Table of Contents
This product is aimed at people with large DVD collections, and a
methodical way of thinking, particularly, if you own a number of TV shows on
DVD. This product concerns itself with presenting to you a choice of those
videos that you would most likely want to watch next, assuming that you wish to
watch the episodes of a show in order and to vary which shows you watch. It is
not aimed at those who like to binge on one show, until you have exhausted it.
You will need to use third-party supplied software to rip your DVDs, and to
install VLC in order to play the videos.
This software is designed to help you to decide upon which videos you wish to
have VLC play for you. Upon selection of the desired video, the software will
ask VLC to play that file, so long as it is idle. Should VLC not be idle, the
selections will be placed in a queue, waiting for VLC to become idle.
As initially configured, the software expects the videos to be arranged in
folders within the folder "V:\Videos". If you need to alter this, you can, but
I'll describe how later. Within the "V:\Videos" folders the software expects
to find a series of folders corresponding to the various types of videos that
you might have. There is a default set, which includes, for example, the
folder, "Movies". This default set needs to correspond exactly with the folder
names within "V:\Videos". There is also provision for a second disc drive of
videos.
Categorisation of Videos
The default set of folder names for the folders to be within "V:\Videos" are:
Again, this set can be altered, but I'll describe how, later.
Organisation within Categories
Within each of these folders can be a hierarchy of zero, one or two further
levels of folders, but this must be consistent throughout each type folder.
For example, in the "Movies" type folder, one would normally expect (and this
is the default expectation that can be altered) that there would be no folders,
and that each movie is represented by its corresponding video file. In the
"Movie Series" type folder, one would expect to find a set of folders, each
corresponding to a single series of movies, such as "James Bond", with each of
the movies within that series being represented by its corresponding video
file. In the "TV Hour" type folder, one would expect to find a set of folders,
each corresponding to a single series of one-hour TV shows, and within each of
these folders, one would expect to find another set of folders, each
corresponding to a season of that TV show, with each of the episodes within
that season of the show being represented by its corresponding video file. In
the latter example, it is required that, if there are to be season folders
within one of the show folders, then there are to be season folders within each
of the other show folders as well. That is, each example of a given type must
have the same number of intervening folders between the type folder and the
final video file.
So the folder arrangement might look something like:
V:\Videos --+-- Movie Featurettes -----------------------+-- Looney Tunes
| +-- The Three Stooges
|
+-- Movie Serials (Cliffhangers 1935-1950) --+-- Flash Gordon
| +-- Batman and Robin
|
+-- Movie Series ----------------------------+-- Charlie Chan
| +-- James Bond
|
+-- Movies
|
|
+-- Music ----------+-- David Bowie ---------+-- Serious Moonlight
| | +-- A Reality Tour
| |
| +-- Pink Floyd ----------+-- Live at Pompeii
|
+-- TV Documentary --------------------------+-- Life
| +-- Planet Earth
|
+-- TV Half Hour ---+-- Get Smart -----------+-- Season 01
| | +-- Season 02
| |
| +-- Astro Boy -----------+-- Season 01
| +-- Season 02
|
+-- TV Hour --------+-- Maverick ------------+-- Season 01
| | +-- Season 02
| |
| +-- Inspector Rex -------+-- Season 01
| +-- Season 02
|
+-- TV Mini-Series -+-- Against the Wind ----+-- Season 01
| |
| +-- The Tudors ----------+-- Season 01
| +-- Season 02
|
+-- TV Movie Length +-- Columbo -------------+-- Season 01
| | +-- Season 02
| |
| +-- Sharpe --------------+-- Season 01
|
+-- TV Shorts ------+-- Roger Ramjet --------+-- Season 01
| +-- Season 02
|
+-- Danger Mouse --------+-- Season 01
+-- Season 02
What you should particularly note in the above is that in the case of the
"TV Mini-Series" type folder, that we have allocated a "Season 01" folder to
the show, "Against the Wind", so as to be consistent with the other member of
that type, "The Tudors", which had season folders, "Season 01" and "Season 02".
Also worth noting is that the above arrangement shows no folders within the
"Movies" type folder and one level of folders within the "Movie Series" type
folder.
