STV Import: Movie Trailers for SageMC

[Skirge01]

In addition to the above issue with folders, which I'd also like to see fixed, the current download has the jar and xml files going into the opposite folders (xml to jar and jar to SageTV3).

[Skirge01]

I think someone else mentioned this, but I'd like to see the Trailers option on the Program Info screen. I'm using TVE and would prefer to omit going into IMDB Search or using the right-click menu to get to the Trailers button. Not sure if that's possible, but would love to see it. Other than that, I love this and will probably use it very frequently. I'll let you know if I think of any other features.

[mkanet]

Actually this was my idea originally I really wanted to do it, but Koelec (my partner in this plugin) convinced me out of it since he thought users would prefer/expect to see things in their standard places.

If I can get a couple of more guys to agree on making Movie Trailers available without any extra right clicks under options and having to go through IMDB search every time please let me know. It makes sense to play movie trailers with the most direct access possible.

I'm glad you guys are helping me with ideas to improve this addon; especially if they are simple menu changes.

As far as the getting a better zip file installer. My next version will be as standard as possible; in respect to other sageMC addons.

Thanks for the great suggestion.... it will be a new feature if others think it will help.

Originally Posted by Skirge01

I think someone else mentioned this, but I'd like to see the Trailers option on the Program Info screen. I'm using TVE and would prefer to omit going into IMDB Search or using the right-click menu to get to the Trailers button. Not sure if that's possible, but would love to see it. Other than that, I love this and will probably use it very frequently. I'll let you know if I think of any other features.

[superdodge]

I also would prefer to have the movie trailers button right away without having to do an IMDB search first.

-RL

[jaminben]

Originally Posted by mkanet

1080p movie trailers is the icing on the cake for me

mkanet:

When you say 1080p movie trailers do you mean you have a list of trailers and you pick one? Or are the trailers linked to each movie you have e.g if I selected High School Musical from my movies the trailer add-on would search automatically for the correct trailer?

bialio:

Looking good

Cheers

Ben

[mkanet]

Thanks. You get a list of the top HD trailers to choose from. I thought about making it just automatically play the single best trailer without any fuss. However, it seems much more desirable to have a few official trailers to choose from (so yes, you choose the one you want to play). It does a very good job at finding the right trailers (starting from the highest quality 1080p video first; then SD).

This addon has a intelligent filtering in place to remove bogus illegal movie download references, completely wrong trailers, etc. So, its a whole lot more than just doing a search on youtube for a move name. If you try it manually on your web browser, I'm sure you'll know what I mean.

For those of us who dont have broadband, you can still enjoy this plugin by selecting SD YouTube option in the sageTV setup.

There is a new version of this in the works which will make things even easier with improved results. For example, adding a Movie Trailers button right on the Program Info menu for any TV Movie, show, special, and brings up a relevant trailer/clip (this was a recent feature request which seemed to make a lot of sense).

Originally Posted by jaminben

mkanet:

When you say 1080p movie trailers do you mean you have a list of trailers and you pick one? Or are the trailers linked to each movie you have e.g if I selected High School Musical from my movies the trailer add-on would search automatically for the correct trailer?

bialio:

Looking good

Cheers

Ben

[jaminben]

Originally Posted by mkanet

There is a new version of this in the works which will make things even easier with improved results. For example, adding a Movie Trailers button right on the Program Info menu for any TV Movie, show, special, and brings up a relevant trailer/clip (this was a recent feature request which seemed to make a lot of sense).

This sounds more like what I wanted, still not 100% though.

Say I add a new movie to my Sage setup.....the wife has never heard of this movie before and wants to know what its like. Ideally she would click on a "Trailer" button and it would then play a trailer for that movie and only that movie. Is that what your working on at the moment?

Cheers

Ben

[mkanet]

Actually, that's the whole point of the addon... to be able to play a trailer of any movie, video, TV show, just by just clicking a Movie Trailers button... with the least amount of clicks and hassle possible.

Me and my wife will sometimes wonder which movie to watch (which neither of us have even heard of or dont know much about) thats on TV. So, we just click select a movie from the "Upcoming movies" or through the Guide .... which takes us to the Program Info page. Currently Movie Trailers 1.1 has the following options:

1) Click the Options button on your remote control (when in the Program Info page) and click "Movie Trailers". This gives you a few HD trailers to choose from. Then you manually select which trailers you want to play.

