Plugin Idea: "Virtual TV" (1 Viewer)

[Ryoga79]

So i'm not sure if this belongs here or with the "My TVSeries" plugin, but i figured i'd put it in general and move it if need be. Anyway, i was thinking about mediaportal and how with MP, i rarely use cable anymore, and how with comcast throwing their rates through the roof, how easy it would be for MP to replace cable entirely for me. The only problem with that is the easiness with cable of sitting down and popping on the tv and turning on a random episode of food network or something like that, especially for my girlfriend, who is overwhelmed by the amount of TV episodes i have. So i was thinking, what if i could use MP to create a "virtual TV network"?

What i'm thinking is basically using MP to go out and get the current EPG data for all the channels i would have if i actually had comcast, and display a EPG for "virtual" TV. If i have that episode in my collection, then i can choose that virtual channel and the episode will play, possibly even starting the ep how far along in the "hour" it is. If it doesn't have that episode of the TV show, then it would play either the closest ep chronologically, or just a random ep from the same series. Between MPTvseries' database, and the EPG grabber, it would be theoretically pretty simple to create the virtual stations, and then subsequently load the videos.

Your thoughts, everyone? Is this something that would be easy to do? is it a dumb idea? let me know what you think!

 

[MadMagpie]

I've often thought something like this would be good, something with the ability to program a weeks night time viewing like a tv station.

 

[2BitSculptor]

Can't you do this (sort of) with playlists in TV-Series? The only thing you would be missing is the commercial and station promotion time between episodes (or within episodes).

Looks like a good excuse for a new plugin (any takers?). You would have to "marry' TV-Series, MotionPictures, MyVideos (for those non feature films), MusicVideos and MyTrailers (for movie preview commercials) and ShowTimes (to advertise local theater movies during commercial) together in a playlist scheduler drawing from each of the different databases.

You could have multiple channels, shown in MP's TVguide format... Classic Tv, Movie Channel 1, Movie Channel 2, Music Videos, Cartoon Channel, Comedy Channel, Soap Channel, Cooking Channel, etc..... and schedule programs to be shown the same time slot each week, if you miss a scheduled program, it could be rescheduled in the guide the next scheduled time until you view it.

Sounds like a weekend of fun (avoiding real life) being 'Program Director' and setting up a week's worth of programs in a config based spreadsheet.

Yeah... maybe it could be a plugin named "ProgramDirector for Media Portal" (royalties to be sent to my PayPal account)

... but Virtual TV is good, too.


Chuck

 

[pilehave]

I have absolutely no clue, as to why you would want to "schedule" tv-shows that are already on your harddrive, why not just browse what you want with TV-Series? Perhaps I just don't see the whole picture

 

[Ryoga79]

As silly as it sounds, the idea was born out of indecision regarding "what to watch", and being overwhelmed by the amount that was in the library. Also, it was just another "girlfriend-proofing" idea, since a lot of her watching habits just involve sitting down and turning on cable, and "channel surfing" until she finds something she likes. The idea of having multiple "playing channels" (e.g. "stations") seemed like an interesting one to me, and i figured a good way to make those stations would just be to pull from the "actual" stations in our area. Just a thought.

Also, comcast sucks and i want to get rid of my cable, and having this plugin would be more fuel to the fire.

 

[craige1]

This is one of those "why didnt i think of that" ideas. Also totally uniqe, no other media center can do this. Would be one of theose bragging points about why "my" home theater is better .

You can read the moving pictures, tvseries, recorded episode databases directly to get a list of episodes on your HTPC and just come up with a nice UI to create "channel" playlists with. You already have all the details on your computer ("title, diecription, genres, etc...) and all the fan art, posters, and banners. Basically this plugin would simply be a nice playlist builder,, get the database reading code from each plugin svn,, the hard part would be working out how to feed a channel to the tv server. (Isnt this what the IP-TV plugin does, if so, nearly all the code is allready been written )

 

[MadMagpie]

As silly as it sounds, the idea was born out of indecision regarding "what to watch", and being overwhelmed by the amount that was in the library. Also, it was just another "girlfriend-proofing" idea, since a lot of her watching habits just involve sitting down and turning on cable, and "channel surfing" until she finds something she likes. The idea of having multiple "playing channels" (e.g. "stations") seemed like an interesting one to me, and i figured a good way to make those stations would just be to pull from the "actual" stations in our area. Just a thought.

Also, comcast sucks and i want to get rid of my cable, and having this plugin would be more fuel to the fire.

We have the same problem, over 3TB of tv shows, movies, Docos and sport, we'll spend half an hour looking for something we want to watch only to go back to the Sat and watch something that is on. to much choice is as bad as not enough sometimes.
personally I'd like something that could do what the OP suggest but can do it network wide so no matter what MP machine I use on the network the show is on, sort of like a home TV station.

 

[craige1]

If it was feed into the tv engine, then it would be mp client over network compatible

 

[tonyscha]

Just need an random episode Button, with a next button right beside it if you dont like it

 

[dexaroni]

NECROBUMP: Is there still any interest for something along these lines? I've been dying for something likes this myself (tired of arguing with room mates/girlfriend about what we are gonna watch, easier to just hit play and sit back) and I'm close to learning how to code myself so I can write this plugin. Would it be used by anybody but me?