[clue-tech] Linux Media Center options and applications

[Angelo Bertolli]

Michael J. Hammel wrote:
> On Thu, 2009-08-27 at 11:13 -0400, Angelo Bertolli wrote:
>> Yeah, that's what they say, but evidently MythTV can't see it unless you
>> import it (i.e. it's in the MythTV database).  I found something online
>> that says I need to use the MythTV rebuild database script so it'll go
>> and find all the files.  I may try that, and then go and try XBMC to see
>> which I like better.
> 
> Yes, but its not that difficult (no need to "rebuild database").  Copy
> your files to your configured video directory.  Then go to the Video
> Manager and have it search IMBD to automatically add each file to the
> db.  You have to do this for each file initially so the first time might
> be time consuming if you have lots of videos.  In some cases it won't
> find the right video metadata so you just add it manually.  Having
> metadata will cause the file to show up when you browse your videos.

Which one is the video directory?  One of the problems I have with
MythTV is it has some non-intuitive language/distinctions that I don't
understand yet.  For example, there's "watch recordings" and "watch
videos."  Can I throw my avi files in the "videos" category?  If so, how?

What I did so far is use myth.rebuilddatabase.pl to add all my AVI files
to the "recordings" area.  I'd much rather just be able to throw them in
a directory and browse them, and also have it automatically grab
information from IMDB.  Most of what I have are season DVD sets
converted to AVI, not actual movies.  I like to convert all my videos
first and not leave them in VOB format because I feel like I get better
usage out of my disk space that way.

Is there an easier way for me to do this with MythTV?


> Alternatively, just go into the MythVideo setup screen (don't remember
> off hand where that is at the moment but its not hard to find - look for
> Video under setup) and have it show all files even if they aren't in the
> db.  I believe in this case it will just display the filenames, though I
> don't use this option so I'm not sure about that.


Ok, maybe that answers my question.  I have to take a look and see if I
can find that.


> Also, IMDB changed some things so the auto search stuff doesn't work as
> well as it used to (should still work for most common videos however).
> I switched to another script which merges IMDB ids with another web
> site, themoviedb.org.  This isn't hard to do but its more for the avid
> fiddler.  See my posts on the subject:
> 
> http://www.graphics-muse.org/wp/?p=516
> http://www.graphics-muse.org/wp/?p=526


I'm finding that MythTV will do everything I want, the only problem is
understanding their millions of options and menu items.  It's definitely
not the most user-oriented system from a setup/maintenance standpoint.

For example, they have Storage Groups, Playback Groups, and Recording
Groups (any others?  I don't know yet).  I want to group some videos
together so I don't have to scroll through hundreds of titles in order
to find the one I want.  Which one of those would you guess is the type
of grouping to choose?  I'd pick "playback groups" but I'd be wrong.
Playback groups are really more like settings.  The winner is "recording
groups."

Oh and good luck trying to find where the "recording groups" menu item
is.  You might thing it's under Manage Recordings (actually it might be,
but I didn't find it there), but I found it under Watch Recordings.
It's a classic case of spaghetti'd menu trees.

All-in-all, I'm pretty happy with the fact that it works well though.
Once you learn how to do the stuff you want to do, it's relatively easy.


Angelo