The "Best" of stock SageTV and Kodi, can it be done?

[stanger89]

Forgive me if this is a bit too noobish, or lazy.

Background, I've been running stock SageTV for ages, and for a good while I've been running OpenELEC (Kodi) with the Ace MQ skin. I generally really like this combo. Maybe it's because I'm bored, but I felt like trying out Gemstone and to see if I can bring together the things I like best about both of them in one place. Anyway I've run into a few roadbumps.

Firstly there's the recording menu, single items are listed in folders rather than alone. It seems on the Gemstone flows there's an option to change that (promote single items I think) but I don't see that for the "stock" recordings menu.

Next up are the flows, I've noticed a couple annoyances with them. First is, when I hit "back" from any level in a flow, it returns me to the main menu, where as the SageTV stock menus return me to the parent view. For example if I'm in a folder of a TV show in Sage Recordings (stock menu) and hit back I return to the recordings, but in a Gemstone flow I drop all the way back to the main menu.

Second is the flows don't remember where I was, so if I'm looking at a show that starts with S, and accidentally hit back instead of left, when I come back in I'm looking at A.

Lastly, for now , is fanart, is there a way to download more/different fanart? While setting things up in Gemstone I noticed that I can't find the same fanart I chose in Kodi. Looking, it appears Sage/Phoenix/Gemstone only downloads the first 5 images from thetvdb but in Kodi I can select from any of them.

[jusjoken]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Firstly there's the recording menu, single items are listed in folders rather than alone. It seems on the Gemstone flows there's an option to change that (promote single items I think) but I don't see that for the "stock" recordings menu.

The stock recordings menu in Gemstone are really just that....we have added some features and changed the graphics but the functionality should be mostly stock. You can create a Flow of recordings and that is the goal and where we spent the time on the functionality.

Originally Posted by stanger89

Next up are the flows, I've noticed a couple annoyances with them. First is, when I hit "back" from any level in a flow, it returns me to the main menu, where as the SageTV stock menus return me to the parent view. For example if I'm in a folder of a TV show in Sage Recordings (stock menu) and hit back I return to the recordings, but in a Gemstone flow I drop all the way back to the main menu.

You need to let me know more of the Flow type you were using because I daily use the List Flow with a view based on TV Series/Season/Episode and I can select a Series, get a list of Seasons, select a Season and get a list of Episodes and hit LEFT and go back to the Seasons to pick another. Perhaps you just need to use LEFT instead of BACK.

Originally Posted by stanger89

Second is the flows don't remember where I was, so if I'm looking at a show that starts with S, and accidentally hit back instead of left, when I come back in I'm looking at A.

See above response as the Flows are designed to "remember" the last level entry you were on when you return to it. However, if you go back to the main menu and launch the Flow again it will start at the top (perhaps it would not be too difficult to extend the history solution to "try" to return even from the Main Menu, however I chose not to as the Flow could have changed and the next time you return to the Flow you may NOT want to return to where you were last time - perhaps an optional new feature).

Originally Posted by stanger89

Lastly, for now , is fanart, is there a way to download more/different fanart? While setting things up in Gemstone I noticed that I can't find the same fanart I chose in Kodi. Looking, it appears Sage/Phoenix/Gemstone only downloads the first 5 images from thetvdb but in Kodi I can select from any of them.

In the BMT web interface, go to Configure and then under Phoenix, Fanart/Metadata options, change the default of 5 in the setting "Max Images to Download".

k

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by jusjoken

The stock recordings menu in Gemstone are really just that....we have added some features and changed the graphics but the functionality should be mostly stock. You can create a Flow of recordings and that is the goal and where we spent the time on the functionality.

Well really that's the question, the "stock" recording list, doesn't actually work the same as the stock Sage recordings view. It puts single items in Folders where the stock STV doesn't do that.

You need to let me know more of the Flow type you were using because I daily use the List Flow with a view based on TV Series/Season/Episode and I can select a Series, get a list of Seasons, select a Season and get a list of Episodes and hit LEFT and go back to the Seasons to pick another. Perhaps you just need to use LEFT instead of BACK.

