[mythtv-users] adding files from elsewhere to myth

[Joey Morris]

"Michael T. Dean" <mtdean at thirdcontact.com> wrote on Thu, Oct 11, 2012 at 06:34:11PM -0400:
> On 10/10/2012 07:42 PM, Joey Morris wrote:
> >I put podcast videos into Watch Recordings precisely because I
> >consider them first-in/first-out, temporary videos. For example, daily
> >TED talks or the twice a week Tekzilla episodes fit more naturally in
> >Watch Recordings than the Video Library. I consider them episodes of a
> >series that happens to come from the Internet than from my TV tuner.
> >As such, mixing them in with the TV series MythTV recorded itself is
> >more intuitive than the putting them in the Video Library and
> >switching back and forth between Watch Recordings and Video Library to
> >see all my recent episodes.
> >
> >This doesn't seem like an unreasonable use case to me. So instead of
> >saying that content not recorded by MythTV belongs in the Video
> >Library, I think a fairer assessment is something like this: In some
> >circumstances external content belongs in Watch Recordings, but these
> >use cases aren't officially supported by MythTV.
> 
> But they weren't recorded by MythTV using any of MythTV's Video
> Sources or any of MythTV's channels or any of MythTV listings data
> or any of the other information that's required for storage in the
> area where Watch Recordings pulls its data.  Sticking things like
> that in Watch Recordings only breaks your database (there was just
> recently a thread about a user who was unable to upgrade his
> database--which was almost definitely caused by just such fake
> information).

I did acknowledge that it's not supported. I get it, and I'm not
complaining about it. My point is simply that it does make sense from
a viewer's perspective to treat video series downloaded from the
internet the same way you treat video series recorded off an antenna.

All the reasons you're giving for treating them differently are
limitations of the design. They're limitations I can live with (or
work around), especially given all the great things about MythTV, but
limitations nonetheless. Putting aside the design of MythTV and
considering how one would naturally group content with no artificial
restrictions, grouping podcasts and recordings together is one logical
way to do it. For me it's the most logical way, but I could see that
others would prefer keeping them separate.


> You can easily put them in Video Library and--if properly configured
> ( http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/519758#519758 +
> http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/519768#519768
> )--have them in a directory, such that they display separately, in a
> "temporary" area.

If I had no other choice but to put them in the Video Library, then
what you've described is the best option I've encountered. However,
I'd still have to switch back and forth between Watch Recordings and
the Video Library to access all my newest content. It's much easier
when it's all in the same place. Also, I'd want my "temporary"
directory sorted by date (newest first) and my "permanent" directories
sorted by name. It doesn't appear that the Video Library allows you to
set the sort order on a per-directory basis.


> See, also, my just-sent response to another
> message in this thread for where we're going, eventually (which will
> make you happy without your having to make fake recordings).

After reading those references, I'm still not sure I understand where
MythTV is going in this regard. But if it allows me to view all my
temporary content (internal plus external) in a big list sorted by
date and also grouped by series (that is, exactly what Watch
Recordings does now), then yes I'll be happy. I'm already happy,
actually. Inserting my external content directly into Watch Recordings
gives me what I want and so far has worked well. Maybe I'll be singing
a different tune if I try to upgrade the database and fail, but for
now it's great.