[wyrm]

@mlaggner ,

OK, lets move the conversation over here.

IIRC we've made our code according of the information of wiki (which should be accurate): https://gitlab.com/tinyMediaManager/api-...ation.java

representation of the countries itself: should we stick to English names (is that good enough for all users?) or iso codes? If we use English names, I'd suggest to take the standards from the iso tables (wiki again: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_IS...ntry_codes)

Thank you will check over both of the links provided. At this stage I have managed to find graphics for 19 different countries (a reasonable number of which overlap with those in tMM). Taking names from ISO tables sounds like a very good idea. Being an Anglophone, English names sound like a fine idea, but open to suggestions on this.  As long as string is filesystem legal, does not really matter what we name the countries. I have hand edited most of my video library using my scheme, and the difference in skin speed is fairly obvious on my i5 windows box (direct loading of image instead of loading via long skin variables is so much quicker).
 

scrapers typically return iso codes or their own codes (whereas I've never seen a Canada Quebec certification - dies this have an own iso code or is this Canada in general?)

Sorry, don't know about ISO code for Quebec, but here is an example from IMDB.  Don't want to start any issues with the Canadians (last thing I want is a mob of them knocking at my door and being excessively 'nice' at me). While wikipedia has that separate certification has been available for Quebec for a while, I have only just noticed it appearing in IMDB. Not really sure I should handle it and how best to do so. I'm open to suggestions on this one.
 

I'd suggest something like:

Germany - FSK16
or (better from a technical view, but worse from the user view )
DE - FSK16

If we find anything which is good _and_ stable, I can write a script there I put out all tmm known certs along with the country (then you don't need to find them yourself)

Definitely think first option would look much better than second. Only thing in its favour for option two is that it keeps the string from getting too long. Yes please on the certs list as looking thru the settings and going back to the edit menu to check each country gets a bit average after a while. Biggest restriction at this stage is finding the actual graphics to add to the resource file, naming the files is just details.

Thanks for your time on following this up.  If I thrash out the details at this stage there is a much better chance to get others on board with the advantages of the change.

Wyrm

[myron]

How will this work for all skins? (in near future)
I've compiled a list a few years back, how they actually do it (https://paste.kodi.tv/ufojirejuf.kodi)
And the result war rather... mixed.
Some use prefixes like country codes, or contries in their long format,
Some do not provide prefixes at all (just the cert)...

This was the time where we introduced the "long" format, basically writing all known variants into this field / NFO.
Like "DE:FSK 16 / DE:FSK16 / DE:16 / DE:ab 16 / Germany:FSK 16"...
Whilst this might look bad in first place, it worked quite well for most of the skins, finding at least one match to display an icon....
(sincee most of them work with contains method)

We already have a "technical" format, which is basically our static certification enum name.
Introduced for MediaPortal, but if we could integrate something like this more statically to Kodi core, every skinner would be happy...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_pic...ing_system
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television...ing_system
Oh well, Canada (and others!) are really special here, having two systems

[wyrm]

@myron

Thanks for your input, sorry I have only just got back to it, real life got in the way.

How will this work for all skins? (in near future)
I've compiled a list a few years back, how they actually do it (https://paste.kodi.tv/ufojirejuf.kodi)
And the result war rather... mixed.
Some use prefixes like country codes, or contries in their long format,
Some do not provide prefixes at all (just the cert)...

Instead of large unwieldy $VAR code blocks like shown above, skin writer would use an image control that accessed a image resource file directly. Major issues with using VAR’s is the method does not scale, so most skins only supply a small subset of certifications. The more countries a skin writer covers, the slower it gets. Also the skin writer has to be very careful to order the VAR code correctly. For example if “G” rating is defined before “PG”, the “PG” rating will never be displayed. Basically as you said, its a mess.

This was the time where we introduced the "long" format, basically writing all known variants into this field / NFO.
Like "DE:FSK 16 / DE:FSK16 / DE:16 / DE:ab 16 / Germany:FSK 16"...
Whilst this might look bad in first place, it worked quite well for most of the skins, finding at least one match to display an icon....
(sincee most of them work with contains method)

See above its slow and does not scale. Slowest operation for a skin is a string comparison, and to cover a reasonable number of countries requires a large number of them. I am currently running my method on my systems and it is noticeably quicker than using $VAR’s. Unfortunately the down side of my method is that MPAA strings need to be edited for each entry in video database (by hand it was a massive PITA). For movies the universal movie scrapper can be setup to output the correct format, the TVShow scrappers cannot, so an addon to convert a users library would be required to make this work for most people.

We already have a "technical" format, which is basically our static certification enum name.
Introduced for MediaPortal, but if we could integrate something like this more statically to Kodi core, every skinner would be happy...

That was kind of what I was chasing, but have had a new idea that might work even better. Will involve convincing some people of the merits of the idea, but basically involves having a new certification icon image field in the database. This in theory would be even quicker and easier for the user to change to. Will try to contact the appropriate people to see if can make this happen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_pic...ing_system
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television...ing_system
Oh well, Canada (and others!) are really special here, having two systems

Yes, know those two wiki’s pretty well at this stage. Biggest issue I am having at the moment is not the information but sourcing the images. Did not realise about Canada until I opened this can of worms. That will learn me.

Wyrm

[Karellen]

For movies the universal movie scrapper can be setup to output the correct format

In case you missed the Python scraper WIP, item 5 is complete... https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=344580
Yep, still a little ways off, but will be available in future. Don't see why it cannot also be done for TV Scraper also.

[wyrm]

For movies the universal movie scrapper can be setup to output the correct format

In case you missed the Python scraper WIP, item 5 is complete... https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=344580
Yep, still a little ways off, but will be available in future. Don't see why it cannot also be done for TV Scraper also.

@Karellen

Cool, have been watching the thread. Nice to see that added, probably time to give it a try.

Wyrm

[mlaggner]

any news an that? if we can fix the style we can implement this

[wyrm]

any news an that? if we can fix the style we can implement this

@mlaggner,

Sorry mate Real Life got in the way a bit. Has been a slight change of direction on solution. Best option is to provide a file system legal string for the rating (so no : / ? Etc in string) and then to provide the full country name via a python addon. Ultimately would be ideal to have this provided by Kodi as a skin $INFO but for the moment I am dusting off my very rusty python so can be used with current version of Kodi.

If you could please make available a MPAA format that just contains the certification string with no illegal characters, meanwhile I will attempt to fight the snake to make the country name available to all skin writers.

Thanks for sticking with this.
Wyrm

[mlaggner]

No need to hurry - I am o vacation at the moment, so there is some time till I get back to tmm 😉