new to the plugin idea - easiest way to get artwork for films and tv?

[tvmaster2]

I installed Phoenix Fanart for SageTV V7, and a fair number of movies received poster artwork.

Nothing for television programs, however.

Do I need a seperate plugin for TV shows art?

What combo of plugins gives the most broad coverage, while being the least invasive to the core Sage OS, since having the art is a nice bonus, but not worth a de-stabilized system.

Oh, sorry, I also have a fair number of DVD rips from my personal discs that could use artwork as well

[Julianus]

Try one of the plugins that is using Fanart:
1) Diamond - This is the greatest, but it will take time to properly configured. Read the documentation on the Wiki.
2) TVExplorer
3) TVBrowser

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by Julianus

Try one of the plugins that is using Fanart:
1) Diamond - This is the greatest, but it will take time to properly configured. Read the documentation on the Wiki.
2) TVExplorer
3) TVBrowser

OK, will do. Are those just good for TV programs, or are movies, DVD's etc likely going to be serviced as well?

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by Julianus

Try one of the plugins that is using Fanart:
1) Diamond - This is the greatest, but it will take time to properly configured. Read the documentation on the Wiki.
2) TVExplorer
3) TVBrowser

how much do plugins effect Java heap size?

[Spectrum]

If you don't want to go all out with Diamond, TVE, or TVB you could use the Phoenix Fan Art plugin for the default STV and it will show your fan art. As for the java heap, plugins are one of the biggest users of it.

[bialio]

All the plugins mentioned here display fanart, but none of them GET it for you. For that you need BMT.

Start here.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by bialio

All the plugins mentioned here display fanart, but none of them GET it for you. For that you need BMT.

Start here.

hmmm, that's what I was hoping for - something that I DIDN'T have to interface much. I installed the phoenix fanart, and it seemed to place some artwork in the recorded movies I had - not all, but most.
So I NEED BMT for that? I will read that link

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

hmmm, that's what I was hoping for - something that I DIDN'T have to interface much. I installed the phoenix fanart, and it seemed to place some artwork in the recorded movies I had - not all, but most.
So I NEED BMT for that? I will read that link

BMT when installed, will fetch fanart for any new movies/tv shows added to your collection. BUT it will not fetch fanart for your existing titles. For that, you can force a full scan using the web ui. Once you have all your media up to date, then phoenix/bmt will sit in the background just adding fanart and metadata for new items, and you can use the web ui to fix any titles that it gets wrong (if your source files are named well, then you'll have better success)

The step that most people miss is that they expect bmt to automatically fetch fanart for all their existing titles. While I could make it do that, I'd rather leave that as a manual operation for the user, because it would annoy me if i installed a plugin and then it automatically fetched fanart/metadata for my 1000s of items

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by stuckless

BMT when installed, will fetch fanart for any new movies/tv shows added to your collection. BUT it will not fetch fanart for your existing titles. For that, you can force a full scan using the web ui. Once you have all your media up to date, then phoenix/bmt will sit in the background just adding fanart and metadata for new items, and you can use the web ui to fix any titles that it gets wrong (if your source files are named well, then you'll have better success)

The step that most people miss is that they expect bmt to automatically fetch fanart for all their existing titles. While I could make it do that, I'd rather leave that as a manual operation for the user, because it would annoy me if i installed a plugin and then it automatically fetched fanart/metadata for my 1000s of items

thanx. is it very java intensive? The Colossus card and Sage seem to be having a problem in that area

[wrems]

Originally Posted by stuckless

BMT when installed, will fetch fanart for any new movies/tv shows added to your collection. BUT it will not fetch fanart for your existing titles. For that, you can force a full scan using the web ui. Once you have all your media up to date, then phoenix/bmt will sit in the background just adding fanart and metadata for new items, and you can use the web ui to fix any titles that it gets wrong (if your source files are named well, then you'll have better success)

The step that most people miss is that they expect bmt to automatically fetch fanart for all their existing titles. While I could make it do that, I'd rather leave that as a manual operation for the user, because it would annoy me if i installed a plugin and then it automatically fetched fanart/metadata for my 1000s of items

I agree with you that it’s a better manual operation, but if a fair share of new users constantly miss that step, it could be frustrating for them and you...

Maybe a compromise would be to add a pop-up dialog that only executes on first launch after install that gives the option to instantly execute a manual scan on all existing media files and informs the user what you’re saying above about BMT only fetching on new media.

Maybe it would help some of the people just getting started with BMT?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by wrems

I agree with you that it’s a better manual operation, but if a fair share of new users constantly miss that step, it could be frustrating for them and you...

Maybe a compromise would be to add a pop-up dialog that only executes on first launch after install that gives the option to instantly execute a manual scan on all existing media files and informs the user what you’re saying above about BMT only fetching on new media.

Maybe it would help some of the people just getting started with BMT?

It's something to consider... I'm still not convinced it will have much effect Item 3 in the quick start guide makes it very clear what bmt will do on a new install... but it still gets missed

Having a dialog popup is certainly an option, though.

