STV Import: TVExplorer for SageMC

[Peter_h]

So, I have things tweaked on the TV outside and it's working out great.

Most of the feature requests I have are addressed in previous posts. I do have a couple of questions though.

1.) Is there an option to "Play All"? I am starting to convert all of our TV DVD sets and my wife and I both miss the ability to hit play and have more than one episode play. I would love to see this added at the top of the listings where you can navigate through Season Number, "A", and "U". If we could hit the "play" button here to just start a season number or all, that would be fantastic. Ideally, it should also play it in the correct order based on how we have it sorted, ie episode 1 on and not random.

2.) Is there a way to have the episode description wrap or prevent it from colliding with the date and time?

Thanks again for a great add-in. I look forward to the next version.

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by Peter_h

1.) Is there an option to "Play All"? I am starting to convert all of our TV DVD sets and my wife and I both miss the ability to hit play and have more than one episode play. I would love to see this added at the top of the listings where you can navigate through Season Number, "A", and "U". If we could hit the "play" button here to just start a season number or all, that would be fantastic. Ideally, it should also play it in the correct order based on how we have it sorted, ie episode 1 on and not random.

that's an interesting idea and one i havent really thought about. Ideally it should also pick up from where you left off... ie.. episodes 1,2,3,4 are all watched and when you go back to that grouping and play all it picks up at episode 5 (or whatever the first unwatched episode is).... ill add it to the list... where do i do this in the default TV library or videos views? i looked (admittedly not very hard) but could not find it

2.) Is there a way to have the episode description wrap or prevent it from colliding with the date and time?

can you provide a screen shot? if you mean in the episode table there is an option to cut short the title text (only display so many charecters) but there is no option to wrap. The text length option for the episode table is in TVE Options -> Episode -> Title Length. Set the number for what seems appropriate for your situation

Thanks again for a great add-in. I look forward to the next version.

thanks and me too .. no eta as alot is changing (ui wise and behind the scens) but it should be awesome (IMHO )

[Peter_h]

Originally Posted by razrsharpe

that's an interesting idea and one i havent really thought about. Ideally it should also pick up from where you left off... ie.. episodes 1,2,3,4 are all watched and when you go back to that grouping and play all it picks up at episode 5 (or whatever the first unwatched episode is).... ill add it to the list... where do i do this in the default TV library or videos views? i looked (admittedly not very hard) but could not find it

The only way I know to do this is to hit menu on each episode and then create a play list. It's not the most elegant solution but it is how it is currently done.

Originally Posted by razrsharpe

can you provide a screen shot? if you mean in the episode table there is an option to cut short the title text (only display so many charecters) but there is no option to wrap. The text length option for the episode table is in TVE Options -> Episode -> Title Length. Set the number for what seems appropriate for your situation

Sure, see attachement. I'm sure this will be fixed if i shorten the episode text length.

Originally Posted by razrsharpe

thanks and me too .. no eta as alot is changing (ui wise and behind the scens) but it should be awesome (IMHO )

Keep us posted.

[cowboyway]

I believed i've installed everything correctly and can access the TV Explorer interface, but when i click on a show i don't see a graphic image on the top for the item (i.e. "Friends" for example). Any idea what might be wrong?

I will note i had setup BMT and configured it to use MyMovies stuff if that matters. thanks.

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by Peter_h

1.) Is there an option to "Play All"? I am starting to convert all of our TV DVD sets and my wife and I both miss the ability to hit play and have more than one episode play. I would love to see this added at the top of the listings where you can navigate through Season Number, "A", and "U". If we could hit the "play" button here to just start a season number or all, that would be fantastic. Ideally, it should also play it in the correct order based on how we have it sorted, ie episode 1 on and not random.

Originally Posted by Peter_h

The only way I know to do this is to hit menu on each episode and then create a play list. It's not the most elegant solution but it is how it is currently done.

ya definitely not the most elegant solution...actually i would think that would be kind of a PITA... anyway ill have an option to auto create a playlist (given the grouping and sorting) to play that...shouldn't be impossible and i think fairly transparent to the user during use.

