a plugin to make transcoding transparent would be awesome! im sure it'd be greatly appreciated by anyone using an extender at all. any update on this? and would it be for vista only or MCE 2005 as well?

I'm probably moving to MCE from Meedio when Vista arrives.

Meedio has a brilliant plugin for TV shows that uses Online TV Database to grab show banners, season banners and detailed episode information.

If this service could be incorporated into this plugin it would be fantastic...

You can check it out at ...

http://tvdb.zsori.com/

For example here's the listing for Numb3rs:
http://tvdb.zsori.com/?tab=series&id=73918

Notice the season links (1,2,3). Click a season and it shows that season's banner and detailed episode info.

The addition of this kind of info would make this a killer plugin.

Randy

More TV already exists as a plug-in for MCE 2005 (although it does not have most of the new features discussed in this thread). Since there hasn't been much respond from Andy in a while I'll assume he is no longer actively pursuing this. Which is a shame, I was really looking forward to a tool like this.

Sorry - I am definitely continuing with the development of More TV for Vista - just have a lot on my plate at the moment, and hadn't been looking at my personal email to get the prompt that the thread had been updated.

Cheers,
Andrew

Hey Andrew, good to hear from you! I can certainly understand being busy, especially this time of year.

The tvdb mentioned above is news to me, I might try to write something that uses it to create the xml files needed for the show info. Are you still considering new formats for the XML info? open to any suggestions?

Have any of you seen Big Screen TV Series from mobilewares.net?  I've emailed Niall to ask if he is going to introduce the More TV style functionality into this app, as it's not a big leap from what he's got.  If he has plans to do this I probably won't continue More TV, but if he doesn't I'll work on it.

Cheers,
Andrew

How can you enable this feature, more Tv? it is not in the start menu

 

 

More TV is a plugin for MCE that you need to purchase. I don't have the website handy but someone else may be able to help you out.

Interesting, can you let us know what his response is? It seems right now he is only planning on grabbing info about stuff you record and not about files you might have in other formats.

Yes I believe other file formats are being supported, other than dvrms recordings... Well I have given him huge directory listings / file formats / xml recordings for him to play with....  Luckily living in the same city as Niall, I have seen it in action - and its just damn sexy !!! I think this thing christmas has gotten in the way - in regard to time he can spend on it... but I think this app will just be amazing when its finished.... Of course check out his blog at http://mobilewares.spaces.live.com/ to keep an eye open for new developments.....

 

I would love if there was an application like MoreTV or something along those lines for Vista.  However, I record TV and re-encode it every night.  I would love if these programs could just tell the information about the show based on my directory structure, so that I wouldn't have to edit an XML or anything for each and every new episode I record.

My directories are pretty simple, its just

G:\TV\<ShowName>\<season number>x<episode number> - <episode name>.mkv

So for example:

G:\TV\Prison Break\2x14 - John Doe.mkv

(Although for a few shows I don't bother to include the episode name, this is mainly just with 24.)

Of course, whatever addon was made would also have to show under the TV&Movies section in Vista, like MyMovies does.  Actually, it'd be nice if it was named MyTV, to keep consistancy with MyMovies, but thats not entirely necessary.

Also, while I looked at that person's blog about the BigScreen TV plugin, I really hope that it won't use that background and sticks to the standard for the rest of Media Center.  It also looks almost too complicated for my liking, since all of my recordings get transcoded, I have no need for it to track scheduled recordings in the future or anything like that.

Also, if you do end up making MoreTV for Vista, you'll have to change the name anyway, because theres already a More TV button that directs you to the TV section of the online spotlight.

I would like to reiterate the interest in this plug-in for Vista.  Comming from a ReplayTV, I've been looking for a way to organize my recorded TV via catagories.

I do think that you could charge a resonable amount for this plug-in.  I know I would purchase it. 

Okay - I've started development of the Vista version of More TV (working title is "tv library") - anyone who wants to be a tester (very much alpha testing at the moment) please drop me a line at tvlibrary "at" digitallivingsolutions "dot" co "dot" uk (hopefully that will stop the address being harvested by email trawlers).

Where I'm at at the moment is creating the viewing side of the app - current planned features for "v0.1"

- support DVR-MS, WMV, AVI, DivX, etc. - in fact any format that is supported by Media Center.  

- utilise the folder structure on disk for viewing - e.g. \TV Shows\Grey's Anatomy\Season 1\Episode 1.dvr-ms (or wmv, etc)

- use metadata embedded in files if it exists, otherwise degrade gracefully (use external metadata if available, otherwise use filenames and creation dates)

- view folders by cover art or thumbnail (configurable on a per folder basis, thumbnail being the default)

Basically "v0.1" will get you a Vista Media Center front-end to your library of videos so you can move TV files out of recorded TV, optionally compress them with your favourite codec, and store them in whatever folder structure you prefer for viewing through the app with thumbnails and cover art (a bit like video library on steroids).

Out of the box, the only setting required to get going is to create a registry entry to indicate to the app where the folders are that you want to be included in viewing (this is a multi-value string, so you can have more than one starting folder).  These are displayed at the start, and then the folder structures of the folders they point to take over.

You can improve the experience by adding config files - folderdetails.ini in each folder allows more complex naming of the folder, and adding a description and cover art for the folder.  Another file (yet to be defined) will do the same for files without their own metadata.  If no metadata is supplied, filenames and creation dates are used.

Active beta testers will be given a copy of the first commercial release (active means providing feedback, bug reports, etc. not just taking a copy of the app to play with!)

When I get the chance, I'll put a page up on my website that shows some screenshots etc. for the app - I'm concentrating on spending what free time I can muster up on actual development so it may be a while!

Cheers,
Andrew

Good to see you Andy, I would like to test it, I have move back to MCE 2005 but I will installing Vista in about 2 weeks.