2) Click IMDB search button on the Program Info screen, then manually confirm the correct IMDB movie from the list, then click on the "Trailers" button. Then you manually select which trailers you want to play.


The next release will have a Movie Trailers button right on the Program Info menu above the IMDB search button which will also be conveniently located on the main "Program Info" screen (instead of having to press the "Options" button on the remote control to see the "Movie Trailers" option). I know exactly what youre asking for. You want to have a "Play Movie Trailer" button on your Program Info screen; where you just click to play "THE" trailer (like Netflix). There are some reasons why I didnt want to go down that route:

-Originally, I first wanted to have a one-click play for movie trailers too like Netflix and your suggestion; in fact, scraping their trailers is relatively easy... I think it still even works in our abandoned Netflix addon . However, their trailers are pretty blurry/low quality sound... definitely not acceptable for playing full screen on a large TV. The quality just wouldnt match the HD 1080i/720p movie on TV. I also can't think of any online movie trailer resources anywhere that just have one main movie trailer to playback (with no other versions) which contains all Hollywood movies AND TV specials/mini-series trailers (offered in both SD and HD 1080p). Even IMDB's website offers several official movie trailers.

-Pretty much every movie has more than one official trailer. So, which trailer would you want this plugin to automatically play? The Television ad shortened version, the theatrical version, extended theatrical version? I sometimes think netflix's one-click trailer playback (when it's available) to be too short; and still have no clue if the movie is good or what it's about.

-Also, we dont live in a perfect world, so there are times where there might be something wrong with one of the trailers (such as bad link, bad encoding, etc; so instead of just giving you a blank screen or not offering you a trailer to playback at all, you could have alternative trailers to try out.

If you have any new ideas/suggestions based on what I said above, I would really like your opinion. My intention is to make this a very high WAF addon; and a "must have" for people who are really into movies.

Thanks,
Michael

Originally Posted by jaminben

This sounds more like what I wanted, still not 100% though.

Say I add a new movie to my Sage setup.....the wife has never heard of this movie before and wants to know what its like. Ideally she would click on a "Trailer" button and it would then play a trailer for that movie and only that movie. Is that what your working on at the moment?

Cheers

Ben

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by mkanet

-Originally, I first wanted to have a one-click play for movie trailers too like Netflix and your suggestion; in fact, scraping their trailers is relatively easy... I think it still even works in our abandoned Netflix addon . However, their trailers are pretty blurry/low quality sound... definitely not acceptable for playing full screen on a large TV. The quality just wouldnt match the HD 1080i/720p movie on TV. I also can't think of any online movie trailer resources anywhere that just have one main movie trailer to playback (with no other versions) which contains all Hollywood movies AND TV specials/mini-series trailers (offered in both SD and HD 1080p). Even IMDB's website offers several official movie trailers.

-Pretty much every movie has more than one official trailer. So, which trailer would you want this plugin to automatically play? The Television ad shortened version, the theatrical version, extended theatrical version? I sometimes think netflix's one-click trailer playback (when it's available) to be too short; and still have no clue if the movie is good or what it's about.

-Also, we dont live in a perfect world, so there are times where there might be something wrong with one of the trailers (such as bad link, bad encoding, etc; so instead of just giving you a blank screen or not offering you a trailer to playback at all, you could have alternative trailers to try out.

If you have any new ideas/suggestions based on what I said above, I would really like your opinion. My intention is to make this a very high WAF addon; and a "must have" for people who are really into movies.

Thanks,
Michael

Finally gave this a go.

I stilll don't get this point for this add-in and I love movies. If it doesn't autoplay the trailer it doesn't server it's purpose. Lets face it the ui for the video results is not ideal and you say WAF is high on your list well my wife is like Ben just wants to click the trailer and it play end of story. As for there being bad links and such that is up to you the coder to find those bad links and reference another one in that case until you find one that is valid. I think it is a good start to have trailers in Sage but not ideal by anymeans and the way you are going about implementing it is pretty limiting to other stvi developers. IE AMIS your import won't work on other imports unless you go through and make it work on every single one. Ideally what would be best is a open API for scraping and getting trailers from online sources that all developers could use to implement into their stvi's. Also I prefer downloaded trailers vs streaming even with high speed internet i can't stand lag time for a trailer to load but that is my preference.

I think you would be well suited to look at other applications be it MediaBrowser,MyMovies etc on how they implement auto playing of local or internet trailers.

again just my 2 cents.

