Am Montag, 03. Dezember 2007 20:23:42 schrieb [EMAIL PROTECTED]:
> Since 2003 when i started to ue Freevo, it seems to me that one major
> module is missing in the package: a movie catalog feature.
Yes, I have also thought about such a beast. (And implemented parts of it in
python.) However, there are many different aspects that could be covered,
and I would really propose to explicitly collect use cases / scenarios, which
define specific problems that should be solved.
Specifically, I think that Dischi brought a different aspect into play,
thinking about a "global" (WWW-based) database. AFAICS, you were talking
about a local database of all discs that you have on disc.
Thus, I see these possible features:
- Database incl. metadata of files on disc. (Freevo basically has this.)
- Nice search features. (Missing, but not too hard.)
- Support for files on removable media.(1)
- Support for plug&play metadata fetching via the internet (AFAICS, Dischi
posted some ideas/URLs/hints for this).
- Support for "which movie is where".(2)
- Support for "which show is backed up" (3)
- much more, I bet
(1) "Support for files on removable media"
The main feature here is to store all metadata of the movie, except the movie
data itself. The user may use Freevo's navigation and search (TODO) features
to start the movie, and will be questioned to insert the disc "number ###,
titled xyz". I think there has been partial support for this, and the
caching and database features already integrated in Freevo and kaa are a good
basis for this, but it is far from done. I think the development should be
initially based on simple use cases and gradual addition of features, because
in my head, it is a very complicated beast (see related ideas further down).
(2) "which movie is where"
For (1), one needs to know the media a movie is stored on. Actually, this is
an M:N relationship:
- there are single-CD/DVD movies
- some AVIs/SVCDs are split among several CDs
- many AVIs are collected on one DVD
- the same movie file (e.g. .avi) may be on harddisc, on a DVD with other
movies, and on a CD I gave to a friend
- a movie may also be inside a compressed file (most probably a stupid idea,
since it is unlikely to compress further, but I have some .avi-in-.rar movies
burned on CD)
(3) "which show is backed up"
Given (2) (and (1)), it is very easy to mark files as not-yet-burned-to-disc.
This is a common question when I want to free some HD space - which of the
movies I have encoded and/or already burned to disc? (I often record from
TV, cut them using avidemux, encode them with mencode, using my own
mencode-gui python program, and finally collect them on DVD.)
Also, when all the above is done (;-p), one might add support for movie
sharing/borrowing. E.g. if I give a CD to a friend, I could tell freevo
about it, and when I want to watch it, it does not simply say "insert
disc 'foo' ", but also "which you have given to Jason".
Of course, it all boils down to a particular database structure and some extra
fields/relationships, so it is quite doable, and the main work would be a
decent user interface, presenting only what's relevant at a time.
Furthermore, it should become clear that this is out-of-scope of "just
Freevo", but it should be a related project with the relevant integration
into Freevo (and probably separate GUI programs for maintaining the
database).
I hope I gave some interesting input; as you maybe noticed I already thought a
lot about this. ;-)
I have written some basic scripts for caching the contents of discs in an
sqlite DB and e.g. the "what movie is backed up" frontend script, but nothing
spectacular I guess. Also, there is already kaa.beacon etc.
Ciao, / /
/--/
/ / ANS
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