MB Plus Discussion

[Cheesegeezer 3086]

 

This should only be an issue in either "Next Up" or a custom channel but, yes, we should fall back to the text if there is no logo.

What i have done in Xenon was to fall back to backdrops if no thumb and then to posters if no backrop. Just a suggestion.

[ebr 14913]

What i have done in Xenon was to fall back to backdrops if no thumb and then to posters if no backrop. Just a suggestion.

 

This is in reference to an overlay already on a main image.

[AgileHumor 123]

For the Next Up TV, I haven't been using it much as i normally let 2 or 3 episodes queue up.  If show has more than one unwatched episodes, MBPlus shows the latest unwatched, not the earliest unwatched.  This causes us to watch it out of order.

Edited April 29, 2014 by AgileHumor

[ebr 14913]

For the Next Up TV, I haven't been using it much as i normally let 2 or 3 episodes queue up.  If show has more than 1 unwatched episodes, MBPlus shows the latest unwatched, not the earliest unwatched.  This causes us to watch it out of order.

 

Really...?  I can't reproduce that.  Can you provide some more information?

[AgileHumor 123]

Really...?  I can't reproduce that.  Can you provide some more information?

 

Sorry, i got confused per the next issue.   The suggested tv shows watched episodes.   

 

Lastly, I can't seem to view the "Custom Channel" for TV.    I called mine test and included Jim Parson (from big bang).  I included watched episodes. 

 

Video describing issue: http://1drv.ms/1m86oD2

 

Snapshot of Test Channel: http://1drv.ms/QVL1XG 

Edited April 29, 2014 by AgileHumor

[ebr 14913]

Thanks for the video - that helps a lot.

 

First question is what version of both the server plug-in and classic plug-in do you have?  What you are seeing in the TV channels looks like an old bug that was fixed last week where upcoming/missing episodes were presented out of order.  Make sure you have the latest versions.

 

On the custom channel - you defined the channel, but did you add it to any of the categories?  See here.

[AgileHumor 123]

Pic of profiles page as I'm not sure about what categories are needed: 

http://1drv.ms/1m809e9 

 

MBPlus (Dev):  1.0.1

Server (Beta):  3.0.5231.40980

[mboehler 94]

Pic of profiles page as I'm not sure about what categories are needed: 

http://1drv.ms/1m809e9 

 

MBPlus (Dev):  1.0.1

Server (Beta):  3.0.5231.40980

 

 

You also have to add that custom channel you made to your TV Series category inside your default profile.  Like so:

[AgileHumor 123]

Thank you! I didn't realize those items we're clickable to edit...just thought it sorted the order.

 

Adding a custom channel now works

[ebr 14913]

Yes, while having it work that way is a bit more complex, it allows for a very high level of customization.  You can attach your custom channels to any category you wish in any profile.  You can even put them in multiple categories if you want.

[ebr 14913]

Pic of profiles page as I'm not sure about what categories are needed: 

http://1drv.ms/1m809e9 

 

MBPlus (Dev):  1.0.1

Server (Beta):  3.0.5231.40980

 

If that MBPlus server plug-in version is 1.0.1.0 then that is the very first release and you need to update it.

 

Go into Plugins in the server dashboard and click on "Updates" at the top.  Then find MBPlus and change the update level to Beta.  Then run the plug-in update check task.

[seanbuff 840]

Pic of profiles page as I'm not sure about what categories are needed:

http://1drv.ms/1m809e9

 

MBPlus (Dev): 1.0.1

Server (Beta): 3.0.5231.40980

Agile, you need to select that default profile, then select the TV category and add your custom 'test' channel to the Custom Channels section on that page.

 

Hope that's what you're after.

 

 

Wow, scratch all that. Didn't see these responses. My bad.

 

 

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk

Edited April 29, 2014 by seanbuff

[AgileHumor 123]

Thanks all...really appreciate the help.

