[galvanash]

I submitted this as a patch: http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/10610

Read the description as this is currently not a complete patch, but I didn't want to go too far before some other eyes were put on it. Specifically, the performance optimizations recommended by Spiff have not be done yet on the actors node (I have done some other minor optimizations and it performs fairly well with my library with 5500 actors - it is a wee bit slower than the original code, but not much).

[literaldeluxe]

Would it be possible to set a threshold for the number of appearances for an actor to show up in the list? Basically, the list would still be alphabetical and function normally, however you can set a value such that actors that appear in less than that many movies/TV shows are hidden. It would be a quick way to dramatically cut down the length of the list. Obviously it wouldn't be perfect, as it would hide major actors that only had a few parts, and include minor actors that have bit parts in lots of things, but it would be a welcome addition that could make an impact without the user having to do anything to manually decide who is and isn't important (having that ability would be nice, too, but would be a lot more work).

[galvanash]

Would it be possible to set a threshold for the number of appearances for an actor to show up in the list? Basically, the list would still be alphabetical and function normally, however you can set a value such that actors that appear in less than that many movies/TV shows are hidden.

I don't know... What would be the rationale for this? I personally do not use the actors node often, but when I do it is to quickly scan for a certain actor. Having the listing be incomplete seems counter productive. Granted it gets slow when there are a large number of actors, but filtering like this by default would cripple it imo. I would rather it be slow than incomplete.

As it is now, I'm just hoping the work I did on so far on implementing the counts is deemed good enough (or that I get some marching orders on what needs to be done to get it accepted). I am using the feature in my private build, and it is actually more useful than I though it would be. However, it makes the actors node even slower than it was before... But like I said, I don't use that node very often.

[frater]

I don't know... What would be the rationale for this? I personally do not use the actors node often, but when I do it is to quickly scan for a certain actor. Having the listing be incomplete seems counter productive. Granted it gets slow when there are a large number of actors, but filtering like this by default would cripple it imo. I would rather it be slow than incomplete.

It all depends of course how slow, but it's not only the computer that has to interpret the results but we have to do it too. If you can set a filter to 3 or more and then browse alphabetically it will probably work as we want it.

You can also divide the list into 2 parts. A sub 3 part and the rest in which they are in alphabetical order. You can then quickly look if you can find your (probably well-known) actor in the list... If you don't find him there you can search for him in the other alphabetical list.

The old way (pre-galvanesh) is really not practical with all those names you never heard of....

I am using the feature in my private build, and it is actually more useful than I though it would be.

It's fun.
When I first tried it I had "Samuel L Jackson" on top. I don't really like that actor. I was able to knock him down as #1 by getting some more movies of my favorite actors. My top 3 is now Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett but I'm seeing many more favourite actors for which I have to get some more movies....
It's fun to compare my list of films with iMDB and see which movies you're missing....

Great feature

[blacklist]

Would something like this: http://forum.xbmc.org/showpost.php?p=652...tcount=175 be possible with these features you're working on?

[frater]

On itself it's a good feature request and I like it.
But it really has not much to do with this thread.

This is about a system wide concept for browsing sorted on the amount of occurences in your library. Usefull sort keys are: Actor, Director, Year, Company, Rating

The latter will rate your taste. If you have a lot of movies with a low rating on top

[frater]

This is a great feature and I hate to lose it.
Galvanash provided me working versions of a few beta's and I'm now running one of the latest release candidates with his patch.

I'm afraid this feature will get lost for XBMC because Galvanash is too modest. At least that's what I think. I am looking at it as a user not a programmer and I'm not in the position to judge if his modesty is at its place.

Maybe another programmer can help him? From my point of view it's already working fine.