Testing New Features: Assign User Categories to recordings + add recording views

[Opus4]

A new feature for recordings is available for testing:

STV Updates:
STV version 7.0.15.2, file set 2010081501 Update
STV version 7.0.15.3, file set 2010081601 Update
STV version 7.0.15.4, file set 2010081801 Update
STV version 7.0.15.6, file set 2010082601 Update

You can now assign User-defined Categories to Favorites, Manual Recordings, or individual recordings.

Once any User Categories have been defined, you can then filter by User Category in addition to Category in any SageTV Recordings view.


You can also now add up to 4 additional SageTV Recordings views. The number of recording views can be configured via Options -> Menu Options -> Number of Views. As before, the same Menu Options dialog can be used to rename or reset the current view and the Sorting, Grouping, and Filtering settings are remembered separately for each view.


A few notes:

• The Category and User Category filters are configured and processed at the same time. Examples: if you filter to include only the built-in category for "Children", then tag only a few extra Favorites with the user category "Kids" and add "Kids" to the Category filter, the resulting filtered list will include all recordings with the "Children" category plus all recordings with the "Kids" user category. If the same filter were set to Exclude those two categories instead, then the resulting list would include all recordings except those with the "Childrens" Category or "Kids" User Category.
  
  
• Since User Categories are defined by the user, there are none to start with. Simply add new user categories while assigning them.
  
  
• If no User Categories have been added, Only Categories will be listed in the category filter configuration dialog.
  
  
• The User Categories for an airing that has not been recorded can only have User Categories assinged via a Favorite or Manual Recording. Once an airing is recorded, User Categories can be assigned to that individual recording, enabling tagging IR recordings.
  
  
• To assign User Cateogries to Favorites:
  1. Use the "Assign User Categories" option on the Favorites Manager menu to assign them for multiple Favorites at once.
  2. Use the "User-Defined Categories" option on the Favorite Details menu to assign them for a single Favorite.
  3. Select a group of airings containing 1 or more Favorites, then choose "Edit User Categories".
  
  
• To assign User Categories to a Manual Recording:
  • Select an individual Manual Recording, or a group of airings containing 1 or more Manual Recordings, then choose "Edit User Categories".
  
  
• To assign User Categories for an individual recording:
  • Select an individual recording, or a group of recordings, then choose "Edit User Categories".
  
  
• If the User Categories are edited for a group, all items in the group will be assigned the same set of selected User Categories.
  
  
• The recording, Manual Recording, and Favorite user categories for an airing can be seen on the airing/recording details menus.
  
  
• Use the Delete command when editing User Categories to remove the highlighted user-added category name. Note: It may not be removed from the on-screen list if it is still in use by SageTV.
  
  
• When editing multiple items, use the Mode button to change between Setting all selected categories, Adding all selected categories to each item's existing categories, or Removing all selected categories from each item's existing categories.

Known issues:

• None at the moment.

Please post here regarding any user category issues. Thanks.

- Andy

[Fuzzy]

looks great.. time to play...

[mayamaniac]

Awesome, a step towards a multi-user system.

Hope there will be custom menus directly in [TV > Recordings > ...] for quicker access than enabling Filters. Something like:

TV > Recordings > Jon's Recordings

or

TV > Recordings > Sports Recordings

And maybe password protections for the:

TV > Recordings > Adults Only Recordings

[scoful]

Ditto that - I'd like to have an optional recordings screen as above plus an
'All Recordings' that would show everything except password protected categories.

All Recordings
Mythbusters
Wife Swap
Hannah Montana
Joy Behar
Kids
Hannah Montana
Dad
Mythbusters
Mom
Joy Behar
Mom & Dad (Locked)
Debbie Does Dallas

[owilsky]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

Awesome, a step towards a multi-user system.

Hope there will be custom menus directly in [TV > Recordings > ...] for quicker access than enabling Filters. Something like:

TV > Recordings > Jon's Recordings

or

TV > Recordings > Sports Recordings

And maybe password protections for the:

TV > Recordings > Adults Only Recordings

That would be awesome...

[Opus4]

I'm curious whether you are aware that you can already customize and rename all the SageTV Recordings views and that their customized names are shown on the Main Menu?

- Andy

[owilsky]

Originally Posted by Opus4

I'm curious whether you are aware that you can already customize and rename all the SageTV Recordings views and that their customized names are shown on the Main Menu?