Interfacing with VLC
You also need to have VLC installed on your computer, and its "Web" interface
enabled, and its "Lua" password set to "gw-6577".
The "Movie Suggestions" program, when run, will check whether VLC
is running. If not, it will start "VLC".
Movie Suggestions Program
When the "Movie Suggestions" program is run, it provides a display with four
pages. These pages we refer to as "Modes". In the top left hand corner, is
presented the name of the mode/page that is currently provided. The initial
mode is titled: "MODE: SUGGESTIONS". The mode may be changed by clicking on
"MODE: ..." or typing "m" or [CONTROL PAGE DOWN]. The mode may be altered in
the reverse sequence by right-clicking or typing [SHIFT M] or
[CONTROL PAGE UP].
Suggestions Mode
On the "MODE: SUGGESTIONS" page are presented a number of rows of panels. In
the default configuration, there are four rows of panels. The first row is
dedicated to the presentation of any serials that you are in the process of
watching. The second row lists the shorter shows. These are the top-level
folders beneath the following type folders: "Movie Featurettes", "Movie Serials
(Cliffhangers 1935-1950)", "TV Half Hour", and "TV Shorts". The third row
lists the longer shows. These are the top-level folders beneath the following
type folders: "TV Hour", "TV Mini-Series", and "TV Movie Length". While the
final row presents the movies. These are the bottom-level files within the
following type folders: "Movie Series", and "Movies". The files within the
type folders, "Music" and "TV Documentary", are not represented on this
page in the default configuration. This is the display that was presented
above (click here to view that display).
Navigation
To navigate about the display, use the [UP], [DOWN], [LEFT], and [RIGHT] keys
as well as clicking on a panel with a mouse. Also, [TAB] is equivalent to
[DOWN] and [SHIFT TAB] to [UP]. Each row may contain more panels
than will be able to be displayed across the page. To access panels in a row
that are to the right of the edge of the display, press [PAGE DOWN] or click on
the translucent right-pointing triangle at the right-hand edge of the row in
question. The translucent arrows will only be presented when there are panels
that are off the right-hand edge of the display. Once the row has been so
shifted to present those panels, a translucent left-pointing triangle will be
presented at the left of the row. When this is displayed, the row may be
shifted back by clicking on this triangle or by pressing the [PAGE UP] key.
You can present the last panels of the row by pressing [END] and return to the
first panels by typing [HOME]. Also, use of the [UP] and [DOWN] keys, or
clicking on a different row, results in the presentation of the first panels of
all rows.
Bottom Row of Buttons
The buttons along the bottom of the display, "Actions", "Edit", "Options",
"Play", "Skip", and "ESCAPE: exit", are provided in all modes, but their effect
may vary depending upon the current mode.
Theese buttons are first described below, for this mode, in various
subsections. If their behaviour varies in the other modes, they will be again
discussed in the section describing that mode.
Play
To play the highlighted show episode or movie, click on the "Play" button at
the bottom of the display. The "Play" button can be activated by clicking on
it or by typing "p".
Order of Presentation
The order in which the shows are presented, is, initially, determined by the
number of episodes in each show. Those with the greatest number of episodes
will be presented first. When an episode of a show is played, that show will
be moved away from the start of the row. How far it is moved from the start is
also determined by the number of episodes in the show; those with few episodes
will be moved further from the start than those with more episodes. The object
is that by the time you have played all episodes of a show, you should be close
to having played all episodes of all the other shows in that row, provided that
all shows commenced around the same time from the first episode of the first
season. When you select a show to play, the next episode in sequence will be
queued to be played by VLC. As the show is passed to VLC (which occurs when
VLC has finished any video that it had been playing), the next episode to be
played for that show is advanced.
