IDEA: TV Show/Movie Library - Discussion

[Coeluh]

Hi There,

Please leave a message about what you think about this idea.

I've been looking for a perfect app for a year now, and I've still not been able to find anything that totally fits me. What am I looking for? Not a full screen media center like XBMC, nor MediaPortal. This is just a simple app which minimizes to tray. First priority is TV Shows management, but Movies would be nice though.

A user enters a path to a folder where (mulitple) tv shows are around. The multimedia files will be scanned and based on filenames more information will be downoaded with the thetvdb api. (e.g. thumbnail, official title, release date, plot etc) The downloaded information will be stored in a database file (xml maybe? per tv show 1?). You could see the hierarchy as a tree:
TV Show - Season - Episode

The app should not run in full screen by default (maybe an option for later on). The most important part is the UI. I want it to be simple but sleek and smooth.

The most important part is: When you clicked a file to start playing it, it does open in a custom external media player. This is because this app is just a library, not a media center.

Movies could be scraped and added the same way as tv shows, but with some different scraper like imdb.

This is just a way too difficult idea, but it would be sweet if it would work...

[brotherS]

Ok, my comment: if you watch so many TV shows that you need/want such a program, you might want to think about cutting it down a bit. 

"Television is the creamy filling that distracts us from the substance of our lives."
-- Author unknown

[lanux128]

i've heard of Media Companion but haven't tried it.

Media Companion is a program created for people who keep large collections of media and wish to catalogue and organise it.

It has the ability to parse media files and download corresponding information from the internet, this includes movie plot, rating, actor details, backdrops, posters and much more.

While the above is largely automatic the program also allows the user to edit all information downloaded, and browse all available posters and backdrops for selection.

-website

• http://www.billyad2000.co.uk/

[Coeluh]

Ok, my comment: if you watch so many TV shows that you need/want such a program, you might want to think about cutting it down a bit. 

"Television is the creamy filling that distracts us from the substance of our lives."
-- Author unknown

-brotherS (March 10, 2009, 10:36 AM)

You are a parent yourself right?

i've heard of Media Companion but haven't tried it.

Media Companion is a program created for people who keep large collections of media and wish to catalogue and organise it.

It has the ability to parse media files and download corresponding information from the internet, this includes movie plot, rating, actor details, backdrops, posters and much more.

While the above is largely automatic the program also allows the user to edit all information downloaded, and browse all available posters and backdrops for selection.

-website

• http://www.billyad2000.co.uk/

-lanux128 (March 10, 2009, 10:49 AM)

I've tried it. The UI is in one word terrible. It sucks big time.

[lanux128]

I've tried it. The UI is in one word terrible. It sucks big time.

-Coeluh (March 10, 2009, 05:10 PM)

yes, it looked quite busy..

[brotherS]

Ok, my comment: if you watch so many TV shows that you need/want such a program, you might want to think about cutting it down a bit. 

"Television is the creamy filling that distracts us from the substance of our lives."
-- Author unknown

-brotherS (March 10, 2009, 10:36 AM)

You are a parent yourself right?

-Coeluh (March 10, 2009, 05:10 PM)

I'm just someone who came to the conclusion that as much TV as I used to watch is not what will transform my (then) current life situation into my perfect life situation. So I acted and cut down TV hours massively. No regrets.

[Coeluh]

Ok, my comment: if you watch so many TV shows that you need/want such a program, you might want to think about cutting it down a bit. 

"Television is the creamy filling that distracts us from the substance of our lives."
-- Author unknown

-brotherS (March 10, 2009, 10:36 AM)

You are a parent yourself right?

-Coeluh (March 10, 2009, 05:10 PM)

I'm just someone who came to the conclusion that as much TV as I used to watch is not what will transform my (then) current life situation into my perfect life situation. So I acted and cut down TV hours massively. No regrets.

-brotherS (March 11, 2009, 04:17 AM)

True, but I do have a social life.

[skwire]

1) A user enters a path to a folder where (mulitple) tv shows are around.
2) The multimedia files will be scanned and based on filenames
3) more information will be downoaded with the You could see the hierarchy as a tree: TV Show - Season - Episode
4) The app should not run in full screen by default (maybe an option for later on). The most important part is the UI. I want it to be simple but sleek and smooth.
5) The most important part is: When you clicked a file to start playing it, it does open in a custom external media player.

Some thoughts:
1) Easily doable.
2) Are your filenames done according to a personal scheme?  Or, do they follow the typical scene standard e.g. Some.TV.Show.s01e04.avi (the "s01e04" being the important part).
3) I haven't looked into the API much but the fact they even have one bodes well for something like this.
4) Hmmm...full-screen?  I was envisioning just a typical Windows application look.  Did you have something else in mind?
5) Easy.

[Coeluh]

1) A user enters a path to a folder where (mulitple) tv shows are around.
2) The multimedia files will be scanned and based on filenames
3) more information will be downoaded with the You could see the hierarchy as a tree: TV Show - Season - Episode
4) The app should not run in full screen by default (maybe an option for later on). The most important part is the UI. I want it to be simple but sleek and smooth.
5) The most important part is: When you clicked a file to start playing it, it does open in a custom external media player.

