Gemstone 2 - in progress

[jusjoken]

I wanted to take a moment out of the work I am doing to get another Gemstone release out (and my installer work) and let everyone know that there is going to be a V9 Gemstone 2.x release coming out "soon" (soon is certainly relative to the time I get to do this )

Here is a list of my TODO for Gemstone 2....

• fix as many issues from Gemstone 1 as possible - many are fixed already - please ensure if you know of an issue that it is in the current list here...
• FANART / FANART / FANART fixes - this is a high priority for me
• Mouse friendly interface
• Touch friendly interface (with or without SageTV core changes)
• Tablet updates - slim out the UI, Menus, Flows so it's easier to use on a tablet
• Add Movie Collection support from TMDB (done...see below samples)
• Add better support/control for TV Series Status (series ended/ongoing)
• New feature for addressing missing Episodes for a Series (done...see below sample)
• Add Phoenix style FF Thumbnails to OSD (done...see below sample)
• Improve performance where possible
• Built on the V9 STV
• Will use the latest Phoenix Core API which is V9 specific
• More features around weather as time permits to add
• May cleanup the Flows to handle Music better and/or create a Music specific Flow style
• More....

Reminder: my Indiegogo campaign is still in progress if you wish to contribute....see here....

Some sample screens from Gemstone 2

Movie Collections added to all Flow types...






System Messages for Missing Episodes after a Media Scan....


Phoenix Style FF Thumbnails in On Screen Display....


Suggestions for features welcome....

k

[Skirge01]

I like what I'm seeing already. You're off to a good start.

This would probably need to be handled by the Phoenix API first, but I'm sure it would need to be handled by Gemstone, as well: Multi-episode files. For example, the two part series premier for Star Trek TNG. That was one file when I ripped it from my Blu-ray. Currently, I have it set as though it's only episode 1 and then manually rename it in BMT to "...(Parts 1 & 2)", leaving it with just episode one's description. However, that obviously shows that I'm also "missing" episode 2 when I browse the TV show. Kodi displays the same file twice, listed as both episodes, but doesn't otherwise indicate that either contain both episodes, unless you look at the running time and are aware how long an episode normally is.

I think it would also be perfectly acceptable (maybe preferred?) if such files displayed with "...(Ep. 01 & 02)". This might look better when browsing and a multi-part episode is in the middle or end of the season because it would be plainly visible that you aren't missing the subsequent episode number just because it doesn't display it twice like Kodi.

In case you're curious, Kodi handles the file naming like this.

[jusjoken]

Originally Posted by Skirge01

I like what I'm seeing already. You're off to a good start.

This would probably need to be handled by the Phoenix API first, but I'm sure it would need to be handled by Gemstone, as well: Multi-episode files. For example, the two part series premier for Star Trek TNG. That was one file when I ripped it from my Blu-ray. Currently, I have it set as though it's only episode 1 and then manually rename it in BMT to "...(Parts 1 & 2)", leaving it with just episode one's description. However, that obviously shows that I'm also "missing" episode 2 when I browse the TV show. Kodi displays the same file twice, listed as both episodes, but doesn't otherwise indicate that either contain both episodes, unless you look at the running time and are aware how long an episode normally is.

I think it would also be perfectly acceptable (maybe preferred?) if such files displayed with "...(Ep. 01 & 02)". This might look better when browsing and a multi-part episode is in the middle or end of the season because it would be plainly visible that you aren't missing the subsequent episode number just because it doesn't display it twice like Kodi.

In case you're curious, Kodi handles the file naming like this.

This is part of the changes done for the Missing Episodes functionality. I had changes to make in both Phoenix as well as Gemstone.

Basically I added a new field that will be available in BMT (in the Raw data area) as well as within Gemstone that is an EpisodeCount. The value by default is 1. When the check for missing episodes is run, if it finds a missing episode then it firsts checks the previous episode EpisodeCount value and if it makes up for the gap it moves on. If the EpisodeCount of the previous episode is 1 but it's runtime length is "likely" a double length episode (using a calculation in the code), then it will change the EpisodeCount of that previous episode to 2 and not mark the episode as missing. (Note: you can also manually change this value).

There is also a Missing Episode View available in Gemstone that will display in a Flow all the Missing Episodes along with all the others. There is also a new Missing Filter that can be used on that View to only show the Missing ones if you want. I figure most people will just use the System Messages but the view may be handy as well.

At this time I do not use the EpisodeCount field to modify the display of the Episode Number in Gemstone to show Episode 1 and 2 or S02E01&02 or anything like that but it may be a feature worth adding... if you were thinking that would be handy then please add to the issues list and I will mark it as a feature and add it as time permits.

k

[Skirge01]

Sounds good! Added it to the issues list as #14.

[panteragstk]

What are your thoughts on adding a wall and category view similar to the my movies plugin? I've yet to find anything that looks as good or allows as much customization. The views in the current gemstone are very very similar, but aren't quite the same look and feel. I wish I knewhow difficult that might be, but I'm no UI dev.

Also, I like the TV views in the current gemstone, but always seem to go back to TV explorer. Any thoughts on making a similar view in gstone v2? Not sure how many folks use tve still or my movies for that matter, but those have been my go to for a long time.

I also use the defunct ortus as my main menu. Love the horizontal view it gives and some of the visual aspects.

I would love to help test this for you as I've tested many of the other ui efforts. Prolly why I still use them.

Couldn't live without the current gemstone either. Fantastic work.

[jusjoken]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

What are your thoughts on adding a wall and category view similar to the my movies plugin? I've yet to find anything that looks as good or allows as much customization. The views in the current gemstone are very very similar, but aren't quite the same look and feel. I wish I knewhow difficult that might be, but I'm no UI dev.

