STV Import: TVExplorer for SageMC

[Peter_h]

Originally Posted by razrsharpe

with the release of the SageTV v7 beta i figured I should post about my plans for the future of TVE.

TVE v1 will die with sagemc and v6. The old animation system is... welll... old and cludgy and converting everything to properly use the new animation system is just not practical. Not to mention TVE is littered with a lot of SageMC code throughout its UI, converting all this to work with v7 is really just not practical. I kept going back and forth on whether to port tve for v7 or rewrite it from scratch and actually spent a fair amount of time on trying to get an acceptable port for v7. In the end it just didn't make sense.

However, all hope is not lost There will be a TVE v2 that will be similar yet different from TVE v1. It will also borrow some of the navigation and ui features from v7.... amongst other pie in the sky plans of mine that I'm not ready to publicize yet No I do not have a timeframe for when something will be ready for public consumption but it won't probably be ready until the late summer/fall.

In the meantime enjoy the new v7 ui (and all the rest of the good stuff). Once you get used to the new UI, it works quite well

Bummer that there won't be a port in the beginning for V7. Your plug-in is the favorite in the household and the one that will be hard to live without.

You said that this plug-in has a lot of SageMC code. Would it be easier to try to port the version version that Tmiranda ported for the default STV over to V7?

Good luck on the new version and looking forward to it.

-Peter

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by Peter_h

You said that this plug-in has a lot of SageMC code. Would it be easier to try to port the version version that Tmiranda ported for the default STV over to V7?

yes that version would be simpler to port... perhaps he or I will give that a go as a temporary solution for those that cant live without their TVE

PS - I really do urge everyone to give the default sage7 ui a solid trial (like a week). Once you get used to it it works quite well

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by razrsharpe

yes that version would be simpler to port... perhaps he or I will give that a go as a temporary solution for those that cant live without their TVE

Good to know I'm not alone in my addiction! I might have to join TVE.A. to help get me through the withdrawal.

PS - I really do urge everyone to give the default sage7 ui a solid trial (like a week). Once you get used to it it works quite well

Okay, okay, I'll try it! You're right, though. Any sort of change it tough, but everyone needs to give it a fair try before passing any sort of judgement.

[bluenote]

Originally Posted by razrsharpe

yes that version would be simpler to port... perhaps he or I will give that a go as a temporary solution for those that cant live without their TVE

PS - I really do urge everyone to give the default sage7 ui a solid trial (like a week). Once you get used to it it works quite well

Im one of the ones that 'can't live without'. I couldnt resist installing v7 in a vmware instance, but so far (mind you, for some reason bmt isnt working for me).

Can you comment on what makes you say, give the new UI a try? I mean, it doesn't incorporate any of the basic TVE features, does it? Like understanding shows, seasons, episodes? [EDIT: and therefore, although its nice, its functionally useless if you ask me]

Thanks for your work past present and future

Cory

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by bluenote

Can you comment on what makes you say, give the new UI a try? I mean, it doesn't incorporate any of the basic TVE features, does it? Like understanding shows, seasons, episodes? [EDIT: and therefore, although its nice, its functionally useless if you ask me]

It does understand shows and will group by them (iirc this is the way it defaults too, group by title). It is true that it does not understand seasons and episodes. For my use case (mainly sage recordings of 1st run shows) i don't care about season/episode numbers... so i didn't use that part of TVE very much (in fact BMT wasn't even installed on my system for a long time, and i never used its automatic mode). Therefore, the default works for me (i can group by title and sort by record date). However, if you use tve for the integration of seasons/episodes then yes the default is much lacking. Also the default does not integrate imported tv (again my primary use of TVE is not for this so it doesnt immediately effect me).

Basically my encouragement to give the default a try is more of one to not be immediately turned off by it and flock back to sagemc. At first i did not like the TV screens either but after giving them a try and using them for a bit their flow has grown on me...

[OneOfMany]

I want my T V E.

Grant

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by razrsharpe

It is true that it does not understand seasons and episodes.

Ouch. That right there is a deal breaker for me because of all my Law & Order episodes I still have to get through, among other series. That doesn't mean I won't try it out, but it does mean I can't make a permanent switch yet.

[panteragstk]

TVE is very necessary to keep the waf high. She isn't going to like looking for folders to play her shows out of.

I'm not used to having my collections organized. SMW and TVE have spoiled me...

[xxLJLxx]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

SMW and TVE have spoiled me...

Don't get me wrong, I have installed V7 and love it, but I'm pretty sure there are a ton of people that have this exact same thought. I know I do!

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by xxLJLxx

Don't get me wrong, I have installed V7 and love it, but I'm pretty sure there are a ton of people that have this exact same thought. I know I do!

Relax....Breath....Count to 3 slowly.....1..........2.........3

now feel better

I know people are freaking out over this but there will be a tve replacement it will just take time. Razor has allot of work cut out for him and I will help him where I can but free time is sparse in the summer when it is nice outside for both of us.

I too used TVE very heavily and miss it as well believe me I hear it from the wife, but at the same time can't not have v7 features and I too like razor like the new UI.

It will all come in due time.

[razrsharpe]

nicely said plucky

[Skirge01]

I can't speak for everyone else, but I know my comments here are just a way of coping. I told you I needed a TVE.A group to join and we've come here apparently. As razrsharpe was nice enough to pop in and let us know, it'll come eventually and, personally, I'm not trying to push him at all. Even if it comes next year, so be it. Most of us understand that it's something he (and the rest of the devs) do because they enjoy it, when they have time. I know it'll be worth the wait.

So, to start this off...

