Unmatched files should still be shown (1 Viewer)

zeflash

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July 7, 2005
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Hey Fforde, nice to see your project shaping up! That means we won't see you work anymore on MPTVSeries, right? ;)

Anyway, I just tested it out, and it looks quite awesome. But, on some occasions I can't seem to find a proper match to a specific movie (example, the original Point Blank, 1967, with Lee Marvin). In that case, it seems I only have two options: remove it from the DB, or show the wrong movie instead.

Shouldn't there be an easy way to include the file "as is", using the filename as the title and that would basically be it?

Also, once a movie has been deleted, I can't figure a way to "bring it back" - Force Rescan doesn't nothing. It's more a bug I believe :)

I can't wait for this to evolve, this is exactly what my movies need :)
 

fforde

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No, probably wont be contributing over at MPTVSeries much in the near future, at least not until the pace of things over here slows down. :p So many "essential" features, and bugs just never stop building up. :eek:

As for movies in the match list in the config that can't be matched properly, first thing to be aware of, and this I think is probably not very clear in the config, only movies marked with a green icon have been approved and are added to the database. If you have a file or set of files that come up in the list, and none of the possible matches are correct, if you do nothing, take no action, the movie will not be added to the database, and it will show up again on your next rescan. So it wont be linked to a movie unless the plug-in chose to auto approve it (the match has to be really close) or you explicitly approved it.

As for when you ignore a file, that is currently a permanent action. It's really intended for files you never want to see again, so by design the files are not repulled on a new full scan. I am planning to add an "Ignored Files" tab on the importer so you can review and reverse previous ignores, but I just haven't gotten to it yet. For some reason i didn't have an issue for this yet, so I went ahead and created one in the tracker.

As for listing unmatched files in the GUI, I think we will implement this, but they would not be listed all with the main movies. They would be in a separate match approval screen, that doubles as a "file view" for unmatched movies. This is really very much up in the air right now though, so any thoughts or ideas are very welcome. I am skeptical of mixing unmatched files in with all the movies though. The main view is based completely around the meta data retrieved for the movie. Without a match you lose the artwork, intelligent sorting, and filtering (when that is implemented).

For what it's worth though, matching will be much better once we get IMDB in as a backup data source (coming in the next version), so hopefully this will be less of an issue then.
 

piranha

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  • September 17, 2005
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    John,

    I think "matching movies" and scraping movies, should be primary, but not only means of adding database entries.

    Why don't you just let user define what they want to see on the screen?
    Again, I'll go with my previous scenario:
    * for each file detected, create related db entry (file entry and movie entry). As a title of the movie keep filename for now. Keep it at status 0 (needs to be scraped)
    * second step would be to match all entries at status 0, against the results from the scrappers and fill in found information.
    * anything that can be automatched, grab the info from scraper and put it at status 1 (visible on main view)
    * the rest, which could not be automatched/found, keep at a different status ( 2 - pending)
    * now from the pending status, user has ability to refine the search and rescrape, ignore the file permanently (set at status 3 - ignored) or enter missing information manually (and the entry goes to status 1).
     

    fforde

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    More or less that is already how it works. The only thing missing is the ability to manually enter movie details for "custom entries", which is coming in the future. My only problem is displaying by default in the GUI files that have failed the auto-approval process and the user has not interacted with at all. They could be placed on a separate screen, but to me, it doesn't make sense to put a file in a database driven view for which there is no information in the database. For it to even work without creating a huge cludge, you'd have to create dummy "movie info" records in the database for interaction with the GUI logic. Maybe I am being a little idealistic, but I really think there has to be a better way.
     

    piranha

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    That's the idea I am trying to convince you to. Each "file" table, should have corresponding "movie" entry at all times.
    That way it will be easier for you to find a way of user interaction with this entry.
    Look at "home made movies", although they will never have scrapper info, you still want to be able to see them in MP and you want to be able to play/view/edit them.
    If we keep this file->movie relation, the only thing I (as a user) have to do is drop the file on the disk and go to appropriate section of MovingPictures to see it. Without the need of going into configuration (shutting down MP) or going thru process of "adding" it to the library.
     

    fforde

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    Well it wont always require you to shutdown and goto the config screen. I linked the issue above, but there will be a way to approve and review matches in the GUI, probably a separate view. What you are describing though is MyVideos. And sorry, that is not what Moving Pictures is about. It is intentionally designed with a tight focus on movie content. By design there is no shares view. When you drop a tv show in a watch folder for MPTV-Series, is it listed in the GUI even if it cant be auto matched? Of course not, and I think that is a wise decision. The ability to approve and manage unmatched files in the GUI is definitely a needed feature and it will get implemented, but I think there will never be support for just throwing a file into the movie list that has no corresponding movie data.
     

    piranha

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    Well, I am not sure what is your "big plan" about implementation of it, I can only see what we currently have and suggest a way of solving it.

