Suggestion for improved configuration of shares (1 Viewer)

[elliottmc]

Hi,

I have a very minor suggestion which will speed up configuration. Well, two suggestions with slightly different levels of complexity.

To explain the way I use MediaPortal shares, I'll quickly explain my setup. I have videos in several different shares for various reasons. I like to keep my DVD rips in one share, named exactly the same as IMDB so that running the IMDB scan gets it right. I have my daughter's videos in her own share. Home movies are in another. This way, I can keep the main movies with the IMDB info, and not need to scan my home movies or other such bits and pieces. I then have shares for music and photos.

So, suggestion 1, which is extremely minor, but useful if you have to reconfigure on a regular basis, which I guess applies to most of us as enthusiasts reinstalling every few weeks. When you click to add a share, you then have to type a name for it. How about just copying the name of the share into this field automatically? This would be pretty easy, and should not be an inconvenience to those users who want the share to have a different name to the folder.

Suggestion 2 is a fairly major overhaul of configuring shares, but I can see many advantages and few (if any) disadvantages. Move the share configuration to its own tab in configuration. Then you could drag and drop your shares into it, and then right-click on them to configure. This would allow you to define it as a music, video or picture share (or more than one???). To determine whether it is included in IMDB searches possibly. Configure the view and security options? This would really take things to the next level, and probably wouldn't be all that hard to do.

The configuration has improved dramatically in recent weeks with the standard and expert modes. From my own point of view, I would like to see all configuration done within MediaPortal using only a remote. I guess this is all some way off (and maybe planned for MediaPortal 2) and might never actually happen, but ultimately the fewer options the end user has to mess with, and the less configuration, the better it will be.

Thanks to the developers as usual for all the hard work. I only wish I had the knowledge and time to help out more.

Best wishes,

Mark

 

[elliottmc]

No comments? Doesn't anyone else think that configuration of shares could be easier?

I know we are in a feature-freeze at the moment, but once version 1.0 is out of the way, it would be nice to look at some refinements. I'd welcome any discussion, even if it is to say that everyone is happy with it the way it is right now.

Best wishes,

Mark

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

To explain the way I use MediaPortal shares, I'll quickly explain my setup. I have videos in several different shares for various reasons. I like to keep my DVD rips in one share, named exactly the same as IMDB so that running the IMDB scan gets it right. I have my daughter's videos in her own share. Home movies are in another. This way, I can keep the main movies with the IMDB info, and not need to scan my home movies or other such bits and pieces. I then have shares for music and photos.

Identical setup to yours.

So, suggestion 1, which is extremely minor, but useful if you have to reconfigure on a regular basis, which I guess applies to most of us as enthusiasts reinstalling every few weeks. When you click to add a share, you then have to type a name for it. How about just copying the name of the share into this field automatically? This would be pretty easy, and should not be an inconvenience to those users who want the share to have a different name to the folder.

Would be a nice option, just autoname folder for the filetype, ie Movies1, Movies2 (dependant on which section you are configuring), then have the option to rename to Movies Home etc maually.

Suggestion 2 is a fairly major overhaul of configuring shares, but I can see many advantages and few (if any) disadvantages. Move the share configuration to its own tab in configuration. Then you could drag and drop your shares into it, and then right-click on them to configure. This would allow you to define it as a music, video or picture share (or more than one???). To determine whether it is included in IMDB searches possibly. Configure the view and security options? This would really take things to the next level, and probably wouldn't be all that hard to do.

That's definately a MP2 request.

Nice ideas anyway, some could be implemented in MP1 as it is, but only if someone thinks they are important enough to make the change.

Regards

 

[elliottmc]

Suggestion 2 is a fairly major overhaul of configuring shares, but I can see many advantages and few (if any) disadvantages. Move the share configuration to its own tab in configuration. Then you could drag and drop your shares into it, and then right-click on them to configure. This would allow you to define it as a music, video or picture share (or more than one???). To determine whether it is included in IMDB searches possibly. Configure the view and security options? This would really take things to the next level, and probably wouldn't be all that hard to do.

That's definately a MP2 request.

Nice ideas anyway, some could be implemented in MP1 as it is, but only if someone thinks they are important enough to make the change.

Regards

Well, I guess in terms of amount of work, it will only require changes to the configuration app, not to the MediaPortal app itself, so there is definitely no reason why it could not be implemented in MP1. If I knew what I was doing, I'd have a go myself.

For MP2, you could quite easily incorporate this sort of configuration into the main program. All you would need it a list of shares, with check boxes to the right to indicate whether they contain movies, music, photos, or all of the above, and whether they should be included in IMDB or music database searches. The user interface could still be quite clean and usable from 10 feet with a remote.

Best wishes,

Mark