STV Import: MovieTimes Movie Listings Import v0.57 Beta

[jlabrue]

Originally Posted by mkanet

So, is everything working now except for movie trailers? Are all reproducable issues resolved? I've waited for this addon to mature a lttle bit before integrating it into my sageTV PC. Is now a good time?

I think so. From my perspective, in my install, everything is working as I expected.

• Config works and stays
• Theaters show up
• Movies and posters are listed with showtimes
• Refresh is working right
• Trailers do download they just don't play

While it may not be 100% stable (I haven't found anything it won't do for me or errors) it is definitely stable enough to put on my box and have my wife use it.

[mkanet]

Sounds great! Do you have any idea when the trailers will play too?

[jlabrue]

Originally Posted by mkanet

Sounds great! Do you have any idea when the trailers will play too?

I think aperry should answer that. He has said in the past it is in the works just no timetable yet.

[cslatt]

Originally Posted by jlabrue

I think aperry should answer that. He has said in the past it is in the works just no timetable yet.

Once the MTSA author has released the source (which he has said should happen soon) I'm planning on adding an option to that software to transcode the trailers as they download to a natively Sage-playable format (probably Xvid or Divx). It is my understanding that with the trailers in a Sage-playable format, adding trailer playback should be relatively easy for aperry to put in. In the meantime, aperry _may_ also add functionality to be able to launch the trailers in a configurable external player for those who want a quick fix or don't want the overhead of transcoding.

[cslatt]

Here's a question I've been meaning to ask. Does anyone else have really slow performance on the movietime screens? On my Sage server it often takes 20 to 30 seconds just to scroll one screen down the movies list for a theater. I'm thinking maybe it is the movie posters and I should try turning them off?

[jlabrue]

Originally Posted by cslatt

Here's a question I've been meaning to ask. Does anyone else have really slow performance on the movietime screens? On my Sage server it often takes 20 to 30 seconds just to scroll one screen down the movies list for a theater. I'm thinking maybe it is the movie posters and I should try turning them off?

I noticed it on my MVP's but I don't remember it being that long on the server (maybe 3-6 sec). I thought I might change the download quality on posters to see if it helps but it really is OK on my server just the MVP's

AMD 64 2800 with 1Gb, ATI 9550

[mike1961]

APerry and all - I got the Trailers working

It was not hard at all.

1. I went into Config and told the MTSA to download the trailers. I don't quite understand the difference between the "high stream" and the "high"

Also - am I correct in assuming that the MTSA will download the trailers every night even if they are already downloaded? In other words, is MTSA smart enough to know not to download a preview if it has already been downloaded? Otherwise I'm downloading hundreds of megs every night for nothing.

2. I went into Sage properties and told it to recognize .MOV extensions in the properties file. Then I had to restart SageControl

3. I went into Sage Detailed Setup and added the trailers folder to my media library.

Since I already use Germsage along with Nero Showtime to play my compressed mp4 movies, there was really nothing else to do. I now have a Trailers folder in my media library so I can see all the previews. It's not directly in the MovieTimes plugin but I can still access everything with my remote on any TV in the house and I can see all the previews at one screen and play any of them.

Works great. I'm just not sure about whether the MTSA is smart enough to know not to download a trailer if it has already been downloaded. Can anyone tell me? (EDITED: it seems like the MTSA does know because I had to leave earlier and did not download everything and some of the downloads seem to have older times from the first original download but maybe someone can verify).

(EDITED: I posted a sample screen shot. Trailers are in my media library and work great along with Nielms Dynamic menu and GermSage).

Mike

[Humanzee]

Originally Posted by mike1961

APerry and all - I got the Trailers working

GermSage uses an external player correct?

[Humanzee]

Aperry,
Your getting press
http://www.htpcnews.com/index.php?op...=201&Itemid=26

[mike1961]

Humanzee - The beauty of the GermSage plugin is that it uses any media player you want. It's really no problem at all because Sage runs the media player automatically and I can control everything with my remote so it works just great. It doesn't matter to me whether it is played in Sage or not; what difference does it make - the player loads up in under two seconds? It's wonderful because I've also compressed movies including my DVD's that average 3-5 megs a minute...that's all. That means about 1,000 movies on a 500 gig hard drive.

