automatically browse "movies" when going into videos?

[skeptic]

As I add more and more tv series videos, which I watch via playlists, as well as recorded TV shows from Myth, browsing videos is becoming increasingly muddled.  At this point I have roughly 300 movies and probably 500-600 tv shows.  I realize I can select movies after I go into the video menu (assuming I have set media-subtype for every one so I don't miss any), but for WAF is there anyway I can filter the TV shows out by default?  Even better would be to filter out any video already in a playlist.

[tschak909]

development wise, it would mean adding a media type, media format, and default filter field to the Show File List command, so that these things could be modified from the web admin. We would then need to modify Orbiter to use these new parameters to pass stuff to the datagrid, instead of just filling out empty options.

-Thom

[skeptic]

Ouch.

I really have no clue what goes on under the covers so forgive me if this is a dumb questions..  Since media type etc. are already options for the video screen, would it be hard to keep track of and use the filters from the previous time the video list was shown and default to that?

From a user/functionality point of view, I would want to avoid going into web admin for anything.  Remember, this is WAF stuff.  Personally, I don't mind selecting the media type whenever I go into videos. 

Actually now that I think about it, a more useful idea would be to be able to go direct to various media types, including unassigned media or all like it does now.  I don't really have a good solution just thinking out loud ideas that would make LMCE more user friendly.  Perhaps a screen similar to going into playlists, but media type instead, or even a pop-out side menu of optional media types.  I'm sure those would require a new UI to be created but there has been talk regarding UI improvements so it might be an idea worth considering.

Unless I miss my guess, most people already know if they want to watch a movie, a tv show, or whatever when they grab the remote and go to video.

[tschak909]

yes, but in order to do that, we need to expose what i've said above.

-Thom

[davegravy]

Sorry for my ignorance, but is the implication that this is not worth the hassle? I too am facing the same issue with regards to WAF. If the video list could remember the filters which were last used that would be a big improvement.

[skeptic]

IMHO, I don't get that.  Thom is pretty straight and if it wasn't worth the hassle I think he'd say so directly.  My impression is that it's a lot of work that may or may not happen in the future.  The big problem is there just are not very many devs with the understanding and skill needed to do this type of work.  It's all about priorities and other things are just more important right now.

IIRC, I think Thom was working on some improvements to the way media is displayed and handled, but I don't know the specifics.  I just tried to search for the old thread, but I'm not getting the right keywords to search for and just getting pages and pages of stuff.

[krys]

maybe this is what you guys are saying, but I think it would be nice for the UI to show the options.

current - audio, video
proposed - Music, Movies, TV shows, Other

"Other" could be home videos or music videos, or just stuff that isnt categorized yet.

[skeptic]

maybe this is what you guys are saying, but I think it would be nice for the UI to show the options.

current - audio, video
proposed - Music, Movies, TV shows, Other

"Other" could be home videos or music videos, or just stuff that isnt categorized yet.

Pretty much.  Of course we can expand on our wish-list for that as well, such as slightly different handling of the categories.  When a movie is done go back to movies or just exist.  When a TV show is done ask if you want it deleted, return to tv shows, or just exit.  Baby steps. 

[krys]

actually now that I think of it, it would prob be easier to just leave the categories as is, but only have 1 listing for a tv series that you click on which then would take you to a screen that has the individual episodes listed.