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[rick.ca]

Users are commonly asked or compelled to post MC settings to assist in resolving some problem or question. It's rather tedious to have to find the relevant settings and transcribe them into a post, particularly if they're not single settings, but categories like "Audio" or "Video." Both the poster and readers may wonder whether all relevant settings have been included and transcribed correctly.

It would be helpful if the program would create a plain text report of all settings, as it does now for Help > System Info. That would be rather long, but if properly structured it would be easy to find and copy any relevant part of it into a message. "Properly structured" might just be using the same groupings as in the Options dialog, but it could also include special groupings of all settings relevant to some common problem or question—if those settings are not otherwise found together. It might also include relevant information not found in Options.

[jmone]

Good idea.  Also this info is already "exportable" as a part of the library back/restore.

[fitbrit]

Good idea.  Also this info is already "exportable" as a part of the library back/restore.

If I understand right, Nathan, you're going a step further than Rick; if MC were able to read such a settings info file it could configure itself to those settings where possible. I'd love to see such a thing for user view schemes.

[jmone]

It could do all of that and the basics are already in place but just not currently exposed in a separate file to the library backup. 

Lets say there was an option to just "Backup / Restore" the setting independently of the Library (say in XML format to MC_Settings.xml), then to Rick's point you could eyeball these settings to see if a user had anything "Odd" and then either:
1) make suggestions to changes via the front end or
2) make edits to the MC_Settings.xml that another user could then be imported back in.  Note: You should be able to just cut the MC_Setting.xml file down to just the category you want to change so that on import only these settings are changed, eg I may want to Share the Audio Settings so I should be able to give you a MC_Settings.xml file with just these fields and values in them for importation so the other user does not have their video changed.

As an example, FFDSHOW lets you do this sort of thing and rplamer68 and I used it in early days to share and work out what settings were best.  This gets very very useful when a system ends up with so many settings you even forget where they are and what they do!

[jmone]

Just checked and FYI the files are allready created by MC, Open up a C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 16\Library Backups\MC Library Backup (Main Library - 2011-09-13).zip and have a look at the following files in the Zip

Settings\User Settings.ini:  This is the main file but be warned there are almost 2,000 lines but they are grouped by area so it may not be too bad!   You would then also need to be able to actually interpret what some of these settings do and their values or you could get some very ugly results.
Settings\Machine Settings.ini : Seems to have the settings regarding Plugins on that PC.

Then there are some other settings in the main folder of the Zip file in XML format that holds info on:
- tvrecording.xml : This contains the details for TV recording subscriptions
- theater view file info templates.xml : this could be the one fitbrit is after!
- podcast.xml : stuff on podcasts (that I don't use)

[rick.ca]

Some means of exporting/importing actual settings data may be useful for other purposes, but I don't think it would serve the one I had in mind very well. The very reason someone is asking for help is often that they're not familiar with or can't find the relevant settings. Asking them to find them in a 2,000 line file of cryptic settings is not likely to work very well. I was thinking more along the lines of a text representation of exactly what appears in the Option dialog. I realize that's not a simple as it sounds either, and may not even be feasible for things like the Theatre View configuration. But it wouldn't have to include everything to be useful. And as I suggested, it could include some special sections for groups of settings that are often needed to help resolve issues (e.g., all the settings that might have a bearing on whether or not audio works properly or not).

theater view file info templates.xml : this could be the one fitbrit is after!

I found this one very useful for updating the templates after I've made some change to my fields or changed how data is handled. I can search this file for occurrences of whatever needs to be changed (which might be a field reference buried somewhere in a long expression) and make the changes directly to this file.

[Matt]

I'd love to see such a thing for user view schemes.

We added the ability to import / export any library view to a JVI file some years ago.  Look in the library view customization dialog.

[fitbrit]

We added the ability to import / export any library view to a JVI file some years ago.  Look in the library view customization dialog.

