Are the any plans to make the library functionality more flexible and allow for user defined sections that can appear as new items on the main menu in addition to the existing TV Shows and Movies?
I've done some searching and haven't found anything exactly like this. I know there's a manual workaround for home movies and video categories but not.
Some of these posts sort of hint to some of the same concepts but not quite.
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=51605
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=61779
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=58896
If there is a plan or existing feature for this then I apologise. Post the url and I'll add my thoughts/comments to it.
The last major update to Plex introduced pretty much the exact functionality I was looking for but I don't have a Mac and I like XBMC better anyway.
It would be awesome if you as a user could do the following:
This isn't the same as filtering by Genre. The main difference is that the content in the new video sections would be kept separate from other sections so that you don't see them when browsing your regular shows or movies. The secondary issue with Genres is that they are typically to broad and include far too many for each movie. Manually adding NFO files just isn't practical past a few hundred movies. Perhaps if there was an internal interface for selecting genres for movies but that's a different feature.
For example even though UFC can be scraped from TheMovieDB and I wouldn't want these mixed in when browsing the rest of my movies.
Suggested Process
These are just suggestions. There might be a better process or better way of doing this. One potential problem using the parent type is that you are restricted to a single parent type for a custom section when you might want to include both movies and TV shows.
E.g. MMA might include UFC which is interpreted as movies but also include something like Ultimate Fighter which is a TV Show
Perhaps keeping the Custom section separate from the scraper type would allow for even better flexibility i.e. selecting the custom section to list it under when adding a folder and keeping the scraper specific to the folder but not the custom section.
I've done some searching and haven't found anything exactly like this. I know there's a manual workaround for home movies and video categories but not.
Some of these posts sort of hint to some of the same concepts but not quite.
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=51605
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=61779
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=58896
If there is a plan or existing feature for this then I apologise. Post the url and I'll add my thoughts/comments to it.
The last major update to Plex introduced pretty much the exact functionality I was looking for but I don't have a Mac and I like XBMC better anyway.
Quote:Alexandria allows a library to have unlimited sections. For example, you might have a “Documentaries” section, a “Home Movies” section, an “Anime” section, and a “Foreign Films” section, all configured to suit the media.
It would be awesome if you as a user could do the following:
- Define new video sections in addition to TV Shows or Movies
- Each new section would be accessible from the main menu (or at least easily added to the main menu)
- Examples of new sections would be "Documentary", "Sports", "MMA", "Stand-up Comedy", "Anime" etc.
- Could still use existing scrapers as most of these are already available on TVDB and TheMovieDB etc.
This isn't the same as filtering by Genre. The main difference is that the content in the new video sections would be kept separate from other sections so that you don't see them when browsing your regular shows or movies. The secondary issue with Genres is that they are typically to broad and include far too many for each movie. Manually adding NFO files just isn't practical past a few hundred movies. Perhaps if there was an internal interface for selecting genres for movies but that's a different feature.
For example even though UFC can be scraped from TheMovieDB and I wouldn't want these mixed in when browsing the rest of my movies.
Suggested Process
- Keep all files for custom section in separate folder
- Add folder in XBMC
- Select content type and new option for "Custom"
- Type name for "Custom"content type OR select from existing "Custom" types
- Select scraper parent type for your custom type (e.g. archetype movies, tv shows, music, music videos)
- Select specific scraper e.g. TheMovieDb or IMDb (based on which parent type you selected)
- Skins could by default use the parent type of the custom section (e.g. if you selected archetype TV Shows)
These are just suggestions. There might be a better process or better way of doing this. One potential problem using the parent type is that you are restricted to a single parent type for a custom section when you might want to include both movies and TV shows.
E.g. MMA might include UFC which is interpreted as movies but also include something like Ultimate Fighter which is a TV Show
Perhaps keeping the Custom section separate from the scraper type would allow for even better flexibility i.e. selecting the custom section to list it under when adding a folder and keeping the scraper specific to the folder but not the custom section.
