Moving Pictures MP2 (1 Viewer)

[MaxMan23]

Hi,

are there any plans to port moving pictures to MP2?


MaxMan23

 

[fforde]

MediaPortal 2 is designed to have all the functionality out of the box that Moving Pictures brings to the table, so there would not be much point in porting it. If another developer feels differently and wants to take up the task, I'd be happy to give my thoughts/tips, but I have no intention of doing a port for MediaPortal 2 at the moment.

 

[dir]

Its been a year since the above, and MP2 has come along considerably, but even Alpha 4's handling of movies makes it impossible to use as a full-time htpc compared to MP1+MP or XBMC.

Traditionally, the 'base' capabilities of MP tend to be "just good enough" to handle media, and MP2 is no exception (IMO). Unfortunately its too basic to hope for any WAF in my household. Specifically:

- when you enter Movies, you're faced with a bunch of genre folders. Even changing this to "coverflow" doesn't help.
- there's no way to sort your collection by "most recently added". That kills it totally if my users are forced to somehow know what the latest movies are and scroll through thousands of movies to find them.

I'm sure MP2 will continue to be enhanced as it progresses through beta, but I think we all know that the changes will be very slight and mostly bug fixes from here on in. If people are forced to look at a bunch of genre folders as their initial view of their movies, then MP2's doomed - sorry, but its true. MP1 and xbmc are no-brainers to use as alternatives.

 

[JoeSmith]

mp(1)s video view has improved a lot over the years, but in my opinion moving pictures just feels right. The same applies to mp2's video view. It's okay, but (imho) feels somewhat different in user experience and right now (i know it's alpha, but it shows the path that it's going) i don't like it very much and think that moving pictures for mp2 would be great.
But maybe it's just the way that mp2 presents the data to me and since it's supposed to be super modular it might be easy to change that

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.

If people are forced to look at a bunch of genre folders as their initial view of their movies,

I also did not like this, but this is the past. Present is, you can choose which view will be presented at first enter of Movies section. You only need to change the view once and MP2 remembers this until you change it again. So on second enter (could be the same session or a later one including a reboot of client) you will have the view you like. In future you will be able to add your own views and filters, to group movies by collection (e.g. all "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies together)...

but I think we all know that the changes will be very slight and mostly bug fixes from here on in

Maybe this is sometimes true for MP1 (e.G. the MyPictures plugin is ugly as hell but stays nearly the same since the very first beginning of MP 10 years ago, but did you had a look at MyVideos Plugin in MP1 lately?) but it's definitely not the truth regarding MP2. This mainly is due to the easy way one can change core parts of MP2 without touching anything else. If you want to change something in MP1 core you need to take care about anything...

If you want MP2 the way you like it, feel free to participate. Install latest MP2 Alpha, use it as often as possible, create proper bug reports and exact feature requests. So the devs can see what's need to be done...

 

[Sebastiii]

For MP1 and MyPictures, that's not so ugly but need dev to work on that part lol (sorry it's offtopic)

 

[dir]

Hi.

If people are forced to look at a bunch of genre folders as their initial view of their movies,

I also did not like this, but this is the past. Present is, you can choose which view will be presented at first enter of Movies section. You only need to change the view once and MP2 remembers this until you change it again.

Ah, this wasn't clear and likely won't be to most new users. Someone in another thread explained how to change this and now I can see my movies. I'd suggest that the initial view for new users be set to something visually appealing and relevant, and not a listing of genre folders.

but I think we all know that the changes will be very slight and mostly bug fixes from here on in

Maybe this is sometimes true for MP1 (e.G. the MyPictures plugin is ugly as hell but stays nearly the same since the very first beginning of MP 10 years ago, but did you had a look at MyVideos Plugin in MP1 lately?)

Yes, but it took years for MyVideos to be updated. I don't think users are going to patiently put up with an inferior htpc app for years in the hopes that eventually, someone might update it to something that's already been available for years in xbmc, MP1, and future competing apps...

If you want MP2 the way you like it, feel free to participate. Install latest MP2 Alpha, use it as often as possible, create proper bug reports and exact feature requests. So the devs can see what's need to be done...

That's an ideal world for developers but not something most end users are willing to do. MP2 developers need to reach out to users and find ways to solicit feedback so that the final product appeals to the user, not to the logical introspection of the developers. And you can't ask users to speak your language, either.

The danger with apps like MP is that they are designed by technical people who live in a technical bubble - even the forums consist mainly of technical people (even end users of MP have to be highly technical). The app can never appeal to a broader audience because nobody in the bubble notices that people outside the bubble aren't paying attention.
[edit: updated post-reflection]

 

[breese]

In future you will be able to add your own views and filters, to group movies by collection (e.g. all "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies together)...

