STV Import: TVExplorer for SageMC

[razrsharpe]

@tocired - one thing i did just notice is that pressing "info" and closing the options boxes will cycle the fanart. I have never seen it just randomly change fanart... just tried it importing into a blank sagemc_3.3.9_a46 on an HD200 and client. Tried with the preview window on and focusing on a group with more than 1 fanart... Had the SageMC cycling on too (although this should have NO effect on TVE because i do not use that setting). When the fanart is cycling is the background changing to the default background for approx. .5 sec then going to a new background? Or is it going directly to a new background?

btw pressing info will cycle through a couple of different info types (description, actors, file info, airing info)

RE Program Info Screen. I have no immediate plans to include one. But you can get to the default one (or a custom one if you have the option set in SageMC Options) by navigating right while in the episode panel. (alternatively you can set "select" to take you to the program info screen in TVE Options)

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by razrsharpe

currently no, but i see the logic and usefulness of such a feature... (and now it makes sense to me why the malore filters were programmed the way they were)... I did it differently but will look into changing it to support multiple "filter sets" either at menu load (via multiple menu items) or from the filter menu.

The other thing to look at, if you're going to be working on the filters, is adding category based filtering, as well as flags. I, as my collection has grown, realize just how important it is to split these things up, so I now have 'Children', 'Adult', 'Adult Unwatched', and 'Football'. Works out very well in the Malore menus, and is really my number one reason for NOT using SageMC (other than my test client). Also, after playing with your plugin a bit, I have some other suggestions. if/when you DO add the filter categories, if it is onscreen like the malore's, it'd be nice to also move between them like malore (with the Skip2 buttons). Also, I really like the episode grouping, but it would be nice to also have a quick hotkey for moving that selection (perhaps Skip1).

[toricred]

It doesn't go to the default background as far as I can tell, but it could be so fast I don't see it. Did you also have the TVE Random fanart setting enabled? That is where I see it.

I was just curious about the program info screen. I found how to have it go to the built-in screen. I really would like that one to have the season and episode numbers. I may have to write that piece myself.

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by toricred

It doesn't go to the default background as far as I can tell, but it could be so fast I don't see it. Did you also have the TVE Random fanart setting enabled? That is where I see it.

you would see it if it went to the default background... like when you change groups and you see the default background for a couple 100 ms. yup i had TVE Random fanart enabled. I think i may have found something in my code that was refreshing the full UI. It had to do with some copied code from from the default STV regarding the library rescan. What do you have your library rescan time set to (SageTV Setup -> Detailed Setup -> General -> Automatic Library Rescan Frequency)?

I was just curious about the program info screen. I found how to have it go to the built-in screen. I really would like that one to have the season and episode numbers. I may have to write that piece myself.

should be really easy to add... i may do that but its pretty low on the list right now, mainly because i dont have any season/episode numbers for recorded tv files (just imported ones)

[petereader]

Just started using this plugin (been playing with it for about half-hour) but I had to stop to give a big thanks to razorsharpe. This plugin is simply brilliant. This is exactly what I wanted in the TV directory and didn't even realize it. This may be the first plugin that uses banners in a practical way for me. I love how all the information is available for me at the touch of a single button (remote button, not mouse button as pointed out by Gerry).

Although I must say, what I think I appreciate most is how well it integrates with SMW. It shows that Plucky had a hand in this (testing and info, if nothing else). Now I understand the use of TV filter in the SMW. Great work Razor.

There are only three suggestions that I can think of:
1) would it be possible to give some indication on the main screen when one is sorting by original air date vs. just air date? Perhaps this is present somewhere and I missed it. Perhaps in the episode panel where it says air date it could say original air date instead.

2) I also noticed that TV shows coming in from imported videos have a lock icon as though they are archived. Is there any way to change this? I like the fact that there is an icon distinguishing these episodes as imported but could it be an icon unique to imported episodes? Don't even know if that is possible.

3) This may be a bit of a stretch, but would it be possible to have specific sorting for each grouping and save that sorting behavior (or is that already possible)? I like most shows grouped by original air date, but I also have some shows (like news shows) where that is not very practical, in which case I just like them grouped by airing date.