 

I'm having problems updating MPPlus.  My updates are set to Dev level for that plugin.  I tried Beta but that didn't help even after a server restart and forcing task to check plugin updates. Will try uninstall/reinstall next.

 

Update: 1.0.5 solved the sorting issue (episodes now in order).  Don't know why I had to uninstall.  Luckily, custom channels still exist.

 

 

The only outstanding issue is why shows like Mike and Molly...or Colbert Report...show up at all as unviewed?  In video, only should have 1...but I have 11.  Is their a way MBPlus counts unread differently then the server?

Edited April 30, 2014 by AgileHumor

[seanbuff 840]

Thanks all...really appreciate the help.

 

I'm having problems updating MPPlus. My updates are set to Dev level for that plugin. I tried Beta but that didn't help even after a server restart and forcing task to check plugin updates.

 

Will try uninstall/reinstall next.

 

Same thing happened to me, couldn't update past 0.1.0.1

 

Uninstall/Reinstall fixed it. Custom configuration remained intact.

[ebr 14913]

I may have outsmarted myself with the version numbers.  I'll try changing them around a bit and see if updates start working properly.

[ebr 14913]

The only outstanding issue is why shows like Mike and Molly...or Colbert Report...show up at all as unviewed?  In video, only should have 1...but I have 11.  Is their a way MBPlus counts unread differently then the server?

 

I'm not sure I follow, but MB Plus does show future/unaired/missing episodes - is that what you are seeing?  They will appear dimmed in the channel and won't be playable.

[NizZ8 3]

just got mb+ classic up and running yesterday, loving it so far ebr!

[AgileHumor 123]

I'm not sure I follow, but MB Plus does show future/unaired/missing episodes - is that what you are seeing?  They will appear dimmed in the channel and won't be playable.

 

Yup, didn't realize they were dimmed as I only had one episode unwatched and didn't realize the others were dimmed.

 

Shouldn't the unwatched count be 1...vs showing 11 (including unaired)?

Edited April 30, 2014 by AgileHumor

[Starkadius 219]

A "Custom" category is intended to be just for media folders and custom channels - a way to customize the presentation of your normal content basically.  But all of the category types are actually pretty customizable.

 

If you want any special views, just create a category that is of the type of View you want to see and de-select the suggestions and latest if you don't want them to show.  You can have multiple categories of the same type and, if you strip away the suggested and latest, it becomes a Custom one with Views of the type you select to show.

 

Hm but the views I want are for types that are currently not in place such as Games/Books/Home Videos/Trailers etc. I have to add them as a "New Category" and then I add the media folder that points to the Games (example) but there is still no genres for it. If custom media folders had the option of showing "Genres" I think it would be quite useful since most of those missing media folder types do use genres.

 

Here is another example that I am trying to do. I have a massive anime collection which falls in the TV type. The current "TV Series" type that is in the MBPlus default profile would include the anime folders AND the regular tv shows I have in my library which I don't want mixing together. So I attempted to create a new category using the "custom" type and named it "Anime", I then added the media folders that point to the anime folder. This works but then there are no genres appearing. I hope I am making sense, writing this is confusing even me.

[ebr 14913]

Yup, didn't realize they were dimmed as I only had one episode unwatched and didn't realize the others were dimmed.

 

Shouldn't the unwatched count be 1...vs showing 11 (including unaired)?

 

That count doesn't say "unwatched" it says "items".  That is the number of items beneath that tile.

 

I am probably going to add a banner to the missing/unaired episodes so they are more obvious.

[ebr 14913]

Hm but the views I want are for types that are currently not in place such as Games/Books/Home Videos/Trailers etc. I have to add them as a "New Category" and then I add the media folder that points to the Games (example) but there is still no genres for it. If custom media folders had the option of showing "Genres" I think it would be quite useful since most of those missing media folder types do use genres.

