The best of two worlds - how to? (1 Viewer)

[JulianBuss]

Hi,

I got more and more DVD backups and I need some movie database to organize them, so that I have views like "by genre" in Mediaportal. The Mediaportal build-in movie database is not an option since I need to quit MP to edit the database... it's not very easy. Ant is a much better choice, so MyFilms seems to be the way to go.

But - on the other hand I have short quicktime movies made with my digicam. I want to play them via MP, too. For that, I use the folder view in MyVideo. With that I can simply open a folder with these short movies and play them.

When I use MyFilms as replacement for MyVideo I would have to create an Ant entry for each of these small quicktime movies... that does not fit my needs, since I just made the movies with the cam, copy them to the server and want to watch them, without having to do much database work.

So one one hand I want a movie database for the real movies, on the other hand I want a folder view for the small stuff I don't want to do database work for.

And there is one other thing: I miss the "play DVD" and "eject DVD" buttons in MyFilms, I don't see a way to play and eject DVD from inside the MyFilms plugin.

Using MyVideo and MyFilms parallel is not an option, too - how should I explain the rest of my family in which situation they should use MyFilms and in what other situations they should use MyVideo... that's way too complicated.

To make a long story short: I see two possible approaches to solve my requirements:

a) putting all Ant database info to Mediaportals movie database so that I can use the standard MyVideo plugin, but not having to use the Mediaportal configuration for working with the database.

b) replacing MyVideo with MyFilms - for that I would need the folder view, play DVD and eject DVD actions in the MyFilms plugin.

Is a) or b) possible with the current version of MyFilms? Did I oversee something and my requirements are easy to solve? Any ideas?

 

[yatesd]

Can't you use them both?

MyFilms for all your DVD's using the database from ANT and MyVideos Folders for your HomeMade stuff.

As I understand you have to still have MyVideos if you want MyFilms to work properly anyway.

 

[JulianBuss]

No, I can't use them both: I use the Revision skin with basic home, that means MyVideo is directly available from MP's homepage. To open MyFilms I have to open "other" -> scroll down -> then I have a navigation item for MyFilms.
This is way too complicated.

I can tweak the skin so that MyFilms is opened instead of MyVideo directly from the homepage, that's no problem, so I can replace MyVideos with MyFilms.

But the main problem is: when using both, It's just too complicated. I would have to explain when to use MyVideo and MyFilms for the rest of my family... and they will look at me with big eyes and ask me "are you insane, why should I use two different section of MediaPortal for the same thing?"

So I need one thing for all - either MyVideo or MyFilms.

 

[yatesd]

Ahh, someone else that runs into the family training issue as well. I can sympathize with you on that one.

As far as I know a) is not possible. I do not currently use MyVideos but from what I remember it can only get the information from Folder analysis and IMDB scripts. I have never seen an import option from an external DB like ANT.

With MyFilms I could see how you could get around the playing DVD but not currently to get around the QuickTime videos. I have never seen any option to switch to a folder view and without that as you say you are stuck with adding an entry for each which is not possible in your case.

Sorry and good luck

 

[ShAddiX]

I have the same problem with the skin.
My solution is to use spinsave revolve.

When the MyVideos logo is active, you just need to press down and you can choose between MyVideos, MyFilms, MyTrailers and My DVD. It's VERY handy, I don't know why not every theme has this setup. Revolve is the only theme which has such a feature (with MyFilmd supprt).