Some thoughts:
1) Easily doable.
2) Are your filenames done according to a personal scheme?  Or, do they follow the typical scene standard e.g. Some.TV.Show.s01e04.avi (the "s01e04" being the important part).
3) I haven't looked into the API much but the fact they even have one bodes well for something like this.
4) Hmmm...full-screen?  I was envisioning just a typical Windows application look.  Did you have something else in mind?
5) Easy.

-skwire (March 11, 2009, 11:50 AM)

2. Yes, all the filenames alread have the markup, but sometimes like: 304 episodename.avi (it's season 3 episode 4) but the total path says: E:/TV Shows/TV Show Name/Season/304 episodename.avi. But sometimes it is 1212 (12th season, 12th episode). Not that hard I guess?
4. If you start with the typical windows application look it will be good. Maybe you can use the graphics that thetvdb provide as a background or something (fanart, it's called).

Did you see the part where the app saves the library to a database?  Is that do-able?

*4: It would be sweet if you could scroll cover flow like trough the thumbs of the episodes! But some simple scroll thing is fine aswel.

[brotherS]

Ok, my comment: if you watch so many TV shows that you need/want such a program, you might want to think about cutting it down a bit. 

"Television is the creamy filling that distracts us from the substance of our lives."
-- Author unknown

-brotherS (March 10, 2009, 10:36 AM)

You are a parent yourself right?

-Coeluh (March 10, 2009, 05:10 PM)

I'm just someone who came to the conclusion that as much TV as I used to watch is not what will transform my (then) current life situation into my perfect life situation. So I acted and cut down TV hours massively. No regrets.

-brotherS (March 11, 2009, 04:17 AM)

True, but I do have a social life.

-Coeluh (March 11, 2009, 09:26 AM)

I know people with a strong social life who are still miserable quite often. 

Anyway, if TV shows contribute to your happiness, enjoy the show(s)!

[skwire]

Coeluh, due to other commitments, I may not be able to get to this Snack anytime soon.  If anybody else has the time, go for it.  I'll keep it on my list and hope that I can get to it in the future.

[Coeluh]

Coeluh, due to other commitments, I may not be able to get to this Snack anytime soon.  If anybody else has the time, go for it.  I'll keep it on my list and hope that I can get to it in the future.

-skwire (March 12, 2009, 05:37 PM)

Oh ok thats cool. My request is more clear now, so that is positive thing.

[Coeluh]

Ok, my comment: if you watch so many TV shows that you need/want such a program, you might want to think about cutting it down a bit. 

"Television is the creamy filling that distracts us from the substance of our lives."
-- Author unknown

-brotherS (March 10, 2009, 10:36 AM)

You are a parent yourself right?

-Coeluh (March 10, 2009, 05:10 PM)

I'm just someone who came to the conclusion that as much TV as I used to watch is not what will transform my (then) current life situation into my perfect life situation. So I acted and cut down TV hours massively. No regrets.

-brotherS (March 11, 2009, 04:17 AM)

True, but I do have a social life.

-Coeluh (March 11, 2009, 09:26 AM)

I know people with a strong social life who are still miserable quite often. 

Anyway, if TV shows contribute to your happiness, enjoy the show(s)!

-brotherS (March 12, 2009, 04:25 PM)

Well I'm getting back to Counterstrike now, I've to go to school this afternoon in Winnenden. After my Counterstrike game I'll go play lame-ass pingpong.

[Coeluh]

http://www.mediabrow...ic.php?f=8&t=744
This thing is opensource. Maybe this one can be used to work standalone?

[Coeluh]

Anyone up for this job?

[Nod5]

This is a pretty complex thing that you're after and I have no possibility to work on it ATM.

It has some similarities to what I was aiming for with the AlbumDisplayer plugin (https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=13955.0 ) -- to very quickly, and without stealing too much focus from other apps, let the user browse/filter through a collection of some sort and then do actions (play audio/run game) on the items. Though AlbumDisplayer is currently in a much cruder form than the thing you're requesting and it presupposes that the images are downloaded separately.

I still think that FARR could be a great media library displayer. A plugin that utilizes Everything search could very quickly do live searches for thumbnails, read metadata files (separate apps to download metadata and covers for music already exist) and display results in a slick large-thumbnailed FARR window. The user can then filter further or run or otherwise interact with the content items. That type of setup could work well for music, movies, tv episodes, books, games, image collections, comics -- well almost anything one can collect and represent visually through a thumbnail.

[Coeluh]

This is a pretty complex thing that you're after and I have no possibility to work on it ATM.

It has some similarities to what I was aiming for with the AlbumDisplayer plugin (https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=13955.0 ) -- to very quickly, and without stealing too much focus from other apps, let the user browse/filter through a collection of some sort and then do actions (play audio/run game) on the items. Though AlbumDisplayer is currently in a much cruder form than the thing you're requesting and it presupposes that the images are downloaded separately.

I still think that FARR could be a great media library displayer. A plugin that utilizes Everything search could very quickly do live searches for thumbnails, read metadata files (separate apps to download metadata and covers for music already exist) and display results in a slick large-thumbnailed FARR window. The user can then filter further or run or otherwise interact with the content items. That type of setup could work well for music, movies, tv episodes, books, games, image collections, comics -- well almost anything one can collect and represent visually through a thumbnail.

-Nod5 (May 03, 2009, 05:34 PM)

The FARR ting could be activated via a shortcut like tv and then the search query. But I think I can not create such thing.