 

Here is another example that I am trying to do. I have a massive anime collection which falls in the TV type. The current "TV Series" type that is in the MBPlus default profile would include the anime folders AND the regular tv shows I have in my library which I don't want mixing together. So I attempted to create a new category using the "custom" type and named it "Anime", I then added the media folders that point to the anime folder. This works but then there are no genres appearing. I hope I am making sense, writing this is confusing even me.

 

Yeah, I think I'm gonna need a picture or two to see exactly what you are trying to do.  But, the other item types as category types will probably get added.  This is just the basics in this first cut.

[Aussiedroid 56]

Hi ebr,

 

Been meaning to try this for a while and finally got around to it the other day. I am very impressed so far considering it is still in test. Its functional, simple and intuitive, definitely an enhancement to MB EHS in my book! Thanks for all your hard work on putting this together.

 

I had some initial issues with MB crashing when I picked something from a movie or tv selection via the new view you added. I disabled this in the client options and later reenabled and it seems to work fine now. I did notice that I couldnt customise the view to my liking though without the built in view. It would allow me to change it as I would with any folder, but if I navigated out and back in it would default to coverflow view again (not remembering the changes I made). Not a big deal now the built in view is working again but just wanted to mention.

 

Some other feedback & suggestions from my experience play around with MBPlus today. Not sure if any of these might be worthy add to future versions or if they may already be planned (or denied ), but just some things I noticed playing around with MBPlus today that I think would be great to see. Sorry if any of these have already been brought up or I am missing a feature that is already there  

 

- Could the main top menus (Movies/TV etc) function as they do on most EHS and allow you to click to shortcut to your collection directly? I see there is a tile with this which I use but this would allow quicker navigation to the collection when I know already what I want to watch.

 

- Could the sub-menus under the main top menus also be clickable, and allow you to bring up more selections from the specific view? Main screen may have 6 options to choose but sometimes you might not want to try those and see more. By clicking on the sub-menu it could generate another selection cycling to another page of 6 new tiles of media to watch (where available).

 

- Option to reduce the scale (& maybe change font?) of the main top menu / sub menu items. Would be great to be able to fit all my menu titles on the screen without scrolling to see initially. Even an option to disable the text all together and replace with a banner of your choosing could add a nice look to the main page.

 

- Random Play & Random All for each view. I would find this most useful, if there was a button/bar (2 buttons technically) under the tiles that allowed me to play a random selection playlist of the highlighed tile view only or pick Random All to play a random playlist of all media that might fall into that view (but not necessarily in the highlighed list). Would function as a quick-pick button when you just can't decide what to watch. Would be cool if they were dimmed to keep them low profile until highlighed. In the detail view you (such as under TV>Latest when you pick a show) have created I could envisage a slim vertical button to the left of the first episode where you could also pick random play list or random all for all episodes of that TV show.

 

- Option to disable to background to use the Windows Media Center background or backdrops from the media collections.

 

- I saw an option to prefer logos over text but didnt seem to work for me, so wasnt sure if implemented yet, but anyways the main page with logos would look great!

 

- A Resume view would be cool. One that would only appear when you have items partially completed in the library. Maybe set a maximum number that can display though.

 

- Would like to be able to rename the sub-menu view titles. For example, to change Custom to Personal or Change Movies to Collections, or Suggested to What's Hot.

 

- Selectable tile size. Would be great for some variety to have a larger size than the current and a smaller size. Smaller may have 3 rows, with larger only one row (would probably allow vertically for display of short description too). Would be a nice feature on the large size to cycle through say 6 selections on a single tile. A portrait size tile would be great too for views like trailers which I have setup under my movies (bit of wasted space when displaying posters instead of backdrops).

 

- On creating a custom view, when you add this under the view of your choosing (ie TV), it currently displays under a Custom view as one tile. I would love to have the custom view I created to expand to fill a full view or tile set rather than navigating to the detail view. For example, I created one for a genre I have for all Star Trek shows and would be cool to see the selection from the main screen with last tile going to detail view.

