Topic: Media Sub Type values (Read 7289 times)

stricko · « **on:** November 30, 2016, 12:03:35 am »

Hi there. I'm just adding some video to my library that doesn't fit into any of pre-defined Media Sub Type values. Are these hardcoded or can I add a new value. I'm only using a handful of the existing values, so I appreciate that I could use an unused value which isn't a 100% fit, but that kind of defeats the object of having such a flexible and configurable system.

Not a biggy, I was just wondering.

Matt · « **Reply #1 on:** November 30, 2016, 04:41:29 am »

It's a hard-coded list. When there's a wide agreement from users, we add additional values.

blgentry · « **Reply #2 on:** November 30, 2016, 05:55:23 am »

If you are organizing video in a customized way, Media Sub Type is not the ONLY way to do it. Media Sub Type is just ONE way. You can also use Keywords, Genre, or even custom tags to further categorize your videos.

I make use of Keywords to organize my video files, as well as the existing Media Sub Type tag. It's really very very flexible.

Brian.

apgood · « **Reply #3 on:** November 30, 2016, 06:04:56 am »

I created a custom field called My Media Sub Type and use that for categorisation and view filtering of KidsMovies and Kids TvShows. Works really well and means I have a seperate View for the kids.

imeric · « **Reply #4 on:** November 30, 2016, 07:04:11 am »

I too would like more flexibility with sub-types. Not sure why it needs to be hard coded.

I've asked for kids and it wasn't added. Just like apgood mentioned if you could please add Kids to the list

!

Matt · « **Reply #5 on:** November 30, 2016, 07:05:31 am »

Quote from: imeric on November 30, 2016, 07:04:11 am

or please add Kids to the list !

What's the full text you'd like added? Propose it, get three +1 votes and we'll do it.

imeric · « **Reply #6 on:** November 30, 2016, 07:07:12 am »

kids is all i need thx

Matt · « **Reply #7 on:** November 30, 2016, 07:08:36 am »

"Kids" seems like a pretty reasonable addition since "Adult" is already in the list.

But I better hold to my rule and ask for a few +1 votes!

imeric · « **Reply #8 on:** November 30, 2016, 07:22:12 am »

Quote from: apgood on November 30, 2016, 06:04:56 am

I created a custom field called My Media Sub Type and use that for categorisation and view filtering of KidsMovies and Kids TvShows. Works really well and means I have a seperate View for the kids.

I really like apgood's idea:

"Kids Movies"
"Kids Shows"

Would be perfect!

Matt · « **Reply #9 on:** November 30, 2016, 07:27:48 am »

Alright, two different proposals. Let's see if any of them get +1 votes or if nobody else even cares!

Hendrik · « **Reply #10 on:** November 30, 2016, 08:03:09 am »

Keep in mind that you can define all your own tags, you don't need to use Media Sub Type. The list is already pretty exhaustive.
A "Kids Movie" is afterall just a "Movie", the extra specification could go into Keywords, into Genre, or into a new field of your own - and you can adjust (or create your own) any views to use any field for categorization and navigation.
Personally I don't think having extra sub-categories of existing Sub Types is very well advised, since thats not what Media Sub Type is for.

Media Sub Type is limited because it controls behavior to some degree, in playback and metadata handling and whatnot, hence a whole bunch of arbitrary categories don't make sense here.

"Adult" is a bad comparison, since thats an entirely different kind of content.

Matt · « **Reply #11 on:** November 30, 2016, 08:06:51 am »

I think Hendrik just gave both our ideas a -1. And he's a pretty smart cookie!

mattkhan · « **Reply #12 on:** November 30, 2016, 08:18:18 am »

-1 from me, I use genre for this (as per Hendrik's suggestion)

CountryBumkin · « **Reply #13 on:** November 30, 2016, 08:26:14 am »

Adult is already available, everything "not listed as Adult" is for kids. Then sort/display by MPAA rating if needed.

~OHM~ · « **Reply #14 on:** November 30, 2016, 08:50:21 am »

Quote from: imeric on November 30, 2016, 07:22:12 am

I really like apgood's idea:

"Kids Movies"
"Kids Shows"

Would be perfect!

+2

I get 2 votes as I asked for this last year and was not offered a vote

blgentry · « **Reply #15 on:** November 30, 2016, 05:20:01 pm »

The "problem" here is that Media Sub Type appears to be kind of like Genre, but it is not. Media Sub Type is apparently used for playback decisions, as opposed to View decisions. I'm not sure what these playback decisions are, but I've read this over and over again: Media Sub Type is part of the playback process.

