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garyi
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I think confluence is even more complex, I really don't like all these hidden options, yes they are geektastic but others in the household would not have a clue on pressing right on videos (for instance) in order to 'find' TV shows and Films. Its just not good practice. I hate to keep mentioning my wife because she is far from thick, but she has no interest in how this thing works she just wants it to work. For that to happen I estimate takes me about half an hour or more a week to keep up to date and 'working'
The whole library thing in XBMC is very complex its not user friendly in the slightest and changing names is not going to help.
1. Videos needs to go, or at least be buried as 'file system' 'explorer' or what ever, it should never be needed in day to day use.
2. Setting content should be automated. I am not a programmer and what I am saying might be crap but surely scrapers could work out when you first add a source if the content is music/film/tvshow? Even if it had a stab then said 'we believe this source is tv shows yes or no?'
3. New additions to the library need to be automagically bought in, restarting is not an option, mine is running 24/7.
4. The update library thing only adds it never takes away. For instance the other day I finally got round to fixing season 6 of Southpark which had the shows wrongly numbered so the info related to the wrong show. I fixed them on the computer then updated the library. All that happened was I got double of everything. So then I had to delete the whole of season 6, then go back to videos into tv shows to scan for new content to get season 6 back and scraped properly. In the mean time it 'refound' sesame street a folder I physically deleted from the computer and removed from the library. Sigh. So I removed that again.
Its a constant thing. The good news is I am a geek so love it, but most people I have tried to promote this too soon move on when it comes to the whole library thing.
My feeling is XBMC is as far as it can be with the current library system, I don't see in its current state how it can be made more friendly. And I want to make totally clear I love the programme and the efforts that have gone into it, but the library is complex..
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xexe
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2009-11-30, 22:11
(This post was last modified: 2009-11-30, 22:18 by xexe.)
I should also add there is an extra level of complication going from "XBMC best guess of content" to "this is precisely what I have and 100% coverage"
But I would like to say that I have some decent experience of teaching users how to implement the library both IRL and in IRC. Its not until you have sat down with someone who is a blank slate and tried to explain all teh nuances to get to 100% accurate 100% coverage that you truely realise how hard it is.
Perhaps this is stating the obvious but perhaps it is not. Once you get the basics you are well on your way but far from skilled. It doesn't help that at least half of the library support requests illicit responses of "dont use XBMC use this other cool windows only tool to do this bit".
There are definately some areas that can be slickened up but lets not forget that whole swathes of the files users ask XBMC to identify are named by well meaning but ultimately completly unskilled users. Rubbish in rubbish out.
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garyi
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Thanks Rob, I think you have succinctly proven my point.
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One possible solution would be to ask for media sources during installation. One can always add stuff later on but having some media already in the library could help dispell some confusion?
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I like the create your own categories idea, but putting things on the home screen is going to be a very skin dependent thing. Just for example, in Confluence you get Movies, Files, Library, and Plugins off of the video menu. In Rapier you get Videos, and then Movies as a separate item if movies exist in the library. Then there are mods that add sub menu items to jump to specific areas as well. What shows up on the menu or sub-menu is very much up to the skinner, not the system. These are just two examples, but from looking at screen shots for other skins they will also be very different, some don't even have support for a sub-menu system (think PMIII when that was default).
That being said, I could see the different video types going into the root of the Video Library menu. so at the very root in your library you'd see something like
Movies
TV Shows
Home Movies <- add category
Video Clips <- added category
Recently Added
Playlists
From here you could mod your skin to put shortcuts into the home screen if you wanted. This would still allow you to have multiple sources, and directories being scanned into personally specified containers for the library; but still leave the skinner in control of what is on the screen.