Watched, Reserved, Archived, and Times Played
All shows are marked as to whether they have been watched or unwatched, whether
they have been reserved, and whether they have been archived. When the last
episode of a show is played, that show will be marked as watched and, should
there be other shows marked as "reserved", it will join them in being marked as
reserved; the existence of "reserved" shows is an indication that you wish to
make use of this feature. The archived marking can be manually set,
and is to be set when you remove a show (or movie series) from your hard drive,
but don't wish to discard all the information associated with it, in case you
intend to return it at a later time. It is anticipated that you may exhaust
your main storage and need to shift some folders off-line. Now, any show
marked as archived will not be presented on this page. As to the presentation
of those shows that have not been archived, that will be governed by the
"watchness" setting. This can be set to either "Watched and unwatched",
"Watched", "unWatched", or "reserved shoWs only". Those marked as reserved
will only display when the "watchness" is set to "reserved shoWs only". This
setting is presented at the top of the display and can be switched by clicking
on this text or by typing "w" to change the setting from "Watched and
unwatched" to "Watched" to "unWatched" to "reserved shoWs only" and back to
"Watched and unwatched". You can work through these alternatives in the
reverse direction by right-clicking or typing [SHIFT W].
We record how many times each video is played. Normally, the final line will
only present those movies that have been played the least number of times.
Alternatively, you can elect to present those that have been played the
second least number of times, and so forth. After going beyond a number of
such divisions of the movies, the remaining movies are grouped together as
most played, irrespective of the number of times they have been played in
excess of this threshold. These options are described as
"Least played movies", "Least-1 played movies", "Least-2 played movies", ...
"Most played movies", and, finally "Least: don't care" to present all movies.
This is presented at the top of the display. You can alter the setting by
clicking on this text or by typing "l". You can work through this setting's
options in the reverse order by right-clicking or typing [SHIFT L].
The "watchness" setting has no effect upon the presentation of movies and the
"least played" setting has no effect upon the presentation of shows.
Skip
We've spoken about playing a show or movie. There is also a "Skip" button at
the bottom of the display. This button behaves differently for shows and
movies. Skipping a show will reposition that show away from the start in
accordance with the number of episodes in that show. Skipping a movie will
increment the count of the number of plays that it has been assigned. Skipping
a movie, however, will have no impact if the "least played" setting is "Least:
don't care". The "Skip" button can be activated by clicking on it or by typing
"s", or [DELETE].
You can reverse the action of skipping a movie by typing "d".
Genre, Viewers, Searching, and the Options Button
You can assign a genre to each show or movie. If you click on "Genre" or type
"g", you will be presented with an editing field into which you can type the
genres to be included, with the vertical line character, "|", inserted between
each. In response, this page will be restricted to presenting only those shows
or movies that have been flagged as belonging to one of the nominated genres.
You can cancel this restriction by entering a blank field, or by right-clicking
on "Genre" or by typing [SHIFT G].
You can record against each show or movie which members of your family enjoy
the show. This is indicated by the names of those who enjoy the show, with the
ampersand character, "&", inserted between each. If you click on "Viewers" or
type "v", you may enter the names of those present in order to have the display
restricted to presenting just those shows that are enjoyed by exactly that
combination of members of your family. You can cancel this restriction by
entering a blank field, or by right-clicking on "Viewers" or by typing
[SHIFT V].
You can restrict the display to only those shows or movies that contain a
certain sequence of letters in their title. This is done independently for
shows and movies. To set these restrictions, click on "Find", or type "f" or
[CONTROL F], then enter into either or both fields the text you wish to
restrict the display to. The first of these fields corresponds to the shows and
the second to movies. You can cancel this restriction by entering blank fields
or by right-clicking on "Find" or by typing [SHIFT F].
The "Options" button at the bottom of the display presets a dialogue box that
allows you to set any of the restrictions mentioned above, as well as changing
the mode. The mode may also be changed, as mentioned above, by clicking on
"MODE: SUGGESTIONS" or typing "m" or [CONTROL PAGE DOWN].
VLC Interface
What VLC is up to is also presented on at the top of the display. This can be
"VLC is stopped", "VLC is playing", "VLC is paused", "VLC asked to play", and
"VLC not connected".
Editing Shows, Episodes, and Movies
The details associated with the highlighted show or movie can editied using the
"Edit" button. The "Edit" button can be activated by clicking on it, or by
typing "e" or [RETURN] or [ENTER] or by double-clicking on the panel.
For a show the details that you can edit include:
-
Folder purpose: a unique description of the folder.
-
Folder name: the filename of the folder, excluding path information.
-
Folder serial/epis.: indicates whether the episodes are serialised.
