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

[Robert Johnston]

On 29/06/2010 1:38 PM, Michael T. Dean wrote:
> 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.)

It's a shame that no-one's even thinking about modifying the DB to use 
UTC times, rather than local times, as this would solve a LOT of DST 
problems that I understand most of the rest of the world has.