Mailing List Archive

On Sat, 27 Feb 2021 09:39:41 +0000, you wrote:

>I've been making more use of the Videos section over the last few months with moving boxsets from dvd to files. This has spured watching content chronologically rather than pot luck order via recording their broadcasted version.
>
>What we're finding is that it's very hard to keep track of where we're up to. typically we know which season, but the episode is much more difficult to know so ends up browsing where we think we are, starting playback to find if we have a bookmark and ultimately exiting and playing the next file till we stumble upon the correct one.
>
>
>
>I think it's a case of the streaming services having both 'resume watching' which will immediately resume playback from your recent media (as does emby and plex iirc), and they also seem to have better visibility as you browse content on whether they've been watched or not.
>
>
>
>are there any options i've overlooked that would make mythtv Videos more user/WAF friendly in this respect?
>
>liveTV/recordings side is much easier to see progress but feels like the Videos area is archaic and massive overhaul is required to bring it inline with other solutions.
>
>I can completely see how Videos would work better with films which are a single file you'd typically watch in it's entirety, but for TV boxsets it seems much more difficult to keep track of where you are.

There is nothing that is very friendly that I know of. I have used
several different strategies. If I am not going to want to watch the
series again, I just delete the watched files as soon as I finish
watching them. If I do want to watch them again, then I have tried
just writing down on a piece of paper which episode I am up to, and
also doing the same in the Notes app of my cellphone. That works well
but is annoying, and you have to remember to do it. One other
possible way to do it that I have not tried is to have a "watched"
directory or subdirectory and move the watched files to that. But
moving files around is not an available function of the Videos code,
so it would need to be done from a command prompt or files app.

If you have truly lost track of what you were watching last night,
then you can look in the mythfrontend.log file and see what you last
played:

grep mythplayer /var/log/mythtv/mythfrontend.log | grep OpenFile

or for the rotated log files:

grep mythplayer /var/log/mythtv/mythfrontend.log.* | grep OpenFile

This will list all the recordings you played also, but it is obvious
which is which. You have to do it before the mythfrontend.log* files
have been rotated and the old information deleted - how long that
takes will depend on how much you use mythfrontend. You can alter the
logrotate settings (in the /etc/logrotate.d/mythfrontend file in
Ubuntu) if you want to keep larger logs or more rotated files. Log
rotation normally happens at midnight. In Ubuntu, it uses the
logrotate.service and logrotate.timer systemd units to do this.
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On Sat, Feb 27, 2021 at 6:59 AM Stephen Worthington <
stephen_agent@jsw.gen.nz> wrote:

> On Sat, 27 Feb 2021 09:39:41 +0000, you wrote:
>
> >I've been making more use of the Videos section over the last few months
> with moving boxsets from dvd to files. This has spured watching content
> chronologically rather than pot luck order via recording their broadcasted
> version.
> >
> >What we're finding is that it's very hard to keep track of where we're up
> to. typically we know which season, but the episode is much more difficult
> to know so ends up browsing where we think we are, starting playback to
> find if we have a bookmark and ultimately exiting and playing the next file
> till we stumble upon the correct one.
> >
> >
> >
> >I think it's a case of the streaming services having both 'resume
> watching' which will immediately resume playback from your recent media (as
> does emby and plex iirc), and they also seem to have better visibility as
> you browse content on whether they've been watched or not.
> >
> >
> >
> >are there any options i've overlooked that would make mythtv Videos more
> user/WAF friendly in this respect?
> >
> >liveTV/recordings side is much easier to see progress but feels like the
> Videos area is archaic and massive overhaul is required to bring it inline
> with other solutions.
> >
> >I can completely see how Videos would work better with films which are a
> single file you'd typically watch in it's entirety, but for TV boxsets it
> seems much more difficult to keep track of where you are.
>
> There is nothing that is very friendly that I know of. I have used
> several different strategies. If I am not going to want to watch the
> series again, I just delete the watched files as soon as I finish
> watching them. If I do want to watch them again, then I have tried
> just writing down on a piece of paper which episode I am up to, and
> also doing the same in the Notes app of my cellphone. That works well
> but is annoying, and you have to remember to do it. One other
> possible way to do it that I have not tried is to have a "watched"
> directory or subdirectory and move the watched files to that. But
> moving files around is not an available function of the Videos code,
> so it would need to be done from a command prompt or files app.
>
> If you have truly lost track of what you were watching last night,
> then you can look in the mythfrontend.log file and see what you last
> played:
>
> grep mythplayer /var/log/mythtv/mythfrontend.log | grep OpenFile
>
> or for the rotated log files:
>
> grep mythplayer /var/log/mythtv/mythfrontend.log.* | grep OpenFile
>
> This will list all the recordings you played also, but it is obvious
> which is which. You have to do it before the mythfrontend.log* files
> have been rotated and the old information deleted - how long that
> takes will depend on how much you use mythfrontend. You can alter the
> logrotate settings (in the /etc/logrotate.d/mythfrontend file in
> Ubuntu) if you want to keep larger logs or more rotated files. Log
> rotation normally happens at midnight. In Ubuntu, it uses the
> logrotate.service and logrotate.timer systemd units to do this.
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> http://wiki.mythtv.org/Mailing_List_etiquette
> MythTV Forums: https://forum.mythtv.org