[mkanet]

Thanks for giving it a shot PluckyHD, I appreciate your honest opinion. I actually wanted this addon purely for selfish reasons since I've wanted movie trailer support in sageTV for years now. Both and my wife were finding ourselves opening up our laptop web browsers, going into IMDB's website and playing movie trailers before before deciding whether to watch/record a movie or not. Some of the trailers were better than others. I certainly would prefer to watch HD trailers with just a couple of clicks of the remote control in sageTV than not having that ability at all; but, that's just me.

As you know, everyone has their tastes and opinions... So, getting feedback such as... "It works great! Awesome. This is my new favorite import since I only use SageTV for watching movies." or "I stilll don't get this point for this add-in and I love movies" are all welcome; if there's any specific feature enhancements thats within my technical ability that can improve this addon without taking functionality away, I'd be happy to do it. I personally dont want to lose the ability to choose from a variety of different trailers.

If this addon motivates someone to make a more elaborate and technically advanced fully automatic HD Trailer addon for both TV, Movies, Imported Videos, by all means, I'd be the first person to switch to it.

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

Finally gave this a go.

I stilll don't get this point for this add-in and I love movies. If it doesn't autoplay the trailer it doesn't server it's purpose. Lets face it the ui for the video results is not ideal and you say WAF is high on your list well my wife is like Ben just wants to click the trailer and it play end of story. As for there being bad links and such that is up to you the coder to find those bad links and reference another one in that case until you find one that is valid. I think it is a good start to have trailers in Sage but not ideal by anymeans and the way you are going about implementing it is pretty limiting to other stvi developers. IE AMIS your import won't work on other imports unless you go through and make it work on every single one. Ideally what would be best is a open API for scraping and getting trailers from online sources that all developers could use to implement into their stvi's. Also I prefer downloaded trailers vs streaming even with high speed internet i can't stand lag time for a trailer to load but that is my preference.

I think you would be well suited to look at other applications be it MediaBrowser,MyMovies etc on how they implement auto playing of local or internet trailers.

again just my 2 cents.

[Skirge01]

I'm really looking forward to the trailer option being in the "right" place. So, thank you for that! Now, I haven't spent any time with this yet, so I may be running into the whole horse before the carriage thing, but here goes with some thoughts:

1. Does this only use YouTube/IMDB or does this actually pull Apple's trailers? If it's not pulling Apple's trailers, any reason?
2. Any way to have this queue up some downloads for multiple movies in the background, save them locally, and notify you when they're done? (Not all of us have really fast broadband connections. ) Initially, I'd settle for a simple change in the menu option on the program info screen from "download trailer" to "play trailer" as the indicator or even 3 changes (download trailer, queued trailer, play trailer). Ideally, I'd like to see an icon somewhere on the screen (like the REC or "i" system messages) which disappears when all have completed downloading.
3. Building on #2, what about having an option to automatically queue up and download trailers (saving them locally) based on some criteria? Premieres and/or First Runs of selected genres, for example? At this point, we'd probably need a delete/cleanup option, as well.
4. I'm currently used to trailers for new releases, which I may treat differently from older movies now on TV as I begin using this import. I'd like to simply have a "play trailer" button like Ben and PluckyHD mention, but (again, for current movies) I often watch multiple trailers for the same movie. As mkanet said, sometimes the trailer is too short or sucks and that's my reasoning. Now, this might get back to what PluckyHD mentions regarding the code weeding out the "bad" stuff automatically (too short/long, etc.). For example, is anyone going to want to watch a 15 second trailer? Probably not. Conversely, is anyone really looking to watch a 5 minute trailer? Again, probably not. We're looking for that sweet spot. If this were pulling Apple's trailers when available, we'd almost always get the "right" trailer.

[mkanet]

Thanks Skirge01. I'm using Youtube; as it's the only resource with the most versatile collection of trailers/clips. Apple doesnt have trailers/clips for TV Mini-series, make for TV movies, TV specials, etc; at least last I checked. Plus, I'm seeing alot of the apple 1080p trailers ending up on youtube anyway. I see the apple logo pretty often for the 1080p trailers. I dont think youre going to see such a vast variety of TV/Theater based previews anywhere other than youtube; at least I dont know of any other resource.

We already have support system for youtube for the above; so even if Apple somehow decided to add trailers and clips for TV-only shows, we would have to convince sageTV for native support for live streaming of apple trailers on top of that.

