4.9.10 Released - Major UI Restructuring has begun

[stuckless]

So, 4.9.10 is released. I've begun changing some of the UI stuff (under the hood, behind the scenes mostly).

Of interest...
1. I've added a retry handler for the automatic plugin, so that if metadata/fanart fails because of a Connection Exception (ie, timeout) then it will retry for short period before giving up. This can be configured in the Metadata settings. By default I think it's 3 retries at 5 minute intervals. This will hopefully catch those occasions where you get a failed automatic lookup shortly after recording a show.

2. The UI has some changes.
- The Media Browser view list now supports changing the view category list. If you click on the "View" header a list of view categories will show up, and you can change from showing ALL view to just TV views, etc.
- The items in the browser will now show series posters for the folder image.
- The items will show the count of items for folders
- The items for airings (ie, future recordings) will now show airing info such as recording time and channel.

Something else that was added, which may not be of value to most people but it is to me, is that I've added video thumbnail view. This view will take the selected file and generate 12 thumbnail frames from the video file. I added this because sometimes my IR blaster does not record the correct channels, and I wanted a quick way to view the file without having to watch it.

To activate the view, press and hold on the media item and a menu will appear. Select Video Thumbnails from that menu, and it will show the thumbnail view of the video file. BUT, it requires that you have mplayer installed, since that is what I'm using to take the snapshots of the video frames. You need to configure the full path to mplayer in the Tools section of the Phoenix configuration in the web UI. (FYI, There are other options in that menu that are not implemented)

[LehighBri]

Thanks again for continuing to evolve the platform and add new features all the time.

I upgraded to 4.9.10 and have a couple items I could use your help with:

1. I've noticed this since I've been using BMT over the past couple releases, but for some reason, running a scan in the bmt website does not set the metadata for some videos (e.g. I have an imported video called "Braveheart 1080p (1995)"). When I click on that video in the web UI, click "Find Metadata", click "Discover Defaults", then Search, only one result appears which once I click assigns the metadata with no issues. Is the scan following a different path to check the metadata? Not sure why this video isn't working but others are.

2. The new "View Video Thumbnails" does nothing when I try it on an imported DVD (that is a VIDEO_TS folder). Is that expected or is that an issue?

3. The new "View Video Thumbnails" on an imported video file (e.g. .mkv) does show the screen with the individual thumbnail images, but they show up as broken links. When I copy the image url for one of the links into a new browser window, I get the following message: "Problem accessing /bmt/videothumbnail. Reason:

Failed to generate thumbnail
Cannot run program "/usr/bin/mplayer" (in directory ".\userdata\Phoenix\cache\videothumb\2365807\tmp-3936198461908830284-mplayer"): CreateProcess error=2, The system cannot find the file specified
"

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by LehighBri

1. I've noticed this since I've been using BMT over the past couple releases, but for some reason, running a scan in the bmt website does not set the metadata for some videos (e.g. I have an imported video called "Braveheart 1080p (1995)"). When I click on that video in the web UI, click "Find Metadata", click "Discover Defaults", then Search, only one result appears which once I click assigns the metadata with no issues. Is the scan following a different path to check the metadata? Not sure why this video isn't working but others are.

The Title parser for a movie like "Braveheart 1080p (1995)" would search for a title called "Braveheart 1080p" in the year "1995". Which a search for this may return a single item, if that "score" is less than the threshold score, then it will not accept it for an automatic update. I'm not sure if I show the score on the search results screen or not, but the default threshold is .90... a good match would have to have a match of .90 or better.

To enable better results, put your descriptors (ie, 1080p) after the year... ie, "Braveheart (1995) 1080p BDRip OtherInfo ETC", then the title parser will simply ignore anything after the year.

2. The new "View Video Thumbnails" does nothing when I try it on an imported DVD (that is a VIDEO_TS folder). Is that expected or is that an issue?

3. The new "View Video Thumbnails" on an imported video file (e.g. .mkv) does show the screen with the individual thumbnail images, but they show up as broken links. When I copy the image url for one of the links, I get the following message: "Problem accessing /bmt/videothumbnail. Reason:

Failed to generate thumbnail
Cannot run program "/usr/bin/mplayer" (in directory ".\userdata\Phoenix\cache\videothumb\2365807\tmp-3936198461908830284-mplayer"): CreateProcess error=2, The system cannot find the file specified
"

So this is an experimental feature, and it does require that you first download and install mplayer (or if you have the placeshifter installed, you can simply use the mplayer that shipw with it). Then you need to set the mplayer exe location using the web ui, Configuration -> Phoenix -> Tools Configuration. If you are on windows, then enter the full location to your mplayer.exe, ie something like "C:\Program Files\MPlayer\mplayer.exe".

Once you save that, then go back to the thumbnail viewer and try it again. I'm using mplayer because ffmpeg (which ships with sage) had issues create a specific thumnail from a specific location in the file, escpecially with .ts files (documented bug in the ffmpeg group). At some point I might look at streamlining this, but this was quick feature that I added so that I could easily verify my recordings.

Good luck and let me know how you make out.