[mythtv] Proposed work on MythVideo - Re-tool video-manager for large libraries, Add the concept of a 'series'

San Mehat san.mehat at gmail.com
Mon Oct 1 17:33:00 UTC 2007


Mike,

  Thanks for your input, and I'll definetely try to work some kind of 'mass
edit' into the design as soon as I have the core work done...

(I'm back from vegas now so FULL STEAM AHEAD) - (and only down $300)

-san


On 9/28/07, Mike LaPlante <mike at dividia.net> wrote:
>
>
> San Mehat wrote:
> > Hey all,
> >
> >   Just an update on my progress with the MythVideo retooling to add
> > better support for larger and more disparate libraries. This
> > description does not go into the UI portions very much, although I'm
> > hoping to have some screenshots in the next week.
> >
> >   So I've spent the last week going through the code and spending a
> > fair amount of time on designing a combined 'browser/manager'
> > interface which I feel would handle larger libraries better. I call
> > this 'Vex' for 'Video Explorer' because I ran out of crafty names for
> > things quite a few years ago ;). Vex works on tags instead of
> > 'specific meta-data'. For example, an episode of the Simpsons from my
> > season 2 boxset might be tagged as SIMPSONS, TV_SHOW, ANIMATED,
> > MATT_GROENING, SEASON_2, BOXSET
> >
> > The browser or 'media selection' paradigm is that instead of
> > organizing your data or metadata to meet the organization you want
> > (ie: creating directories for things and switching to the
> > file-listings which is what I was forced to do after my library got
> > larger than 800 entries), you define 'Views' onto the data which allow
> > you to represent the data in whatever organizational structure you
> > desire. A view itself can be represented as
> >
> >   - The view ID
> >   - The view name, ie: 'Sans Favorite Shows which arent animated'
> >   - The view expression which each movies metadata is evaluated
> > against to determine if its in this view, ie: 'TV_SHOW AND
> > SANS_FAVORITE BUT NOT ANIMATED'
> >   - A parent ID for the view, which allows views to be nested into
> > 'trees' for display.
> >
> >   As you can see, this scheme allows the user a large amount of
> > flexibility in organization without needing to change the data in any
> > way.
> >
> > ADDING VIDEOS
> >    When adding files to the video_root, a daemon picks up the addition
> > and automatically tags the video with an internal tag 'RECENTLY_ADDED'
> > There is a canned 'view' which displays all content which is in this
> > tag that can be browsed just like any other 'view'. Users can select
> > the video and use menu options  to quickly scan imdb for a match which
> > will automatically create tags if desired. Also the user can at any
> > point add or modify tags which are applied. A cron job which runs
> > nightly periodically removes videos from the 'Recently Added' list if
> > they have been watched.
> >
> > WATCHING VIDEOS
> >   Nothing really different here, although when you have been deemed to
> > have watched a video (and not just scanned through it), Vex tags the
> > video with another internal tag 'RECENTLY_WATCHED'.
> >
> > DATABASE CONSIDERATIONS
> >   This new code does not share any existing tables in the database. I
> > did this initially because I wanted to be able to continue to watch
> > movies while I develop,but later I found that this scheme required a
> > much simpler database format. In it's current form, Vex does not mess
> > with any of the other MythVideo tables. You can use the existing video
> > manager and the gallery,list, or other views and it will not affect
> > Vex. Any changes you make to metadata or videos from within Vex will
> > not be seen by MythVideo. Vex is essentially bolted onto the side of
> > the current MythVideo browsing code, although it re-uses all other
> > aspects (the player code, etc).
> >
> > UI
> >   I'm currently trying to visualize Views as a tree which can be
> > navigated with the UIListTreeType (as opposed to the ManagedTreeType
> > which is used by the file browser). As I said earlier, I hope to have
> > some screenshots available soon.
> >
> >
> > Theres tons of more detail, but i'll stop here for now. My real
> > question is... Is the MythVideo community happy with such a 'drastic'
> > change to MythVideo? At the moment I'm doing it in a 'bolt on fashion'
> > to provide the other browsers as well. I really feel that this kind of
> > model could really work well.
> >
> > Well, I've probably opened myself up to be shot at.. but here goes.. I
> > welcome all constructive criticism and suggestions. I have spent
> > enough time on the design to know that a viewer like this solves MY
> > problem.... but does it solve YOURS?..
> >
> > Thanks so much..
> >
> > -San.
> >
> Glad to see someone taking up this challenge. I have a rather large
> anime collection in MythVideo and using deep directories is the only way
> I can make things pretty. Tags sound like a good plan, and I like the
> "recently added" idea so that I can quickly tag newly added videos.
>
> This may have been mentioned already (lots of noise on this thread), but
> what I really want in MythVideo is a way to do mass changes. To be able
> to select 100+ Naruto episodes and set them to category 'Anime' or what
> have you. I have found no way to do this in the current MythVideo
> without resorting to direct database changes. So, if you could keep that
> in mind I would love it. :-)
>
> Sorry I'm not gifted enough to program these things on my own, so I am
> one of "those" people that has ideas but never helps make them happen.
> Personally, I happen to feel even those without coding abilities can
> still help by debugging and putting forth ideas.
>
> Mike
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