Plugin: Ortus - Looking for a few beta testers

[ohpleaseno]

Looks amazing! Can't wait to try it when it goes public.

[toricred]

I'd love to beta test if you are still open to more.

[PGPfan]

I, too, was one of many who's heart sank a bit when Ortus seemed to be a dying project. Now it's looking very promising again! Many thanks jphipps for not letting it die on the vine!

One question: In some of the earlier videos of Ortus in action most of the screens had the 'rounded rectangle' look and I really liked that. Is there any way that could be an option when it is released? The squared off edges looks nice, but not as unique as the rounding - especially when compared to the screenshots of the Phoenix project.

Here's hoping for a round option!

-PGPfan

[jaminben]

Originally Posted by QueOnda

btw, you were playing annie mac bbc radio. How did you get radio? Is it just a podcast?

Thats a radio channel I get through my TV tuner.... radio channels via DVB-T/DVB-S are pretty common in the UK. From an STV point of view I made it check a few things to see if whats being played back or recording should display "Watching TV", "Listening To Radio" etc.

Originally Posted by PGPfan

One question: In some of the earlier videos of Ortus in action most of the screens had the 'rounded rectangle' look and I really liked that. Is there any way that could be an option when it is released? The squared off edges looks nice, but not as unique as the rounding - especially when compared to the screenshots of the Phoenix project.

I agree that rounded corners (studio shapes) do look better but only on a PC client.... on an extender they look pretty poor even with an HD300 running at 1280x720 so I decided to remove them and just use squares.

[Mark SS]

Loving your work guys. This is pretty much what I've been hoping for since I first installed SageTV 5 years ago!

[MacDaddy]

Very, very interesting! A very opportune time as I have a new Sage build going online this weekend. I was planning to cannibalize my old box, but would be glad to keep it around and pound on it.

[gabrielcab]

Awsome, can't wait for the final release!

[QueOnda]

Originally Posted by jaminben

Thats a radio channel I get through my TV tuner.... radio channels via DVB-T/DVB-S are pretty common in the UK. From an STV point of view I made it check a few things to see if whats being played back or recording should display "Watching TV", "Listening To Radio" etc.

Oh cool. In the USA, Comcast does have some stations on cable which is music stations. They have some music trivia and music info (video) through the HDPVR. I wish there was a way to only get music. I think one of the hauppauge pvr-500 has a fm tuner though I don't have it in my box anymore because I have MP3s.

I guess, is there a way to make some channels only audio from the hdhr, so ortus handles them as audio only?

Does Sagetv 7 or ortus handle fm tuners?

Does, Sagetv 7 or ortus handle music streams?

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by QueOnda

Does, Sagetv 7 or ortus handle music streams?

My cable company has several music only channels and I can play digital music through my HDHomeRun just fine.

[mguebert]

Will this integrate with SMM? or if not will we be able to hide movies below the rating set. For instance right now on SMM I have everything above pg13 hidden unless the parental code is entered.

[jaminben]

Originally Posted by mguebert

Will this integrate with SMM? or if not will we be able to hide movies below the rating set. For instance right now on SMM I have everything above pg13 hidden unless the parental code is entered.

No it will not intergrate with SMM.... it uses its own database with its own Web UI tools to manage and edit your metadata.

You can create your own filtered menus / lists using pretty much anything you can think of thats related to metadata from MPAA ratings to specific description / title keywords.... check out the videos on Youtube to see a demonstation of filtering. In the demo you can see MPAA ratings being selected but bare in mind the video is showing a basic filtering method.... you can achieve more complex versions via an xml file (until I can be bothered to make a fully intergrated option in the plugin).

You can also asign different user's a pin and create your own menus / list which can be age resticted via the User Profile system... its upto how you want to go about it.

[Julianus]

Thank God.
SMM is a replacement for BMT. However is not a good fit for me.

So what do we need to do for the private beta?

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by jaminben

No it will not intergrate with SMM.... it uses its own database with its own Web UI tools to manage and edit your metadata.

So does this mean that you don't necessarily need any of the metadata plugins installed at all, if you had (presumably ".properties") metadata files for all of your movies? What happens if you don't have a metadata file (whichever one you are looking for)?

It would be great if, perhaps in a wiki or in the thread when you first make it public, if you would list all of the "items" that are required for the program to function as designed with movies... i.e., a background picture file (jpg, bmp, png), a thumbnail picture file (same), a ".properties" file, etc.

[jaminben]

Originally Posted by Julianus

So what do we need to do for the private beta?

You don't need to do anything at the moment.... its gone out to a few people and once we've fixed all the reported bugs we will expand the private beta with a few more people.

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

So does this mean that you don't necessarily need any of the metadata plugins installed at all, if you had (presumably ".properties") metadata files for all of your movies? What happens if you don't have a metadata file (whichever one you are looking for)?

No you dont need any other metadata scraper and yes it can read .properties files if you have them. It has its own metadata scraper just like BMT and its own Web UI.

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

It would be great if, perhaps in a wiki or in the thread when you first make it public, if you would list all of the "items" that are required for the program to function as designed with movies... i.e., a background picture file (jpg, bmp, png), a thumbnail picture file (same), a ".properties" file, etc.

There will be a wiki but all you really need is SageTV version 7 installed and an internet connection. We're trying to make it a one stop installation process via the plugin menu, all you really have to do is choose which Ortus plugins you want to install.

[bialio]

It's lookin' real sharp guys.
btl.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by jaminben

We're trying to make it a one stop installation process via the plugin menu, all you really have to do is choose which Ortus plugins you want to install.

PluginS, plural? So the metadata scraper will be a separate plugin that you can install if you like? Nice.

My fear is that if I have files (.properties, backgrounds, banners, thumbnails, etc.) the way I want them and an auto-scraper would overwrite them. As long as it won't, but I can still use them, that's awesome.

[Robomonkey]

Yeh, looks alright, I could beta test, but dunno if I'd report any bugs tho.

[jphipps]

Originally Posted by bialio

It's lookin' real sharp guys.
btl.

Thanks...

[jphipps]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

PluginS, plural? So the metadata scraper will be a separate plugin that you can install if you like? Nice.

My fear is that if I have files (.properties, backgrounds, banners, thumbnails, etc.) the way I want them and an auto-scraper would overwrite them. As long as it won't, but I can still use them, that's awesome.

Basically there is 2 main STV plugins, the dynamic menu and the media browser. The other is the webui that can be used separately to modify sage data and download fanart to be used by other plugins, but most of the power of the metadata is used in the meta browser plugin.

The scrapper shouldn't mangle too much, but it is a beta right now

Most of the metadata is stored externally from Sage, but it does update sage's database with the data that sage would normally keep. We store it externally because we are storing alot more data than sage would maintain, such as all episode data for a series, so you can view information about episodes you may not have yet. Also information about user specific configuration and individual user playback watch status and position...

Thanks,
Jeff

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by jaminben

No it will not intergrate with SMM.... it uses its own database with its own Web UI tools to manage and edit your metadata.

.

Just to clarify and I haven't used this. But the dynamic menu should still work with smm just fine just not their media browser and you won't be able to to instant views up top like they are, but given it is a dynamic menu you should be able to add any smm view you want to it and with allow static context like Ben mentioned you can actually get some functions you can't get with the current default menu.

Correct me if I am wrong I am just assuming