Sure, see attachement. I'm sure this will be fixed if i shorten the episode text length.

yup shortening the title length is the way to fix that for the time being... if you're one to dig into studio you should be able to find out where that title text is displayed and force it to wrap the title if you really want

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by cowboyway

I believed i've installed everything correctly and can access the TV Explorer interface, but when i click on a show i don't see a graphic image on the top for the item (i.e. "Friends" for example). Any idea what might be wrong?

can you provide a screenshot? When you say graphic image do you mean fanart (the full screen background) or the poster (the coverart in the upper right of the screen)? Does the episode panel (right table) and info box populate when a show is selected?

Also TVE is very unfriendly to mouse navigation (and will exhibit what i think you are describing). I say this because you say "when i click on a show...". Try navigation with the keyboard and/or a remote control.

I will note i had setup BMT and configured it to use MyMovies stuff if that matters. thanks.

shouldn't matter. Sage does not care where the metadata came from once BMT has done its magic.

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by razrsharpe

anyway ill have an option to auto create a playlist (given the grouping and sorting) to play that...shouldn't be impossible and i think fairly transparent to the user during use

That'd be a nice feature for the filtering/sorting API you're working on. Take a list of mediafiles and a filtering/sorting string and pop out a playlist.

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

That'd be a nice feature for the filtering/sorting API you're working on. Take a list of mediafiles and a filtering/sorting string and pop out a playlist.

good point. I don't know if it makes more sense to do it as part of the api or just inside studio... i suppose its more universal if its part of the api... feed it a list of mediafiles (already filtered/sorted) and pop out a playlist... then it could be used anywhere... good point... thanks

[cowboyway]

Originally Posted by razrsharpe

When you say graphic image do you mean fanart (the full screen background) or the poster (the coverart in the upper right of the screen)? Does the episode panel (right table) and info box populate when a show is selected?

I believe it's the fanart that is not appearing. The info panel on bottom right does populate with episodes. Any ideas?

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by cowboyway

I believe it's the fanart that is not appearing. The info panel on bottom right does populate with episodes. Any ideas?

-Make sure TVE Options -> Fanart -> Context Sensitive Fanart is enabled.
-Make sure TVE Options -> Fanart -> Random Fanart is enabled.
-Does fanart work in the default SageMC TV interface?
-Does fanart exist for a particular show in the central fanart folder (make sure the jpgs are not 0 bytes and contain an actual image)?

[cowboyway]

Originally Posted by razrsharpe

-Make sure TVE Options -> Fanart -> Context Sensitive Fanart is enabled.
-Make sure TVE Options -> Fanart -> Random Fanart is enabled.

Done.. this first was not enabled.

-Does fanart work in the default SageMC TV interface?
After a restart... still no fanart anywhere in sagemc

-Does fanart exist for a particular show in the central fanart folder?
I have a folder setup under the root sage install dir. I have yet to ever see any files show up there?!

Other thoughts?

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by cowboyway

-Does fanart work in the default SageMC TV interface?
After a restart... still no fanart anywhere in sagemc

-Does fanart exist for a particular show in the central fanart folder?
I have a folder setup under the root sage install dir. I have yet to ever see any files show up there?!

To me it sounds like something is not setup right with your fanart settings and/or bmt setup in general

for general fanart settings check out SageMC Setup -> Main -> Global Display Options -> Display -> Fanart Options.
There is a bunch of options in there but make sure Fan art support is enabled and your Fan Art Central File Path is correct...

Since no files are in your central fanart folder that means that BMT is not downloading them. TVE relies on some BMT/mediascraper/manual process to get the .jpgs into the central fanart folder. Once BMT is installed and working properly and the .jpgs start showing up then TVE will display them.

[cowboyway]

Originally Posted by razrsharpe

To me it sounds like something is not setup right with your fanart settings and/or bmt setup in general

Yah... i think you may be right, although it did seem to work just fine fetching movie metadata... so atleast part of it is working.

I did verify the path for the fanart and all settings.... everything is turned on, but it doesn't work.

