Adding content to the Video Library from a FileItem with populated VideoInfoTag?
#1
Question 
I've pretty much finished a patch to populate content into the XBMC TV Show library based on the VideoInfoTag containing the show title and original air date. http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/7197

However, even with that done there will be plenty of our Myth TV recorded content that will simply never have any information within thetvdb.org. Local shows, News etc.

I really would like to have one place to access all our TV Shows similar to what I now have with Movies after adding in a patch so they could be scraped from the myth:// source and viewed in the XBMC Movie library. http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/6560

All of the VideoInfoTag information is populated by the myth:// source. Does it make sense for this information to be pushed directly into the XBMC Video library if say the season and episode are set to 0 (episode > 0 is a real show as season 0 is for "Specials") - I can check if there is an original air date first and go from there (much like the existing patch in http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/7197

Any advice / concerns? What headaches might I run into trying to accomplish this?
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#2
assumptions about ep/season nums are > -1 iirc so i suspect you shouldn't run into much crap. that being said, if ALL info comes from the myth backend, what purpose does storing it in our db serve? wouldn't just adding the relevant myth:// node to the library go a long way? (and possibly multipath'ing it with the current videodb:// nodes used) ?
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#3
I'd still like all the tv series level fanart for the valid shows scraped. With the current TV Shows patch anything without an original air date isn't scraped so doesn't show through library mode. Is there some other way I can get the other myth content that has all the videoinfotag information filled in shown next to the shows already in the library?
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#4
yes, using multipaths as i suggested. the video library is just a vfs entry - we list the directory videodb://2/3/ for example which is the tvshow listing.
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#5
I've tried the multipath approach. Here is what I have done and found by doing it:
1) The correct video library path to use is videodb://2/2/ (this lists TV Shows by Title, which matches the Title presentation that myth://i.p.address/tvshows/ returns)
2) I have to view the TV Shows outside of Library mode, i.e. this approach only works for files mode. This will be a problem for some skins where the file mode support is average, e.g. not as many view options to actually present the VideoInfoTag information (including Confluence).
3) The videodb://2/2 vfs provides the following virtual folders for a TV Series:
* All Seasons
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
etc.
4) myth:// just returns the TV Shows listing directly for a TV Series:
Two and a Half Men (16/12/2009)
Two and a Half Men (09/12/2009)
Two and a Half Men (02/12/2009)
5) So, at the moment all the myth:// recordings for a TV Series are listed after the Season directories.
6) For a "Season n" or "* All Seasons" directory, the name of the episode is displayed. This is sometimes known for MythTV recordings so could be used as well, and revert back to TV Show name and date if not (minor patch, part of it already in progress)

Here are some options, that I can think of, to improve this. What is the best way to go forward from here? What else could be done?

1a) Poke the myth:// VideoInfoTag information into the XBMC Episode database using Season 0 and Episode 0 if there is no original air date to use for standard scraping.
1b) If Season and Episode is 0, list them in a new "Unknown Season" folder, rather than "Specials", which is what should be getting used for Season 0 and a valid Episode number.
1c) If there is only an "Unknown Season" folder for a TV Series, just list the shows out directly to prevent an annoying second click to get to the content. I think there is some option for this in XBMC already, e.g. collapse if single season (will probably need to check more about this).

2a) Create another myth:// virtual directory that only contains TV Shows WITH an original air date. Assume that this can be scraped into the XBMC Episode Database using the original air date (minor patch needed). Actually this probably isn't necessary as the existing TV Shows directory could be used and those without an original air date could be skipped.
2b) Create another myth:// virtual directory that only contains TV Shows WITHOUT an original air date. Use this new virtual directory in a new Source multi-path'ed with the videodb://2/2/ directory. Assumption here is that all shows with an original air date were successfully put into the XBMC Episode database.
2c) Have the virtual filesystem from 2b use "Unknown Season" for the folder (OR leave at top level to have less clicks for shows that don't really have seasons at all, e.g. News - to align with Collapse if only one season type functionality)
2d) Have the virtual filesystem duplicate the 2c directory into an "* All Seasons" (translated) directory that contains the shows as well, so they will appear in the list with all the scraped TV shows. List the episode name (if available) rather than the TV Show name and Date.
2e) Ask skinners to provide all views to File Mode so this behaves like the actual library.

Thoughts, suggestionsHuh

Were there any plans to deal with TV Show integration as part of the PVR integration?

Main goal here is to have a single place to go to watch a TV Show, and having that still look great with the fanart for each TV Series. For my circumstances I have hardly any overlap with current recorded content in myth:// and other content already in my TV Show library ("Two and a Half Men" being one of the few overlaps).
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#6
Discussion relating to http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/10347 to avoid the trac issue getting too much stuff in there...

Could there be a hybrid approach to get something working well. Some other things I know.

1) Scraping Movies in seems to be working well. The scraper gets all the coverart etc.
2) If we can get the season and episode numbers from the backend then scraping in TV Shows that belong to TV series that have information on thetvdb or similar should work well. Scraping sometimes adds more information than what MythTV provides, e.g. a more appropriate thumbnail, better description etc (at least for the NZ EPG). Scraping at the TV Show and Season level gets the associated cover-art.
3) That leaves all the other recorded content. TV Series that don't have information in thetvdb.com and one off TV shows that will never have information in thetvdb.com. Maybe these just get the "generic" cover art, and don't have any concept of "Seasons" since there aren't any. Maybe these are the TV Shows that get augmented into the listing (like is done for ticket 10347)
4) It's pretty easy to modify the myth:// virtual directory structure to include a new directory that just contains TV Show content that doesn't have a season and episode number (assuming we can get that data from the backend).
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Adding content to the Video Library from a FileItem with populated VideoInfoTag?0