What I do is filter the display to only show unwatched episodes. When I
finish an episode, I hit Menu>Mark as Watched.

Am Samstag, 27. Februar 2021, 10:39:41 CET schrieb Tim Draper via mythtv-
users:
> I've been making more use of the Videos section over the last few months
> with moving boxsets from dvd to files. This has spured watching content
> chronologically rather than pot luck order via recording their broadcasted
> version.

Am I right that you use images of the dvds? If so, I can imagine any other
solution than bookmarks and like you do. The easiest would be to convert them
to one file per episode which is where myth just works. It just depends on the
theme if you can see what you've watched easily.

--
MfG usw.

Werner Mahr


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On Sat, 2021-02-27 at 09:39 +0000, Tim Draper via mythtv-users wrote:
> I've been making more use of the Videos section over the last few
> months with moving boxsets from dvd to files. This has spured
> watching content chronologically rather than pot luck order via
> recording their broadcasted version.
> What we're finding is that it's very hard to keep track of where
> we're up to. typically we know which season, but the episode is much
> more difficult to know so ends up browsing where we think we are,
> starting playback to find if we have a bookmark and ultimately
> exiting and playing the next file till we stumble upon the correct
> one.
>
> I think it's a case of the streaming services having both 'resume
> watching' which will immediately resume playback from your recent
> media (as does emby and plex iirc), and they also seem to have better
> visibility as you browse content on whether they've been watched or
> not.
>
> are there any options i've overlooked that would make mythtv Videos
> more user/WAF friendly in this respect?
> liveTV/recordings side is much easier to see progress but feels like
> the Videos area is archaic and massive overhaul is required to bring
> it inline with other solutions.
> I can completely see how Videos would work better with films which
> are a single file you'd typically watch in it's entirety, but for TV
> boxsets it seems much more difficult to keep track of where you are.

I use the Blue Abstract theme, which puts a little banner on the upper
right corner of each file to show its watched state. Its either blue
with the word "Watched", or red with the word "New". Works well for me.

You can also combine that with the setting to automatically mark
recordings as watched (Video -> Playback -> General Playback -> Auto
mark as watched). Should make it seamless.

David


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On 2/27/21 9:21 AM, David Hampton via mythtv-users wrote:
> On Sat, 2021-02-27 at 09:39 +0000, Tim Draper via mythtv-users wrote:
>> I've been making more use of the Videos section over the last few
>> months with moving boxsets from dvd to files. This has spured
>> watching content chronologically rather than pot luck order via
>> recording their broadcasted version.
>> What we're finding is that it's very hard to keep track of where
>> we're up to. typically we know which season, but the episode is much
>> more difficult to know so ends up browsing where we think we are,
>> starting playback to find if we have a bookmark and ultimately
>> exiting and playing the next file till we stumble upon the correct
>> one.
>>
>> I think it's a case of the streaming services having both 'resume
>> watching' which will immediately resume playback from your recent
>> media (as does emby and plex iirc), and they also seem to have better
>> visibility as you browse content on whether they've been watched or
>> not.
>>
>> are there any options i've overlooked that would make mythtv Videos
>> more user/WAF friendly in this respect?
>> liveTV/recordings side is much easier to see progress but feels like
>> the Videos area is archaic and massive overhaul is required to bring
>> it inline with other solutions.
>> I can completely see how Videos would work better with films which
>> are a single file you'd typically watch in it's entirety, but for TV
>> boxsets it seems much more difficult to keep track of where you are.