    Currently it is even worse than my videos - if it ain't in the db, you can't access it. Shares view is stupid idea, but that was solution of my videos.
    As long you let the user see or interact via MP gui with any supported video file in the defined directories, it is fine. TV Series doesn't have to deal with series that are not in the db, Moving Pictures will have to. I see no reason why I should not be able to see my home videos that I have done with my camcorder using the plugin. Obviously there is no info about it on any db, and maybe (but not necessarily) I will not want to provide info for it manually.
    That's why I always think about having a base db of the video's, and then you have additional layer of enhancing those videos with additional information.
    Additional information in case of normal movies will be movie info from imdb or other scraper, then it will be a backdrop or coverart. But the user should not be required to have that info to see the video.
    Two things you can always provide about the file is filename and screencap. Then user may attach categories (attributes to filter them by), or more detailed info from scrapers and/or media providers. That keeps the architecture open and expandable in the future.
     

    fforde

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    Well, I am not sure what is your "big plan" about implementation of it, I can only see what we currently have and suggest a way of solving it.

    Currently it is even worse than my videos - if it ain't in the db, you can't access it. Shares view is stupid idea, but that was solution of my videos.
    As long you let the user see or interact via MP gui with any supported video file in the defined directories, it is fine. TV Series doesn't have to deal with series that are not in the db, Moving Pictures will have to.
    I don't understand your distinction. My goal for Moving Pictures is to be the MPTV-Series of movies. Why is MPTV-Series allowed to ignore unmatched files, but Moving Pictures is not?

    I see no reason why I should not be able to see my home videos that I have done with my camcorder using the plugin. Obviously there is no info about it on any db, and maybe (but not necessarily) I will not want to provide info for it manually.
    But Moving Pictures is not designed or intended to manage home videos. It's not designed to manage music videos either, or TV Shows. It's designed to handle movies. We will be implementing a "custom movie" option because online matching will never be perfect, and some people just don't want to connect to and update movie-xml.com. Don't misinterpret this as an intention to create a general purpose video manager though. Because that's not what Moving Pictures is. You could just as easily ask for "home video support" in MPTV-Series, and who knows maybe it will get implemented eventually. It still would be a tacked on feature though. The purpose of that plug-in is to manage TV-Shows, not home videos.

    That's why I always think about having a base db of the video's, and then you have additional layer of enhancing those videos with additional information.
    Additional information in case of normal movies will be movie info from imdb or other scraper, then it will be a backdrop or coverart. But the user should not be required to have that info to see the video.
    Two things you can always provide about the file is filename and screencap. Then user may attach categories (attributes to filter them by), or more detailed info from scrapers and/or media providers. That keeps the architecture open and expandable in the future.

    What you are describing is MyVideos. Or maybe a slightly enhanced version of it. The main reason I chose to create a new plug-in rather than help enhance MyVideos was because I didn't feel like the focus of the plug-in allowed for a highly specialized movie management experience. It is a great tool, but I think it would be difficult to provide the kind of interface Moving Picture already provides, while still supporting all these other video types.

    So I guess my point is Moving Pictures is not intended to be a MyVideo replacement. It's a movie manager, not a video files manager. The differences are subtle, but those are the reasons I started working on this plug-in in the first place.
     

    piranha

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    Ok, now we're clear. I was thinking that MovingPictures *could* at some point replace My Videos. They are so close in functionality. Furthermore My Videos is pretty much "dead" (as in nobody wants to improve it).
    Ok. Back on track, sorry for going sideways :)
     

    fforde

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    It's okay, it's a valid point, Moving Pictures definitely could be expanded into other areas. Maybe once version 1.0 gets out the door we can start looking at stuff like that. I have some ideas of where the project can go after "The New MediaPortal Movies Plug-in" is feature complete. This is a long long way off though, and for now I'd like the plug-in to keep a tight focus on movie content.
     

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