Series : Request for features (1 Viewer)

[Smeulf]

Hi

I've been using MP-TVSeries for a while, and in MP2, I miss some functions, so I'd like to share with you.

- Per serie language setting : This parameter would change the name of the episode and the description to an another language. I can imagine something like a default language option, and for each serie found, the ability to change the language and update the database. Why ? Because I really like having the real name of an episode instead of the translated one. Matter of taste.

- Per serie episode ordering : In the TVDB used as reference for the series, we have multiple orders possible : Aired or DVD if I remember correctly (is there a fird one ?), in order to sort the épisodes "correctly". Once again, a default setting, and an overwride per serie.

If anyone have more request on this plugin, or comments, please feel free to share with us.

All the best.

Smeulf.

 

[mpsam]

I did not check to see if this feature is present. If it is ignore, otherwise, scanning by air date would be a great feature.

Some series, eg. daily soap operas, current affairs, late night comedy and tech shows are better organized by the air date as oppose to episode number. It is also useful for series with absolute numbering as oppose to seasons. Where applicable the air date could be use to fill season and episode info from the thetvdb if match is found.

 

[Smeulf]

More ideas :

- Serie banner configuration
- Season banner displaying and configuration

There's so much work possible on that plugin

 

[Smeulf]

I did not check to see if this feature is present. If it is ignore, otherwise, scanning by air date would be a great feature.

Some series, eg. daily soap operas, current affairs, late night comedy and tech shows are better organized by the air date as oppose to episode number. It is also useful for series with absolute numbering as oppose to seasons. Where applicable the air date could be use to fill season and episode info from the thetvdb if match is found.

TheTVDB have 2 fields for the episode number : the classic field and the DVD_Episode_Number filed.

I'll use an example to detail what I was meaning :

If your filename is "MySerie - S01-E14", it can be either "My Serie - S01E14 - Title1" in aired number, and "My Serie - S01E14 - Title14" in DVD order. That means usually that the director choose that the first aired episode have more sence to be episode 14 on the DVD. And it's very important IMO to match the right title for an episode, to avoid confusion, as some people name them by aired date, and some by DVD episode number.

The field "Absolute episode number" is usually used for animes, that are mostly not splitted into seasons.

There's some other fields in THeTVBD : "Airs Before" and "Airs after season" that says a particular episode (specials episodes only) takes a special place.

To be complete : "the episodes on this site episodes are numbered in the order they aired on TV" (http://www.thetvdb.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Episodes , section editing an episode) according the country of origin.

But once again, I prefer DVD order

 

[mpsam]

I agree with your argument about the different episode numbering options.

I was thinking more that
Days of Our Lives - 2013-02-21 or The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - 2013-02-21
is more meaningful and easier to name than
Days of Our Life Ep#12027 or Days of Our Life - S48E72 or The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - S18E65.

One would have to first check theTVDb for the season and episode number to name it correctly. But, if date is used, no need to check and it is easier to find all those hilarious episodes following the last US Presidential debates.

For 'regular' series, the conventional sxxexx is quite easy and appropriate.

 

[morpheus_xx]

I started to work on this idea.

I extended the Series Aspect with following items:

• DvdEpisode(s), additional to regular "airing" episode numbers
• FirstAiredDate
• a new string "Series Season" that contain a concatenation of series name and episode number. This way I can filter later on this single attribute for showing season banners.

The TvDBLibrary was changed, so that DvdEpisodes are treated as string, because they can contain "1,1". (Probably this change needs to be evaluated further...)

I also Added a "sort by aired date", if no date is available, it uses episode-number sorting.

Next thing will be to teach FanArt-Service, SeriesTvDBmatcher and skins how to deal with Seasons (and their banners) correctly. Won't be a huge task, as basics are already there

Changes are available in new branch FEAT_ImproveSeries. All "Series" shares need to be removed and re-added for testing.

 

[chefkoch]

@morpheus_xx
I can confirm the IMDB id detection is still working fine after merging the changes to your branch.

A few other comments/thoughts:
(Samples for Matroska tags can be found in wiki.)

FirstAired - episode
In commit 7bcb1cf044a1a4ee9bfb9ef3d8535a7dcf628931 you added the new field FirstAired.
We are also reading the the release date for episodes from Matroska tags but write only the year into the MediaAspect.
I would have create a new branch based on yours, to change and add filling the FirstAired with that information as well, but was not sure whether I should have renamed the MatroskaConsts as well.

We also might need add an additional regular expression to read the first aired date from file/folder names.

FirstAired - series
Besided the FirstAired information on episode level, which is useful for detection (API) and presentation within GUI it is also possible to get the FirstAired information on series level, which at least is useful for presentation within GUI.
Does this needs to be added to the SeriesAspect as well?
FirstAired/ReleaseDate on series level is not read from MatroskaFiles, yet.

FirstAired - season
Within MatroskaLib there is also a SeasonYear listed, not sure if it is used or even needed at all: https://github.com/MediaPortal/Medi...aExtractors/MatroskaLib/MatroskaConsts.cs#L37

IsCompleteMatch
If we are reading also the FirstAired date, an episode can be identified uniquely even without the season/episode index.
Do we need to change the check whether an episode is a complete match?
https://github.com/MediaPortal/Medi...MediaManagement/Helpers/SeriesInfo.cs#L85-L91
https://github.com/MediaPortal/Medi...diaManagement/Helpers/SeriesInfo.cs#L185-L196
https://github.com/MediaPortal/Medi...Extractor/SeriesMetadataExtractor.cs#L98-L116

a new string "Series Season" that contain a concatenation of series name and episode number. This way I can filter later on this single attribute for showing season banners..

This is included in commit 7bcb1cf044a1a4ee9bfb9ef3d8535a7dcf628931.

I am not sure for what this property is being used in future, but are you sure you this will be a unique string?
In example:
Shamelss:
http://thetvdb.com/?tab=series&id=161511&lid=14
http://thetvdb.com/?tab=series&id=78846&lid=7
Ok, in English it is called/identified as 'Shameless (US)' but in German it is not.
And in general we can not assume no other shows are called the same.

 

[BBloke]

I couldn't see it here but I really like filter my list down by "unwatched". Makes it a lot easier to find what I need.

 

[Don hart]

What I would like to see added to this is the ability to create views like in mp-tvseries. I have a large number of TV series on my system. Some of these shows are watched by me and some by my wife and others jointly by us. In the MP1 with the tvseries plugin I can organize my shows in views but I cannot do this in MP2.

Basically I cant move to MP2 until this feature or something like it is added.

 

[ge2301]

Next version of MP2 includes user management, so you can filter by items and user who is logged in.