Password Protect via Ratings

pecinko Wrote:Why are you affraid of profiles? Using those your kid wouldn't even know there's Aliens movie in your library. Furthermore, what happens if you have per item lock and your kid select Alien movie? How kids friendly would it be to find him/herself in "enter your pin" dialog. It would be hit and miss scenario - is this mine to watch? No. This one? No. Finally found it this one!

Because profiles don't fit well for this particular usage. Profiles answer the problems of different skins or preferences. But this question is not about either of those. This is about being able to put a restriction on content based on information stored within the video database.

As it is I have a very convoluted means of managing family content versus all content. But even using profiles, this needs a better implementation. If each profile had ratings to be set for it, it would still be a vast improvement over the current setup. We have locks on sources requiring a password. How is that so significantly different than locking by MPAA rating or certification (select ... from movies where c12 not like 'Rated R%' and c12 not like 'Rated TV-MA%')? One new screen for the selection of controlled ratings (you could even pull the list from the db by selecting distinct values for the first two words) and a new predicate for queries as above. The only slightly irritating thing is dealing with PG and PG-13 based on syntax.

I'd also say that separate profiles would be the way to go and do the separation of "kids-friendly" and "parental advisory" via your sources. Use Multipath sources for your parental profile if you like to see both in there. The additional profile also has the benefit to use a probably more kids friendly skin and hide some sections they must not access.

I agree that a intelligent "filter" based on ratings might be nice, as well as a more fine grained UAC - I'm just not sure if it's worth the overall effort.

Buff Wrote:Thanks for the replies, although I'm not sure what darkscouts link has to do with it, unless I'm missing something?

It's a dig at the developers that beg for code. Someone wrote a very useful feature that a ton of people use (read the thread) and they refused to use it.

So even if you do find yourself a coder there's a chance that they can decide "meh, we don't want this feature."

darkscout Wrote:It's a dig at the developers that beg for code. Someone wrote a very useful feature that a ton of people use (read the thread) and they refused to use it.

So even if you do find yourself a coder there's a chance that they can decide "meh, we don't want this feature."

Fair enough darkscout, I see where you're coming from.

We can but ask. I guess if there's enough people asking for these features, whatever they may be, then the developers will, hopefully, realise that and when the time is right add them in, if poss.

I've just been looking round a few threads and found quite a few people asking for ratings based parental control or similar, so maybe, just maybe

I can't promise anything as I'm no dev, but as soon as Eden is released I'll have a look at current access control features and will come up with a concept for a better parental control/access control and see if I can motivate some of the guys.

da-anda Wrote:I can't promise anything as I'm no dev, but as soon as Eden is released I'll have a look at current access control features and will come up with a concept for a better parental control/access control and see if I can motivate some of the guys.

Awesome, many thanks

GJones Wrote:Because profiles don't fit well for this particular usage.

And what is this particular usage? I see none defined yet.

Quote:As it is I have a very convoluted means of managing family content versus all content. But even using profiles, this needs a better implementation. If each profile had ratings to be set for it, it would still be a vast improvement over the current setup. We have locks on sources requiring a password.

You probably know that TMDB is maintained by users. There is no guarantee that scrapped ratings were filled right, there is no control that "PG-13" is entered as such and not "Raating PG -13". There are cases when movie is rated as pg-13 but I would allow my boy (9) to see it. You still want to disable menu items and maybe some of the views so the kid does not get lost in XBMC interface, so you need to use profiles. And, If you are using them, there's no problem to separate movies into two or more DIRs in order to have adults and kids sources.

Nay, it is better to put all in one dir, even better - one folder, use EMM to make custom ratings for every movie, and the just ask for locks to be implemented. When they are, then ask for a skin shortcut to gain quick access to a pin lock. After that, we may as well ditch the whole idea as cumbersome.

Siri, it's James. show me my content.

On topic:

Is there a 'pre play' hook that gets called when a video is played? If so it shouldn't be too difficult to have it pop up a message "if rating > "

pecinko Wrote:And what is this particular usage? I see none defined yet.



You probably know that TMDB is maintained by users. There is no guarantee that scrapped ratings were filled right, there is no control that "PG-13" is entered as such and not "Raating PG -13". There are cases when movie is rated as pg-13 but I would allow my boy (9) to see it. You still want to disable menu items and maybe some of the views so the kid does not get lost in XBMC interface, so you need to use profiles. And, If you are using them, there's no problem to separate movies into two or more DIRs in order to have adults and kids sources.

Nay, it is better to put all in one dir, even better - one folder, use EMM to make custom ratings for every movie, and the just ask for locks to be implemented. When they are, then ask for a skin shortcut to gain quick access to a pin lock. After that, we may as well ditch the whole idea as cumbersome.

Siri, it's James. show me my content.

No, you are describing *your* usage case. I have no issue with profiles. Profiles allow different look, feel and complexity. I understand your concern regarding the validity of rating data, but I have already corrected all of the rating data in my db. As a matter of fact, I have a script that pulls missing ratings from both the rating information and certification information from imdb.

The ratings, when complete, actually do a good job of describing why the movie got a particular rating. Most systems let you pick a maximum rating and objectionable content in lower ratings. Lacking the feature in XBMC, I have implemented my own filter customized to each of my two children using a mix or ratings and content advisories within ratings.

So it can be done completely outside of profiles. People are doing it themselves. It would be nice if we had a common way to do this so that everyone did not have to implement it individually.



For example on the Rating, it often looks something like:

This would lock all NC-17 content and limit R and PG-13 content based on specific content indicators. This would be the ideal situation, but even the generic ratings locks would be a huge improvement.

Similarly, you could have two levels: hide and lock. Hidden content would not be listed unless unlocked. Locked content would be listed but not viewable unless unlocked:

GJones Wrote:No, you are describing *your* usage case. I have no issue with profiles. Profiles allow different look, feel and complexity.

Let me try differently.

Buff was trying to find a solution for kids movies and proposed parental locks. He said he did not try with profiles. I suggested he may give it a go as it might be a simple and efficient way to solve the problem. You said no, profiles are not a solution for his problem.

My use case is quite simple. I don't care for custom scripts that compensate for lack of good rating info. I have separate source folders and profiles. I know what I'm putting in there. End of story.

I'm just saying: be careful what you wish for or you may end up entering PIN every time you want to watch a movie. For those who actually like this - happy sailing.

For what it's worth. I have used parental PIN locks long time ago with MM and MCE. From my point of view, profiles are simpler and more efficient at the same time. Your milage may vary.