I have been doing considerable testing of Movie, Series, Video scans and as it stands today, it does not take into consideration the Users directories or the fact they Choose Movies or Series.
The scan imports the Item and makes a judgment of where it should go even if the scan was told to import movies.

In the MP2 Development Forum I posted the following and the only response was a LIKE ! (don't even know what part they liked because it is a very long message about a few topics).

Scanning (Movies, Series, Videos): Sorry but this is a thorn in my side. After doing a scan for Series, the system ignores the fact that I have Shared folders dedicated to different types.
after the Series scan was done, everything except The Bill Engcall Show was listed in Series (TV Shows are a Series, right?).
After reading the log file and seeing it was scanned, I discovered The Bill Engvall Show was in Videos listed under Genre:Empty and under Genre Documentary (Really?) along with other Genre.


I proceeded to scan Movies, again I have a Share named Movies yet when the scan completed (I wont go into how long it takes to grab all the Banners and other stuff), I found all my Movies also listed in Videos.
As an FYI: every Movie is labeled with its correct name and has [tt1234567] IMBD info in it.


Then there are the duplicate entries in Movies like 42, and the Flying Tigers.
42 might be because that is the whole name (a #)
Flying Tigers is because there is also a .jpg in the folder with the movie file. The Movie scan does not understand the picture extension is not a movie / video / file.

 

[dir]

Scanning (Movies, Series, Videos): Sorry but this is a thorn in my side. After doing a scan for Series, the system ignores the fact that I have Shared folders dedicated to different types.
after the Series scan was done, everything except The Bill Engcall Show was listed in Series (TV Shows are a Series, right?).
After reading the log file and seeing it was scanned, I discovered The Bill Engvall Show was in Videos listed under Genre:Empty and under Genre Documentary (Really?) along with other Genre.

I'm confused by what you've written. Do you have your movies in a completely different directory than your TV shows, for example:

c:\Movies\
d:\Movies\
c:\TV Shows\
e:\More TV Shows\
e:\More Movies\

Or do you have something like

d:\All My Stuff
d:\All My Stuff\Star Wars IV: A New Hope\Star Wars IV A New Hope.mkv
d:\All My Stuff\The Oprah Winfrey Show\Season 01\01 - Blah.avi
d:\All My Stuff\The Oprah Winfrey Show\Season 01\02 - More Blah.avi
d:\All My Stuff\Seinfeld.s03e05.The.Pirate.Shirt

When I added my shares, it first prompted me for the path (I navigated to my server then to a folder, ie. \\MediaServer\Movies)
Then it asked me if this was a Movie, Series, Music, or Photo share. I selected Movie.

I did the same for all my other shares - I have them spread across several locations but I was able to add each one and tell MP2 what it held.
The import took 24 hours but at the end of it, all my movies show up in my Movies, all my shows show up in Series, etc.

It didn't go through each sub-folder within each share and decide what each of the files was, and override what I told it. Like, it didn't find my Seinfeld folder within \\MediaServer\TV\Seinfeld and decide "Oh, these are movies". Conversely, it didn't go through my Movies folders and decide "Oh this is a TV show".

That's what it appears you're saying. Or is it?

If so, perhaps you need better and clearer folder structures. Its a pain to do but worth it in the end.

\\MediaServer\Movies\Star Wars IV\star wars IV.avi
\\MediaServer\Movies\Star Wars V\star wars V.mkv
\\MediaServer\Movies\Star Wars V\star wars V trailer.avi
\\MediaServer\Movies\Star Wars V\folder.jpg
\\MediaServer\Movies\Star Trek: Wrath of Khan\Star Trek IV Wrath of Khan.mkv

\\MediaServer\TV\Seinfeld\Season 01\s01e01 - Blah.avi
\\MediaServer\TV\Seinfeld\Season 01\so1e02 - More Blah.avi
\\MediaServer\TV\American Dad\Season 01\s01e01 - Blah.avi
\\2ndMediaServer\TV\American Dad\Season 02\s02e01 - Yuck.avi
F:\More Movies\Beaches\Beaches.avi

etc

 

[breese]

Mine is extremely simple (Bugsbunny is my MP2 Server/Client, all scans are done as Global)
\\bugsbunny\Movies
\\bugsbunny\Series
\\bugsbunny\Music

As you can see, there is no Video share.... Yet I have Series items (The Bill Engvall Show) that Only show up under Video's.
I see you have some Series renamed.. s02e01 (bla bla)... Remove it and see where it ends up....
As a tester... I do not import everything all at once so as to see what the system is or is not doing....
If I do not have anything labeled as Video and I choose an Import to be a Series, then that is where it should be expected to show up..