[mythtv] Could we use thetvdb for tv preview images?

[Michael T. Dean]

On 06/29/2010 12:54 PM, Ed W wrote:
> Hi, I quite like the preview images in the main mythtv tv episode 
> lists, but at least for me they are frequently not that descriptive of 
> the program.  I have started to poke around a little with regards to 
> having previewgenerator.cpp instead pull down something like the main 
> image that thetvdb uses for the series image.  The idea was that the 
> image would then be the same for all episodes of the series, but at 
> least it would then be quite recognisable while scrolling.
>
> Second idea was to pull down the episode image where available, but 
> use the series image where it's not (the majority of the less popular 
> shows).  This would seem to have some much larger bandwidth 
> implications though
>
> It seems like this ought to have been a popular feature request, but 
> apart from some older discussions about integration into mythvideo I 
> can't really see any previous debates about using the artwork in the 
> tv side of mythtv?
>
> Any comments?  Things to consider?  Pointers to existing code or other 
> reasons to do or not do this?

I'm in the process*** of incorporating a pretty major database schema 
change that will allow much better usage of metadata with recordings (as 
well as using the same database structures for MythTV recordings and 
MythVideo videos).  One of the benefits of this change is that it will 
allow us to track multiple files related to a single MythTV recording or 
MythVideo video record.  Therefore, I'll be modifying MythTV so that all 
recording previews/screenshots are referenced specifically in the 
database (rather than found through searches for files whose names use a 
pattern based on the recording basename).  One of the upshots of this is 
that we'll be able to keep track of multiple recording 
previews/screenshots for each recording.  So, we'll be able to store a 
reference to the auto-generated preview images.  We could also store a 
reference to downloaded previews/screenshots.  As a matter of fact, I 
think Robert McNamara has some plans for this--but they're waiting on my 
finishing the recordedfile schema changes.

(And, FWIW, I also plan to modify the code to allow setting multiple 
bookmarks per recording and to keep a preview image at each bookmark 
point to use in the UI so users can choose which bookmark to jump to or 
to play from--and, yes, there will be a default bookmark, so those who 
just want to play from default will be able to do so without the extra 
popup.)

Mike

***OK, technically, I'm a bit distracted by a different non-MythTV-dev 
project right now (and will be distracted by family visiting for a 
couple weeks0, but as soon as I get back to MythTV dev, I'll be working 
on the "recordedfile schema changes" project.