The purpose of this addon is for quick reference/on-the-fly playback of trailers to get an idea if you want to record a movie/tv mini-series/etc or not.. with the option of watching various versions of the trailers (just like you would see on IMDB's website except without forced commercials and in higher quality video playback. The higher your bandwidth, the higher quality the trailers will be (generally speaking). It wasn't really meant for queuing downloads and/or starting a collection trailers. Although, we do have the option to download/save any trailer we want ...just press the Record button on the remote control during playback (at least the last time I tried that it worked). Also, one of the other advantages of native youtube support.

Keep in mind, this is my first plugin release ever; and, just released the first version not too long ago. So, with time, I think it could be very useful (and irreplaceable for some people). Although, I can't promise I'll satisfy everyone; I can promise I will add features with the most significant usefulness that's within my technical ability that doesnt take away existing capability.

Keep the suggestions coming... but keep in mind... im already pretty busy trying to get out the next immediate version.

Sincerely,
Michael

Originally Posted by Skirge01

I'm really looking forward to the trailer option being in the "right" place. So, thank you for that! Now, I haven't spent any time with this yet, so I may be running into the whole horse before the carriage thing, but here goes with some thoughts:

1. Does this only use YouTube/IMDB or does this actually pull Apple's trailers? If it's not pulling Apple's trailers, any reason?
2. Any way to have this queue up some downloads for multiple movies in the background, save them locally, and notify you when they're done? (Not all of us have really fast broadband connections. ) Initially, I'd settle for a simple change in the menu option on the program info screen from "download trailer" to "play trailer" as the indicator or even 3 changes (download trailer, queued trailer, play trailer). Ideally, I'd like to see an icon somewhere on the screen (like the REC or "i" system messages) which disappears when all have completed downloading.
3. Building on #2, what about having an option to automatically queue up and download trailers (saving them locally) based on some criteria? Premieres and/or First Runs of selected genres, for example? At this point, we'd probably need a delete/cleanup option, as well.
4. I'm currently used to trailers for new releases, which I may treat differently from older movies now on TV as I begin using this import. I'd like to simply have a "play trailer" button like Ben and PluckyHD mention, but (again, for current movies) I often watch multiple trailers for the same movie. As mkanet said, sometimes the trailer is too short or sucks and that's my reasoning. Now, this might get back to what PluckyHD mentions regarding the code weeding out the "bad" stuff automatically (too short/long, etc.). For example, is anyone going to want to watch a 15 second trailer? Probably not. Conversely, is anyone really looking to watch a 5 minute trailer? Again, probably not. We're looking for that sweet spot. If this were pulling Apple's trailers when available, we'd almost always get the "right" trailer.

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by mkanet

Thanks Skirge01. I'm using Youtube; as it's the only resource with the most versatile collection of trailers/clips. Apple doesnt have trailers/clips for TV Mini-series, make for TV movies, TV specials, etc; at least last I checked. Plus, I'm seeing alot of the apple 1080p trailers ending up on youtube anyway. I see the apple logo pretty often for the 1080p trailers. I dont think youre going to see such a vast variety of TV/Theater based previews anywhere other than youtube; at least I dont know of any other resource.

Yep... I certainly think you're correct there. I don't believe I have ever seen anything but moves on there. But, I thought it might be helpful and more accurate to use Apple for that aspect. I do see the issue, however.

The purpose of this addon is for quick reference/on-the-fly playback of trailers to get an idea if you want to record a movie/tv mini-series/etc or not.. with the option of watching various versions of the trailers

Given this, I'm heavily leaning towards Ben and PluckyHD's assessment that the selection needs to be improved, so that it simply picks the best trailer to show, rather than providing a selection screen. It would be great if it also chose 480, 720, or 1080 based upon the download speed it obtained, downgrading as necessary.

Keep in mind, this is my first plugin release ever; and, just released the first version not too long ago. So, with time, I think it could be very useful (and irreplaceable for some people). Although, I can't promise I'll satisfy everyone; I can promise I will add features with the most significant usefulness that's within my technical ability that doesnt take away existing capability.

We're with you there and certainly understand. Hopefully the brainstorming will help guide this towards something we all like and find useful. I know I like it already, so I'm excited about where it could head.

