Meta-Source Manager

I have read and re-read lots of information on this - and find it extremely confusing - does ANYONE actually have any links to already made xml files for additional Meta-Sources for movies and especially TV progs.

There are plenty of posts on apparantly making one from progs such as “Thumgen” but they are ridiculously confusing - surely one of our members has already made xml’s for additional Meta-Source’s ???

Sooooo - basically - nobody has got any pre-compiled working .xml additional Meta-sources then ???

LOL

I doubt you’ll find anybody willing to upload their xml’s

and why would you actually want them ???

learn to use thumbgen

or use a theme that has a bundle (the bundle will set most options needed for you)

OMG - thats exactly the kind of comment that that I have seen on this board from every other person that has mentioned it …

Why wouldnt anyone NOT share a working metasource config if they had one ?

Why do I want one ? … cos [Deleted] thetvdb doesnt WORK most of the time … LIKE FOR THE LAST WEEK !!!

WD has included ONLY 2 - themoviedb & thetvdb - why [Deleted] dont they give us a choice of MORE - its ridiculous after all this time in production - and no I cant use the stupid Thumbgen cos I’m on a Mac … and in any event - in 25 years of using computers I have never seen anything so stupidly complicated as Thumbgen - I’d rather re-learn UNIX again, or go to the Dentist  - its easier ! …

All we really need to make the WD a REALLY good box is some additional metasources - and in any event - you seem to miss the whole point of Boards such as these … they are supposed to HELP everyone. I think the point actually is that none of you so called “experts” on this board also have no idea on how to compile a general working metasource for TV progs such as the only one supplied by WD - if anyone did have one they WOULD have shared it by now - unless of course - as you correctly point out - I wasnt offering enough sweeties (I cant remember having to confirm my age when joining this Community !!! LOL).

So here is my offer - to anyone that knows the true meaning of a “Community” - I will send the 1st person that posts a working one for TV  a WHOLE bag of Jelly Babies :slight_smile:

(I’m not holding my breath though !)

:frowning:

1 Like

And … If anyone knows of ANY themes that do actually include so called “bundles” containing additional metasources - then please point me and everybody else that has been asking for these - since the start of this Board -  to WHICH Themes we should look at !

maybe a little background will help

first off meta sources, thumbgen is really the primary choice around here

there are a few others that I’ve never used

but for everysource one wants to use somebody has to write code that is specific to that individual website

currently thumbgen does not suport plugin code, which means somebody must write their own program

since this is a user maintained forum, there are few programers around here, of which I do not consider myself a program, even though I’ve done quite a bit of custom work on these devices

once that is done

you have issues with sharing xml’s

1st not all themes use xml data

so there are quite a few people that don’t generate or use them at all

2st WD made some changes resulting is xml profiles

which are firmware dependant

so even if I uploaded an xml, it’s possible for you to be on a firmware where the xml must be layed out differently

3rd linksheets

quite a few people are using this hack, mainly on hub currently

this requires that certain lines from the xml’s be removed or the xml be completely deleted

4th custom xml entries

while uncommon

one could make custom xml entries to force the WD to display data is a certain format

which I have done with my xml’s

5th naming conventions must be exact

if I have an xml “The Dark Knight”

it will not work with a move titled “Dark Knight”

and so on

are you really going to manually edit the file names for what depending on your collection could be hundreds or thousands of files

so with all of that

even if I uploaded my xml’s the chances of them actuall working with your set up are slim

as for thumbgen bundles, I know goodbye black mamba has a bundle

which other themes have bundles, I’m not sure

but the bundles just make the necessary thumbgen settings for required for using thumbgen with that specific theme

so based on all of that, to me at least it would make more sense to create your own using thumbgen or other programs

admitadely tvdb and thumbgen is largely broken currently

there are some other programs out there, all of which I’ve never used

but might be worth a try to see if it’s actually a thumbgen problem as opposed to a tvdb problem

hope the background helps

p.s.

I have seen post claiming there program works on MAC, I’ve also seen linux based programs for doing this as well

sibar wrote:

OMG - thats exactly the kind of comment that that I have seen on this board from every other person that has mentioned it …

 

Why wouldnt anyone NOT share a working metasource config if they had one ?

 

Why do I want one ? … cos **bleep** thetvdb doesnt WORK most of the time … LIKE FOR THE LAST WEEK !!!

 

WD has included ONLY 2 - themoviedb & thetvdb - why the **bleep** dont they give us a choice of MORE - its ridiculous after all this time in production - and no I cant use the stupid Thumbgen cos I’m on a Mac … and in any event - in 25 years of using computers I have never seen anything so stupidly complicated as Thumbgen - I’d rather re-learn UNIX again, or go to the Dentist  - its easier ! …

 

All we really need to make the WD a REALLY good box is some additional metasources - and in any event - you seem to miss the whole point of Boards such as these … they are supposed to HELP everyone. I think the point actually is that none of you so called “experts” on this board also have no idea on how to compile a general working metasource for TV progs such as the only one supplied by WD - if anyone did have one they WOULD have shared it by now - unless of course - as you correctly point out - I wasnt offering enough sweeties (I cant remember having to confirm my age when joining this Community !!! LOL).

 

So here is my offer - to anyone that knows the true meaning of a “Community” - I will send the 1st person that posts a working one for TV  a WHOLE bag of Jelly Babies :slight_smile:

 

(I’m not holding my breath though !)

 

:frowning:

You certainly know the how to butter up the ‘community’. First I will insult them all and then ask them to develop something and share it with me!!  I will also swear a lot and put down somebody else’s attempt at a solution because its too complicated for me, so if anybody does come up with a program it better be good or you will be in my bad books!!

Good luck.

Thanks for the information - a very knowledgable reply :slight_smile:

I think that WD REALLY ought to take note of this and add additional sources for future releases bearing in mind that most of us that do use xml’s and thumbgens do realise that sometimes you have to manually add a dot or remove some txt in order to find the files … always have to that that with thetvdb.

Also - most of us would have (or rather should have) updated firmware as and when it it is available - so shred xml’s “should” work for most of us. It would be interesting to see if someone does actually share their “little secrets” whether the bulk of us could use them - bearing in mind that most of us ONLY want (for TV) a thumbgen - an xml containing the descrition of the episode and date shown etc.

The default one WD has been seriously “broken” since the beginning of time with the numbering past multiples of 10 where they all become jumbled in blocks of 10 - ridiculous ! - so how much worse COULD some other examples from other users be … LOL - so, still looking forward to the day that someone DOES share some metasources …

From what I understand, the metasource is supposed to be compatible with most XBMC scrapers.

Though I’ve never tried it personally, as I don’t use the in-built scraper for much.