Gemstone FAQ

[jusjoken]

Please check out these FAQ before posting a question... we will continue to add to this over time.

• Q: How do I install/upgrade Gemstone?
• A: Follow these steps here....

• Q: What is a Flow?
• A: A Flow is the core media listing solution....

• Q: How do I get Weather Backgrounds?
• A: Weather backgrounds are an optional addon....

• Q: Can I go back to Diamond?
• A: Sure... but why would you want to....

• Q: Gemstone plugin install seems different... what's up with that??
• A: Gemstone is installed as a replacement STV....

• Q: How do I have a Flow with both Recorded TV and Movies??
• A: Here is a set of instructions that will get you both Recorded TV and Movies in your Flow...

• Q: How do I get a Flow to show un-archived recorded TV Shows??
• A: Select Option->Flow Manager->Add new flow...

• Q: What plugins work with Gemstone??
• A: Listing of compatible, non-compatible and included...

• Q: How do I report an issue or ask for an enhancement??
• A: Report issues on the Gemstone issues site...

[jusjoken]

A Flow is the core media listing solution used within Gemstone.

• Flows can handle both TV and Movie media separately or together within a single Flow.
• Each Flow type changes the presentation of the media contained within
• Changing the Flow type will just change the presentation--- look and feel of the Flow - not the media
• Sample Flows found here.....
• Flows are "View" based. A View is a VFS source that defines the media to include/exclude, filter, sort, group by etc.
• Selecting a different "View" for a Flow will change the media that is listed inside the Flow
• You can create 1 of each Flow Type by going into the Flow Manager from the Options menu of the Main Menu and select "Create Default Flows"
• After creating the Default Flows - launch the Flow from the Videos Menu and then from the Options Menu change the View, Filters, Name or select from the many Customize menu options.

[jusjoken]

Weather backgrounds are an optional addon for Gemstone and must be installed separately.

• Go into the plugin system in Sage under General and select "Gemstone y Optional Weather Backgrounds" and install this plugin
• In Gemstone from the Main Menu press Options and then Select Weather Options
• Then Select Customize
• Here you can turn on/off the Weather Backgrounds for the Main Menu as well as the Weather Screens
• You can also adjust the number of seconds between the weather backgrounds changing
• Note: a setting of 0 seconds will mean the backgrounds will only change when switching to one of these screens but will not Auto change while in these screens

[jusjoken]

Sure... but why would you want to???

But in case someone wants to we made a NEW plugin called Diamond Legacy. You will find it in the UIMods plugin list.

Note: you MUST disable the "Gemstone for Default SageTV7" plugin first.

Once Gemstone is disabled then you also need to go into detailed setup and select advanced and revert, then you can just install "Diamond Legacy" from the plugin system as you would normally.

As the settings between Gemstone and Diamond are completely separate your old Diamond settings will still be available if you switch back to Diamond Legacy.

In theory, you can run Diamond Legacy on some of your clients/extenders and Gemstone on others.

Note: Diamond Legacy is only being made available for those that try out Gemstone and end up not wanting to make the switch . Diamond Legacy will NOT be updated anymore.

To go back to Gemstone again just simply enable/install "Gemstone for Default SageTV7". Gemstone will make sure the Diamond Legacy plugin gets disabled.

[jusjoken]

Gemstone is installed as a replacement STV with a small plugin to aid in switching from the Default SageTV7 STV to the Gemstone STV.

Note: this is done to reduce the memory overhead (heap). However, Gemstone is built on top of the SageTV7 default STV so other plugins should be compatible... in theory.

[jusjoken]

NOTE: Please follow these steps to either install or upgrade from Diamond to Gemstone.

Clean install....
Inside Sage select Setup/Plugins/All Available Plugins and select the "Gemstone for Default SageTV7" plugin under the UI Mod section
Restart when prompted
For the initial install do the following....
Note a new menu on the Main Menu called GEMSTONE
Select LOAD GEMSTONE UI from this menu
Select Yes on the Load prompt
Gemstone should start up with the new version loaded.

Update from Diamond.........
Inside Sage select Setup/Plugins/Installed Plugins and select to update the Gemstone/Diamond plugin
Restart when prompted
For the first update do the following....
Note a new menu on the Main Menu called GEMSTONE
Select LOAD GEMSTONE UI from this menu
Select Yes on the Load prompt
Gemstone should start up with the new version loaded.

If you have placeshifters/extenders you will need to do the following on each...
Note a new menu on the Main Menu called GEMSTONE
Select LOAD GEMSTONE UI from this menu
Select Yes on the Load prompt
Gemstone should start up with the new version loaded.

Let us know if these instructions need to be updated

[jorton]

*We will try to keep this list up to date as we evaluate more plugins.

This is a listing of plugins that are known to be compatible with Gemstone,

• Complementary Metadata Tools (CMT) (JREkiwi)
• PlayON (EvilPenguin)
• Comskip Playback (JREkiwi)
• Commercial Detector UI (tmiranda)
• Display Aspect Ratio Switcher (Gkusnick)
• MyTV For Diamond UI Mod 3.3+ (jorton) - Need to add to Main Menu using Menu Manager if using custom menu.
• Movie Trailers (koelec, MKANET)
• Miniguide (MLBDude, Cayars, jbuszkie, JREkiwi)
• Slimplayer Internet Radio (koelec)
• Probably others but we haven't tested them all...

This is a list of plugins that are now built into Gemstone that do not need to be installed,

• CVF - Custom Video Folder (jusjoken)
• ADM - Another Dynamic Menu (jusjoken)
• Season Premiere Borders for Guide (jorton)
• Scrolling Setup on Main Menu (tmiranda) - Not this specific code but the functions are added to Gemstone already.

This is a list of plugins that are not compatible with Gemstone,

• Ortus Trailers (Team Ortus) - Menu issue.
• MyTV for V7 (bialio) - Menu issue and display issue.

[jusjoken]

Here is a set of instructions that will get you both Recorded TV and Movies in your Flow.... note: dual Flow shown as an example but works with any Flow type.

Type: Dual Flow
View: Base - All Videos

View Options:

Level - 1

Group by: Show
-Options: Promote single items groups = Yes

Sort by: Recent Activity
-Options: Sort Order: Descending
-Options: Folders First: No

Level -2

Group by: None
-Options: None

Sort by: Season and Episode
-Options: Sort Order: Descending (or Ascending)

Under Filters select the Media Type Filters (included option) then select "Recording" from the list.

Should only show the recorded TV and Movies...

[jusjoken]

• Select Option->Flow Manager->Add new flow
• Name the flow
• Select the type (Dual Flow in my case)
• Create menu item for the new flow using menu manager [optionally, delete the old default SageTV menu item that you're replacing with this new menu]
• Using normal SageTV menu system, select the flow that you just created
• Select Option and then select "View: TV Shows" in the upper right section of the option menu.
• Scroll to the bottom of the list and select "Other Views"
• Make sure show advanced views is set to yes on the next menu screen and then select TV from the list of view tags.
• Select "Recorded TV" [This is the view that lists recorded TV shows that do not have the archive flag set]
• Select "info options" and adjust to taste.
• Select "customize" and adjust to taste.
• Return to main SageTV screen and enjoy your new view.

[jusjoken]

An issues list is maintained on the Gemstone Google code site. Please add any issues directly to that site so we make sure we do not forget about an issue. Please fully describe the issue so we can try to repeat it....pictures are a great way to show an example where appropriate.

Enhancements can also be added as issues....just mention it as an enhancement or put Enhancement: in the subject of the issue.