Once again, fantastic work on a great plugin that will be getting much use at my house.

Cheers

[toricred]

My automatic library rescan frequency is set to 1 hour.

[toricred]

My wife's first reaction was that the upper right side has a bunch of wasted space. It would be nice if the info was up there instead of the bottom. Is there a way to change that location that I missed?

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by petereader

Just started using this plugin (been playing with it for about half-hour) but I had to stop to give a big thanks to razorsharpe.

thanks glad you like it ... i didnt know what i was missing until i started playing with malore menus in the default stv and realized i wanted something similar to that supported fanart, other groupings, etc.

and yes plucky had a big hand in testing and suggestions (banners, posters, etc)

1) would it be possible to give some indication on the main screen when one is sorting by original air date vs. just air date? Perhaps this is present somewhere and I missed it. Perhaps in the episode panel where it says air date it could say original air date instead.

right now it distinguishes between sorting with "record date" and "air date" but i see how "air date" is a little bit confusing so i can change that to "orig air date"

2) I also noticed that TV shows coming in from imported videos have a lock icon as though they are archived. Is there any way to change this? I like the fact that there is an icon distinguishing these episodes as imported but could it be an icon unique to imported episodes? Don't even know if that is possible.

the lock icon is the "archived" icon. Sage "archives" all imported video and there is no recommended way to unarchive them (i seem to remember that unarchiving imported video was not recommended). You can also archive sagetv recorded content (from the episode panel -> options -> Archive). some indication that the file is imported though would be nice... maybe ill look into that

3) This may be a bit of a stretch, but would it be possible to have specific sorting for each grouping and save that sorting behavior (or is that already possible)? I like most shows grouped by original air date, but I also have some shows (like news shows) where that is not very practical, in which case I just like them grouped by airing date.

its not currently possible and not sure how feasible (from a coding point of view) that would be... there would be a significant amount of extra code to handle custom sortings for each group.... i would need to get much better at java for that... not promising anything but ill add it to the long term todo.

btw the season/episode sorting is the same sorting as original air date except the episodefilter is season/episode and not orig air date.

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by toricred

My wife's first reaction was that the upper right side has a bunch of wasted space. It would be nice if the info was up there instead of the bottom. Is there a way to change that location that I missed?

do you mean upper left, above the group panel? or upper right, above the poster? ive thought about giving that option so the episode panel could become bigger.. but currently no there's no way to change it

[toricred]

I mean the upper right either above the poster or in place of the poster. By the way the fanart cycling problem seems to be a conflict between one of the plugins I've been using (osdplaytime) and TVE. Osdplaytime refreshes the OSD every second while video is playing. When the preview window is up, it must still be refreshing. It's based on a fork. Do you have any idea how to kill a fork when ending the OSD widget or if in preview mode?

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by petereader

Just started using this plugin (been playing with it for about half-hour) but I had to stop to give a big thanks to razorsharpe. This plugin is simply brilliant. This is exactly what I wanted in the TV directory and didn't even realize it. This may be the first plugin that uses banners in a practical way for me. I love how all the information is available for me at the touch of a single button (remote button, not mouse button as pointed out by Gerry).

Although I must say, what I think I appreciate most is how well it integrates with SMW. It shows that Plucky had a hand in this (testing and info, if nothing else). Now I understand the use of TV filter in the SMW. Great work Razor.

There are only three suggestions that I can think of:
1) would it be possible to give some indication on the main screen when one is sorting by original air date vs. just air date? Perhaps this is present somewhere and I missed it. Perhaps in the episode panel where it says air date it could say original air date instead.

2) I also noticed that TV shows coming in from imported videos have a lock icon as though they are archived. Is there any way to change this? I like the fact that there is an icon distinguishing these episodes as imported but could it be an icon unique to imported episodes? Don't even know if that is possible.

3) This may be a bit of a stretch, but would it be possible to have specific sorting for each grouping and save that sorting behavior (or is that already possible)? I like most shows grouped by original air date, but I also have some shows (like news shows) where that is not very practical, in which case I just like them grouped by airing date.

