3.08.14 - TV Shows and Custom Backdrops

Strange i do just that and its still working fine and all the info there.

Whoops  forgot for a sec i was using the smp this evening…lol.

Same bugs in the SMP FW.:dizzy_face:

hmmm… i dont have my TV Shows in that format i find it very ugly and always rename them to

showname - [03x17] - Title.mp4

what we all REALLY need is for WD to give us a setting page that will let us choose how we name the files.

They could put in the standand scene (ugly) filenames and a couple of others but let us choose.

%SN = showname

%S = season number

%E = episode number

%T = Title

so mine nice format would be   %SN - [%Sx%E] - %T

and so on… ok… i can dream… maybe a nice xmas present from WD?

I am wondering if they really test those firmwares or they just publish some nightly builds? :slight_smile:

i can confirm everything that Tinwarble said, it is not a fix it is a work around / loop hole and I am scared they gonna close that too. I was warned to explain myself in a more civil manner or i get banned so I cannot really tell you what I really think they are doing, all I can say is that those who have hardcoded movie sheets for TV Shows are fortunate that WD didn’t catch this naming format. Those who let the hub fill in the blanks of the metadata are still screwed and have no other option but to roll back or to use the build in scraper and receive 40 files with 200kb file size in average.

It is another decision made on their part that I cannot support, it is possibly done on purpose to get rid off those who have demands and talk back at them or it might be because they don’t know how this part of the forum is using the device and they are not willing to learn about it either. Fact is that another basic feature was taken away from us. I can not for the life of me understand these politics, why would a company go against a very active part of this community on purpose and take away literally everything they like? This is way way way beyond my imagination and i am still wondering if it is based on lack of skills or if it is done on purpose, either way it is sad to watch and to be a part of.

what happens if you dont generate backdrops? I do not generate them, I have not since the feature was introduced.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<details>
  <title>05 - Lesser Evils</title>
  <series_name>Elementary</series_name>
  <episode_name>Lesser Evils</episode_name>
  <season_number>1</season_number>
  <episode_number>5</episode_number>
  <firstaired>2012-11-01</firstaired>
  <overview>Sherlock tries to determine who has been killing weak and terminal patients at a hospital, making it look like they died of natural causes. Meanwhile, Sherlock learns more about Joan’s decision to walk away from her surgical career.</overview>
  <year>2012</year>
  <plot>Following his fall from grace in London and a stint in rehab, eccentric Sherlock escapes to Manhattan where his wealthy father forces him to live with his worst nightmare – a sober companion, Dr. Watson. A successful surgeon until she lost a patient and her license three years ago, Watson views her current job as another opportunity to help people, as well as paying a penance. Holmes resumes his work as a police consultant in New York City and Watson has no choice but to accompany her irascible new charge on his jobs. But Sherlock finds her medical background helpful, and Watson realizes she has a knack for playing investigator.

With the mischievous Sherlock Holmes now running free in New Yorksolving crimes, it’s simple deduction that he’s going to need someone to keep him grounded, and it’s elementary that it’s a job for Watson. </plot>
  <runtime>60</runtime>
  <trailer></trailer>
  <rating>7.2</rating>
  <mpaa></mpaa>
  <imdb_id>tt2191671</imdb_id>
  <mpaa></mpaa>
  <genre>Crime</genre>
  <genre>Drama</genre>
  <genre>Mystery</genre>
  <actor>Jonny Lee Miller/Lucy Liu/Aidan Quinn/Jon Michael Hill</actor>
  <director>Colin Bucksey</director>
  <studio>Hill of Beans Productions</studio>
  <studio>Timberman-Beverly Productions</studio>
  <studio>CBS Television Studios</studio>
  <url cache="tmdb-.xml" function="GetTMDBThumbsById" />
  <prevtitle>Elementary.S01E05.HDTV.x264-LOL.mp4</prevtitle>
  <prevgenre>N/A</prevgenre>
</details>

 Filename: Elementary.S01E05.HDTV.x264-LOL.mp4

1 Like

I can understand what they are doing .

They are trying to make it as simple as possible to the lay man to use.Point and click.

I have no issues with this but they need to temper the rush to do this with common sense or they end up going down the same road boxes did.

Boxee ended up alienating there user base in the rush to do similar things and ended up making the firmware a mess.

Wd needs to remember that this vocal user base can have a massive affect on how the box is accepted.

Word of mouth is destroying boxee business and they are desperately trying to hide all the bad press now.

1 Like

Hi magnus33

I admire your foresight and optimism but do you really think WD have the same intelligence as your goodself…? I’m not so sure. And even if they were, they could have had the intelligence to release some sort of announcement to the Forum, just out of mere courtesy?

IMHO I really don’t WD give a TOOT.

PS… Hope you are well on the long road to a good recovery. :wink:

@Drizzt… if you don’t generate backdrops they won’t disappaear however this xml is no good anymore,

assuming to know what outcome you desire I would suggest to use the scraper from now on and replace the thumbnail with a Thumbgen generated one… unless you are fine with the standard thumb.

