One Question:
I put videos and folders containing videos in the folder that I specified in myVideos.
Each folder contains a "folder.jpg".
And for each video there is a .jpg with the same name then the video (myOwnVideo.mkv -> myOwnVideo.jpg)
That causes a very good and easy to handle look in the myVideos inside MP without using the database.
I dont like to use the database now because it looks like each video is treaded as a movie (actors, fanart, director, imdb-id) - all the useless stuff for "home video".
BUT, if I use the plugin without database, the folders have a nice look in coverflow, and the videos inside the folder have a nice cover too.
All i miss is a NAME, there is nothing, just the cover and blank.
Is it possible to show up just the filename?
It would be perfect for the easy use then.
I'm with 2BitSculptor on this. I use MovingPictures for Movies, but MyVideos is great for accessing other stuff like downloads from OnlineVideos, etc. I don't use the database or probably 3/4 of the features that are available in MyVideos, but only because I'm quite happy with a simple listview of the videos (I tend to manually make folders like iPlayer/The Killing just to keep things tidy and manageable).
Native support for handling/playing videos in uncompressed RAR archives would be nice. The current RARFileSource plugin has some limitations, e.g. it can't use subtitles within the archive, can't mount iso's within the archive, limited media info, Dynamic Refresh Rate changer can't detect fps.
I love MyVideos. It's a really good place to place all your "non Movie"-Videos at the moment and with the new version I suppose that many people could use it instead of MovingPictures because it's build in and it has very similar features. And than there is also MyFilms which can really do almost everything especially in the newest version coming out in some time.
At the moment there are 3 plugins. All have different targets so I think that you can't really compare them.
MyFilms: Great a real collection of movies. It needs some effort to achieve it but it's the plugin with the most possiblities (much more than in MovingPictures at the moment).
MovingPictures: Fast and easy management of a your collection. It hasn't so many functionalities like MyFilms but it's easier to use.
MyVideos: Management of all kinds of videos (even these where you can't grab data from the internet like family videos or youtube downloads) without having to "learn" the plugin.
At the moment I use MyFilms for my movie database, MyTvSeries for series and MyVideo for all other videos and I love them all. MovingPictures lacks of some features I like even it's a great plugin.
P.S.: I could live without MovingPictures, I could live without MyFilms, I could live without MyTvSeries but I could not live without MyVideos
On one of the Ted Talks sessions, the presenter said that one of the great things about open source collaborative software development, is that a person can contribute by fixing the one thing that is important for him/her. Normally for commercial software there is analysis, and only the features that many people are interested are implemented because of cost benefit analysis. But with open source one can fix a problem that applies only to oneself and maybe a few others and have a great return on investment.
I think that is what has occurred here. Deda said in a blog entry somewhere that he worked on the video section because that is what he used and he wanted it to be better. That is no wasted effort. That is 100% return on time invested for Deda. And, if we count the others who wanted these improvements, the return is even greater than 100%. Now I, like a lot of others, use the specialized plugins for movies and series and love them. But there is still a place for myvideos. The work that Deda has done means that my concerts, documentaries and other non movie or TV series DVDs, has artwork and metadata downloaded for them without too much effort. I appreciate that.
Thanks Deda.
We need to also remember that the video section is likely to be the first video collection portion of MP used by someone who is totally new to this software. I say this because if any of us recommend MediaPortal to a friend, we will usually tell how to set it up, if we don't actually do it. The totally new user may not know about Moving Pictures, TV Series or MyFilms. Hence, it is important that there is a good first impression. For those of us who love , (read "are addicted to" MediaPortal, we need a good gateway to attract other people to this wonderful experience. Deda's work will help to provide such a gateway.
At the same time it is becoming apparent that there is a need for something to handle the 'collection of collections' that we all have that does not readily fit into any category. JMHecker had started such a project but stopped. Looks like a lack of documentation was his reason. I suspect that documentation has gotten better over the last 2 years and it is something worth looking at again.