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

[Mike LaPlante]

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