2013-02-01, 01:00
The current video types (movies, tv shows, music videos) do not suit sports very well. using UFC or Wrestling PPV's as an example, each eevnt has it's own nfo, poster, fanart, and they are generally divided by years rather than seasons.
Using the Tv Show category, the best one can currently do is try to name their seasons after the years (eg: Season 1992, Season 1993, etc), however this is not a very 'elegant' way of ordering things. Fromt here, each season (year) is locked down to just one fanart and season poster. Using UFC as an example, each PPV that year has its own fight poster, and there are many sites that make fanart based on the match card. Unfortunately non of this is useable. So the primary problems with this method are the season names and the lack of episode level artwork.
The Movie category doesn't work at all unless you add each one as a standalone, at which point you loose the ordering of events. With the UFC, this isn't a huge deal as the events are numbered in numerical order. but with the WWE, this would put all your Wrestlemania's together, all your Rumbles together, and you loose the chronology of the sets. So it really isn't an option. I assume to be the same with music videos, however I haven't ever tried that content setting, and I don't know anything about it.
Another method that has been attempted is to add the files as a "video folder" under a custom main menu. This actually gets around the two problems inherent to using the TVShow content type, but introduces new problems. First, since it is file mode, you can name the season folders whatever you like, which means you can have years. Also, it allows each folder to have it's own poster and fanart, which allows one to get around the issue of having art at the "episode" level. Unfortunately, file mode doesn't read info's. So now you loose all the metadata in each nfo file (plot, "actors" [wrestlers/fighters/players/etc], etc). It also reverts to the folder name for each ppv. Currently I have them named as S01E01 style, to try and get it to work in Tv Show mode. So in this manner, there is no way to tell what ppv your looking at without going into each one. If I wear to rename the folders after each PPV, then they would reorder alphabetically, and not chronologically. If I start doing things like adding numbers to the front of each one, then it just starts getting messy, and at that point I am trying all kinds of backwards approaches for a method that doesn't have an nfo file anyways.
Another argument for customizeable TV show season names would be shows like American Horror Story, which subtitle each season, as they are each unrelated. Season one is Murder House, season 2 is Asylum.... This has become a trend across several shows.
There are a few ways to go with this feature request.
A: TV Show content type could enable posters and fanart for individual episodes, and add customizeable season names (this would be so great, and not just for sports - some TV shows are starting to highly individualize episodes)
B: Allow file mode to search for and use nfo files... highly unlikely, and probably difficult to implement.
C: A new content type for Sports that is basically the Tv Show type, but with added posters/fanart for episodes and customizeable season names.
I'm not sure if A or C is easier, but either one would be amazing. Hopefully I'm not askin for too much in one request here, but as my original proposal was for a new content type, I wanted to be sure to cover all the bases that would necessitate and define a new type.
Using the Tv Show category, the best one can currently do is try to name their seasons after the years (eg: Season 1992, Season 1993, etc), however this is not a very 'elegant' way of ordering things. Fromt here, each season (year) is locked down to just one fanart and season poster. Using UFC as an example, each PPV that year has its own fight poster, and there are many sites that make fanart based on the match card. Unfortunately non of this is useable. So the primary problems with this method are the season names and the lack of episode level artwork.
The Movie category doesn't work at all unless you add each one as a standalone, at which point you loose the ordering of events. With the UFC, this isn't a huge deal as the events are numbered in numerical order. but with the WWE, this would put all your Wrestlemania's together, all your Rumbles together, and you loose the chronology of the sets. So it really isn't an option. I assume to be the same with music videos, however I haven't ever tried that content setting, and I don't know anything about it.
Another method that has been attempted is to add the files as a "video folder" under a custom main menu. This actually gets around the two problems inherent to using the TVShow content type, but introduces new problems. First, since it is file mode, you can name the season folders whatever you like, which means you can have years. Also, it allows each folder to have it's own poster and fanart, which allows one to get around the issue of having art at the "episode" level. Unfortunately, file mode doesn't read info's. So now you loose all the metadata in each nfo file (plot, "actors" [wrestlers/fighters/players/etc], etc). It also reverts to the folder name for each ppv. Currently I have them named as S01E01 style, to try and get it to work in Tv Show mode. So in this manner, there is no way to tell what ppv your looking at without going into each one. If I wear to rename the folders after each PPV, then they would reorder alphabetically, and not chronologically. If I start doing things like adding numbers to the front of each one, then it just starts getting messy, and at that point I am trying all kinds of backwards approaches for a method that doesn't have an nfo file anyways.
Another argument for customizeable TV show season names would be shows like American Horror Story, which subtitle each season, as they are each unrelated. Season one is Murder House, season 2 is Asylum.... This has become a trend across several shows.
There are a few ways to go with this feature request.
A: TV Show content type could enable posters and fanart for individual episodes, and add customizeable season names (this would be so great, and not just for sports - some TV shows are starting to highly individualize episodes)
B: Allow file mode to search for and use nfo files... highly unlikely, and probably difficult to implement.
C: A new content type for Sports that is basically the Tv Show type, but with added posters/fanart for episodes and customizeable season names.
I'm not sure if A or C is easier, but either one would be amazing. Hopefully I'm not askin for too much in one request here, but as my original proposal was for a new content type, I wanted to be sure to cover all the bases that would necessitate and define a new type.