The problem here is that there are seemingly some Genre based Media Sub Types, which can no possibly be used for playback decisions. Like the already mentioned "Adult" Media Sub Type. So people naturally think that Media Sub Type is kind of a "super genre" field, when in fact it isn't designed that way. Genre seems to have creeped into Media Sub Type. So it's kind of a mixed message to users.

For anyone asking for more Media Sub Types: Please use keywords or Genre. Both work quite well.

Brian.

RoderickGI · « **Reply #16 on:** November 30, 2016, 06:29:12 pm »

I'm a -1 on this as well.

mwillems · « **Reply #17 on:** November 30, 2016, 08:07:32 pm »

Media subtype affects, for example, the get TV and Movie metadata operation. If it's marked as a TV show and there's no season or episode, it will error, but not if it's a movie, etc. There are other places where media sub-type matters for programmatic reasons. The inclusion of "Adult" as a media subtype is a bit confusing, unless it needs special programmatic handling.

I'm -1 on adding children's anything as a media subtype.

FWIW I use a children's genre to filter all my views, it's trivial to do, and I can't imagine why it would be any easier to use media subtype (adding a tag is adding a tag), and genre is a list type tag.

~OHM~ · « **Reply #18 on:** November 30, 2016, 08:24:43 pm »

and of course we all know how this will turn out.....

syndromeofadown · « **Reply #19 on:** November 30, 2016, 10:01:18 pm »

Quote

The inclusion of "Adult" as a media subtype is a bit confusing, unless it needs special programmatic handling.

Adult videos can't be scraped like a typical movie or TV show can, so I think it makes sense to have it.
"Kids Movies" and "Kids Shows" however can be scraped if their Media Subtype is entered as Movie or TV Show. Using a genre of "Family" or "Children" would make more sense.
So -1

imeric · « **Reply #20 on:** December 01, 2016, 12:29:59 am »

Quote from: mwillems on November 30, 2016, 08:07:32 pm

Media subtype affects, for example, the get TV and Movie metadata operation. If it's marked as a TV show and there's no season or episode, it will error, but not if it's a movie, etc.

I tried this and didn't see any behaviour change whether the media sub-type was Movies or TV Shows.

I'm very disciplined tagging Genres for music and it is something I should definitely start doing with Videos as well but I didn't want to spend the time and was hoping for MC to do the job for me.... Which is why using media sub-type was the logical choice...What I like about Media sub-types is it has some sort of intelligence figuring out if it is a movie or a TV show based on Guide Data for Television recordings or Scraping (I guess...) ... I'm gonna side track a bit and confess that it's not very smart when importing a bunch of "IMGXXXX.mov" videos from either my iphone or SD card and will start tagging them as "TV Shows" instead of "Home Videos" and I have to manually retag them. Aside from this, it was doing a very good job at tagging Videos and made it the logical choice for categorizing Videos and meant less work...Which is why I didn't bother with keywords and genres...

So since there's a lot of resilience and a bunch of -1's, because it controls behaviour to some degree and is apparently used for playback decisions and..Adult Movies...

I guess I will spend the time tagging and customising my theater view to work around this.

Still don't get why that much resilience on just adding "Kids" in Media Sub type. We have Karaoke, Short, Single, Test Clip, Trailer but...No Kids...

Oh well....

RoderickGI · « **Reply #21 on:** December 01, 2016, 02:02:30 am »

Quote from: imeric on December 01, 2016, 12:29:59 am

I tried this and didn't see any behaviour change whether the media sub-type was Movies or TV Shows.

Try tagging a Movie as a TV Show and then do a lookup for it.

It is pretty simple really. Exclude anything that has an "Adult" Media Sub Type from kids views, and then using the MPAA Rating tag to decide what to include. After all there is a whole set of subcategories within "Kids", so one Media Sub Type tag isn't going to meet all needs.

stricko · « **Reply #22 on:** December 01, 2016, 03:23:30 am »

Oops. Didn't really expect to open up such a wide ranging discussion......

Personally I'm not a fan of hard coded values driving system behaviour. It's been a long long time since I worked in programming but I recall being taught to parameterise as much as possible. This sounds like such a case, but like I said in the opening post, it's not a biggy. There are plenty of other ways of achieving what I need to do.

~OHM~ · « **Reply #23 on:** December 01, 2016, 07:40:39 am »

Quote from: imeric on December 01, 2016, 12:29:59 am

So since there's a lot of resilience and a bunch of -1's, because it controls behaviour to some degree and is apparently used for playback decisions and..Adult Movies... I guess I will spend the time tagging and customizing my theater view to work around this.

Still don't get why that much resilience on just adding "Kids" in Media Sub type. We have Karaoke, Short, Single, Test Clip, Trailer but...No Kids... Oh well....

Yeah what is the big deal anyway....only to say to oneself I'll show them!!

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Author Topic: Media Sub Type values (Read 7289 times)