[SomeWhatLost]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Item 3 in the quick start guide makes it very clear what bmt will do on a new install... but it still gets missed

the major issue there is, at least for those of us with extenders, is that when installing things from an extenders its all very "Plug 'n Play"...
Sage and the plug in dev's did too good of a job with the Plug in manager...
it is real easy to get used to just pressing a button and having things/plugin's just take care of themselves... nobody even thinks of reading the quick start guides/wikis until the plugin author points that out... it is just too easy to be lazy...

so my suggestion is for all plug in devs would be to make the Quick Start guides & wikis somehow 'pop up' (with that cool red blinky warning notice ... that would be cool... made change the warning to be "Read Me, or Else!!!) or something to that effect during the plugin download/install process...
ie force us lazy people to actually read it at the time of install...

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by stuckless

BMT when installed, will fetch fanart for any new movies/tv shows added to your collection. BUT it will not fetch fanart for your existing titles. For that, you can force a full scan using the web ui. Once you have all your media up to date, then phoenix/bmt will sit in the background just adding fanart and metadata for new items, and you can use the web ui to fix any titles that it gets wrong (if your source files are named well, then you'll have better success)

The step that most people miss is that they expect bmt to automatically fetch fanart for all their existing titles. While I could make it do that, I'd rather leave that as a manual operation for the user, because it would annoy me if i installed a plugin and then it automatically fetched fanart/metadata for my 1000s of items

So, I am giving this plugin a try . . . question: where did all the .properties files come from that appeared in my recording dir? For every recording, there is now an accompanying file with the same name with the .properties tag.
Can those either be stored somewhere else, or not created at all?

[jusjoken]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

So, I am giving this plugin a try . . . question: where did all the .properties files come from that appeared in my recording dir? For every recording, there is now an accompanying file with the same name with the .properties tag.
Can those either be stored somewhere else, or not created at all?

Go into BMT on the Configure page and expand the Sage TV section and select Metadata Settings and then uncheck the "Update .properties when changed" setting and that will solve it.

You may also want to use the batch options for removing the .properties files on the Browse page in BMT.

k

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by jusjoken

Go into BMT on the Configure page and expand the Sage TV section and select Metadata Settings and then uncheck the "Update .properties when changed" setting and that will solve it.

You may also want to use the batch options for removing the .properties files on the Browse page in BMT.

k

It has come to my attention in the last week or so, that removing those .properties will may lead to another issue... whereby sagetv no longer remembers the custom metadata for your item such as season and episode.

As for the creation of the .properties in the recordings dir... that's a side effect of bmt fetching additional metadata/fanart for your recordings. Once a file is recorded, bmt will automatically try to download new metadata and fanart for that item.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by SomeWhatLost

the major issue there is, at least for those of us with extenders, is that when installing things from an extenders its all very "Plug 'n Play"...
Sage and the plug in dev's did too good of a job with the Plug in manager...
it is real easy to get used to just pressing a button and having things/plugin's just take care of themselves... nobody even thinks of reading the quick start guides/wikis until the plugin author points that out... it is just too easy to be lazy...

so my suggestion is for all plug in devs would be to make the Quick Start guides & wikis somehow 'pop up' (with that cool red blinky warning notice ... that would be cool... made change the warning to be "Read Me, or Else!!!) or something to that effect during the plugin download/install process...
ie force us lazy people to actually read it at the time of install...

Maybe I can convince sagetv to implement a "README" section that you need to read and scroll all the way to the bottom and then press OK before the plugin will install You know, like when you install a game or Windows itself to acknowledge the TOS.

The problem with that, like windows UAC, is that people just learn to press OK or scroll quickly and then press OK. Unfortunately there is no magic bullet.... I'm just doomed to repeat the same information over and over for all eternity... i've created my own special purgatory

[wrems]

Originally Posted by stuckless

It's something to consider... I'm still not convinced it will have much effect Item 3 in the quick start guide makes it very clear what bmt will do on a new install... but it still gets missed

Having a dialog popup is certainly an option, though.

There's the problem! No one actually rtfm

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by jusjoken

Go into BMT on the Configure page and expand the Sage TV section and select Metadata Settings and then uncheck the "Update .properties when changed" setting and that will solve it.

You may also want to use the batch options for removing the .properties files on the Browse page in BMT.

k

thanks - excellent advice

[tvmaster2]

any reason why a bunch of files currently don't seem to have ANY audio after installing BMT?

edit: apparently the mpg2 decoder was changed by the install - how odd. Any idea why?

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by stuckless

It has come to my attention in the last week or so, that removing those .properties will may lead to another issue... whereby sagetv no longer remembers the custom metadata for your item such as season and episode.

As for the creation of the .properties in the recordings dir... that's a side effect of bmt fetching additional metadata/fanart for your recordings. Once a file is recorded, bmt will automatically try to download new metadata and fanart for that item.

brilliant - good to know. maybe it's worded differently in the manual, but is there any reason why a recording (in this case, an older, mpg2 file from a PVR-150) would be broken into THREE files (all with the same name) when BMT applied metadata? It's happened to a few programs, for example, The Colbert Report has been renamed after the episodes guest, and split into three files.