 AM

I have been trying to figure this out as well. I would love to drop a folder.jpg into any sub folder and have sage show it as the icon in folder view.... Good thing I searched cause I was about to make a post on this.

It's seems fairly basic to make happen, but then what do I know.

skyeclad · #11 03-02-2009, 09:44 AM

I can't even figure out how to give a custom group an icon that isn't a movie image from within the group. I tried making a custom group i.e. Skyeclad's Pix and then into the GenreIcons folder for the theme I put in a jpg:

Skyeclad's Pix_folder.jpg

But it never gets picked up like other Genre Icons. Am I putting the image in the wrong folder or using the wrong naming convention?

jaminben · #12 03-02-2009, 10:42 AM

I'm pretty sure that placing a different folder.jpg into each sub folder of your TV season folders won't work as it'll just pick the first one it comes to and display that image for all other folders. The only way that I can see to make this work would be to name your folder.jpg something like season01_folder.jpg, but this cannot be done currently. Maybe in the near future we will see this sort of feature in SageMC

toony · #13 03-02-2009, 01:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaminben

I'm pretty sure that placing a different folder.jpg into each sub folder of your TV season folders won't work as it'll just pick the first one it comes to and display that image for all other folders. The only way that I can see to make this work would be to name your folder.jpg something like season01_folder.jpg, but this cannot be done currently. Maybe in the near future we will see this sort of feature in SageMC

I've tried many different file names, but it seems to always pick up the image from the first file and ignore the folder image.

jaminben · #14 03-02-2009, 01:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by toony

I've tried many different file names, but it seems to always pick up the image from the first file and ignore the folder image.

Yep, thats what I was getting at, sorry I didn't explain myself better

Phydeaux · #15 03-17-2009, 01:05 PM

In My Videos, with display settings using File System, I have the following directories:

Documentaries
Movies
TV Series
TV Specials

Each of them is represented by an "icon" which is just one of the many "folder.jpg" or "moviename.jpg" files in the various subdirectories - or in one case, by a video preview generated by Sage. How does SageMC choose which ones to use? My directories have always been represented by the same icons Sage chose on initial install. I recently reinstalled my SageTV and SageMC from scratch and now it's chosen different images to use for this view. Since they stay consistent (other than on re-install), there must be some place where this information is stored, and therefore should be accessible to change. I would really like to change these images to ones I choose. How can I accomplish this?

I realize Genre's is another option and I can choose specific graphics to use. But there's no way I'm sorting through terabytes of movies/tv and classify it. Which brings me to another question: Is there a tool available that can help me mass-tag media files for genre outside of the tedious routine of editing them one at a time?

RLW

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