Mike

[aperry]

Hey all... Sorry, was out on vacation this week, extending my Memorial Day holiday by a few days.

I'm planning on getting an update out this weekend. It should put very basic trailer support (command-line based, with a config screen to enter a program name and another to enter command-line options). Also, it will fix the problem introduced in the file browser.

Sorry for not responding sooner, I'll look over the other responses during my absence and will try to address any issues raised there.

[aperry]

Originally Posted by Humanzee

Aperry,
Your getting press
http://www.htpcnews.com/index.php?op...=201&Itemid=26

I saw that just a few minutes ago... I was very surprised to see it mentioned there. Woohoo!!!

[mkanet]

Youre famous aperry!

[mkanet]

aperry, can you please look at how to fix MovieTimes to allow it to reside NOT in the root of my C: drive?

As good practice, I don't put/install applications on the root of my C: drive. So, I put Movietimes where I thought it should go: C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\MovieTimes

Unfortunately, MoviesTimes isn't able to pull the movie theaters for some reason or another. Can you please look at my attached files and see if you can make the necessary adjustments to make it work? It doesn't appear the user interface allows for custom directory specification correctly (at least on my sageTV configuration). I did my best to edit the config files; but, apparently didn't do it right.

I already have all the respective directories created and necessary files in the correct places.


Thanks in advance!
-Michael

[Homebuilder]

Hi, first time installing this stvi, version .54 I see there is some comment about it auto dowloading, but the install instructions still say to do the windows task scheduler.

Do I still need to do this?

I just installed, set up schedulefor a few hours from now, but I double clicked on mtsa and it says it is now downloading...please wait.

I am waiting, hoping it will all work. Looks like a great plug in!!


Thanks!

[Homebuilder]

Hi, anyway to only see active theaters in theaters list?
I thought about editing the xml, but do not want to mess it up... and even if I edit I thought that mtsa may change it when it renews....

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by Homebuilder

Hi, anyway to only see active theaters in theaters list?
I thought about editing the xml, but do not want to mess it up... and even if I edit I thought that mtsa may change it when it renews....

Whatever show up in the Theater List are the active theaters. If you means when you are in the config screen, active theaters have a red outline.

Gerry

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by Homebuilder

Hi, first time installing this stvi, version .54 I see there is some comment about it auto dowloading, but the install instructions still say to do the windows task scheduler.

Do I still need to do this?

I just installed, set up schedulefor a few hours from now, but I double clicked on mtsa and it says it is now downloading...please wait.

I am waiting, hoping it will all work. Looks like a great plug in!!


Thanks!

If you double-clicked on mtsa.exe you just executed the program and that is why it is running. If you want it to auto-run you still need to set up a scheduled task like you did. If you would have waited your few hours you would have seen it run automatically.

Gerry

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by mkanet

aperry, can you please look at how to fix MovieTimes to allow it to reside NOT in the root of my C: drive?

As good practice, I don't put/install applications on the root of my C: drive. So, I put Movietimes where I thought it should go: C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\MovieTimes

Unfortunately, MoviesTimes isn't able to pull the movie theaters for some reason or another. Can you please look at my attached files and see if you can make the necessary adjustments to make it work? It doesn't appear the user interface allows for custom directory specification correctly (at least on my sageTV configuration). I did my best to edit the config files; but, apparently didn't do it right.

I already have all the respective directories created and necessary files in the correct places.


Thanks in advance!
-Michael

Did you go into config and tell it the new locations for those folders and reload it so it knew where to find them?

Gerry

[mkanet]

Yes. That's not the problem. A lot of the folders cant even be set in the interface and presume C:\MovieTimes (in config files). Anyway, I think all it needs is aperry to test it without being forced to using C:\MovieTimes. I have over a 100 applications installed on this PC; all of which default to C:\Program Files\.....

Originally Posted by gplasky

Did you go into config and tell it the new locations for those folders and reload it so it knew where to find them?

Gerry