Hi, my name is Skirge and I'm a TVE addict.

[OneOfMany]

OK, here's my opinion (not that anyone has asked). I migrated a couple of years ago from MCE2005, and immediately used SageMCE. Over the last number of months I have spent much time personalizing my systems -server, clients and ps.

During that time I found the Serenity STV that allowed me to use a nice horizontal bar and I customized all my screens to provide access to great plugins like SMW and TVE. My family loves the new look, especially the horizontal layout lol. They are hooked on the TVE because it allows them to easily locate and play their shows. I like TVE because I can rip non-recorded TV shows and have them ONLY show up in TVE. All movies - recorded or DVD rips can be viewed SEPARATELY in SMW. This is to us, a logical separation of video.

I have tried the new version, I can see immediately the under the hood improvements, however, I am disappointed that the UI was not designed out of the box to allow customization. Sure, I suppose as an old programmer I could learn JAVA and Studio to build a new screen to match what I have, but realistically, I don't have the desire. Sure, I can wait until someone creates a skin that is similar, or builds the option to create one (Ortus?, Phoenix?) and I guess I will.

I do appreciate the fact that there is great opportunity for developer creations, and look forward to them. Once I can (more beuatifully of course) replicate my Sage experience, I will plunk down for 5 licenses and move to v7.

Very satisfied Sage user with high WAF & CAF
Grant

[ohpleaseno]

Yeah, I'm in the same boat. I've said this already elsewhere, but I'm willing to wait on an upgrade to v7 for the sole reason of having Recorded/Imported Tv showing up in one list. The best and easiest option for that to happen in v6 was TVE.

It will seriously drive my wife bat-poop crazy to have to go two places for TV.

Thanks or this great plugin. I'll patiently wait however long it takes to get it for v7.

[Zorglub]

Same for me also.

TVE was a gift from heaven for us at home. One of the few complaints I had against Sage was giving us no easy way to put Recorded TV and Ripped TV episodes under the same place.

I switched to v7 beta, because there is too many things I like about this new version, but I will miss TVE very much.

That being said, I understand that you have limited time to put into that and appreciate all the effort put into TVE.

I want my TVE....

[perfessor101]

Hello,
Does the New SageTV 7 sort the same way TVE does for me currently?

(and in SageTV Version 6 TVE was the only one that sorted TV Show Recordings the way I wanted ... except I would have liked Movie Recordings sorted by recording date ... I know, I know ...)

Sorted by Recording date - Grouped by Title - Sorted within group by Original Airing Date?

Something finally came along that did things right and now I have to pay money to say goodbye to it ???

How well is TVE currently working for people using it on SageTV Server 7?
or is it?

On My main system I have SageTV Client installed from where I will probably use the default STV for version 7 (as I currently do in version 6) and on My HD-100 Extender I would like to keep TVE running ... if it still works the 'same'.

Thanks for your time,
Bobby

ps - thanks for the work you have put into this ... it made watching old shows easier ... and keeping my priorities straight ;-)

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by perfessor101

Hello,
Does the New SageTV 7 sort the same way TVE does for me currently?

Sorted by Recording date - Grouped by Title - Sorted within group by Original Airing Date?

yes sage7 will do that...kind of... you can group by title and sort recording date on the "all recording" screen... then on the episode screen you can sort it by original airing date.

How well is TVE currently working for people using it on SageTV Server 7?

tve works the same on sagetv7 server when used with sagemc. I did this for quite sometime before getting rid of sagemc on my system

[perfessor101]

Cool, thanks for the info ;-)

Is the SageTV ordering system dolling out keys on Saturdays in a timely fashion?

It looks like I'll order the v7 key soon ...

and then update the server ... set the extender to use TVExplorer ...

and then update my SageTV Client to v7 ...

Then I can still watch TV the right way ... and use the rest of the SageTV v7 improvements on the rest of my systems ...

Thanks for your time,
Bobby

[lash]

Whoa, all this v7 stuff over here. Its still in beta right? Well, either way, I'm with you guys, I won't even consider v7 till there is TVE for it.

So if I may, I actually have a question with TVE and Sage v6. I have a strange problem. I setup a second SageTV server this past weekend to manage seperate watched flags and to have separate recordings and such. Its something I saw described in another thread here and thought I would give it a try.

So I have my SageTV client (not extenders) connect to one or the other SageTV server via IP address. The imported videos is all from the same source for both SageTV servers, a separate storage server, so on both SageTV servers, the import path is identical. Same is true for the fanart folder.

Really the only difference between SageTVs is the recording directory, TV cards and the wiz.bin. In fact, to install it I just installed SageTV on the new box in the exact same directory structure as on the original SageTV server and copied over the contents of the original SageTV into it. Then deleted wiz.bin, redid the video source wizard and changed the recording directory.

Everything is working great except for TVE. If I connect to the new SageTV server, TVE is blank (by blank I mean the TVE frame is there but nothing else). If I connect to the original SageTV server then it works as normal. If I use the normal SageMC imported videos module when connected to the new server everything shows up fine, all the metadata is there, etc. SMW works fine connecting to both SageTV servers.

I'm on a trial for the 2nd SageTV server, which runs out in a week or so, so I need to know if what I am doing is just impossible with TVE before I buy another license. If its not impossible, any idea what could be the problem?

I did read about an issue earlier in this thread with something not being up to date, but that doesn't apply here as I am using the same SageTV client that works in one instance and not anther.

What causes TVE to be blank?

Thanks!

[MitchSchaft]

I'll second that. Even though I bought the upgrade license, I'm not moving until there's a TVE and SMW for v7. Too much functionality for me with those 2.