Also, I like the TV views in the current gemstone, but always seem to go back to TV explorer. Any thoughts on making a similar view in gstone v2? Not sure how many folks use tve still or my movies for that matter, but those have been my go to for a long time.

I also use the defunct ortus as my main menu. Love the horizontal view it gives and some of the visual aspects.

I would love to help test this for you as I've tested many of the other ui efforts. Prolly why I still use them.

Couldn't live without the current gemstone either. Fantastic work.

I am open to considering it but you would need to provide examples for each as well as a description of the expected functionality as i have never used any of these.

k

[wayner]

One other issue that I would like to see fixed, although it is a Phoenix issue, is the ability to have different Fanart for movies of the same name from different years.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by wayner

One other issue that I would like to see fixed, although it is a Phoenix issue, is the ability to have different Fanart for movies of the same name from different years.

Yes, this. This has to be one of the more annoying things about Phoenix.

[jusjoken]

Originally Posted by wayner

One other issue that I would like to see fixed, although it is a Phoenix issue, is the ability to have different Fanart for movies of the same name from different years.

This one is already on the list as #8 so I will take a look at it.

k

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by wayner

One other issue that I would like to see fixed, although it is a Phoenix issue, is the ability to have different Fanart for movies of the same name from different years.

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

Yes, this. This has to be one of the more annoying things about Phoenix.

Agreed. And although this can be "fixed" in phoenix, this is actually "by design". ie, Phoenix just implemented the existing "central fanart" model.

Maybe in the next phoenix, I'll, implement a newer model where movies and tv alll include the year. People will have to rescan and rebuild their fanart, but, at least it will fixed, but no longer compatible with the central fanart model.

I see the next release of phoenix api being a break from the current in several ways. ie, I might change the scanner to be more like Kodi, so filename need to be relatively clean before getting imported into sagetv. Much of the "phoenix is really bad to scraping files compared to kodi/plex" is largely because I allow a great deal of "dirty" filenames to be imported. By setting a fixed way of naming files, we can get a better hit for fanart and metadata. Phoenix also allows for tv and movies to exist in the folder structure, which again, makes it harder to scraping. The v9 of phoenix should be an interesting release (Jusjoken has already added some nice things like newer tmdb apis, collections, etc, but there is still much more to do)

[OneOfMany]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Maybe in the next phoenix, I'll, implement a newer model where movies and tv alll include the year. People will have to rescan and rebuild their fanart, but, at least it will fixed, but no longer compatible with the central fanart model.

Does this mean that each client will be at the whim of the artwork it downloads? And for things such as home videos and specialty videos I would have to recreate on each client as opposed to one central control point?

Grant

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by OneOfMany

Does this mean that each client will be at the whim of the artwork it downloads? And for things such as home videos and specialty videos I would have to recreate on each client as opposed to one central control point?

Grant

I don't think so... it's still the "central fanart" concept, but, the foldernames would be different (hence why you need to rescan). Today there are "rules" around how to create the foldername for a movie/tv item, and it currently doesn't include the year (unless the year was part of the title itself)

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

Also, I like the TV views in the current gemstone, but always seem to go back to TV explorer. Any thoughts on making a similar view in gstone v2? Not sure how many folks use tve still or my movies for that matter, but those have been my go to for a long time.

You can count me among the active TVE users. Maybe razr would be willing to come back and work his TVE magic into Gemstone2? I seem to recall that he was doing some work on a TVE2 a number of years ago, but--if he was even still working on it at the time--I'm guessing the sale of Sage put the brakes on that.

[wayner]

I don't think you should be too Catholic about file names. I import sports recordings into Sage and they will never be scraped properly as sites like TVDB do not allow sports in their DBs.

[trk2]

I was wondering if one of the included fixes includes this small, but annoying bug that I mention a while ago? When returning to a flow after exiting a video, the title and fanart of the completed video is displayed, however the metadata text information is from the first title in the flow. Everything corrects itself as soon as you move to the next title in the flow. This is in Sage flow specifically, but I believe I had tested years ago that the problem exists in other flows as well.

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by trk2

I was wondering if one of the included fixes includes this small, but annoying bug that I mention a while ago? When returning to a flow after exiting a video, the title and fanart of the completed video is displayed, however the metadata text information is from the first title in the flow. Everything corrects itself as soon as you move to the next title in the flow. This is in Sage flow specifically, but I believe I had tested years ago that the problem exists in other flows as well.

I see something similar with Cover Flow. The difference being that I also see the fanart for the first video of the flow. That particular issue never bothered me all that much, though.

[jusjoken]

Originally Posted by trk2

I was wondering if one of the included fixes includes this small, but annoying bug that I mention a while ago? When returning to a flow after exiting a video, the title and fanart of the completed video is displayed, however the metadata text information is from the first title in the flow. Everything corrects itself as soon as you move to the next title in the flow. This is in Sage flow specifically, but I believe I had tested years ago that the problem exists in other flows as well.

This is fixed.

[trk2]

Originally Posted by jusjoken

This is fixed.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by jusjoken

I am open to considering it but you would need to provide examples for each as well as a description of the expected functionality as i have never used any of these.

k

Not the best representation of mymovies for sage, but it works (click)

Here is one of Ortus (click) Another (click)

I like TV Explorer just because of the simple interface. List of shows on the left with a list of episodes on the right.

I have mine set to take up half the screen, but it can be set to use the entire screen. Check this pic (click)

[KryptoNyte]

Regarding the missing episodes list as it applies to a Favorites show that is marked to only record new episodes; will this have the capability for the user to select a missing episode in the list, and mark it as "record anyway" which will monitor the EPG and record the missing favorite even if it is a rerun, possibly as a manual recording?