Collections within the movies list (1 Viewer)

[omriamos]

Hi,

I know this issue has been talked A LOT, but I still couldn't find the right way to implement this...
I want to have "Movie Collections", that will be display along with all the other movies, inside the "all movies" page, or the genre page, etc'...

For example, I want to combine all my "American Pie" movies into one "American Pie Movies" Collection - that will be visible in: All movies, Genre: Comedy, and all the other pages it might be in (Unwatched Movies, for another example).

XBMC does that out of the box.
MyFilms does that as well - see this page.

But I can't seen to be able to do that with Moving Pictures...
I tried to create a new category, e.g. "American Pie Movies", and added all the american pie movies into it.
I put it inside "All movies", hoping that it will be integrated inside the organic list. However, it simple got all my other movies hidden...
I know I can add this category to the root location - I actually have one category like that and it works great, for movies that Quentin Tarantino was involved with (not just as a director) - BUT THIS IS NOT WHAT I'M ASKING HERE.

I want the movie collections to be naturally displayed within the movies list. Then, when I click on this collection, it will open all the movies within it as a new window.

Is it possible?
Please see the above example from MyFilms, this is exactly what I'm trying to achieve.

Here's a screenshot from my setup:

 

[RoChess]

Hi,

I know this issue has been talked A LOT, but I still couldn't find the right way to implement this...
I want to have "Movie Collections", that will be display along with all the other movies, inside the "all movies" page, or the genre page, etc'...

For example, I want to combine all my "American Pie" movies into one "American Pie Movies" Collection - that will be visible in: All movies, Genre: Comedy, and all the other pages it might be in (Unwatched Movies, for another example).

XBMC does that out of the box.
MyFilms does that as well - see this page.

But I can't seen to be able to do that with Moving Pictures...
I tried to create a new category, e.g. "American Pie Movies", and added all the american pie movies into it.
I put it inside "All movies", hoping that it will be integrated inside the organic list. However, it simple got all my other movies hidden...
I know I can add this category to the root location - I actually have one category like that and it works great, for movies that Quentin Tarantino was involved with (not just as a director) - BUT THIS IS NOT WHAT I'M ASKING HERE.

I want the movie collections to be naturally displayed within the movies list. Then, when I click on this collection, it will open all the movies within it as a new window.

Is it possible?
Please see the above example from MyFilms, this is exactly what I'm trying to achieve.

Here's a screenshot from my setup:

Getting direct series/grouping support is an outstanding issue (with high demand) that is not going to happen soon. What you can do is deal with work-arounds. However those have to be made within the boundaries of what is possible, and what you are attempting breaks that.

You will have to rewrite the entire "All Movies" category menu structure, it will not work by adjusting a default dynamic category, but you can make it semi-dynamic by using advanced filters such as "Full Path". For an easy automatic way, you might want to simply look at the IMDb+ plugin. During import the IMDb+ scraper-script will rename the movie title so that it groups together in correct order, so that "Quantum of Solace" is sorted amongst the other "James Bond" movies under the 'J', and not under the 'Q'. Of course SMS filtering will still work if you type in 7-8-2-6-8-8-6, as 'Quantum' is still part of the IMDb+ title as well.

Ontop of that the new Moving-Pictures now has 'collections' support, so you can create a new dynamic category for that, and if you are an IMDb+ user, you get additional benefits such as a "» IMDb Top 250" collection.

Still custom categories are fun and powerfull, I got over 500+ on my own setup, and it took painstaking work to get them in there, but now I reap the benefits of a quick navigationable large collection.

 

[omriamos]

Thanks for clearing that out.
I'm not afraid of a complete "rewrite" for the "All Movies" category, but I'm not sure it will do any good - because most of the time I use the Genre categories anyway (and then I want to see the collections in the results, of course).

Ontop of that the new Moving-Pictures now has 'collections' support, so you can create a new dynamic category for that, and if you are an IMDb+ user, you get additional benefits such as a "» IMDb Top 250" collection.