[mkanet]

All:

Hypothetically speaking, if there was such a thing as no-fuss/hassle-free "Play Trailer" button on our SageMC "Program Info" menu and "Video Info" that just works ...streaming "live" 1080p, 720p, or 480p (user selectable), just how much more popular/desirable do you guess this plugin could be in general?

If the interest if overwhelmingly/unanimously positive (keeping in mind, you will lose the ability to play different versions of the trailers) and no more made-for-movie trailer/clip support... I'll at least see if its within my/chris's technical ability and motivation to comply to this request.

Of course, its just easier for me to just keep things they are except for moving the Play Trailers button to the Program Info button and providing multiple trailers to choose from. You guys would actually have more features and still basically can play movie trailers within a couple of clicks of the remote. However, if its a huge WAF and SEF (Sage Enthusiast Factor), to just click a button to start the trailer, we'll see. Needless to say definitely no promises.

...Also, the weird "going into Online Videos menu on sageTV startup" issue would be gone too with this enhancement.

Getting little or no feedback about this (from users who have or haven
t posted in this thread) would also answer my question to and make it super easy for me

[tonysathre]

How about the best of both worlds? Have an option to 'autoplay' the first found trailer, or the way it is now, where you can pick the one you want to see.

By the way, I always see the acronym WAF on these forums. What does it mean? I Googled it, but it couldn't possibly be 'Wife Approval Factor' could it? I guess I wouldn't know anything about that since I'm only 24 and not ready to get married.

Tony

[Skirge01]

I'm sure you can already guess which boat I fall into. I definitely would like to see that hypothetical, "magic" button appear. It would seem to be what you were originally aiming for and what people would prefer this import does.

@tonysathre: Yes, WAF means "Wife Acceptance Factor". Don't worry, you'll get there in due time. You'll first hit the alternate WAF meaning, which is "significant other acceptance factor". WAF actually encompasses all of those terms (boy/girlfriend, wife, etc), though.

[mkanet]

Thanks guys. Once I feel like we have somethign unanimous and it's worth all the extra worth to completely redo something that already plays trailers with a couple of clicks of the remote control, me and chris can seriously talk about it. He me not think its worth it... But all the positive support will definitely help if you guys want it enough to be changed...

[jaminben]

Without giving the game away too much....... if it were me doing this I'd allow the use of user options for example:

Use 1080p
Use 720p
Use TV Trailer
Use Offical Trailer
Use Theatrical Trailer
Use Background downloading
Set background download times

You could also do a top 10 trailers whcih get cycled everytime a new trailer is released. These would be downloaded in the background at a user specified time, this would help those with slower internet connections.

Just a few thoughts for you.

Cheers

Ben

[PLUCKYHD]

Ben shhhh.....put that cat back in the bag

[mkanet]

Thanks for your feedback guys, but I dont think I got my point across. Let me rephrase this.... Just having a basic fully automatic 1-click "play trailer" option like a few of you want is going to take several hours/days of research and development time to make into reality; and, this completely re-done version would be without any extras options in it's initial release (maybe squeezing in a couple of extra features). I want to know how much more of a useful plugin this would be for the general sageTV user community than the current version out today. If there a good possibility this plugin could be very successful, "must have" plugin for movie buffs, I could see redoing this plugin with a 1-click play trailer option at first, then slowly adding the other features you mentioned; like adding the ability to prefer TV trailers verses theatrical, background downloading, etc.

I can guaranty you guys that I woudnt be able to convince Chris to completely help rewrite this plugin for 1-click support (considering there is already trailer playback functionality in place which lets users choose multiple trailer versions with just a few mouse clicks; even on the slowest internet connection) just for a few people.

So, in an imaginary perfect world, yes, I would love to release all those features you mentioned and more along with "best of both worlds" made for TV support support as well all in one shot; but, in reality, its going to take several months of time; and, that's if (a big if) the demand is big enough.

So simply put, if the demand is big enough, you will get what you want in stages (hopefully quick updates). Otherwise, this plugin will remain "as is"; with a few relatively minor enhancements on the way.

Originally Posted by jaminben

Without giving the game away too much....... if it were me doing this I'd allow the use of user options for example:

Use 1080p
Use 720p
Use TV Trailer
Use Offical Trailer
Use Theatrical Trailer
Use Background downloading
Set background download times

You could also do a top 10 trailers whcih get cycled everytime a new trailer is released. These would be downloaded in the background at a user specified time, this would help those with slower internet connections.

Just a few thoughts for you.

Cheers

Ben