Yeah, it works fine with left, but that's not what I'm used to using

See above response as the Flows are designed to "remember" the last level entry you were on when you return to it. However, if you go back to the main menu and launch the Flow again it will start at the top (perhaps it would not be too difficult to extend the history solution to "try" to return even from the Main Menu, however I chose not to as the Flow could have changed and the next time you return to the Flow you may NOT want to return to where you were last time - perhaps an optional new feature).

Yeah, I kind of figured that was by design, since I assume under the hood all the flows are probably the same menu, but with different settings. Where as the stock STV had different menus for those things.

In the BMT web interface, go to Configure and then under Phoenix, Fanart/Metadata options, change the default of 5 in the setting "Max Images to Download".

I'll have to look again, I could have sworn there was something like that, but I couldn't find it.

[jusjoken]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Well really that's the question, the "stock" recording list, doesn't actually work the same as the stock Sage recordings view. It puts single items in Folders where the stock STV doesn't do that.

I just took a look (as I never use these "stock" views) and sure enough we did add some functions and the default grouping is by Title I believe. Go in there and press Options and change the Grouping to No Grouping.

Originally Posted by stanger89

Yeah, it works fine with left, but that's not what I'm used to using

I guess we could add an Option to use Back in the Flows as LEFT.

k

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Well really that's the question, the "stock" recording list, doesn't actually work the same as the stock Sage recordings view. It puts single items in Folders where the stock STV doesn't do that.

The 'recommended' thing to do would be to just not use the stock views, and make a flow to replace them. The 'Sage Flow' is designed to closely mimic the stock sagetv list view.

[jorton]

If I remember correctly way back when in the pre Gemstone "Diamond days"... the grouping of shows in the stock recordings menu was a necessary evil to have "show" level fan art banners, so single shows had to have their own grouping.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by jusjoken

I just took a look (as I never use these "stock" views) and sure enough we did add some functions and the default grouping is by Title I believe. Go in there and press Options and change the Grouping to No Grouping.

But that will list everything separately right? I was hoping I was missing some setting like the "Promote Single Items" in the flows.

I guess we could add an Option to use Back in the Flows as LEFT.

That would be awesome, because right now for navigation Back and Left work basically interchangeably everywhere except in a Gemstone flow, where Back drops you all the way back to the main menu. That doesn't happen anywhere else in Sage that I can recall.

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

The 'recommended' thing to do would be to just not use the stock views, and make a flow to replace them. The 'Sage Flow' is designed to closely mimic the stock sagetv list view.

Yeah, I'd thought of that, and I'll probably give it a shot. I'm really trying to keep changes to a minimum for the recording stuff since I was happy with how that worked. My goal was trying to get the info/fanart for my imports as close to my OpenELEC/Kodi setup as possible. I've been using the Ace skin and really like the clean, uncluttered (yet still with lots of useful info) appearance.

For example:


Oh, and that reminds me of another thing, in XBMC/Kodi, movies are automatically grouped into collections, like Star Trek Collection, Star Wars Collection, etc, is there any way to do that with a Gemstone/Phoenix View/VFS?

[jusjoken]

Originally Posted by stanger89

But that will list everything separately right? I was hoping I was missing some setting like the "Promote Single Items" in the flows.

I miss-read your original question...sorry. No, there is no promote single items type functionality in that menu.

Originally Posted by stanger89

Oh, and that reminds me of another thing, in XBMC/Kodi, movies are automatically grouped into collections, like Star Trek Collection, Star Wars Collection, etc, is there any way to do that with a Gemstone/Phoenix View/VFS?

Collections is an interesting concept that I would like to see us implement eventually. We obviously need the metadata but those sources are now available so it should be possible as well as allowing the user to create a collection within BMT would be good too (but BMT would need additional features for this).

k

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by jusjoken

I miss-read your original question...sorry. No, there is no promote single items type functionality in that menu.


