2009-05-10, 10:54
@emigrating, euphoric, and mediacoder, you guys should now have access to the private internal forum for this project:
http://forum.xbmc.org/forumdisplay.php?fid=107
http://forum.xbmc.org/forumdisplay.php?fid=107
Gamester17 Wrote:Question: Will it be coded in .NET? Which programming language, and which .NET framework version/platform?
http://forum.xbmc.org/tags.php?tag=media+manager
Good for reference and for hunting volunteers
zag2me Wrote:We discussed this in some depth on the meedios forums and have made some of our importers compatible with the XBMC .nfo files. The only disagreement is simply the naming of the exported file.
The XML structure is great but why use the .nfo extension? This clashes with scene nfo files and makes it really confusing.
http://www.meedios.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4637
If this could be changed to something like .xml or more generic, then all the apps could have an easy way of importing and exporting between each other. Something that would be a first step to cross app compatibility and a unified media manager.
mediaName.avi
mediaName.info.xml
mediaName.fanart.1.jpg
mediaName.fanart.2.jpg
mediaName.folder.1.jpg
mediaName.folder.2.jpg
mediaName.subtitle.eng.srt
mediaName.subtitle.nl.sub
mediaName.subtitle.nl.idx
mediaName.cover.front.tbn
mediaName.cover.inlay.tbn
Gamester17 Wrote:It would IMHO be great if you could use AJAX, JavaScript, and/or PHP instead of ASP.NET for the web interface, ...I didn't suggest it because I didn't think it was as flexible and easy to make/maintain as ASP.NET and still look good(?)
...if AJAX and/or PHP was used for the main interface then you would in theory even be able to run run it on XBMC's built-in WebServer, (once we replace GoAhead with AppWeb, which is planned), that way you in theory could if you wanted to run this media manager locally on your dedicated HTPC that is also running XBMC and directly manage XBMC's database via any web browser, ...hell, you could even bundle it with XBMC if the web interface was just as capable as a standalone desktop interface app.
....
davewantsmoore Wrote:How will the media-manager interface with the media... will it be editing the (XBMC) database?... will it edit tags within files?.... or will it put the info into .nfo / .xml / .whatever files?As this "Unified Media Manager" will be a standalone application, (just like Media Info Plus, Media Companion, My Movies 2, and the other existing metadata management applications out there), the idea is for it to have its own SQL databases where it will store all metadata that it downloads or the user enters manually. The idea is also that these SQL databases can be exported to individual XML files that XBMC/MediaPortal/Meedio can then import if they like, and the media files tags will be editable from within the "Unified Media Manager" interface as an option.
Something to consider here is that although tags seem like the most sensible way to add metadata to media... not all (many) types support it (well).
I guess my feeling is that to begin with metadata could be stored within the XBMC database.... although the goal would be to always have this data stored within the files as tags when that became possible.
Quote:'ve been thinking about this for awhile, and the only thing I can compare the two pieces of software (XBMC and the proposed app) is like iTunes and Frontrow, right braxs69?
Now granted, XBMC is leaps and bounds ahead of Frontrow, but think of the two pieces of software and how the relate to each other. We'll refer to the proposed app as XBMP for now (I remember using it back in the day on the original xbox!)
XBMP = iTunes
XBMC = FrontRow
XBMC is your Media center interface (clean, nice looking, showy, graphic heavy), this is what you want to see on your tv or when your relaxing.
XBMP would be what you use when your working inside Windows (or insert OS name here), playing games, doing homework, or just surfing the web ala iTunes.
Yes, it would be a completely new application, maybe borrowing the elements of different players (mp3, video, etc) that XBMC uses.
The relationship between the two really is the metadata. Allow XBMP to edit the internal XBMC databases for the libraries OR allow it to create nfos and edit them for each media item. My one gripe with XBMC is currently that tagging things is somewhat difficult.
After tagging my 100gb plus music library in iTunes, I have to say, they've made it incredibly easy.