Oh..
I've just found out that I'm using an old version (1.5.1.1487) instead of the new 1.6.2 :-\
Probably because of StreamedMP... I'll update right away, and see if/how it can help me workaround the collections issue..

 

[RoChess]

Oh..
I've just found out that I'm using an old version (1.5.1.1487) instead of the new 1.6.2 :-\
Probably because of StreamedMP... I'll update right away, and see if/how it can help me workaround the collections issue..

Keep in mind that 'collections' in v1.6+ needs a compatible scraper-script, such as TMDb (included by default), or IMDb+ (seperate MPEI plugin), and you need to refresh your entire collection to 'scrape' all this new info, but that's a good thing, because you can then also get support for 'Release Date', and 'Plot Keywords'. The way that looks for me is as follows:

 

[omriamos]

Keep in mind that 'collections' in v1.6+ needs a compatible scraper-script, such as TMDb (included by default), or IMDb+ (seperate MPEI plugin), and you need to refresh your entire collection to 'scrape' all this new info

Fine by me because I actually want to add collections manually (otherwise I will have too many pointless collections of 1-2 movies - which I something I don't want..).
The problem is that I still couldn't find a workaround to show both collections and non-collections-movies on the same list...

 

[RoChess]

The problem is that I still couldn't find a workaround to show both collections and non-collections-movies on the same list...

I was bothered by it as well, and the workaround I used is what is integrated into IMDb+. It doesn't replace the 23 James Bond movies into a single "James Bond" collection entry within the "All Movies" list, but it at least 'groups' them all together, as they would otherwise be all over the place. Especially the wrong sort order is fixed, so The Matrix movies do not sort as 2, 3, 1, but in the correct 1-3 trilogy order. It also fixes the fanart/cover issues on movies with the same title.

If that does not work for you, then 'star' the Google code issue that would fit exactly how you want it, and wait patiently till some developer picks the problem up and creates a patch/solution. The issue has been open for 5+ years, so practice a lot of patience as well.

 

[omriamos]

I was bothered by it as well, and the workaround I used is what is integrated into IMDb+. It doesn't replace the 23 James Bond movies into a single "James Bond" collection entry within the "All Movies" list, but it at least 'groups' them all together, as they would otherwise be all over the place. Especially the wrong sort order is fixed, so The Matrix movies do not sort as 2, 3, 1, but in the correct 1-3 trilogy order. It also fixes the fanart/cover issues on movies with the same title.

I already (manually) created all the collections I wanted, so that's a non-issue.

I didn't like the automated process available within MP's import because it created some collections with only 1 movie, which is a stupid idea... I actually also deleted all the collections that had only 2 movies, and only kept collections that have 3+ movies. MP allows me to sort them by year, which is great.

So this issue is complete, however I would still love to have the collections inside the all-movies category, instead of the individual movies spread all around the list.
Oh well..

 

[RoChess]

I already (manually) created all the collections I wanted, so that's a non-issue.

I didn't like the automated process available within MP's import because it created some collections with only 1 movie, which is a stupid idea... I actually also deleted all the collections that had only 2 movies, and only kept collections that have 3+ movies. MP allows me to sort them by year, which is great.

So this issue is complete, however I would still love to have the collections inside the all-movies category, instead of the individual movies spread all around the list.
Oh well..

TMDb has weird 'collections' indeed, but sometimes they are set for future sequel, of course to have a collection for "I, Robot" now when sequel is set for 2015, I get your point. Since for IMDb+ I manually maintain the list, it is easier to control. However I semi-automate the collection system inside IMDb+ on any title that is part of a series, so it would indeed generate entries for 2-movie series.

Can never please everybody

So yeah, hopefully somebody that uses MediaPortal, uses Moving-Pictures plugin, loves collections, has extensive C# knowledge and wants to solve the problem will fix the open issue and help us all out. Looking at the Moving-Pictures C# source code, I went running and screaming into another direction myself