 

- For the directors view, it shows my count at 27. It appears to be counting the folders and not the sub-folders. Could it show the true count including the sub-folders (A-Z etc)?

 

- I think this one relates to an earlier post where media in some of the other views/collections is getting added to movies or tv views. I am in the same situation with my documentaries folder which is a mix of movie and season xmls. It would be great to be able, under the options for each view include a folder onto an exclude list so it will not appear in any related views. I have added my docos folder to the two exclude lists I saw in the options but they still appear in All Movies and Genres etc when I go into those views. 

 

- Auto-scroll description of show in details view.

 

- For the logo in the bottom right corner, maybe remove the text to streamline the look a bit .. but just keep the MB icon and the plus part overlayed.

 

- Took me a little while to figure out you need both a server and client install (silly I know). I installed the client and got nothing initially thinking it may not be compatible with my theme I am using. Maybe worth while highlighting this in the description of each plugin incase others get confused as easily as me lol.

 

Ok that turned into a bit of a list in the end! Hope I havent come off sounding too critical! I really do love the plugin, so again thank you for all your efforts!

 

Cheers.

[ebr 14913]

Wow - that's a lot of stuff.  Thanks for the feedback.  Let me hit a few of them:

 

 

 

I did notice that I couldnt customise the view to my liking though without the built in view. It would allow me to change it as I would with any folder, but if I navigated out and back in it would default to coverflow view again (not remembering the changes I made). 

 

Sounds like a bug.  I'll take a look.

 

 

 

Could the main top menus (Movies/TV etc) function as they do on most EHS and allow you to click to shortcut to your collection directly? I see there is a tile with this which I use but this would allow quicker navigation to the collection when I know already what I want to watch.

 

Not sure exactly what you mean here, but you can create a custom category and add whatever media folders you want to it.  So, if I understood that correctly, you can create this view yourself.

 

 

Could the sub-menus under the main top menus also be clickable, and allow you to bring up more selections from the specific view? Main screen may have 6 options to choose but sometimes you might not want to try those and see more. By clicking on the sub-menu it could generate another selection cycling to another page of 6 new tiles of media to watch (where available)

 

Perhaps in the future.  This is technically quite difficult to achieve.

 

 

 

Option to reduce the scale (& maybe change font?) of the main top menu / sub menu items. Would be great to be able to fit all my menu titles on the screen without scrolling to see initially. Even an option to disable the text all together and replace with a banner of your choosing could add a nice look to the main page.

 

This is actually possible now but just hasn't been exposed or explained yet.  But, the system is designed such that most fonts and colors could be customized. 

 

 

 

I saw an option to prefer logos over text but didnt seem to work for me, so wasnt sure if implemented yet, but anyways the main page with logos would look great!

 

That option refers to the Channel screen.  If you enable it, a movie or series channel will show the logo instead of the large text that runs off the screen.  Like this:

 

 

Personally, I like the style of the large text but I know people like logos so this option is there.

 

 

 

A Resume view would be cool. One that would only appear when you have items partially completed in the library. Maybe set a maximum number that can display though.

 

That is reasonable.  I'll put it on the list of possibilities.

 

 

 

For the directors view, it shows my count at 27. It appears to be counting the folders and not the sub-folders. Could it show the true count including the sub-folders (A-Z etc)?

 

Correct, the tile only shows the count of direct children and, due to a change in how the server treats people, I've had to break all people views into those letter categories.  Performance is just way too slow otherwise.  Likewise, getting a recursive count like this can be a real performance problem.

 

 

I think this one relates to an earlier post where media in some of the other views/collections is getting added to movies or tv views. I am in the same situation with my documentaries folder which is a mix of movie and season xmls. It would be great to be able, under the options for each view include a folder onto an exclude list so it will not appear in any related views. I have added my docos folder to the two exclude lists I saw in the options but they still appear in All Movies and Genres etc when I go into those views. 

