[AbMagFab]

wow - nice "help and support"...

all i can say is you get what you pay for.  and if you ask me, the help and support around here is damn good.  i would say your questions have been answered in a very timely manner.

it's only a "feature" if people use it.  there was a feature there that worked, now there isn't.  even if the "5 seconds" works again, it's still not what was there before.

i use it, therefore its a feature.  you're right, its not what was there before.  that was just a stopgap until proper stack handling was in place.  this is the future.  its not going away.  if you dont want stacks treated as such, then dont stack your videos.  you can use queuing instead.  that's all it did in the background anyway.

i guess if it's fast, then it doesn't matter. hopefully it won't take the 45 secs+ to load a stack of 10+ videos...

[jmarshall]

yes it's a work in progress. it will get faster.

it's not designed for 10 videos stacked up though - use a playlist for that. it's designed for a single feature that spans across more than 1 file. this doesn't generally happen with 10 separate files (mostly it's 2, maybe 3 at most)

10 files is a lot to open and read - it will get faster, but i'm not sure it'll be fast enough to be "instant".

cheers,
jonathan

[AbMagFab]

okay, i guess the point is you had a feature in there before that allowed me to instantly start a stack - this is very user friendly. for home videos, i can have many files in a stack (for example, christmas). playlists don't work for this at all, and would be nearly unmanageable (right now, just point to the drive with the home videos).

while this new feature is nice for movies, it sounds like it will always be useless for large stacks.

would it be possible to maintain the previous feature of instant start of stacks? or a threshhold for doing the combine if you know it will be too slow for large stacks?

i see no reason why you'd want to get rid of the previous feature.

[jmarshall]

why are playlists not manageable? just queue the files up (press y on the folder), switch to the "now playing" screen, and play.

imo you are using the stack feature for something for which it was not designed - unless your home video is supposed to be played as a single file, whereby why isn't it a single file to begin with?

[AbMagFab]

why are playlists not manageable?  just queue the files up (press y on the folder), switch to the "now playing" screen, and play.

imo you are using the stack feature for something for which it was not designed - unless your home video is supposed to be played as a single file, whereby why isn't it a single file to begin with?

my home videos are a single "file" with lots of clips.  each clip is a single video camera on/off, usually 30 seconds to 2 minutes, max.  the collection of clips makes a single video.  for christmas, this can be 10-20 clips (like chapters on a dvd, but they're separate files).  for a regular event, like a party or swim class, this is usually 5-10 clips.  they are meant to be watched together as one unit.

it's not a playlist, it's a stacked video.  this is exactly what stacked videos mean - multiple parts to a single video, right?

i have a few hundred clips.  if i had to make playlists out of each of them in order to play them as a unit, it would be unweildy, and impractical.  and it wouldn't make sense from a viewing standpoint - they are single videos, not playlists.  videos are found by navigating the directory tree, not going to a playlist - "videos/home/daughter/2005/christmas day (stack)". right now it's like any other video - i copy the pieces into a directory, and they appear as a single video via xbmc in the proper place in the directory tree.

does this make sense?

the other people i've turned on to xbmc use it the same way for their home videos (granted, only 5 people, but it's everyone i know who uses xbmc, and we use it this way coincidentally, but mostly because it makes sense in xbmc).

that all being said, it would be nice to retain the feature of instant play of a stack without having to wait for the calculation of a combined video.  they are combined videos, and i would prefer that feature if the time could be kept to < 5 seconds for large stacks (up to 20 files), but it sounds like that isn't likely.

so is it a big deal to keep instant play, and combined play as separate options?  or a threshhold where combined play takes too long (say, more than 2-3 files it does instant play)?  it certainly makes sense to give folks options for either, or still support instant play where combined play is too slow.

[kraqh3d]

it's not a playlist, it's a stacked video. this is exactly what stacked videos mean - multiple parts to a single video, right?

exactly. they are stacked because they are meant to be played as one cohesive unit. you're just annoyed because the way its works its too slow for you...

and here's quick quick tip for you... put all the clips of a particular event in an event folder... press "play" on the folder.... voila... its an automatic playlist!

** edit **
play may not work... i have to double check later. i think i added to video too, but i'm not sure right now. if its not, expect it there soon.