Once again, fantastic work on a great plugin that will be getting much use at my house.

Cheers

One thing I might add is with this great plugin you don't need to inputt your tv into recodinga just get the metadata for it and add it to your video library and then as you said with version 4 of the wall you can filter tv out of the wall and this app filters movies out of it from the video library directories. I nevere wanted to import my tv shows into the tv db and now you don't have to with this great app

Also you can set poperties to menu items and have one menu for a filter of tv shows from your video library and one to your recorded tv that is what I do

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by toricred

I mean the upper right either above the poster or in place of the poster. By the way the fanart cycling problem seems to be a conflict between one of the plugins I've been using (osdplaytime) and TVE. Osdplaytime refreshes the OSD every second while video is playing. When the preview window is up, it must still be refreshing. It's based on a fork. Do you have any idea how to kill a fork when ending the OSD widget or if in preview mode?

pheww its good to know its not me .... ummm not off the top of my head no i dont know how to kill a fork... but something easier to change may be to change the Osdplaytime Refresh() to a RefreshArea("PanelName") where PanelName is whatever the Osdplaytime panels name is. that way it will only refresh the OSD and not the full menu.

[petereader]

Originally Posted by razrsharpe

its not currently possible and not sure how feasible (from a coding point of view) that would be... there would be a significant amount of extra code to handle custom sortings for each group.... i would need to get much better at java for that... not promising anything but ill add it to the long term todo.

Without knowing much about coding it sounded like this would be quite an endeavor. Truth is, you have it set up so that it is pretty easy to do with just a few remote clicks.

Originally Posted by razrsharpe

btw the season/episode sorting is the same sorting as original air date except the episodefilter is season/episode and not orig air date.

Thanks for clarifying this.

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

I nevere wanted to import my tv shows into the tv db and now you don't have to with this great app

This is a great point. Everything shows up where it should, in a much more intuitive fashion.

Thanks to both of you!

Cheers

[toricred]

I mis-spoke. It actually is a RefreshArea.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by petereader

Thanks to both of you!

Cheers

Thanks to razor this is his app why I did have input here and there he has had just as must of input and influence on the wall. We both help each other where we can but all in all this is still his nice piece of work.

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

We both help each other where we can

couldn't have said it better myself

[superdodge]

With "Banner Time Display" set to "Right" the date actually overhangs the grey box on my system. Are other folks seeing this or does it have to do with the fact that I changed the group window width to 0.45?

[razrsharpe]

@toricred - i took a look at OSD PlayTime... you need to put quotes around PlayTimeDisplay. So the line would look like RefreshArea("PlayTimeDisplay"). After i did this all was good and the TVE background doesn't refresh every second. RefreshArea wants a string and if the string is null or zero length (yourcase) its the same as calling refresh.
http://download.sage.tv/api/sage/api...lang.String%29


Also once started there is nothing that stops that fork from executing and refreshing every second so it was mucking up the background display even after video playback was stopped. Even after loading a different stv (without playtimedisplay) it was still mucking up the background. It required a restart of the sage client for it to behave correctly again (until playback was started again). I would look into adding some code to make sure that fork stops when the file is no longer playing.

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by superdodge

With "Banner Time Display" set to "Right" the date actually overhangs the grey box on my system. Are other folks seeing this or does it have to do with the fact that I changed the group window width to 0.45?

changing the group window width shouldn't matter... when "Banner Time Display" is set to "Right" it will put the time to the right of the banner. With banner stretching enabled you wont see the date b/c there is no room on the right for it (the banner is stretched to 100% of the panel width). Disable banner stretching to have the title on the right (TVE Options -> Browser -> Stretch Banner -> Disabled)

In the attached screenshot i also have Banner Watched Count set to "beside"

[toricred]

Thanks for looking at that. The import actually isn't mine, but the developer hasn't been around in over a year. I'm going to fix that part on my copy and I've already started working on a fix for the fork() for both that and my import osdclock. That may actually resolve a major problem I've been having with a memory leak.