Media centre changes.... Can we revert to the old media portion?

[Necro]

MarkSS: Option menu in the imported video screen.

With the merge, I like this better then before...partially. I think it's a bit fugly (the buttons on the left side, the multiple choices at the top even if not all are used, etc.)

It would be my opinion to add in a ton of options to turn things on or off (most likely a STV will do this), and make access to them an 'advanced settings' type thing. Keep it moron proof (no offense to anyone), but very usable for advanced users.

[Mark SS]

Is this just the latest beta or was it in the first?

I'm on the first so if its supposed to be there I'm either blind or the option isn't appearing in Placeshifter (I'm currently abroad).

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by Mark SS

Is this just the latest beta or was it in the first?

I'm on the first so if its supposed to be there I'm either blind or the option isn't appearing in Placeshifter (I'm currently abroad).

Newest release only (6.0.12 release notes):

Originally Posted by Narflex

STV Updates
1. Added initial version of combined video folder browser.

BobP.

[drpixel]

Originally Posted by Necro

No one ever suggested going back completely to the old method - anything thats there visually can be altered in the STV. I for one think a few of the views are pointless and clutter, but they can be changed/removed in the STV I would think. What people were asking for was folder merging - which if your using folders for sorting, it wouldn't effect you at all, and only make things easier if anything.

Spanning drives, via software or via hardware (RAID), is frowned upon by many due to the prospective failure of one drive taking down 4-5 drives worth of data. Having information spread across multiple drives limits the damage one drive going down does - that or you use a parity setup with a parity drive, unfortunately then you have a drive your not really using.

Not to beat a dead horse or anything, but the thread title is "Media centre changes.... Can we revert to the old media portion?", and the very first thing suggested in the first post is:

Would it be possible to either:

1) Revert to the old system (keeping the other changes)

I think this could easily lead one to the conclusion that in fact there were people requesting that this new functionality be removed and reverted back to the old method of browsing.

I didn't realize that spanned dynamic volumes were so shaky.. just read a little more on them and they definately don't sound like a good thing! Sounds like you lose your whole volume if one drive fails.

It's nice to hear that the browsing feature is officially here to stay. Opus4's response was enough to make me go ahead and purchase the upgrade license, so here's to another round of SageTV.

[kevpriest]

So, the drive merging feature is back, and that's great, but I noticed something last night that I'm not sure was present in the previous beta or not:

Now, when selecting a dvd that has been ripped to the hard drive, instead of playing the movie, or presenting a popup that says "watch video", I'm presented with the (to my wife, incredibly annoying) folder navigation popup that asks if you want to "Browse Videos". The DVDs are ripped into a movie folder, with Video_TS and (empty) Audio_TS folders.

You can select "Play All Videos" from the popup, but that's kind of non-intuitive (but it works). If you choose "Browse Videos", which is the default, you get a screen that says there are no videos in this folder.

I know it can be fixed by moving to a different STV, but I just want to voice my own preference that the new folder navigation is not very good, even with drive merging put back. My issues:

1) I really can't see why selecting a folder should give you a popup as it does now. Selecting it should open it. If you want to perform some kind of group operation, that should be the function that requires you to use some non-standard key-press like INFO. It's just another complicated dialog that makes this product look over-geeky instead of like a television interface.
2) The folder view has folder navigation icons on the left, which means that if you left-arrow to navigate out of a folder, you first land on the navigation buttons, then you navigate, requiring two button pushes instead of one. This is again, overly complicated and not remote friendly
3) The new folder view, with small icons and a single, wide folder across the screen, is unattractive, compared to the old view of a square folder that made maximum use of the folder icon.
4) The search function that Opus recommended before for the DVD view is not going to be used much by anyone other than a PC geek. In order for it to work, you have to do two things that a non-techie isn't going to do: 1) You have to look at the remote, which means you have to have the lights on, and you have to have a remote that has telephone style buttons. I don't use that kind of remote, and I don't turn on the lights to select a movie. In my house we browse, using the arrows. Telling my wife she can find the movie she's looking for by typing 9 * 8 * 8 * 8 for "Wuthering Heights" isn't going to work, especially since the remote doesn't have letters (Most remotes made for TVs do not). 2) You have to know what you're looking for, as opposed to "I'm in the mood for an Action movie, what've I got that I haven't seen in awhile?" That's the way we watch movies, and it only works if you can browse by category.

