[Rudepooch]

Wow, quite of bit of action on this thread... and no hostility! Imagine!

My issue with the library is simply... I'm lazy!

There's the gods' honest truth. Without the library I just fire in the file and a cover .tbn and I'm good to go. I use my media center for watching movies and listening to music- I don't need all the info on a movie, so why would I do the extra work? I played around with .nfo files in the past- but just found for the 1500 or so videos I have it was WAY to much bother. Also, scrapers really aren't very successful with some of the foreign movies I have, and some of my movies I name in a peculiar way so I can find them easily (such as movieseriesname - 1.avi, movieseriesname - 2 - movieepisodename.avi, etc) completely screws up the scrapers, and I have no desire to change it.

As I've said elsewhere- I can see it would be great if you want or need those features- I just don't. I think it's great that the devs here and at plex do what they do and do it so well. I just hope the xbmc devs let me keep my file mode.

So far, so good

Some decent things going on over there though- worth checking out!

[pmcd]

I'm planning on unifying files and library views in the future, so that you can view by either, with information from both. Obviously the library view is more optimal if your content fits it well, but if it doesn't, then viewing by folder layout will give you more control over the layout, whilst still having the metadata information available.

This really says it all. It's why I prefer the file mode, but I can see where library mode would be powerful if your videos fit well. Having information from both available sounds like a great plan.

philip

[sho]

I don't like the idea to add external sources to our only "open source" scraper.

I actually meant the other way around, integrate TMDB thumbs into the IMDb scraper. (Which is also what I *think* Migueld meant.

But I guess anyone of average intelligence should be able to work that out comparing the two and looking at how you pull TMDB fanart and IMPAwards/Movieposter thumbs into IMDb scraping (no I am not voulunteering, also my intelligence is debatable), then submit as a patch.

Wow, quite of bit of action on this thread... and no hostility! Imagine!

We are not half as bad as we are painted!

[mkortstiege]

I actually meant the other way around, integrate TMDB thumbs into the IMDb scraper. (Which is also what I *think* Migueld meant.

Oops, misread it. I will take a look at this, but i can't give you an ETA when this will be. So any patch is highly welcome

[nmirza]

As a person who converted to plex after the xbmc spinoff, for really no good reason quite honestly, i am also having some issues with the new plex "features" and cutbacks. there seems to be a design philosophy issue on the team...it seems simplification means removing reatures, not necessarily making the system far more powerful and actually simpler to accomplish tasks easier. for example, while file manager has been removed to make things simpler, if one looks at the main menu there is nothing simple about it. theres around 8 different menu items last time i checked before i went back to the non-plex version of mediastream. removing a tucked away feature, while cluttering a very obvious area is everything that confusion is all about.

i do feel that plex is doing some things right...two in particular...addition of harmony support, which i find indespensible. i know the apple remote is tiny and nice and functional, the harmony ofcourse is way more powerful and i have it fully configured for my full media setup so i like having one control to use on everything. ive configured soft keys to launch music, movies, tv shows, update library, file manager, etc.

The second is app store, which i also find is a big step forward. It takes xbmc beyond just a pretty UI to organize and play your files, into the full media center/media controller/tv software that i've always wanted.

I also would like to chime in about the file mode vs library mode. being someone with 5-6 hard drives, i find library mode amazingly useful. i dont need to know where all my files are, as long as they are organized and named properly and the scrapers have worked well. using just file mode, again my argument against it is that then suddenly xbmc just becomes a pretty file manager to play your files....simply eye candy you can control with the remote. thus the library mode is essential. i do agree with some issues, for example not knowing which files did not scrape (there should be a diagnostic area within xbmc maybe where one can check such info, not in the same details as debug logs but just a simple list of errors and ommissions from scraping for example). sometimes thumbs for the episode will download in file mode, (maybe just first frame of video?), but in library mode it is missing until I move the file, rescrape and clean library, move them back into my sources, and then scrape it again.

ultimately, one has to find a middle ground between both softwares i think. the over simplification of plex vs the throw everything in there approach of xbmc. xbmc being the originator of the project, i would prefer to also move back since its the historically proven approach and team. but there are two things that are necessary for me. first and foremost, harmony support. and secondly, an online content viewing method. for me ultimately the goal of xbmc/plex is to be on full time on my tv without the need to exit it (other than those minor times i want to download something), thus it needs to play my media, organize it, and provide me with choices of other sources of entertainment (i dont mean games, i mean online tv/audio, ad who knows, usenet/torrent downloading and organization automatically).

[davilla]

Harmony support will be in 9.04 release. Watch svn commits to see when it hits.

Online content viewing beyond the existing python plugins will not make 9.04 as we are in feature freeze right now. There are definite plans to add this after 9.04 release. Since we don't have to hide the source code in a closed source media server app, we will have direct access to the APIs needed from inside XBMC source code proper.

Side note, playing real DVDs on OSX is fixed now

[nmirza]

can play dvd and video_ts files on xbmc now im switching when 9.04 is released.
i have one more question, i will look at the trackers aswell, but approx wehn is 9.04 expected to be released.
also, waht is the release process for xbmc builds? i dont know how to compile code for example so i always have to wait for dmg's, so approximately waht is the general cycle of releasing updates?

[spiff]

9.04 = 2009, april. you go figure

[nmirza]

so then there is a release every month? and if you skip a month do you jump from say 9.04 to 9.06? im not programmer or project manager, but id think synchronizing release version with date would get a bit tricky.

[spiff]

our last release was 8.10 - i.e. 2008, october. our dev cycle is 6 months. builds between those are up to the community to do if they so desire.

[davilla]

The official release is on a six month cycle.

We have 3rd party builds that follow svn pretty close and I would like to see nightly svn builds but that still need to be worked out.

For 3rd party builds, see http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=44301, one just popped out yesterday.

[Ayla]

The official release is on a six month cycle.

We have 3rd party builds that follow svn pretty close and I would like to see nightly svn builds but that still need to be worked out.

For 3rd party builds, see http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=44301, one just popped out yesterday.

Thanks for the info.

Do you know if "native" Logitech Harmony support is included in the latest 3rd party build (rev19065)?

That's the one feature keeping me from switching back to XBMC from Plex

[davilla]

describe "native" Logitech Harmony support? I have no clue what that really means.

[Ayla]

describe "native" Logitech Harmony support? I have no clue what that really means.

I'm sorry, I mean Harmony support like Plex does it.

Where you don't need a thirdparty program, like Remote Buddy or similar to map all the buttons on the Harmony remote.

In Plex, I just go to Settings and set the Remote to Logitech Harmony and it works, with all the buttons mapped out etc.

[davilla]

I'm sorry, I mean Harmony support like Plex does it.

Where you don't need a thirdparty program, like Remote Buddy or similar to map all the buttons on the Harmony remote.

In Plex, I just go to Settings and set the Remote to Logitech Harmony and it works, with all the buttons mapped out etc.

being worked on