Auto Box Sets Images

[Tolerant 70]

I am using Auto Box Sets 0.0.2.1 and it has setup collections for movies that have 2+ movies (default), however I notice not all of them have images and the images they are showing are background sized images.

 

Questions:

 

Is there a reason some of them don't have images, ie. are they fetching those images from an online source or from existing backgrounds from some of those films?

 

Why are there no "poster" (folder) images being shown, only "background" images?

 

Is it possible to have MB3 Server / MB Classic for WMC default theme, show images instead of blank place holders with a text title via the plugin? I notice in the web interface it is possible to set the view for them, but not in WMC to switch between background or posters.

 

I realize I could in theory hunt down missing "backgrounds" and add them manually of course, but am wondering a bit why there are no "poster" sized images since WMC Classic client has no choice in 'View' to change between them, only the web client does.

 

Sorry if this sounds a bit confusing, still trying to wrap my head around all of these awesome features. Thanks.

 

[ebr 14927]

We get images for collections from tmdb.  If there are no images out there for the collection, then we don't have one and you'll have to source them yourself.  Unfortunately, a lot of collections are missing images on tmdb.  If you find some you like, uploading them to that site will then help out future folks like yourself.  Tmdb is a community driven project like us.

 

The choice for the type of images you see in MBC will depend on both the theme and view.  There are a whole lot of possible combinations there and some will have more options than others.

[Tolerant 70]

Well I guess that is what kind of confuses me ebr, that in the default web ui html server view, I can choose Poster or Background view (although poster seems to be a shrunking background image), and yet in WMC looking at collections, there is no such view in the standard default theme. Perhaps someone could take a quick look at that, because I wouldn't mind seeing the background images vs a blank text filled square. The addon is for sure a great thing though, I love that it makes virtual collections without my having to physically move any files because moving things out of 10 various paths sorted by file type (scr, dvdrip, brrip etc) and then making collections would drive me insane. So even without images (atm) still loving it in WMC. -- Of course, now that the server supports us choosing where to play items to such as WMC from the web ui.. I might never have to actually click in WMC again if it keeps up like this, lol.

[ebr 14927]

What you may not realize is that the code base for all the MBC stuff is about four years older than the server or web client.  There is a lot of work and not all of it has been done yet.  Also, not all display options will be mirrored across all client apps.  It just isn't possible for this to be the case as we have way too many of them in way too many environments and multiple developers working on all of them.

[Tolerant 70]

I can understand that, it would just be nice if some of what I would consider the "bones" and "basics" were ported across, such as views. It's great to have a collections addon/plugin, but if it doesn't work the same way in both the server's web ui and the wmc classic ui, and all it would take is adding one or two more view types to what is already there.. it just seems a painful void that should be filled. If I had the know how I would volunteer, but it is all a bit beyond me at this point and just trying to figure out all of this "new" stuff after moving from mb2 to mb3 is pretty confusing in itself. Not trying to hurt feelings or put anyone down, simply encourage someone to spend a small amount of time to include a little more in the xml? to allow some of the same features if possible. -- Again, if it comes down to it, I will eventually use the web ui and the new "play to WMC" client option for choosing what to play, it is just a little clunky to have a web app open and have to treat WMC as simply a viewer window when it has so many of the other things already there. Still good stuff and looking forward to the upgrades and changes to come.

[ebr 14927]

If it were nothing more than a few edits to some xml we would have done it by now.  Trust me, it is a lot more complex than that.

 

But, there is more to the MB world than just MBC and the web client.  There is also MBT, Android, iOS, Win8, Windows phone, xbmb3c, media portal, roku....  It simply isn't practical (nor even desirable) for view styles to be replicated across all of those different platforms.  They will all conform to their best presentation capabilities.

[Tolerant 70]

As much as I can appreciate your position.. I get the impression you might not be familiar with how the collection plugin displays differently in both, infact, even in the web ui at first glance it seems there are a couple different ways of it showing up. But maybe it is just me that isn't fully informed, no worries, I am sure someone will eventually give it a look eventually. Thanks for the feedback.

 

EDIT: One of the things I did eventually figure out was that the collections media group needed to be refreshed in order to pull the images for "posters" that show in WMC. This could be because I had some things turned off from the metadata fetching config in the server from when I first set it up, not sure. But I guess the good news is now at least I have images in WMC collections for the poster view instead of just blank placeholders with text.

Edited April 12, 2014 by Tolerant