Plugin idea- MyPersonalTVStation(s) (1 Viewer)

[fredklein]

Sometimes you just want to veg out in front of the TV, and not have to pick what to watch. Sometimes you just want to plop the kids in front of the TV and let them watch (educational!) TV. And some people even like to have the TV on in the background- they don't want to actually pick something to watch, but want the ability to shift focus to it if something interesting comes on. More and more people are getting rid of their Cable or Satellite service, making this harder to do.

So, why not have a "television station" in MediaPortal?

Simply define the movies and TV shows that you want to show up, and The MyPersonalTVStation (as I call it) plugin would whip them into a sort of 'playlist'. You could have several different 'Stations', one for drama movies and TV shows, one for Comedies, one for documentaries, one for Crime Shows, etc. You could even have a 'Station' of 'Unwatched episodes', making catching up on all your shows easy! By choosing one of the 'Stations', the content in that 'playlist' starts playing. You'd have the ability to Skip the current show, or drop that show out of the lineup.

Yes, you can simply create playlists. But playlists take time to set up, and you need to add new content. The MyPersonalTVStation plugin would automatically monitor folders for new episodes of TV shows, and add them to the lineup. It would shuffle the series' in a logical manner. For instance, if you had a 'Station' with two shows with equal numbers of episodes, it would alternate them. But, if show 'A' had twice as many episodes as show 'B', then the lineup might be AABAAB, and so on.


For more in the same vein, take a look at these old threads:
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/plugin-suggestion-mytvchannel.69524/
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/plugin-idea-virtual-tv.68084/

 

[kiwijunglist]

This plugin already exsists, but I forget the name of it and can't find it via search.

Basically it creates ## number of channels in the epg, and populates the channels with random videos from your my tv series and moving pictures database. You could also define channel names like "Mike's doco channel" and it only chose random videos from tvseries/moving pictures that had history genre / history tag.

Unfortunately I can't find the plugin thread, and I'm not sure if it still works or not with the latest mediaportal either.

 

[erichzann]

XBMC have a plugin called pseudo TV http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=90738 which does the same thing which is pretty cool.

I have used it in the past and it works well.

 

[ysmp]

Maybe TvWishList plugin ?

 

[kiwijunglist]

tvwishlist is a different plugin. it is for recording tv, not creating virtual channels.

 

[TLD]

Good idea fredklein i don't remember seeing anything like that and would use it if available.
I would thing it should use the standard Videos plugin also.

 

[FreakyJ]

and what is the reason for making x threads with the same topic/content?! One should be enough...

 

[fredklein]

I was wondering if anyone had any further thoughts on this, or if (hope springs eternal) anyone was actually working on this.