Available features in MP2? (2 Viewers)

[breese]

Currently I have 2 large drives
Drive 1 - Movies and Series (MP2 does seperate imports and upates for each)
Drive 2 - Music (Very Large!! ) (also seperate MP2 import)
Sorted by - Genre - Artist - Album

 

[aspik]

@MP Team
See how much misinformation about MP2 and his centralized DB are spread. People think that with MP2 they would have everything imported in a one big folder… And for MP1 is being developed a centralized database plugin, where in MP2 it is already available!

In my opinion it should be only one MediaPortal, version 1 has done a good job, but it’s time to focus on the version 2. MP2 is also MediaPortal, I know it is completely different architecture, skinning is also different etc… but it is MediaPortal, not a concurring product! For MP1 shouldn’t be developed any new features (like the central DB) at least not by a team member. The team should represent one united vision about the future of MediaPortal. Or do you think that the team is big enough to develop parallel two versions? Other open source project can it somehow get managed, or did you see that for example xbmc/kodi has two active developed versions..?

 

[osre]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but MP2 does not change how you organize your media/drives, right?
You can add as many folders as you like to the system, and the media files will stay there.
Only the meta info for all this media is stored in a single DB on the MP2 server (which can be the client PC as well), so on a multi seat system it has to be done only once.

 

[morpheus_xx]

Yes, exactly. And you are also able to browse by folder structure if you prefer. I do it myself for pictures folder, where I have a good structure already and don't depend on metadata.

 

[osre]

I guess as soon as anyone got time for that, it would be a good idea to have some demo videos about media setup/browsing, live TV, ...
A video says more than 1000 forum posts

 

[HTPCSourcer]

The team should represent one united vision about the future of MediaPortal. Or do you think that the team is big enough to develop parallel two versions? Other open source project can it somehow get managed, or did you see that for example xbmc/kodi has two active developed versions..?

I think that this is the key point. There is so much activity on various areas of MP1, often even double work - and only one (!) single isolated person is working on the core function of MP2, which is TV...

I very much appreciate the bridging efforts of @morpheus_xx to offer TV for MP2. However, at least I don't want to have to install several other software tools. I don't see much value either to install MP2 as client in connection with an existing MP1 server. What the majority of people need is a stable system, where they don't have to constantly tweak to keep it working.

In essence: @aspik is right in wondering why it is not possible to align the various existing developers along the same MP2 objective.

 

[MJGraf]

Hi everyone,
and thank you for this lively discussion! I think this is very important - in particular for us developers, because we need to know what people don't like in MP2. And I not only mean missing features - they can usually be added quite easily assuming that someone has enough time to do it. I also mean conceptual questions, as it may be possible to change them (assuming that we also think that it makes sense, of course ), but the more "features" are already addedd, the more difficult it gets to change a concept (we currently experience this because we realized that sooner or later we need a way to store abstract "MediaItems" in out MediaLibrary, which is currently not possible. Such a change affects every part of MP2 and the more parts we have, the more difficult it gets...)
There were a few posts above that I didn't quite understand and I would be grateful, if those of you, from which the statement was, could elaborate a bit more on what exactly you don't like and how you would like it do be.

I just don't like all-in-one conception

Sorry for asking you to join the discussion again, but I'm really interested in that If you have posted about that already somewhere else in the forum, please point me to it...
What exactly do you mean with "all-in-one conception"? Does that mean that you e.g. don't like Series being integrated instead of a separate plugin?

I like having a separate db for each type of media

Can you please explain what advantage separate dbs have in your setup? Is it about easier separate backup?

I like the approach MP1 when the music separately, as individual, Pictures separately.

What exactly are you referring to, ajs? Do you mean that you keep your media files separated in different folders/drives on your harddisk(s) (which of course MP2 can handle)? Or do you mean you can browse them separately on the screen (which is also no problem at all)? Or do you mean they are stored in different databases (which is not the case and most likely will never be the case)

Bluray? If I remember correctly the Bluray handler is also included in MP2, morpheus_xx correct me if I'm wrong.

Well, it is included, but i fear it's currently broken. I have it on my todo list, but am currently busy with hunting some bugs in accessing network drives...

I guess as soon as anyone got time for that, it would be a good idea to have some demo videos about media setup/browsing, live TV, ...
A video says more than 1000 forum posts

Very good idea . Maybe we should already use one of our newest skins for that
And at least equallly important would be a far more comprehensive wiki.

Thanks everyone - and please keep the discussion going!
Michael

 

[ajs]

Do you mean that you keep your media files separated in different folders/drives on your harddisk(s) (which of course MP2 can handle)? Or do you mean you can browse them separately on the screen (which is also no problem at all)?

Second, so I can clearly when entering the video plug to understand that there are only cartoons for example. Or to at least the same as that to cut albums in MP3 and Flac.

 

[Lehmden]

Second, so I can clearly when entering the video plug to understand that there are only cartoons for example. Or to at least the same as that to cut albums in MP3 and Flac.

Yes, You can browse the folder structure you have on your drives in MP2 if you like.

You have as example a folder "Cartoons" with all your cartoons in, some folders with Movies and other ones with Series somewhere on your home network. If you enter the "Movies" menu item on home, you are presented all your movies which have metadata on IMDB, no matter where they are. Same is for Series (but with TVDB-ID ofc). But when you enter Videos you have various ways to display your media. You can browse them by filename, by attributes (like genre) or by filesystem- structure. You have a folder with all your cartoons available here as a "sub- folder". If you have sub- folders in your Cartoons folder (e.G. anime, DC and Marvel) you will see them here too. Nearly identical to the view in explorer, but with better look. But you are also able to reach your Movies or your Series folder(s) here as they are also part of the video filesystem structure.

Same on Music. If you enter the music section on home screen you can have various ways to present your media. BTW this is really close to how this is done in MP1. You can use the database view, where your music is sorted and presented by e.G. Artist. But you also can change to filesystem view, where you can have separated folders for mp3 and flac or whatever you want. I have Pop and Classic as different folders and this is separately presented in MP2 for sure.

 

[ajs]

It is released already since a long time. Last "full" version can be downloaded here:

Wanted to try. Installed. But the client can not start because does not find the freetype6.dll library.

There are automatic (2-) weekly builds available too:

Run this installation. Established. Trying to set up and see.