Thanks, Matt. I opened a .jvi file with notepad, so presumably if someone sends me a cool viewscheme, but has their custom fields named differently, I could edit a jvi file and use find and replace to customise the cool new viewscheme to the fieldnames I use. I wonder why there isn't a hot little viewscheme trading subculture going on?

[JimH]

I wonder why there isn't a hot little viewscheme trading subculture going on?

We've wondered the same.  I'm thinking about getting a black mock turtleneck shirt to go with my 501's.

But you could be Chairman Viewscheme if you chose.

[fitbrit]

We've wondered the same.  I'm thinking about getting a black mock turtleneck shirt to go with my 501's.

But you could be Chairman Viewscheme if you chose.

Joking aside, Jim, in a few days when I am not SWAMPED with work, I may start a viewscheme sharing thread. I know my knowledge in this area is sorely lacking. I stumbled into MC a few years ago, thanks to you, and immediately started tagging and viewing my videos in Standard View, having made some custom fields. Now, it's very likely that all this isn't using MC optimally, and I don't know where to start.

Then there are Viewscheme Gods like Rick, who could teach a lot simply by sharing a JVI file to someone who is prepared to examine its innards and see how it works. Or s/he could just change their fieldnames to match the cool viewscheme and have it for themselves. This is getting off-topic, so I'll maybe revisit in another thread early next week. It could be a useful solution to all those newbies from AVS, who are expecting their media to automatically present itself in a certain way in Standard or Theater View. Do JVIs appy to Theater View too?

[JimH]

Thanks!  Good luck with work.

[gvanbrunt]

I would be really interested in seeing what people are doing.

[rick.ca]

Then there are Viewscheme Gods like Rick, who could teach a lot simply by sharing a JVI file to someone who is prepared to examine its innards and see how it works.

Gods? You mean as in, "Dear God, please send me your JVI for an alternative universe. This one isn't working for me."? I don't think so. With custom fields, unique ways of doing things, and expressions dependent on both those things, it would be far more trouble than it's worth. By the time you got my view scheme working, you'd be an expert, but it would be a painful way to get there.

My suggestion was not intended to have anything to do with sharing or even troubleshooting view schemes. It was only about providing a more convenient and reliable method for reporting relevant option settings.

[fitbrit]

Gods? You mean as in, "Dear God, please send me your JVI for an alternative universe. This one isn't working for me."? I don't think so. With custom fields, unique ways of doing things, and expressions dependent on both those things, it would be far more trouble than it's worth. By the time you got my view scheme working, you'd be an expert, but it would be a painful way to get there.

Some us learn best through pain. Besides, I've seen the oohs and ahhs generated by some of your TheaterView screenshots. I woldn't want to emulate exactly how you do some of the things I've seen, and I just threw your name in as an example, but some people might be interested in this.

My suggestion was not intended to have anything to do with sharing or even troubleshooting view schemes. It was only about providing a more convenient and reliable method for reporting relevant option settings.

I understood your intention, but I interpreted jmone's intention to be slightly different, and that was what I was building on. I acknowledge that hat's kind of off-topic, hence I'll start a new thread later in the week. Just finished an 18 hour work day... and have to be back at it in 5 hours.

[marko]

these another aspect to these jvi files, that makes anything but the most basic views rather difficult to share, and that's the media content of the view.

Way back when these were first introduced I made comments regarding how restrictive they are.

MC makes no association with .jvi files, and if you tell windows to open one using MC, MC doesn't know what to do with it!

So, you have a jvi file. You choose the option to add a library view... then what? Add a blank view, then use the "load library view" option? That won't work either as there's no browse button.

• The .jvi file has to be saved either in the saved views folder in the install directory, or in a saved views folder inside the library folder found in the user appdata folder.
• The file types and view types need to match. Trying to load a jvi file created from an image view into the audio branch won't work because MC simply won't even offer it as an option when you try to "Load a saved view"

Here's a couple of posts where I tried to break into some of the mystery: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=54479.0 & http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=53791.msg366253#msg366253 both from 2009.

-marko