 

Can you please confirm you have the ignore folders defined properly (like didn't use UNC paths there but drive letters in the library).  If it still doesn't work for you please post specific examples because that would be a bug.

 

 

Took me a little while to figure out you need both a server and client install (silly I know). I installed the client and got nothing initially thinking it may not be compatible with my theme I am using. Maybe worth while highlighting this in the description of each plugin incase others get confused as easily as me lol.

 

The descriptions actually already state that...

 

Also, when you had just the classic plug-in installed but not the server, you should have gotten a screen that said you were missing the server piece (or it was incompatible).

[seanbuff 840]

Hi @@ebr

 

Just wondering why I have an odd 'transparent' message over my MB+ client saying that the plugin has expired when the server indicates there is still 12 days left to go?

 

 

[Aussiedroid 56]

Thanks for taking the time to reply ebr.

 

Regarding a couple of your points:

 

Not sure exactly what you mean here, but you can create a custom category and add whatever media folders you want to it.  So, if I understood that correctly, you can create this view yourself.

 

- What I meant by this is the very top menu label (text saying Movies, TV etc above the views below), if I click the OK/Enter button on my remote on a standard EHS it would then navigate to the main folder of the media type from this label. For example if I click on Movies, it would take me to the root folder for the movies to browse. Currently with MBPlus if I click my OK button there is nothing linked to the top menu option, I have to navigate down to the All Movies icon tile to get to the same view rather than it being just one click to the full collection. Hope I am making sense.

 

 

That option refers to the Channel screen.  If you enable it, a movie or series channel will show the logo instead of the large text that runs off the screen.  Like this:

 

- Ok thanks for clarifying. What I was wishing was that there were logos instead of the text for the show names or movies on the tiles on the main screen as well as the details view you highlighed. I think it would really finish off the look of the main screen/views.

 

 

Correct, the tile only shows the count of direct children and, due to a change in how the server treats people, I've had to break all people views into those letter categories.  Performance is just way too slow otherwise.  Likewise, getting a recursive count like this can be a real performance problem.

 

- Ah I see the issue, and I would expect the count to be pretty high. Perhaps if a real count isn't feasible that the count could be removed from the directors view tile all together?

 

 

Can you please confirm you have the ignore folders defined properly (like didn't use UNC paths there but drive letters in the library).  If it still doesn't work for you please post specific examples because that would be a bug.

 

My path I have put in both ignore locations is M:\Documentaries\

 

When I browse either Movies or TV, the documentaries of that xml type (movies.xml or series.xml) are added to the mix (causes quite a mess). It doesn't seem to be displaying on the tiles (unless I might be missing them) in the views but if I search via Views like All Movies, Genres, Decades etc the are still there.

 

Ideally, I would like to manage this as a separate third media type/collection, which I have been able to do with other MBC configs.

 

The only way I have found to remove them so far is to change the media collection type to home videos or adult videos. This removes them from coming up in the Movies and TV sections but will not read the xml data properly (basically will not display any xml data).

 

I can imagine others may hit this issue too for specific collections that need to use the standard xml formats that might be picked up under movies or tv.

 

I might be able to get some screenshots together or a specific example or two for you if it helps.

 

Also on a minor point it would be great to have the totals next to your profile at the bottom also counting extra collections like docos separately (if it might be possible.).

 

 

The descriptions actually already state that...

 

Also, when you had just the classic plug-in installed but not the server, you should have gotten a screen that said you were missing the server piece (or it was incompatible).

 

Doh! Ok I missed that (I should read slower lol). I didn't get any warnings or messages though when I just had the client installed. It just seemed to work like the plugin wasnt installed.

 

 

 

Look forward to you sharing how to change the font and size when you are ready. Also, interested to know your thoughts on the Random Play from my first post which would be super handy feature. Anyways enough bugging you for one day lol.

 

Cheers mate.