2011-02-14, 20:10
TheOddLinguist Wrote:@Jason102: Just updated my local copy to stable-pre...and wanted to say the updates are fantastic. The preset channels are the feature that put this one over the top. Well done, to you and all involved.
I hope to find some time this week to fix up by fork branch and update the pull request. Hopefully I'll have something for you soon; we'll see. By any chance, did you get a chance to look at any of the code? Perhaps see somewhere I should start?
@TheOddLinguist, it seems me and you are both hitting Jason with enhancement ideas. I've been thinking through the playlists and how to offer the best flexibility and ease of setup to the user. Below are some screenshots of how I would try to tackle this building upon the work Jason has done with the current preset channels.
Here's how it would work. There would be tabs for Preset TV, Preset Movies, Preset Mixed, Custom 1-25, Custom 26-50, could add Custom 51-75 and Custom 76-100.
Preset TV would have toggle box by each TV genre so the user could turn on or off a preset channel. There would also be preset channels by decade the user could turn on or off. These would be linked to preset files like Jason has, but instead of just filling in a missing channel, it would have some logic to copy the selected channel to the appropriate channel_x value.
Preset Movies would work the same way, but be preset playlists which only have movies in them.
Preset Mixed would have channels which combined episodes and movies in the same channel. This one is a little trickier since it requires playlists within playlist to get the mix we want, maybe 10 episodes followed by 2 movies, et.al.
The Custom channels would allow the user to select the playlist file they want to use for the channel. So a user could download my Channel Kit or Channel Pack to a folder anywhere on their computer and just select it. This would be easier IMO than telling the user to figure how to find the hidden AppData folder on Windows, etc. Thinking about very novice users here who don't want to get into the guts of where XBMC stores things.
I also would like to create a custom xml parser to work around the existing playlist functionality so we can get episodes by content rating and studio/network and movies by studio. I find the current smart playlist editor limiting. I would be willing to try and help out with the development.
Just my thoughts and suggestions.