@ Magnus

i too admire your positive spirit but you are probably giving too much credit where it isn’t deserved.

This feature for the build in scraper used to work fine in previous versions, you had to click the exact same buttons.

Now the wheel was reinvented for no reason, i believe they did it because there was a new coder who never heard of custom movie sheets and who thought he is doing everyone a favor to create something new instead of finding the bug that was introduced with the last firmware. Having said that… not only that it has killed the ability to create your own move sheets it also stores 40 / 50 / 60 images per episodes and that cant be good even for the mainstream user.
 On top of that the trigger was already considered slow with 3-5 seconds, the new system by loading images from a folder takes 5-10 seconds and if you havent generated backdrops for a neighboring file the screen turns pitch black (except for the covers)

I just wish they would include people who have an everyday’s experience with the device willing to think both ways and everybody could be happy. Why a particular group of people is being erased is beyond me, it cannot be good for business.

Optimism yes but not so much in this case as boxee provided a perfect lession on what not to do.

There presently in massive amount of trouble with what they done and with the release of the new boxee tv.

The backlash from what they done has been so bad they gone so far as to try and hide it by delteting blocks and hiding posts.

Wd would have to be seriously brain dead not to relase going down that road is a major mistake.

Now its possiable they are that dumb but they been around much longer and stayed in bussness so they can’t all be nuts

Thats and support still happening so thats always a good sign.

I agree what they did or more to the point how they did it was dumb.

What confuses me is that there seems to be little to no beta testing on this firmware.

The downloading of so many backdrops/images per folder is just plain stupid.

drizzt09 wrote:

what happens if you dont generate backdrops? I do not generate them, I have not since the feature was introduced.

Nothing, if you are not using backdrops then it doesn’t change anything for you.

DeVicious wrote:

i can confirm everything that Tinwarble said, it is not a fix it is a work around / loop hole and I am scared they gonna close that too.

No, it’s highly unlikely their going to close that work around unless they do something to change how movie backdrops are executed.  As I stated, this is just making the HUB/SMP think that your TV Show file is a Movie or standard video file and unless WD changes the naming convention to use whatt you are naming your files to discover the file as a TV Show, then it won’t matter, because it will be treated as a Movie/Video file.

Also, as far as display time for the , I’m not seeing any difference and I have tested on both the HUB and SMP and both take the same amount of time to load the backdrop as they did in the previous FW.

aren’t the metadata cut off? it doesn’t show the actors in my xml file it does

In regards to backdrop, when did the loading time happened FW-wise? I remember back then, while using one of Joey’s template, that backdrop was instant while browsing the genre folder. But I tried now with the modified Joey’s Aenish theme by Medic on current FW and it’s like I’ve read here… 3-5 seconds.

I will probable revert back to whatever works.

That’s because Joey was using a different technique to display the backdrops when they showed up instantly.

The delay has always been there when using the photo slideshow function (which is the way the HUB/SMP normally displays backdrops) to display the backdrop.

DeVicious wrote:> aren’t the metadata cut off? it doesn’t show the actors in my xml file it does

Generate the xml in movie format. (Requires older version of TG).

2 ways to do this:

Trick:  Rename TV Show so it’s recognized as a Movie, then use old version of TG to generate xml as a movie xml.

Non-Trick:  Rollback FW, and don’t change anything.

Tinwarble wrote:


DeVicious wrote:> aren’t the metadata cut off? it doesn’t show the actors in my xml file it does


Non-Trick:  Rollback FW, and don’t change anything.

:laughing:

Having just purchased a WDTV Live SMP - I’ve discovered the Darklight theme (very nice Tinwarble btw - the effort is appreciated) and have got all sheets for movies working fine.  However, due to the issue with the latest firmware ( I’m on version 1.12.14) not displaying moviesheets for TV series, can anyone confirm what firmware version I would need to roll back to, so I can enable this feature?? - and if possible provide a link for the firmware

Any help would be appreciated.

@Icesurfer

 

If you read Tinwarble’s reply 2 posts up …

 

Generate the xml in movie format. (Requires older version of TG).

2 ways to do this:

Trick:  Rename TV Show so it’s recognized as a Movie, then use old version of TG to generate xml as a movie xml.

Non-Trick:  Rollback FW, and don’t change anything.

“Rollback FW”   (Translated:  Means … “The Previous Revision” … if a FW number is not stated, then it’s assumed the previous Firmware Revision) 

ie. For the HUB =  3.07.14

ie. For the SMP = 1.11.14

How to “Rollback Firmware” ?

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5860/~/how-to-roll-back-the-firmware-on-a-wd-tv-live-hub-media-center-or-wd-tv-live

 

Thanks Joey.

All sorted and I now have movie sheets displaying for TV series… :smileyvery-happy: