[mythtv-users] Legibility from the sofa

[jedi]

On Sun, Feb 14, 2010 at 03:54:15AM -0500, spam at acmelabs.com wrote:
> I seem to be having the same trouble as many others trying to navigate
> using filenames except that I am using a 46" widescreen. I don't think
> screen size is that much of a factor in this issue.
> 
> ryan.goat at gmail writes:
> >Did you know that there are four different view options for the
> >mythvideo "Watch Videos" screen? The "three column" view is only one
> >of the choices. Check out the wiki:
> >http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/MythVideo#MythVideo_Views
> 
> Unfortunately these are all geared towards metadata browsing in one way or
> another. The list view comes the closest to being functional with the
> other 2 views being rather useless without metadata. I can see the benefit
> in a collection that is largely films but that does not reflect my
> collection which is mostly television. Also, a very small percentage of
> video returns any metadata at all.
> 
> I have a large number of video files (10k+). Some are periodically moved
> to offline storage and at a later date might be copied back to myth. It
> does not make sense to take time to setup metadata when flies are moved on
> and off the drive array frequently.
> 
> Filenames as downloaded from 'internet sources' already have all the
> needed episode data needed for browsing such as the following examples:
> Simpsons 04x05 - Tree House of Horror III [rl-dvd].avi
> merlin.2x08.the_sins_of_the_father.ws_pdtv_xvid-fov.avi
> house.s06e13.720p.hdtv.x264-immerse.mkv
> 
> Given that %99 of episodic video downloadable from 'internet sources' is
> already labeled so nicely I dont see metadata as a crucial feature. Being
> able to page through a list of nearly endless simpsons episodes to find
> the one I am looking for is much more important.

    Paging endlessly is a bit annoying. This is an area where searching the
metadata would be handy. Search by plot or episode title could be very handy.
Something else that could be very useful is tracking what the last watched
episode is.

> 
> Unfortunately the current 3-column view is not conducive to browsing these
> kind of files when already stored in nice, easy to manage directory trees
> along the lines of: SHOW/SEASON/EPISODE

     That's easy enough to hack.
 
> Before I upgraded to .23 I was pretty happy with something similar to this
> image: (please see link)
> http://imgs.imagup.com/member3/1225743519_mythvideo5.png


My approach looks like this:

  http://mishnet.org/MythTV/mythvideo-episodes.png

  http://mishnet.org/MythTV/mythvideo-VirtualTV.png

  That 00_VirtualTV directory involves a bit of sleight of hand but is able
to track pointers through several shows. It's a nice bit of shorthand.

> 
> I dont seem to be the only person frustrated with browsing episodes. I
> believe some insight as to available options would be helpful for a number
> of Myth users. Any help would be most appreciated!
> 
> Are we stuck with the 3 column view? Is there a way to regain the simplier
> style of view in .22? If not possible in the current version what is the
> last version that carried this view so we can downgrade back?
> 
> Thank you for taking the time to read and reply to this message! :)
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