Should Sports be its own MediaType?

[wayner]

I think Sage may be going in this direction given some of the changes in 7.1 but my understanding is that there are currently two MediaType(s) used in Sage - Movie and TV.

Should there be an additional one entitled Sports?

This could facilitate sorting and creating custom screens and you would have different fields that make sense for sports such as "HomeTeam" and "VisitingTeam" rather than shoehorning these items into EpisodeName. Other useful fields could include GameType "PreSeason", "Regular" or "Playoffs" and even PlayOffRound. But you would need someone to provide this metadata - perhaps some of this is already used in SRE and livepvrdata.

This could also facilitate Fanart for sports which is one of my current pain points with Sage since so much of my recording is Sports and when you have shows without Fanart it really sticks out like a fugly sore thumb! Of course this would require a SportsTVDB site to take to provide metadata.

[Tiki]

I think some of this is limited by how Sage gets the MetaData from Zap2It.
If Zap2It doesn't present the data broken down into those fields, Sage can't display it.

[wayner]

That's true but I think there is already a Team concept in Sage so they have figured out how to do some of this. And the livepvrdata project seems to have come up with an intelligent way or parsing the guide data to get more intelligent info that allows plugins like SRE to do there magic.

I think that what I am proposing is simpler than SRE which maps a guide listing to a live web page on ESPN.com (or wherever) and then monitors and extends recordings - that is a pretty awesome feat.

But maybe most people don't care since sports have a very limited shelf life.

[MattHelm]

Why would I want a Media type that is always empty?

[wayner]

The idea would be to create a sportstvdb.com website that would be analogous to tvdb.org or themoviedb.org that would contain the metadata and fanart to populate that MediaType. This could also facilitate other plugins like SRE, etc.

[stuckless]

FYI... The MediaType field is a BMT/Phoenix custom metadata field... and it has it has nothing to do with core sagetv (just in case people thought it was a core field). So, the question should be... "Should BMT/Phoenix have a Sports MediaType?"

[wayner]

Ok, that's good to know. Wouldn't creating a new MediaType facilitate Metadata/Fanart retrieval as well as creating custom screen views for sports - this way you could have three views - movie, TV and sports as sports would look better on views with the relevant metadata - like team logos for starts.

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by stuckless

(just in case people thought it was a core field)

Though Sage really should consider adapting it into the core considering the field is utilized heavily lots of important/popular plugins.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by MattHelm

Why would I want a Media type that is always empty?

I sarcastically and judgementally think the main reason that sports has been largely ignored within Sage is that most computer techie geek types - probably the majority of those using Sage - loathe, or, at best, ignore, sports. Now if you had a separate "Science Fiction and Gaming" media type....

Then there are guys like me who played D1 college ball AND like computers. I know, I'm the exception rather than the rule.

/before anyone gets offended, I say all of this light-heartedly

[stuckless]

I know in BMT, I've considered extending the values in that field. Current it has Movie, TV, and Music (although music is hidden until it's finished). I could add a Sports, etc, but, until there is a source and a means to uniquely identify sports material, then it won't be of much use.

[wrems]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I know in BMT, I've considered extending the values in that field. Current it has Movie, TV, and Music (although music is hidden until it's finished). I could add a Sports, etc, but, until there is a source and a means to uniquely identify sports material, then it won't be of much use.

What additional fields are you tentatively hinting at? How do you see the breakdown?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by wrems

What additional fields are you tentatively hinting at? How do you see the breakdown?

To be honest, I'm not sure. From a BMT perspective, there's no sense in adding additional media types if there are no providers for that media type.

[wayner]

Certainly from a team sports perspective HomeTeam, VisitingTeam, and GameType ("PreSeason", "Regular" or "Playoffs") would be useful. It would be nice to then have Fanart linked to the teams - such as logos for each team.

FYI - the sports logos are available on the net at this site: http://www.sportslogos.net/index.php . This site looks very comprehensive with logos for almost all sports, including minor league teams.

Ideally it would be nice to then have specific screens for sports that would show the logos of the two competing teams, not unlike episode specific Fanart.

@stuckless - they even have your local school (my alma mater)

[MattHelm]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

... Now if you had a separate "Science Fiction and Gaming" media type....

Yes, but then it would be the same as the "All recordings" type.

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

Then there are guys like me who played D1 college ball AND like computers. I know, I'm the exception rather than the rule.

Yes, but you can't be a jock and (old style) geek at the same time.

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

/before anyone gets offended, I say all of this light-heartedly

Ditto.

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by wayner

Certainly from a team sports perspective HomeTeam, VisitingTeam, and GameType ("PreSeason", "Regular" or "Playoffs") would be useful. It would be nice to then have Fanart linked to the teams - such as logos for each team.

FYI - the sports logos are available on the net at this site: http://www.sportslogos.net/index.php . This site looks very comprehensive with logos for almost all sports, including minor league teams.

Ideally it would be nice to then have specific screens for sports that would show the logos of the two competing teams, not unlike episode specific Fanart.

@stuckless - they even have your local school (my alma mater)

I feel obligated to give a "Go Mustangs!"... UWO is also my alma mater!

[Fuzzy]

FYI, Sage DOES designate sports differently in the ShowID (which is garnered from zap2it). The ShowID prefix is SP for sports programs (as opposed to MV for movies, or EP for episodic content, SH for non-episodic content)