[mythtv-users] Labels instead of Recording Groups

[Brian Long]

On Wed, Apr 11, 2012 at 2:44 PM, Joseph Fry <joe at thefrys.com> wrote:
> In an age where strict "folder based" organization is losing it's appeal, I
> find that recording groups are very frustrating.
>
> Both my personal and work emails are organized using labels (categories in
> MS Outlook).  I frequently assign multiple labels to a single email and when
> I click on the "folder" representing that label I see all the associated
> emails, even if they appear in other "folders" too.  I haven't moved email
> out of my inbox folder in years, opting to filter it with labels instead.
>
> Currently we have several hundred recordings, many of which 3 or more
> members of my family are interested in watching.  While we can mark an
> episode watched, or move it to someones recording group... there is no way
> to easily know if everyone interested has watched it so either it sits on
> the system until I can get everyone in the same room and go through them
> all... or we delete recordings that not everyone has seen; both options are
> frustrating.
>
> I would like to propose a bounty to have recording groups replaced by
> labels, similar to labels in gmail; I would be willing to contribute $40 for
> this feature and would like to see if anyone else would be willing to add to
> it.
>
> Here is what I propose.
>
> Two classes of labels are created, "viewer" and "info"
> An "info" label contains information about the recording; Movie, Football,
> Hockey, News, Cartoon, HD, SD, Close Captioned, Commercial Flagged, etc.
> A viewer label consists of a customizable name and a user-selectable color
> (Mom, Dad, Daughter, Son, for example).
> A recording with no viewer labels assigned is considered "deleted" and is
> purged according to the system's schedule for deleted recordings
> When creating/modifying a recording schedule, you select one or more viewer
> labels to be pre-assigned, according to who is interested in watching that
> recording.
> An easy method of toggling the labels on an existing recording must be
> provided.
> As recordings are watched the viewers should be able to easily toggle labels
> off, perhaps an optional prompt upon exiting could be provided.
> Rather than filtering on the recording group, filtering on labels would
> allow a user to see all recordings that they are interested in... so if the
> wife and I are watching TV, we can easily filter to only shows that neither
> of us have watched; or we could filter to only movies that neither of us
> have watched, or I could filter it to hockey games that both my son and I
> haven't seen.
> Themes would be modified to display the labels associated with recordings so
> you can see at a glance what a recording's labels are.
> Pre-defined filters could be created for the watch recordings screen... so
> you could create filters for "Mom and Dad", "Kids", or "The Boys" that you
> could then choose from when entering the watch recordings screen (or scroll
> through using the FFD button) as we do now with recording groups.
>
> Optionally, I would suggest that the use of labels be expanded to include
> some built-in labels to incorporate existing functionality so that the label
> system is more than just about organizing the recordings, but about  how the
> system works with them as well.
>
> Rating labels; when configuring the recording we should be able to assign an
> appropriate "rating level" label and if pin access controls are enabled they
> will be enforced when viewing or if removing the label.
> Commercial Detection labels, a label is assigned if commercial detection is
> desired, its remove and another label assigned when complete.
> User Job labels, works just like commercial detection.
> Auto Expire
> Storage Group Labels - perhaps with the ability to move a recording from one
> SG to another just by changing the SG label.
>
> Essentially, if properly implemented, labels could provide a means to
> greatly simplify the organization of recordings.  Much of the functionality
> would be behind the scenes; DB changes and the like, but there would
> definitely be some theme changes needed as well.
>
> Anybody else want in on this bounty?

Joe, sounds like you should send your $40 directly to Michael Dean.
:-)  If you do, I'll add $20 to the bounty.

/Brian/