[Plugin] MediaBrowser for MediaPortal (v0.30-beta) [2014/08/20] (2 Viewers)

psykix

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  • July 10, 2009
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    On the main menu (after logging profile in), where is it supposed to grab the images for Movies or TV Shows from? It just shows a placeholder box at the moment and I am wondering if I need to upload something to my server to populate it?
     

    armandp

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    The root views are non-existant in MediaBrowser and it's up to skin design to make it look nicer. What i will supply is the ability to show a random or composed image and backdrop much like what mediabrowser webdashboard is doing of some random content within the root view. Everything else that is based on a so called BaseItem in MediaBrowser can be configured from within MediaBrowser Server (images for Studios, Genres etc..). Also the absolute root (Movies, Series, Music etc..) will probably disappear as you will be linking them directly from the menu in the future (you click movies on Home results in the movie root view etc..)
     

    Jay_UK

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  • October 6, 2009
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    Hi there,

    Just a few observations (now running your latest version):

    1) When I go into my collection (eg all movies) I have about 500-600 in total, the list only initially shows 5 pages worth of movies, then as I scroll down, the total screen/page counter increases. The above didn't make much sense...let me try again...when I go into "all movies"...the counter at the bottom says 1/5, but I know it should be 1/40, the value of 5 only increases as I scroll down through the list (sometimes).... so as I go onto page 4, the total changes from 5 to 7 (so now becomes 4/7).

    2) Related to the above, the way you query MBS seems flaky.... I intermittently get a spinning MePo timer on screen and then it retrieves more movies to increase the size of the "all movies" list. But sometimes the list doesn't update.... so it will only show I have 100 movies and I can scroll past the bottom of the list and back to the beginning only showing 100 movies, then a few seconds later a timer appears and the list will increase by X more movies.


    I assume you have built intelligence in to minimize the initial load, and only pull back data when you approach it?

    Many thanks,

    J.[DOUBLEPOST=1381913735][/DOUBLEPOST]Hi there,

    So following on from the skinning conversation....

    Will it be possible to get MePo to just jump to the TV Series "show" screen, or get MePo to jump direct to the Movies "All Movies" screen?

    I know Wifey is a little anti clicking three or four times to get to something (don't ask!) lol

    J.
     

    armandp

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    Hi there,
    1) When I go into my collection (eg all movies) I have about 500-600 in total, the list only initially shows 5 pages worth of movies, then as I scroll down, the total screen/page counter increases. The above didn't make much sense...let me try again...when I go into "all movies"...the counter at the bottom says 1/5, but I know it should be 1/40, the value of 5 only increases as I scroll down through the list (sometimes).... so as I go onto page 4, the total changes from 5 to 7 (so now becomes 4/7).

    This is indeed by design. The mechanism used is based on infinite scroll. When you scroll down the list and you pass the half way point it will request the next batch of items (if any). The whole visual aspect of the page counter incrementing are all beta issues that will be resolved along the way. One request limits to 50 items by default and this will be configurable through the UI. You can already edit the value set in MediaBrowser.xml in your data directory if you want to request more or less items per tick. The limit is there because there is a lot of metadata being pushed over the wire. In the future more advanced caching will probably allow bigger or complete collection views.

    2) Related to the above, the way you query MBS seems flaky.... I intermittently get a spinning MePo timer on screen and then it retrieves more movies to increase the size of the "all movies" list. But sometimes the list doesn't update.... so it will only show I have 100 movies and I can scroll past the bottom of the list and back to the beginning only showing 100 movies, then a few seconds later a timer appears and the list will increase by X more movies.

    Actually the spinning MePO timer is an indication it is doing the background request for the next batch of items. This indicator will probably change to be less "intrusive" and be reduced to just a indicator on top or something. Have to think about that for a bit. Currently if you scroll like a madman you could outrun the response from the server and end back up on the top of the list :) This is something that i will be optimizing along the way. One option is to lock you at the top or bottom of the list until the response is completed so you don't flipover. Also filters and sorting will allow you to get to the items you are looking for faster -- expect some improvements soon in that department as well.

