I'm gonna come out and say it: I feel like an idiot because I read this 10 times and I still don't know what's it all about. Standard view? Theater View? Both? Default (but changeable) view schemes? Default (but unchangeable) view schemes?
I'll offer my thought process (heavily influenced by what I've learned somewhere else), hopping that it fits with the ideas here, even if I don't quite get them:
- users side: get your collections in order. If there's only one folder with all the music, movies, series from all possible torrents, and you want to import that folder into MC, that's recipe for disaster.
- MC side: label the material at import time, for the top most categories (with default and custom options available). Here's an example how it would work for me:
# Audio is Audio, podcasts are audio, and if you have something else (you collection of beats and samples) you're a minority and a pro, so you're able to work it on your own; that gives as AUDIO
# Movies are Movies, Concerts are Movies, Documentaries (one long feature) are Movies, recorded Movies are Movies; that gives us MOVIES
# Pictures are Pictures, so we have PICTURES
# Series are Series, Documentaries (multiple episodes, features) are Series, recorded series are Series, that gives as SERIES
# Videos are anything else that cannot be group as above: Music videos, videos you shot in your backyard, etc. The wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton belongs here. Yes, even if you capped it from all 23 channels that broadcast it in HD. Wait, you didn't?
So, for example, I'll take my movies folder holding all my movies (it's a folder full with symlinks to the real locations) and scan it in MC choosing a few filetypes and the category "MOVIES". So I don't have to import all 10000 video files, and then start filtering through them what are movies.
If anybody has to ask in what category Victoria's Secret Fashion Shows falls into, that's SERIES.
Yo Gabba Gabba! cannot be classified, should be automatically rejected. Especially if your kids plan to watch an ep 400 times.
Anything else (in my opinion, prove me wrong if it's the case) can and will be broken down in sub-categories that are NOT predictable. Then if I really want to plug my "Music Video" subcategory into the root roller I should be able to do so, but it can't be a default option, cause you can't expect everyone to collect music videos.
I have no idea what MC does with Netflix, Hulu and Youtube 'cause I'm pro-quality, and streaming doesn't cut it anywhere close. But since it's important to so many other people I'd classify it as something else, not the above. The thought is that unified theory (as I understand it if anything) is good, but it should not be implemented at all costs. Local stored and cloud stored are 2 different things in my book. Some may say that the lines are blurred, I'm not one of them.
The assumptions here are that the users have audio & video collections, etc, structured with some logic and that MC can tag stuff at import time beyond file type.
Now, on a friendly note to others, I admit this is a technique mastered while using XBMC. But as shown I'd put some effort into explaining how the internal (*cough* my) logic works and how it can apply to MC, rather than point the devs to XBMC wikis. I think we referenced XBMC 50 times only in public discussions this week, and, while it is a point, it wears off if overused and I don't wanna give up that leverage
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Topic: Unified video theory [SUGGESTIONS WANTED] (Read 9519 times)