Can we stay on topic please..?  myTV is myTV, if you use it, then you use it, if you don't, then you don't.  Either way it's not a topic for this thread, and I don't really think it's worth discouraging the development of what someone else feels would be their ideal TV Library App.

I for one would like to see where this particular proof-of-concept leads, so lets keep the focus on that in this thread...

Schlep :D

JJohnson:

And this is from within just the Recorded TV folder included by default on VMC or a program you've created?

Too cool for words...

James

I think there's a point of confusion here --my apologies. The recordedTV stuff is separate. As far as recordedtv section goes, I originally wanted something that would aggregate all the recorded tv we watch and didn't want to aggravate my wife by telling her why she has to close/reopen MediaCenter to watch stuff from the other Media Center. Also, metadata for recorded  tv comes from within the dvr-ms file (thanks to Stephen Toub).

The metadata for other file types can be hand-edited or pulled down. The whole project was me trying to get what worked for -me- to watch the tv shows I had ripped from DVDs, aggregate my recorded tv, and collect all other miscellaneous video into one place.  That all being said, the layout is pretty static (I preferred the internet TV type of layout personally) with some customization allowed for descriptions, type of images to use (if available), whether to clean up orphaned metadata files, overwrite a folder's image with the most recent file, etc.

For the asx stuff, I was trying to say (very poorly) that the titles displayed in the Now Playing window (instead of the actual filename) were done using the asx wrapper trick. instead of playing the actual file, a asx wrapper is created at runtime and then played.

Also, the app is based on folder structure and does not use any database systems or anything like that. Because of this, the Watch Series function generates the list of episodes in real-time. I realize this will not work for everyone. For my needs this was sufficient because my media centers are hooked straight to my tvs.

Once I fix a few more bugs and make a few more settings configurable in the .config file (tv show regular expressions, video file types, etc) I will post the code, and *.msi-based installer as-is. Since I won't build a more customizable gallery (list view, banner view, 2 rows for covers, etc.) it only made sense to drop the code and people can roll their own. 

 

 

schleppel:

Can we stay on topic please..?  myTV is myTV, if you use it, then you use it, if you don't, then you don't.  Either way it's not a topic for this thread, and I don't really think it's worth discouraging the development of what someone else feels would be their ideal TV Library App.

I for one would like to see where this particular proof-of-concept leads, so lets keep the focus on that in this thread...

Schlep :D

Actually, the topic seems to read "...a tv library for watching series in order".  Forgive me for trying to offer to help someone having trouble with a "tv library" applicaiton for media center.

If I was starting to build an application for media center, and one existed that someone thought fit all my listed needs, then I would for sure want someone to mention it.  Just as you have stated, and I agree, if you use it or not doesn't matter, but I would want to at least be mad aware of it.

Sorry for joining your conversation.

In lieu of a more customized view, how about pressing the 0-9 buttons on the remote to jump to those letters?

And how'd you find a banner for the top of the series view?  That's a pretty cool look there :)

 

James

It never ceases to amaze me, people buying $150 tv cards, but won't spend $20 on software.

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Vista Home Premium, MCE 2005, 3 Sony VBG-XL1B 200 DVD Changers, Optoma Projector, Digital Cable (Time Warner), ATI All In Wonder 9600XT Tuner, Sound Blaster Live! MCE Remote, ATI Remote Wonder II, two XBOX1 Extenders, two XBOX 360s

JJohnson:

In lieu of a more customized view, how about pressing the 0-9 buttons on the remote to jump to those letters?

And how'd you find a banner for the top of the series view?  That's a pretty cool look there :)

James

I'll have to figure out how to do jump-in-list...asfor the banners...erm...thetvdb.com rules!

Sounds good :)  If we can change the series, and perhaps the season banner up top, I wouldn't find anything to complain about :)

James

big_gun:

It never ceases to amaze me, people buying $150 tv cards, but won't spend $20 on software.

who says i didnt buy mytv?

There's nothing wrong with a little competition.

JJohnson:

Sounds good :)  If we can change the series, and perhaps the season banner up top, I wouldn't find anything to complain about :)

James

Totally. You would just put [Seriesname].series.banner.jpg, [seriesName].series.cover.jpg inside the root folder for your series. More on that later.

Nice.  Perhaps also [Seriesname].season1.cover.jpg, [Seriesname].season1.episode1.cover.jpg, etc.?  The auto-thumbnailing doesn't always give the best results in VMC.   Can't wait for some more screens.

James

Hey...any updates on the program?

James

I have a little inconsistency: seasons aren't treated specially. They are just folders. As such, inside the season folders you just create \metadata\folder.cover.jpg, \metadata\folder.thumbnail.jpg. if the folder.xml contains <ImageType>Cover</ImageType> then the gallery view will pick up folder.cover.jpg. Likewise, if ImageType is set to Thumbnail then folder.thumbnail.jpg will be displayed.

In addition for the details view, movie details view will always look for the [folder]\metadata\[video filename].cover.jpg, episode and recorded tv details views will always look for [folder]\metadata\[video filename].thumbnail.jpg. I did it this way to keep the video files folder (aka the content) uncluttered.

...on a side note, I just finished watching the entire season of Heroes and the Watch Series feature works pretty well. When you finish watching the episode, it will automatically 'press the done button' for you then return you back to the Watch Series page. In addition, since you watched to the end (or stopped it after 85% in) it will advance to the details for the next episode. I didn't set it up to automatically play the next video like in a playlist queue. For me, I wanted to see the episode summary then click 'Watch Episode' to continue...

so far, there is one annoying glitch involving trapping the pause/stop buttons. Sometimes it seems to hang for a few seconds when you first go into it to play a video. I think it has to do with the retarded way MediaTransport is implemented.....

...anyways, I will try to put up the installer first about midweek.

I like that everything's in its own metadata folder.  Much cleaner that way :)

I do agree with your thinking on the playlist queue not automatically playing the next episode, though it might be a good option toggle to have in case there are some two-part episodes that are good back-to-back. 

For your XML data, are you using your own program, or the ruby script posted elsewhere?  I've yet to find a simple to use xml grabber that doesn't require a lot of back end to generate the xml.

I eagerly await the installer - I'd be happy to test the program out! 

James

I wrote a big-long spiel but the form wouldn't take it so I put it a readme.doc file.

Link: http://cid-bc8c4296c2addc53.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Public?uc=1&lc=1033

Let me know if this link works. There should be 2 files there. A readme and a zip. The zip contains the msi-based installer (admin required)

 tried it and set my folder but as soon as i did the application crashed....  is there a certain file structure its looking for (or xml files maybe) because i dont have any of that currently.

it doesnt seem to be creating the log file you specified in the readme....