Collections is an interesting concept that I would like to see us implement eventually. We obviously need the metadata but those sources are now available so it should be possible as well as allowing the user to create a collection within BMT would be good too (but BMT would need additional features for this).

k

yeah, themoviedb does have a 'belongs_to_collection' tag for movies, but I don't think phoenix currently pulls it down. If it did, we'd then need to make a new view that would group them by this new collection metadata tag (if present), promoting single items, which would result in:

- Sleeping Beauty (1959)
- Star Wars Collection
  +- Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)
  +- Star Wars Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
- Star Trek: The Original Series Collection
  +- Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
  +- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
- Starman (1984)
- Tombstone (1993)

So step one is getting Sean to add a new custom tag, and populate it with the NAME of the collection (which would take a double api call - the movie tag contains the id number of the collection, which then needs to be pulled to get the name of the collection). There is a lot more info available, such as collection based fanart and such, but that would take more work than just populating the movie with a text based 'Collection' field.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

yeah, themoviedb does have a 'belongs_to_collection' tag for movies, but I don't think phoenix currently pulls it down. If it did, we'd then need to make a new view that would group them by this new collection metadata tag (if present), promoting single items, which would result in:

- Sleeping Beauty (1959)
- Star Wars Collection
  +- Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)
  +- Star Wars Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
- Star Trek: The Original Series Collection
  +- Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
  +- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
- Starman (1984)
- Tombstone (1993)

So step one is getting Sean to add a new custom tag, and populate it with the NAME of the collection (which would take a double api call - the movie tag contains the id number of the collection, which then needs to be pulled to get the name of the collection). There is a lot more info available, such as collection based fanart and such, but that would take more work than just populating the movie with a text based 'Collection' field.

It actually wouldn't take much effect, provided the version of tmdb api that I'm using, support its.

All metadata fetching from tmdb happens in this file
https://github.com/stuckless/sagetv-...aProvider.java

We'd just create 2 new files COLLECTION_ID and COLLECTION_NAME and populate them if we have it.

We'd also need a new Grouper that Groups on Collection Name, but that's pretty simple.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

yeah, themoviedb does have a 'belongs_to_collection' tag for movies, but I don't think phoenix currently pulls it down. If it did, we'd then need to make a new view that would group them by this new collection metadata tag (if present),

It would be great if this could be implemented as I have lots of movies like that, particularly for Kids movies like the Barbie Collection.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by jusjoken

In the BMT web interface, go to Configure and then under Phoenix, Fanart/Metadata options, change the default of 5 in the setting "Max Images to Download".

So I just checked again, and I don't see that option anywhere in BMT.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by stanger89

So I just checked again, and I don't see that option anywhere in BMT.

In BMT, click on Configure... then in the Search bar, type, "max", and press the search icon... You should see "Max Images to Download", which is mapped to the, 'phoenix/fanart/maxDownloadableImages' property.

[Skirge01]

I was in BMT when I read this, so thought I'd throw up a screenshot...

[wayner]

I don't see it either. When I do that search I don't get Max Images to Download, but I do get the other four. I am on BMT 4.10.1

[stanger89]

Yeah, I tried that and I definitely don't get that. I should have the latest BMT, I only just reinstalled it on my new server just shortly before I started this thread.

[Skirge01]

Hmm... I wonder if that option would be hidden if Fanart wasn't enabled in BMT.

Also, here's my version info:
Phoenix Version 2.5.13
sagex.api Version 7.1.9.1

I'm running SageTV v7 still. Are you guys on v9?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by Skirge01

Hmm... I wonder if that option would be hidden if Fanart wasn't enabled in BMT.

Also, here's my version info:
Phoenix Version 2.5.13
sagex.api Version 7.1.9.1

I'm running SageTV v7 still. Are you guys on v9?

Good call... Some options are only visible is enableAdvancedOptions is true. So, in Phoenix Core configuration, look for enable advanced options, or just search for advanced in the configuration search.

[wayner]

That did it for me.

[SomeWhatLost]

Originally Posted by stuckless

It actually wouldn't take much effect, provided the version of tmdb api that I'm using, support its.

All metadata fetching from tmdb happens in this file
https://github.com/stuckless/sagetv-...aProvider.java

We'd just create 2 new files COLLECTION_ID and COLLECTION_NAME and populate them if we have it.

We'd also need a new Grouper that Groups on Collection Name, but that's pretty simple.

just curious, but did anyone ever do this?
seems like it would be a cool feature...

also is the a flow/view guide or instructions of some sort? with Evil PluckyHD going off and doing his xbox mini client thingy, I have my doubts he will ever update SMM to work with the V9/docker setup... so now I need to really learn about views and such... reading through related topics in the forums is helping somewhat, but I bet an actual guide or something would be better?