Applying themes to collections and the films within them

[crusher11 1101]

It'd be great to have themes for film collections work the same way they do with TV series. I can put a theme file in the collection folder, which is fine, but it won't keep playing if I then select one of the films. It'll either shut off, or start playing the film's theme, depending on whether there is one.

 

Having a feature like this would be great for collections where everything has the same theme, allowing me to only need one audio file as well as avoiding it starting over every time the user does something. I'm particularly thinking of, for example, my huge box set of Laurel & Hardy shorts. I'd rather not have 30 copies of the Laurel & Hardy theme floating around my server when I could just put one in the collection folder and be done with it.

[Luke 42078]

Hi, yes i agree this would make sense. Thanks.

[laie_techie 16]

One potential gotcha: a tv episode is in a single season of a single tv series; a movie can be in multiple collections. If a movie is in multiple collections, which theme wins?

[Luke 42078]

Exactly.

[crusher11 1101]

One potential gotcha: a tv episode is in a single season of a single tv series; a movie can be in multiple collections. If a movie is in multiple collections, which theme wins?

Depends how you access it...if it's not accessed through a collection and doesn't have its own theme, one of them could be picked at random?

[crusher11 1101]

The easiest first step would be a setting on a per-collection basis to override themes for its films. When checked, the theme from the collection continues to play when a film is selected. When not checked, the collection theme stops and the film's theme starts when a film is selected.

 

Wouldn't help with storage efficiency but it would at least prevent the thing I have with the Saw and Harry Potter films at the moment where the theme keeps stopping and starting as I navigate between films.

 

Or....completely overhaul the way themes are handled. Store them in their own folder, and manually link each film/collection to a specific sound file. If the currently-playing file is linked to the newly-selected item, simply keep playing it instead of starting it over from the beginning.