More > JRiver Media Center 18 for Windows

Get Movie Info

<< < (2/3) > >>

glynor:

--- Quote from: rick.ca on August 10, 2012, 08:00:24 pm ---I think the ship has sailed on that idea. Personal Video Database/PVD Import still works. ;)

--- End quote ---

I don't know... I think that now that we have a good understanding of how the current, simple-but-consistent system works, MC18 would be a good time for some additional refinement of the feature, to allow greater flexibility and control.

Rick, you and I may have differed on the mechanism for how to enable flexibility in the system, but I don't think we differed on what the system should be able to accomplish in the end.  I think an incremental approach is best.  Focus first on solving the biggest problem for the most people (the 80% first rule), then grow it to be more powerful.  They've done the first part.  We have a good, refined system in MC17, which does what it sets out to do, and does it with very little "pain" for most users who want it to "Just Work".

Now, for MC18, some additional flexibility would be nice.

rick.ca:

--- Quote ---Rick, you and I may have differed on the mechanism for how to enable flexibility in the system, but I don't think we differed on what the system should be able to accomplish in the end.
--- End quote ---

I don't think so. What I argued for in the past had more to do with the fundamental structure of a system that would be simple and effective, and provide a solid base for building on. Instead, a much more complicated and painful approach was taken—one that seems to based on the premise most users don't want any involvement whatsoever in the process. A Red October for video meta data perhaps. Unfortunately, the developers are not experts in matters of movie and TV meta data or the lessons learned by others in it's collection. They haven't much interest in such things, and apparently assume most users don't either. They may be right.

In any case, I'm sure incremental improvements will be made. But the groundwork has not been laid for a number of fundamental requirements. So things like a means for combining multiple sources in any manner and the expression-based mapping of the results to user-designated fields would likely involve scrapping or largely redoing what has already been done. I don't think that's going to happen.

Insomuch as it probably requires much of the same groundwork, it also seems less likely we'll ever see premium/paid data services like Rovi and Gracenote. That would be the ultimate for users who are serious in their desire for something that 'Just Works'. I know it might be the case, but it's difficult to understand those who value on their time and sanity so as to choose fussing around with second-rate data and baffling 'automatic' retrieval routines—just to avoid paying another $20 per year. (I don't know what the cost would be, but surely it would be reasonable.)

I wish I was wrong. The PVD/PVD Import solution isn't going to last forever. I haven't even held my breath long enough to see whether PVD Import still works in MC 18...

marko:

--- Quote --- I haven't even held my breath long enough to see whether PVD Import still works in MC 18...
--- End quote ---
You have to do the usual registry hack, and then, yes, it still works :)

struct:

Would be great if part of the improvements to Get TV/Movie info included pulling subtitles from somewhere.  I have recently being playing with SubDownloader 2.0.13 and it has been really helpful in get srt files from opensubtitles.org and rename them to the same as the video file (seems to have some code for developers).  This would be another good addition to MC.

I would however rate this as less important than giving us the ability to map various sources to our choice of fields.  This really is a basic need for those where movies are more important than music.

thanks
Craig

MrHaugen:
I think that plug-ins should be used for more of these things. That way we could create our own rules, and change what's needed. The only problems I see is that it's probably not that well documented, and the SDK might not be that user friendly. I tried to use it my self a long time ago, but it was not easy (but hey, I'm a programmer newbie). The plug-ins have, as far as I know, no way of interacting with Theater View. So, it makes it less ideal for certain tasks in a Home Theater point of view.

I hope this get some more attention in version 18. MC users are certainly increasing in numbers. There's bound to be plenty of people how would like to make some great plug-ins if it was just a tad easier and/or could do more things in MC.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page