I've been using Sage since 1.4, and I really love the capabilities it gives, but I'm worried about the direction it seems to be taking in terms of interface. The video conversion, the Google videos, it's all great stuff, but the interface has gotten clunkier and more complicated, with lots more checkboxes, buttons, and things that just don't (in my opinion) belong on a TV.

I'm sure I'll be able to fix all this with a nice STV from someone else. And I like the new capabilities. What I'll probably do is leave the new, clunky interface on my server, and put a more usable, remote friendly interface on my client.

But it seems really unwise to me, as someone who as recommended Sage to others on many occasions, to have the default interface by so clunky. It's just not the way a non-techie wants to use the TV.

Perhaps I don't understand the market very well, and really the market for this product is for single, childless techies who watch TV with the lights on. In which case: Proceed, because I think that's the market you're hitting with this interface.

[Opus4]

In the combined folder view, didn't you (or your wife) select the entry titled "DVD: <some title>", instead of the <some title> subfolder? Or, did the DVD-prefixed entry not exist?

There shouldn't even be a subfolder entry for the DVD's folder, unless you've got other imported videos in the DVD tree, or unless perhaps the VOBs have been imported separately. If there are no other imported videos in the DVD fodler tree & you aren't importing VOBs separately, then it might be useful to see the full folder path to the DVD and your import path.

- Andy

[kevpriest]

Interesting, Opus. During the last beta, I clearly remember that the DVD folder said: DVD: 16 Blocks, but it no longer says that. Now it says 16 Blocks 1 video.

Is there some reason the folders would have re-imported when I applied the new version of the Beta?

[Opus4]

Switch back to the separately-listed import folder style & see if that has "DVD:" in front of the DVD title. If so, then I would like to know the full paths that I mentioned in my previous post, because it means the combined view isn't handling your DVD path correctly for some reason. Tell me what SageTV displays for the import path and for the DVD's path in Video Details, including upper/lower case.

- Andy

[kevpriest]

Yep, switching back to the Separately Listed style puts the DVD back into the title. Here's an example of some of my DVD imports (this is in the Merged view):

Movie "16 Blocks":



Actual Path to the VOBs is: \\DVD3\Action\16 Blocks\VIDEO_TS

Here's "Constantine":



Actual Path to the VOBs is: \\DVD2\Action\Constantine\VIDEO_TS

Is this the information you were looking for? Let me know if you need something else.

Thanks!

KevPriest

[Opus4]

It is probably an issue with using UNC paths that the STV code is missing. So I know how to set up a test, what exactly are the video import paths in Detailed Setup -> General -> Media Center Import Dirs?

- Andy

[kevpriest]

\\mediacenter\dvd1
\\mediacenter\dvd2
\\mediacenter\dvd3
\\mediacenter\dvd4
\\mediacenter\docshare\my videos

Thanks!

KevPriest

[Opus4]

Here's an update to try: SageTV3_DVDTest.zip It is the v6.0.12 STV with just this one change to be tested.

- Andy

[kevpriest]

That fixes the issue, with a couple of exceptions (example below).


The Harry Potter was is not a worry, because it's actually a rare MPG mixed in with my DVD collection (I recorded it off HBO, but never bought the DVD).

The Pirates of the Carribean is a little weirder. I get the same issue with a couple of others. It appears to happen in all the cases where I've ripped the entire DVD, extras and all, so there are multiple vob files. I usually don't do that. I usually just rip the main movie into a single vob and exclude everything else.

For me, this presents no problem: I can re-rip the DVDs as movie only. Others might have an issue with this, as I know some people like to rip the whole DVD all the time, but I always figure the rips are for quick viewing, and if I want to see the extras I can pull out the disc.

Anyway, great work getting a fix worked out so quickly!

KevPriest

[Opus4]

In the combined folder view, the DVD entry is listed by itself, below all the subfolders. If the DVD's folder also has other imported videos, they are listed as videos available in that subfolder. I don't know if that applies to what your screen cap shows, but it might be possible if VOBs are imported also. My test ripped DVD has multiple VOBs, but it is only listed as a single DVD.

In the true folder browser view, it is possible to list a single DVD entry that may also happen to have additional videos in its subfolder.

- Andy