Gemstone for Movies Only?

[tmiranda]

I like the way Gemstone looks for movies and imported videos, but I'd like to keep the default STV for recorded TV (sans movies). Can I do this with Gemstone? I installed it on my test SageClient and did not se an option for that.

Also, after installing on a SageClient I did not originally see the Gemstone option added to the main menu. I had to go back to the plugin manager and enable the plugin (it was disabled by default) and then "Gemstone" showed up on the main menu.

Nice work on this, it looks really good.

[jusjoken]

Not sure why the plugin was not enabled after the install... it should be and has been in all my testing.

As for TV... TV works well in the Flows (IMHO) and one of the key design goals of Gemstone Flows are to handle either/both TV and Movies so you really should give it a try and we certainly would be interested in whatever you think is missing in the Flows for TV...

However, you can still use the recording views for TV... we basically left them "as is" from Diamond... so they are certainly tweaked from just the default STV. They should all function correctly but let us know if you find them not working... again our main focus will be on improving the Flows to work with TV/Movies but we could be convinced if the need is great enough to make some fixes/changes to the recording views.

k

[TwistedMelon]

tmiranda, the non-flow Gemstone UI for TV isn't at all the same as the fancy movie-oriented (imported) flow views that really show off the plugin, so you can definitely get something similar to what you're after. Think of them as a very good polishing on the original STV (which, IMO, looked like dump). You can further tweak some options in the default recordings list, but pretty much whatever you do, it's always going to look better than the original STV, even if the layout can be made to look "similar."

[tmiranda]

Thanks for the info. The family and I really like the Malore menus for TV so I don't want that to change. I just need to find something better for Movies.

[jorton]

The Malone menus are still there and themed to look like the rest of Gemstone. I didn't really mess with them so they should still work. If you are not seeing them in the menu when turned on you may ave to add them to the custom menu using the menu manager (ADM built in) and copy mode. You can also hide the default TV views, if you don't use them, using the menu manager as well.

The one thing I am not sure about is whether the Phoenix Fanart plugins that tweak the Malore and default TV views will work or not.

Update: I tried JREKiwis Phoenix Fanart plugin that includes your Phoenix Fanart plugin for Malore and it seems to work fine, but there are some side effects in the default TV views with regards to Fanart handling as expected. But if you don't use those then you won't notice

J

[JREkiwi]

Originally Posted by jorton

Update: I tried JREKiwis Phoenix Fanart plugin that includes your Phoenix Fanart plugin for Malore and it seems to work fine, but there are some side effects in the default TV views with regards to Fanart handling as expected. But if you don't use those then you won't notice

I had a look at that plugin during the beta, but couldn't see much call for it with Gemstone. I can have another look at it and give it a tidy up to play nicer with Gemstone.

John

[Fuzzy]

I agree with you tmiranda, I love Gemstone the overall theme improvements, and for the movie flows, but nothing beats the functionality of Malore (with banners) for the TV views. So that's what I've been using for quite some time. I did, at one point, set up some flow based views for TV shows, but never used them, so I've since removed them.

[jusjoken]

Perhaps we need a new Flow type that mimics the Malore TV views? Or is the existing functionality just good as is????

k

[Fuzzy]

I have no problem with Malore, it works great in Gemstone - I was under the impression earlier on that it was going to be a pretty significant piece of work to be able to show two different layers of a view at a time, which is why there was never a malore clone flow done. that said, being able to have the multiple views represented with the Malore tabs, and then present the 2-pane listing of said items, would be nice... but like I said, unless you can eek some more eye candy out of it, i don't see the reasoning behind doing so.

[jusjoken]

Or.....perhaps we do it just to see if we can

Suggestions, favorite features etc welcome.

k

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by jusjoken

Perhaps we need a new Flow type that mimics the Malore TV views? Or is the existing functionality just good as is????

k

I like the Malore menus as is. I'm in no way knocking Gemstone, but my family will revolt if I change the malore menus.

[Skirge01]

Does this work with TVE installed? Like Fuzzy and Tom prefer Malore for TV, I prefer TVE. But, also like them, I'd like to gain the movie features you guys have come up with.

As far as TV features, the thing I always want is the two-pane selection view for shows/episodes. Additionally, TVE sorts the recorded movies the same way as the TV shows, so you have to change the sort order if you want to view the movie grouping alphabetically. Obviously, it's not that big of a deal, as I still use TVE, but thought I'd mention it.

[Fuzzy]

I'm not aware of anything that would prevent TVE from running with Gemstone installed. Just give it a shot - if anything, all you may have to do is add the appropriate menu entry to point to the TVE screen.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by jusjoken

Or.....perhaps we do it just to see if we can

Suggestions, favorite features etc welcome.

k

I can only present my use case, and what makes Malore so much more useful than anything else.

The 2-pane really is ideal. It provides all the necessary information, with minimal navigation to get to any given point. Up/Down, Left/Right, navigate the panes as expected. Skip Fwd/Skip Back sequence through the various views.

The way I see this working with Flows, would be that each view (Both, Jaime, Chris, Kids, etc) would be attached to it's own vfs View. That view would have 2 levels (each could be set up a different way). The left pane would show the top level entries of the flow, and the right pane the 2nd level entries under the item selected in the left pane. The key benefits I see gemstone bringing to it would be in speed - the current malore filtering and such is done almost all in the STV, and running queries from Phoenix vfs will likely be faster. The fanart could then also be cached with everything else, speeding things up that way as well (not that the current plugin isn't caching it, but unifying the cache would be more efficient).

The upper section could always use a bit of cleanup.

[jusjoken]

Just a teaser so you know we are not asleep at the wheel

Lot's more work to get the "flow" working well between the 2 panels and the customization settings just right but the structure is basically done...




k

[Fuzzy]

Looks awesome so far! The only things it really misses compared to the malore screen above, are the ability to quickly cycle between 'views', and the it showing the number of items next the the top level banners.

[jusjoken]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Looks awesome so far! The only things it really misses compared to the malore screen above, are the ability to quickly cycle between 'views', and the it showing the number of items next the the top level banners.

In Gemstone you can use FFW and RWD to move between the Flows so this should work to replace the "cycle" option you mention... correct?

As for the number of items... we need to do this anyway as the Sage Flow when Banners is on should have this option too. So we will figure a way to show that too.

k

[Fuzzy]

Bonus points from the former TVE users if you could do more than two levels (still just two on the screen at a time). This way, top level could show show banners, right pane shows season banners,. Select a season, and it shifts to the right, with the season banners on the left, and episodes on the right... not that I think I would use it, not particulatily caring about seasons, but I know plenty would like this.

[jusjoken]

The I guess we get bonus points. Actually this flow will handle any view you assign to it and any number of levels...so movies grouped by letter or genre or tv with seasons etc.

Still working out all the nuances of doing this with 2 panels but from my perspective Flows need to handle movies, tv, both and multi-levels..of course just assign the tv shows view and it will look like the above screen shots.

k

[jusjoken]

A couple more samples...




k