    Will it be possible to get MePo to just jump to the TV Series "show" screen, or get MePo to jump direct to the Movies "All Movies" screen?

    Yes, the parameter call is already there it just needs to be utilized by the skin and/or menu builders available. You can have an entry point in any part of your collection, including details directly!

    Also have you checked out the remote control on the web ui ? You can lookup your desired movie or view in the browser and push it to MediaPortal (playback and chapter select also work). Was wondering how that was working for other people.

    O and thanks for being a beta tester your feedback is very appreciated!
     

    Jay_UK

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    Hi there,

    It will be good to see how you progress with the list/collection functionality - At the moment with it being able to continue scrolling (as opposed to waiting at the bottom for an update) gives the impression of an incomplete/missing collection.

    A part of me says one solution might be to have a "retrieve further information..." at the bottom of the list (and prevent loop scrolling)....and if you select that, it automatically retrieves the next x movies (so basically if you always scroll down to the bottom, it will continually list more and more). I can see why you have done it on 50%, so it gives time to preload. :}

    I think locking at the bottom until an update has completed will be a good solution :)

    I have never skinned anything.... I will try and see if I can hack my Titan files (although I head a rumour @ncoH was looking into Titan support?)

    J.[DOUBLEPOST=1381916847][/DOUBLEPOST]Me again...

    A slight screen formatting issue??

    J.
     

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    psykix

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    Me again...

    A slight screen formatting issue??

    J.

    Just a quick point - I found that the plugin looked better when I removed the TV surround from the screen shot and just used the one with the black border. (In Cover Art plugin) but I guess it is personal preference!

    Can confirm the formatting issue btw :)
     

    armandp

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    The guys from Titan are indeed onboard and are creating an official skin. Meanwhile i continue to expand on the generic skin (which still looks like Titan) to develop new features. Eventually the generic skin will be just be basic starting point for other skins that don't have an official implementation.
     

    Jay_UK

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    You know users.... dangle a carrot...and they want everything...like yesterday ;)

    I've downloaded the source (just curious to have a look, probably be way over my knowledge/skill levels).... :O

    J.
     

    Jay_UK

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    Hi there,

    Going back to the skin/jumping to a specific window/view topic......

    Will the views have specific WindowIDs, or will the plugin have a single WID and utilise parameters for sub views/windows?

    The reason I ask, is that I am hoping to detect if someone goes into TV Shows, and then I can spin-up the disks containing those shows, similarly if someone goes into Movies, I can spin up those disks...Mainly to eliminate the issue of 4 - 5 seconds delay on first playing a show/movie.

    I was looking at something like the WOL plugin which detects WIDs and will execute external commands.

    Or if you feel adventurous, it might be a feature request ;)

    J
     

    armandp

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    to answer your question i only have a details and main window (and soon a dashboard window).
    But if want to do something like this you can listen to the skin properties being set. You can do this with any of the zillion properties MediaBrowser sets during browsing or details view. Below an example if you would listen for the details.path property (which means someone is viewing details of an item and could press play)

    Hook up an event listener to the property manager:
    Code:
    GUIPropertyManager.OnPropertyChanged += GUIPropertyManager_OnPropertyChanged;

    Handle the event
    Code:
    static void GUIPropertyManager_OnPropertyChanged(string tag, string tagValue)
    {
          // if we are not looking for this tag return
          if(tag!="#MediaBrowser.Details.Path") return;
    
          // do something with the value
          string path = value
       
          // spin up disk logic based on folder in path  
    }

    i'm doing the same for debug logging all the mediabrowser properties (i use the threadpool in the listener though to not block the UI.
    Example can be found in the MediaBrowserPlugin.cs on github.

    You can listen for MediaBrowser.Current.Id that will hold either a guid or some human readable identifier of the view you are in. The code would best fit in a small process plugin.
     

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