My ShowTimes V1.1.0 Release April 28/07 (1 Viewer)

[falkyre]

Hi RichardG,

I think that it should work as long as your drive is mapped, I'm not sure how MP will handle UNC. If you place all of the data and config files on the LAN drive and have MP pointed to that directory it'd make no difference to the GUI. The config.xml, locations.xml and moviedata.xml define where everything is. The best thing to do is make it consistent among your machines.

In fact, I think I "might" design my system this way and have my beefy always on server do the downloads and updates and have my HTPC just read the data.

Falkyre

curious.
Can I place the files it downloads on to a lan drive. this way I can share the files amongst a number of devices. Then not each one when it runs needs to do a complete download. For instance, the trailer might already be downloaded by another instance so its not required when I start a new HTPC up.

Just curious.

 

[Noelix]

Hi, I was looking forward to giving this a shot! I got the missing files error message as well. That was easily fixed by forcing a manual download of showtimes. So I start up fresh, go into the Showtimes plugin, and then click on "Show Theaters". The list of my selected theaters is displayed, and I press the down key to go to the second theater on the list, and then MediaPortal promptly crashes. Here's my MediaPortal.log but it doesn't seem to provide any pertinent details:
http://pastebin.team-mediaportal.com/11999

If you want to test it out, the settings I'm using are:
BlueTwo skin

USA, 85014

AMC Arizona Center 24
AMC Esplanade 14
Harkins Camelview 5
Harkins Metrocenter 12

Interestingly enough, if you use your mouse to click on something instead of the keyboard, it works fine.

 

[falkyre]

Hi Noelix,

I've recreated the problem and it's got something to do specifically with the BlueTwo skin. If I use the MePo skin, the issue doesn't happen. I will investigate the problem tonight after work some more and see what's up.

Falkyre

Hi, I was looking forward to giving this a shot! I got the missing files error message as well. That was easily fixed by forcing a manual download of showtimes. So I start up fresh, go into the Showtimes plugin, and then click on "Show Theaters". The list of my selected theaters is displayed, and I press the down key to go to the second theater on the list, and then MediaPortal promptly crashes. Here's my MediaPortal.log but it doesn't seem to provide any pertinent details:
http://pastebin.team-mediaportal.com/11999

If you want to test it out, the settings I'm using are:
BlueTwo skin

USA, 85014

AMC Arizona Center 24
AMC Esplanade 14
Harkins Camelview 5
Harkins Metrocenter 12

Interestingly enough, if you use your mouse to click on something instead of the keyboard, it works fine.

 

[ktjensen]

Showtimes seems to be running well now, with new movie show times being downloaded daily. I have had it working without crash for a week, but I only use it to display movie starting times at my local theaters. I do not use any of the other functions.

1) Is there a way to select SMALL menu icons only?

2) and is there a way to lock the menu structure?

3) Also I would like to display the show start times in a box, and not the scrolling menu bar at the top.

The author of the applet does know what they are doing because this is a functional application.

*** I think the author has proved they have a functional application. I would be willing to PAYPAL some money for a highly optimized, fully functional version, with direct author support. Nothing is free in life, and I am surprised that more authors have not thought about charging for an optimized version. Free only gets you so far.

 

[falkyre]

ktjensen,

As I have replied to you previously, the small menu icon items and locking was not designed into the application as the main thing that I wanted to allow is for choice.

Changing the show start times to a box would require a change in the skin and some code as well.

The whole concept of OpenSource is to provide something back to the community. It's also why source code is included with the plugins. I'm not interested in creating a second optimized plugin that I would then work to support. I do my coding in my spare time and that time is not a lot. Ask Mike, he knows how long it took to get this plugin out. I started the process back in April 2006 and released in Jan 2007.

I am planning other things for the plugin but I will get to them when time permits. I might even add your suggestions into the GUI.

Falkyre

Showtimes seems to be running well now, with new movie show times being downloaded daily. I have had it working without crash for a week, but I only use it to display movie starting times at my local theaters. I do not use any of the other functions.

1) Is there a way to select SMALL menu icons only?

2) and is there a way to lock the menu structure?

3) Also I would like to display the show start times in a box, and not the scrolling menu bar at the top.

The author of the applet does know what they are doing because this is a functional application.

*** I think the author has proved they have a functional application. I would be willing to PAYPAL some money for a highly optimized, fully functional version, with direct author support. Nothing is free in life, and I am surprised that more authors have not thought about charging for an optimized version. Free only gets you so far.

 

[bigj]

Tried this plugin yesterday - and it's just great. Works for my local UK cinemas.
Trailers are just top quality.

Note to people trying this: you must move the .dlls to the right locations after unzipping.
You'll need a QT player - I installed QT Alternative.

A couple of comments:
1/
There is some overlapping on some menu items - the movies description overlaps the item underneath it IIRC.
2/
I'd like to be able to use the 'back' key (ESC) to navigate out of the submenus - but currently that exits the plugin back to the home screen - this doesn't feel natural to me and I keep doing it which is really annoying!
3/
After installing the plugin I experienced a couple of crashes in MP - maybe a coincidence - but I saw the earlier comment about this; I'll keep an eye on it and report back if it keeps occuring.


Thanks for this plugin.
BigJ.

 

[falkyre]

Hey Bigj,

What skin are you using? I spent more time working with the MePo skins as I like them better than the Blue Two (and my working HTPC runs on a wide screen TV anyways). Your first two problems could be from using the Blue Two skin which I need to fix up as it is known to cause issues (including a MP crash).

For your MP crashes, did anything show up in the MediaPortal.log file? What were you doing when the crash occured?

Thanks,

Falkyre

Tried this plugin yesterday - and it's just great. Works for my local UK cinemas.
Trailers are just top quality.

Note to people trying this: you must move the .dlls to the right locations after unzipping.
You'll need a QT player - I installed QT Alternative.

A couple of comments:
1/
There is some overlapping on some menu items - the movies description overlaps the item underneath it IIRC.
2/
I'd like to be able to use the 'back' key (ESC) to navigate out of the submenus - but currently that exits the plugin back to the home screen - this doesn't feel natural to me and I keep doing it which is really annoying!
3/
After installing the plugin I experienced a couple of crashes in MP - maybe a coincidence - but I saw the earlier comment about this; I'll keep an eye on it and report back if it keeps occuring.


Thanks for this plugin.
BigJ.

 

[bigj]

Yes, I'm using Blue Two.
I'll try the Mepo skin - to narrow these issues.

I didn't check the logs - but I'll be sure to if (when!) it happens again
Regards,
BigJ.

 

[falkyre]

Hi bigj,

Your point about the escape functionality would require a fairly large change in the logic of how the GUI handles the escape. I "think" it would also require a change in how the global escape works with MP. I'm trying to follow how the myTrailers plugin handles it and it when the escape is pressed in myTrailers, it does the same thing as myShowTimes. It takes you back to the Home. I'd have to recheck some of the other plugins again to see if that's how the escape works.

Note: In Blue Two, there is a spot where it will cause MP to crash. I have to fix that up but I haven't had the time to do it yet. I think it's caused by the way I'm forcing the skin to go to the next and previous controls rather than let MP handle it. Funny thing is if you use the MePo skin, this doesn't happen. The only thing I can think about that is causing the crash is that the Blue Two skin utilizes some newer things in the skin engine that MePo doesn't. But like I said, I haven't had the time to fully investigate it.

Falkyre

 

[idioteque]

Why cant I find ANY city in the Netherlands ?