So at this point i would like to uninstall and reinstall BMT, but don't see uninstall instructions. Would deleting all BMT related settings in sage.properties and overwriting files for the Beta 9 install sound right?

thanks for your help...

[razrsharpe]

before you go deleting everything BMT do some manual BMT lookups. BMT may not be configured to run automatically on your system. I am not sure what unistalling/reinstalling is going to fix. Unfortunately I'm not much help with respect to automatically running BMT because I only run BMT manually.

Now that we've narrowed down the issue to BMT, may i suggest that further discussion happen in the main BMT thread before this discussion gets too much farther off topic (TVE support, ideas and discussion). Thanks

[cowboyway]

One last hail mary... I went into the web admin interface for BMT and forced it to refresh the entire library. It's still running but now it's generating gobs of folders with poster art and stuff for movies. When i browse the movies in sagemc it now shows the art so it seems some of this is working.

Would the TV shows piece be handled as part of a media refresh too or is that all "on demand"? The TVE part still doesn't show fanart for a show like "friends".

[razrsharpe]

Central Fanart Folder Layout:

Main Folder
    TV
        SHOWNAME
    MOVIES
        MOVIENAME
    MUSIC
        ARTISTNAME

Inside each SHOWNAME, MOVIENAME, ARTISTNAME will be three folders (posters, backgrounds, banners).

TVE uses the .jpgs that are in those three folders to display the fanart (under TV). So if no fanart is in ..\FanartFolder\TV\Friends\backgrounds\ then fanart will not display for "friends"

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by cowboyway

Would the TV shows piece be handled as part of a media refresh too or is that all "on demand"? The TVE part still doesn't show fanart for a show like "friends".

I believe the TV shows are all on demand but not sure... TVE uses the same fanart calls that the default SageMC My TV screens use. If fanart shows up there (in My TV) but not in TVE then we have a problem.

[Peter_h]

So I found a bug. It's not listed under the known issues so I'll go ahead and report it here.

Problem: After playing an episode under the season episode sorting, the other seasons disappear.

Prerequisite: A tv show with multiple seasons and episodes. I have been ripping my TV DVD's w/ EP's mediashrink (Thanks EP!) to individual episodes and BMT is grabbing all the metadata for them.

Here is how to reproduce.

1.) Go to episode sorting menu
2.) Select Season-Episode
3.) Select a TV show that you have multiple seasons of and the sorting appears in TV explorer
4.) Select a season number and play one of the episodes.
5.) After it finishes or you stop, when it takes you back to TVexplorer, only that season will be displayed along with "All".

Attached are screenshots before and after playing the highlighted show, Season 2 Episode 3 with season 2 selected in the season-episode filter.

Note: This bug does not occur when playing from "All" or "U". I've also tested this on both extender and client and the behavior occurs on both.

Additional Note: If you scroll to a different show and then come back to this show, the problem is gone.

-Peter

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by Peter_h

So I found a bug. It's not listed under the known issues so I'll go ahead and report it here.

Problem: After playing an episode under the season episode sorting, the other seasons disappear.

Note: This bug does not occur when playing from "All" or "U". I've also tested this on both extender and client and the behavior occurs on both.

Additional Note: If you scroll to a different show and then come back to this show, the problem is gone.

Peter,
Nice catch. Apparently I've never done that before (played an episode with the episode list filtered and come back to it... ). I'll add it to the list and will be fixed in the next release.

[ellweber]

I'm sure this is the result of a short between the headphones but I am stumped. I am excited about this as I have been using Malore menus for a long time and now you have created a configurable and more versatile successor. Great contribution..............

I think I am running all the latest versions of Sage, SageMC and BMT but for some reason I cannot seem to select any of the options except "Close" in the TVE Options screen. Also, as you can see in the attached, it looks wierd too.

Any clues would be greatly appreciated.

Lynn

TVE v 1.00
razr-tools.jar v 1.00
phoenix.api v 1.38
Sage v 6.6.2.218
SageMC v 6.3.9a
Java v 1.6.0_04