[mythtv-users] 0.22 MythVideo slow first time cover art displays

[Michael T. Dean]

On 09/29/2009 03:19 PM, Kevin Kuphal wrote:
> It is obvious that the fanart/coverart feature is one that is highly
> valued by the community given the discussions I see here.  I know I'm
> very anxious to have it on my system.  My point here is that in this
> instance, and with others such as metadata download for Watch
> Recordings (also included in Graphite which is in SVN and distributed
> with Myth now), that it has a "half-baked" feeling about it.  Not that
> it lacks quality, but that it more unfinished than I would expect for
> a release.  I personally would have rather seen fanart left out of
> 0.22 and included in 0.23 with all these usability questions ironed
> out.  Waiting 2-3s for browsing media may not seem like a big deal
> given that it's a one time thing.  But it just brings up the idea that
> it *could* happen in the background and not impact the UI.

So, the solution is for someone*** who thinks waiting until 0.23 for 
these metadata features would be better to actually write a theme that 
doesn't use any of the images (or uses just the poster images, like in 
0.21-fixes).  If the theme doesn't use the artwork, MythVideo/Watch 
Recordings doesn't attempt to retrieve/scale/process it, so there's no 
delay.

Note, also, that this doesn't mean to make a 0.21-fixes-like theme--the 
theme can take advantage of MythUI without needing to use the 
video/recording metadata image support.  Then, when the next release is 
ready and the metadata image support is more complete, you can choose to 
use it if you feel it's ready for general use.

Or just use MythCenter or MythCenter-wide (both of which are distributed 
with current trunk/mythtv ) and don't use the images.****

Really, I think the main problem here is not the images, but the lack of 
new people stepping up to create new MythUI-capable themes.  It just so 
happens that the people who have done the MythUI themes happen to like 
the metadata image stuff.  I also believe that once we have a MythUI-ed 
release out there, we'll get a /lot/ more people stepping up to create 
these themes.  So, we kind of have a catch-22 chicken-and-egg issue here.

Mike

***Someone besides Stuart Morgan and Robert McNamara, who have already 
built themes that do what /they/ want the themes /they use/ to do.

****Or choose one of the trunk/themes or trunk/oldthemes themes.  And, 
possibly, fix up any of the issues with those legacy themes, since they 
don't get much attention anymore because they were designed for a 
legacy/much-less-capable theme engine, so some of us (well, me, at 
least) think they should be deleted en masse and new themes designed 
around the new theme engine.