- Andy

Guess I finally have to RTFM... Is there a beta manual for V7 yet?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by owilsky

Guess I finally have to RTFM... Is there a beta manual for V7 yet?

No, but the configuration options for the recordings menu views should be (mostly) the same. The new thing is that they are individually listed on the Main Menu in v7.

- Andy

[evilpenguin]

How about extending this support to imported content?

Edit: Looks like it's already there, so how about I change my question to: how about allowing imported content to mix with recorded TV content based on category (or my standing feature request of completely ending the segregation of imported videos)

[mayamaniac]

Originally Posted by Opus4

I'm curious whether you are aware that you can already customize and rename all the SageTV Recordings views and that their customized names are shown on the Main Menu?

- Andy

Link to instruction for said feature?

[evilpenguin]

I tried to do a batch catagory of my entire Imported TV folder as "Imported TV" and I got a warning that says...

The videos in this group do not all belong to the same categories. If the currently selected categories are applied, all videos will then become assigned to the same categories

The way i'm reading this is if I have a folder with one video tagged just HORROR and another tagged just ACTION, if I select edit categories on all videos in that folder and attempt to tag them both with IMPORTED TV i'm going to end up with both videos being tagged ACTION, HORROR, and IMPORTED TV rather than one with ACTION, IMPORTED TV and another with HORROR, IMPORTED TV? If so, can you add the ability to append categories as well?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

The way i'm reading this is if I have a folder with one video tagged just HORROR and another tagged just ACTION, if I select edit categories on all videos in that folder and attempt to tag them both with IMPORTED TV i'm going to end up with both videos being tagged ACTION, HORROR, and IMPORTED TV rather than one with ACTION, IMPORTED TV and another with HORROR, IMPORTED TV? If so, can you add the ability to append categories as well?

This is why I noted in the first post that "If the User Categories are edited for a group, all items in the group will be assigned the same set of selected User Categories."

I've added appending as a to-perhaps-do item, but I can't guarantee whether it will be added.

- Andy

[Opus4]

Update:
STV version 7.0.15.3, file set 2010081601 Update

This update adds the ability to configure the number of recording views from 4 - 8.

I'm also testing a different way to deal with the category filter -- in this update, Categories & User Categories (if any exist) are both selected in the same dialog when configuring the filter. The downside is the side-by-side category lists for filter selection, but I'm hoping it gets the point across that they are filtered together. The combined Cat + UserCat filter list now correctly handles the include/exclude option.

The notes in the first post have been updated for these changes.

- Andy

[dvd_maniac]

Seems like the next logical step in the Multi-User recording setup should be the ability to set the watched status only in the recording view it was currently watched in. (or make this an option at least)
If I have a favorite that is assigned to more than one user, it would be nice for me to know that all the users that watch that favorite have done so before I either delete or archive the video. Can't tell you how many times I went to clean up the recordings folder only to find out wife has not watched something yet...

[wado1971]

VERY nice feature - well done !!

[Opus4]

Update:
STV version 7.0.15.4, file set 2010081801 Update

This fixes the bug where if you add a new recordings view, then view a subgroup in that view, when you exit the subgroup to return to the full recordings list, the view is reset to the first (All) view.

I was going to wait for more changes before posting another STV update, but I don't think there were any other bugs reported for the v7.0.15.3 STV and the next changes are taking longer than I expected, so I didn't want to leave that one bug hanging there.

- Andy

[bastafidli]

Can I assign category to import directory?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by bastafidli

Can I assign category to import directory?

You can edit the categories for the whole group, if that's what you mean - that will set the cats for every file in the group. If you mean: can you assign a category to a path & have it assigned to files copied to that path in the future, then no.

- Andy

[bastafidli]

Originally Posted by Opus4

You can edit the categories for the whole group, if that's what you mean - that will set the cats for every file in the group. If you mean: can you assign a category to a path & have it assigned to files copied to that path in the future, then no.

- Andy

That is exactly what I mean. I have a separate import folder for home videos of my family and separate import folder for movies. Currently (still on 7.11 for few more minutes) the only way to separate these is to use the Folders view. If I can automatically assign category to each import folder then I could separate the home videos from movies and use the category view.

[wado1971]

Am I missing something here - Should I be able to set a 'user' cat to my IMPORTED video and then add that 'user' cat in the malore menus? If so, I must have a setting wrong somewhere.

Setting the 'user' cat for SageTV recordings is working fine. As are the new categories for videos. Just looks to me that these are separate functions. ?

rob