I have the same problem. I am using leanfront
(https://github.com/bennettpeter/android-MythTV-Leanfront/blob/master/README.md)
so I have added a row showing "Recently viewed". This has both videos
and recordings in descending order of when watched. Also it shows
whether they were marked as watched. Then after clicking the item, if it
is watched, down arrow to the list of "Related Videos", i.e. videos in
that directory or that series (in case of recordings), and watch the
next one. You can set the "Related Videos" to exclude watched videos, so
that you can immediately get to the next unwatched item.

Of course, if you are not using an android device for your frontend,
this is all academic.

You can get a preview of how it works by installing leanfront on a
computer with an android emulator. There are instructions in the
documentation.

Peter

Hoi Tim,

Saturday, February 27, 2021, 10:39:41 AM, you wrote:

> I've been making more use of the Videos section over the last few
> months with moving boxsets from dvd to files. This has spured
> watching content chronologically rather than pot luck order via
> recording their broadcasted version.

> What we're finding is that it's very hard to keep track of where
> we're up to. typically we know which season, but the episode is much
> more difficult to know so ends up browsing where we think we are,
> starting playback to find if we have a bookmark and ultimately
> exiting and playing the next file till we stumble upon the correct one.



> I think it's a case of the streaming services having both 'resume
> watching' which will immediately resume playback from your recent
> media (as does emby and plex iirc), and they also seem to have
> better visibility as you browse content on whether they've been watched or not.



> are there any options i've overlooked that would make mythtv Videos
> more user/WAF friendly in this respect?

> liveTV/recordings side is much easier to see progress but feels
> like the Videos area is archaic and massive overhaul is required to
> bring it inline with other solutions.

> I can completely see how Videos would work better with films which
> are a single file you'd typically watch in it's entirety, but for
> TV boxsets it seems much more difficult to keep track of where you are.


I have noticed that if you jump out of Videos to say Recordings, it
will remember the selected Video. So if you later go back to Videos,
the same episode is selected. I use that if I'm watching a series in
Videos to keep track. Of cause if either of the users of the system is
watching a different series...
I also noticed it stores it separately for every frontend.


Tot mails,
Hika mailto:hikavdh@gmail.com

"Zonder hoop kun je niet leven
Zonder leven is er geen hoop
Het eeuwige dilemma
Zeker als je hoop moet vernietigen om te kunnen overleven!"

De lerende Mens

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On 2/27/2021 04:39, Tim Draper wrote:
> I've been making more use of the Videos section over the last few months with moving boxsets from dvd to files. This has spured watching content chronologically rather than pot luck order via recording their broadcasted version.
> What we're finding is that it's very hard to keep track of where we're up to. typically we know which season, but the episode is much more difficult to know so ends up browsing where we think we are, starting playback to find if we have a bookmark and ultimately exiting and playing the next file till we stumble upon the correct one.
>
> I think it's a case of the streaming services having both 'resume watching' which will immediately resume playback from your recent media (as does emby and plex iirc), and they also seem to have better visibility as you browse content on whether they've been watched or not.
>
> are there any options i've overlooked that would make mythtv Videos more user/WAF friendly in this respect?
> liveTV/recordings side is much easier to see progress but feels like the Videos area is archaic and massive overhaul is required to bring it inline with other solutions.
> I can completely see how Videos would work better with films which are a single file you'd typically watch in it's entirety, but for TV boxsets it seems much more difficult to keep track of where you are.
>

There's an option that you'll want to enable if it isn't already. On mythfrontend 29, it's here:
Setup -> Media Settings -> Videos Settings -> General Settings -> Video Tree remembers last selected position

If this option is checked, then "Watch Videos" will return you to the last video you were watching, as Hika describes. But if the option is not checked, it will always return to the first video. At least the option works when using the List view, not sure it it has any effect in Gallery or Browse views.

Another thing we do is to mark videos as watched. How useful that is depends on the theme you use and whether it shows the watched state. As David mentioned, the Blue Abstract theme does this in the Browse and Gallery views, but not in the List view, which is the view I like best. I have customized the MythCenter-wide theme to show the watched state in the List view. Following is a patch that does the trick on mythtv-29 and probably most other versions. And it could probably be applied to other themes without too much difficulty.

