Fanart: FAQ

[stuckless]

I started a FAQ for Fanart. I'll try to maintain this as problems are found and resolved.

What are the Phoenix APIs?

The Phoenix APIs is a set of Fanart/Metadata apis that make is easier for STV developers to build Fanart Support into their STV plugins.


Why build a library for this?

A library makes sense, since the logic to "discover" Fanart was getting overly complex, and each plugin had to reproduce the logic in each plugin, in order to support it. Using a library (api) means that STV developers call use a single consistent api call to fetch metadata for a given media file.


What is required to use the new Phoenix APIs to it's full potential

At least the 6.5.12 Beta of SageTV
Latest SageMC
Metadata Tools 2.0 or later
Evilpenquin's MediaScraper Tools


What uses the new Phoenix Fanart APIs

SageMC
Metadata Tools
Evilpenquins MediaScraper supports the File Structure and the Metadata Fields, but it doesn't require the actual phoenix jar file


How do I enable Fanart in the (STV) UI?

In SageMC,
Enable Fanrt
Set your central fanart folder


What is the new folder layout?

TV/SeriesName/Backgrounds
TV/SeriesName/Posters
TV/SeriesName/Banners
TV/SeriesName/Season #/Backgrounds
TV/SeriesName/Season #/Posters
TV/SeriesName/Seaons #/Banners

Movies/Title/Backgrounds
Movies/Title/Posters
Movies/Title/Banners

Music/Album/Backgrounds
Music/Album/Posters
Music/Album/Banners

Music/Artist/Backgrounds
Music/Artist/Posters
Music/Artist/Banners

I don't like the new folder layout, Can I use the old SageMC format?

Yes, simply set the follow property in your Sage properties, and it will use the SageMC legacy format for looking up Fanart.

phoenix/mediametadata/fanartSupportClass=sagex.phoenix.fanart.SageMCFanartSupport

If I use the Old SageMC format will the new scraper tools still work?

It was decided that the scraper tools will only support the new folder structure. So if you opt to use the legacy SageMC format, then the scaper tools will not put the fanart in the SageMC legacy directories.


I don't want to use the new format or the SageMC format, Can I use have simple background image?

Yes. Simply enable the LocalFanartStorage by setting the following property in your Sage properties.

phoenix/mediametadata/fanartSupportClass=sagex.phoenix.fanart.LocalFanartSupport

This will enable the phoenix apis to find a single poster and a single background in the current directory of the Media item.

But it will not find anything for a SageTV Airing (ie, a guide entry)



When I download Fanart using the UI Search/Select Tools, is it supposed to download the metadata as well?

Currently SageTV does not suppport updating metadata after a mediafile has been imported. Because of this, the Search/Select tools that are provided in the STV plugin will only fetch fanart and not metadata.


What do I do when I have problems?

1. Read the FAQ
2. Run the diagnostic tool (--report=detailed in bmt)
3. Search the forums
4. Post for help in the forums

What is the "diagnostic tool"?

BMT 2.1-2 ships with a new feature called --report. The report can be 1 of 3 values, "quick", "detailed", or the full path to a sagetv mediafile.

The purpose of the report is to provide a means for you to check if you are running the correct versions and to see if things are configured correctly.

The BMT --report option requires that the Sage Remote APIs be installed on the Sage server.

[rmac321]

Stuckless,

Could you add some more specific descriptions of what the different types of fanart are and where they get displayed? It's hard to know what is working and what isn't until we know what we should expect to appear where.

Types of fanart: Off the top of my head, I have seen references to posters, banners, backgrounds, folder images, episode pics, etc.

Where do images appear? For instance, in SageMC, what pics are used on what screens?

[stuckless]

@rmac321 - I'll try, but I don't many of the SageMC options specifically, so maybe someone can post a synopsis of those.

What are the different types of Fanart?
Posters - Posters, aka, media thumbnails are shown in the media browser as an icon for each media item. The Posters are also displayed, in a larger form in the media details screen. Usually posters are resized when used as thumbnail.

Folder Images - Folder Images are something different than Fanart. Folder images are images that you place in a specific folder to represent the items in that folder. I don't know if SageMC uses folder images, (core stv does), and if SageMC uses Folder Images, then I don't if will continue to use them if Fanart is enabled.

Backgrounds - Backgrounds are full screen images that are shown as a "background" when in the media browser and while in media details. SageMC has options that you need to enable in order to have the media background displayed when you hover over a media item in the media browser. Media Backgrounds are shown by default, if they exist, when you select a media item to view it's details.

Banners - Banners are mainly a TV thing. They are usually narrow strips that are shown near the top of a screen when you are viewing a TV item detail.

In SageMC, if you have more than one Poster or Background, then SageMC will rotate those images if you remain in the details page long enough.

Unforunately I don't know the specific SageMC options

[rmac321]

Stuckless,

This faq would be a good place to include a summary of the new Metadata fields since that is turning out to be the SageMC/Fanart glitch. Perhaps you could describe what is needed for the stock STV and Mike could put together a list of the fields that SageMC needs and where they should be stored.

Thanks!

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by rmac321

Stuckless,

This faq would be a good place to include a summary of the new Metadata fields since that is turning out to be the SageMC/Fanart glitch. Perhaps you could describe what is needed for the stock STV and Mike could put together a list of the fields that SageMC needs and where they should be stored.

Thanks!

SageMC doesn't "directly" use any of these fields. SageMC uses the Phoenix APIs for getting fanart, etc, which means, that SageMC (or any other STV) doesn't really "care" how the lookups happens.

But, You are right, in that it is a good place to put 2 very important Fanart Metadata Fields, MediaTitle and MediaType, and how they are used.

When Phoenix fetches Fanart, it will use the value of MediaTitle and MediaType, in this way,

[FanartFolder]/[MediaType]/[MediaTitle]/[ArtifactType]/*.jpg
[FanartFolder]/[MediaType]/[MediaTitle]/[ArtiffactType]/Season [SeasonNumber]/*.jpg

Where....
* [FanartFolder] is your Fanart Folder location
* [MediaType] is the MediaType metadata value (TV, Movies)
* [MediaTiel] is the MediaTitle metadata value (Fringe, House, Move Name, etc)
* ArtifactType is the fanart artifact (Posters, Backgrounds, Banners)

If MediaTitle is not set, then Title is used. Title is usually something fairly verbose, like "House S01E02 - Episode Title", or "Terminate Salvation 2009".

If MediaType is not set, then it will default to "Movies"