--- a/mythtv/themes/MythCenter-wide/base.xml
+++ b/mythtv/themes/MythCenter-wide/base.xml
@@ -196,6 +196,15 @@
<cutdown>yes</cutdown>
<align>left,vcenter</align>
</textarea>
+ <statetype name="watchedstate">
+ <position>100%-20,7</position>
+ <state name="yes">
+ <imagetype name="watchedimage">
+ <filename>small_watched.png</filename>
+ <preserveaspect>true</preserveaspect>
+ </imagetype>
+ </state>
+ </statetype>
<statetype name="buttoncheck">
<position>91%,4</position>
<state type="off">

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Hoi faginbagin,

Sunday, February 28, 2021, 6:40:49 AM, you wrote:

> On 2/27/2021 04:39, Tim Draper wrote:
>> I've been making more use of the Videos section over the last few months with moving boxsets from dvd to files. This has spured watching content chronologically rather than pot luck order via recording their broadcasted version.
>> What we're finding is that it's very hard to keep track of where we're up to. typically we know which season, but the episode is much more difficult to know so ends up browsing where we think we are, starting playback to find if we have a bookmark and ultimately exiting and playing the next file till we stumble upon the correct one.
>>
>> I think it's a case of the streaming services having both 'resume watching' which will immediately resume playback from your recent media (as does emby and plex iirc), and they also seem to have better visibility as you browse content on whether they've been watched or not.
>>
>> are there any options i've overlooked that would make mythtv Videos more user/WAF friendly in this respect?
>> liveTV/recordings side is much easier to see progress but feels like the Videos area is archaic and massive overhaul is required to bring it inline with other solutions.
>> I can completely see how Videos would work better with films which are a single file you'd typically watch in it's entirety, but for TV boxsets it seems much more difficult to keep track of where you are.
>>

> There's an option that you'll want to enable if it isn't already. On mythfrontend 29, it's here:
Setup ->> Media Settings -> Videos Settings -> General Settings -> Video Tree remembers last selected position

> If this option is checked, then "Watch Videos" will return you to
> the last video you were watching, as Hika describes. But if the
> option is not checked, it will always return to the first video. At
> least the option works when using the List view, not sure it it has
> any effect in Gallery or Browse views.

> Another thing we do is to mark videos as watched. How useful that
> is depends on the theme you use and whether it shows the watched
> state. As David mentioned, the Blue Abstract theme does this in the
> Browse and Gallery views, but not in the List view, which is the
> view I like best. I have customized the MythCenter-wide theme to
> show the watched state in the List view. Following is a patch that
> does the trick on mythtv-29 and probably most other versions. And it
> could probably be applied to other themes without too much difficulty.

> --- a/mythtv/themes/MythCenter-wide/base.xml
> +++ b/mythtv/themes/MythCenter-wide/base.xml
> @@ -196,6 +196,15 @@
> <cutdown>yes</cutdown>
> <align>left,vcenter</align>
> </textarea>
> + <statetype name="watchedstate">
> + <position>100%-20,7</position>
> + <state name="yes">
> + <imagetype name="watchedimage">
> + <filename>small_watched.png</filename>
> + <preserveaspect>true</preserveaspect>
> + </imagetype>
> + </state>
> + </statetype>
> <statetype name="buttoncheck">
> <position>91%,4</position>
> <state type="off">

Very interesting!

To add the watched icon to the Gallery which I normally use. It places
a bit larger one in the top-left corner.

--- a/mythtv/themes/MythCenter-wide/video-ui.xml
+++ b/mythtv/themes/MythCenter-wide/video-ui.xml
@@ -610,6 +610,15 @@
</imagetype>
</state>
</statetype>
+ <statetype name="watchedstate">
+ <position>1%</position>
+ <state name="yes">
+ <imagetype name="watchedimage">
+ <filename>watched.png</filename>
+ <preserveaspect>true</preserveaspect>
+ </imagetype>
+ </state>
+ </statetype>
<textarea name="buttontext">
<area>5,133,165,25</area>
<font>menufont</font>



Tot mails,
Hika mailto:hikavdh@gmail.com

"Zonder hoop kun je niet leven
Zonder leven is er geen hoop
Het eeuwige dilemma
Zeker als je hoop moet vernietigen om te kunnen overleven!"

De lerende Mens

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On 2/28/21 12:40 AM, faginbagin wrote:
> There's an option that you'll want to enable if it isn't already. On
> mythfrontend 29, it's here:
> Setup -> Media Settings -> Videos Settings -> General Settings -> Video Tree remembers last selected position
>
> If this option is checked, then "Watch Videos" will return you to the last video you were watching, as Hika describes. But if the option is not checked, it will always return to the first video. At least the option works when using the List view, not sure it it has any effect in Gallery or Browse views.
One annoying thing I've found is that if you use a PIN to restrict
access to certain videos, then this feature becomes useless. Regardless
of whether or not you enter a valid PIN when prompted, the position
jumps back to the top after the PIN dialog closes.
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