-
Folder # digits b4 title: if you include, in the names of its
sub-folders or files, digits before the title of the show or episode, for
the purpose of sequencing the sub-folders or files within the folder, then by
stipulating the number of digits used for this purpose, you can have those
digits removed from the presentation of the show or episode's title in the
panels of this display.
-
Root folder for folder: the folder name corresponding to the
sub-folder of "V:\Videos" that contains this folder, either directly or
indirectly.
-
Folder containing folder: the parent folder that directly contains
this folder, provided that that parent is not the type folder, in which case
this field should be left blank.
-
Folder liked by: a list of those who enjoy the show, separated by
ampersands ("&").
-
Folder rating: either "Not worth watching", "Okay".
"Good, worthwhile", "Excellent", or "A Favourite", corresponding to a star
rating of between 1 and 5.
-
Folder genre: one of any number of genres that have been set by
default or that you might have added.
-
Folder season and Folder episode: the next episode to be played -
an index into the alphabetically sorted list of seasons and episodes within
this folder (it is only the show folder's fields that are used, not the
season's).
-
Folder file index low and high: an operating system provided number
that allows this software to identify folder and files in spite of any name
changing or relocation that might have taken place. This works for NAS drives,
but not for directly connected drives, so, should you change the folder, you
should also adjust the "Folder name" field to reflect this new name.
-
Folder # episodes: a calculated number giving the total number of
episodes in all seasons of the show.
-
Folder watched, reserved, or archived: as discussed earlier.
-
Folder nextness: determines how close the file will appear to the
start of its row in this display.
-
Nextness divisor: this figure is multiplied by the number of episodes
before the latter is used to set a show's nextness, moving it closer to the
left of its row. Should you want to watch a show with, say, only thirteen
episodes in total and also a show with over 200 episodes, then the natural
consequence would be that the former show will appear at the start of the row
once for every sixteen appearances of the latter. This would mean that you
would complete watching both shows around the same time. If instead, you want
to watch the former more rapidly than that, you might want to set this field to
16 to make that show be presented at the start as often as the other. Once the
show is watched completely, not only will it be flagged as watched and,
possibly, reserved, but also its "Nextness divisor" and "Nextness multiplier"
will be set back to one.
-
Nextness multiplier: this figure is the counterpart of the "Nextness
divisor" and increases a show's nextness so as to make it play less often.
Please refer to the description of the "Nextness divisor" for further detail.
These may both be set to obtain a fractional multiplier.
For a movie the details that you can edit include:
-
Recording description: a unique description of the movie file.
-
Movie filename: the filename, excluding path information.
-
Root folder for movie: the folder name corresponding to the
sub-folder of "V:\Videos" that contains this movie file, either directly or
indirectly.
-
Folder containing movie: the parent folder that directly contains
this movie file, provided that that parent is not the type folder, in which
case this field should be left blank.
-
Movie liked by: a list of those who enjoy the movie, separated by
ampersands ("&").
-
Movie rating: either "Not worth watching", "Okay".
"Good, worthwhile", "Excellent", or "A Favourite", corresponding to a star
rating of between 1 and 5.
-
Movie genre: one of any number of genres that have been set by
default or that you might have added.
-
Movie number of plays: the number of times the movie has been played
or skipped.
-
Movie file index low and high: an operating system provided number
that allows this software to identify folder and files in spite of any name
changing or relocation that might have taken place. This works for both NAS
connected and directly connected drives.
Additionally, each of these dialogues provide buttons to let you check that the
corresponding folder or file exists, to play or skip the show or movie, or to
import, remove, or export the image that is associated with the show or movie
or type of video (not that you have access to this third option in this mode -
see "MODE: BROWSING" below). To associate an image with a show or movie, you
can download an image from the Internet and edit it within, say, Mocrosoft
Paint. I've standardised on an image size of 300 by 400 pixels, though the
height dimension (400) is a little excessive. The 300 width coincides with the
default panel width of 300 pixels. So, after massaging the downloaded image to
your heart's content and adjusting its size appropriately, save it somewhere
handy. You can then use the "Import image" button on this edit dialogue box to
move that image to the folder reserved for them (".\images" by default), and
have them renamed so that the software can easily access them when needed.
Note that when an image is imported it is removed from where it was saved by
Paint. So, had you saved the image, via Paint, to an otherwise empty folder,
that folder will be returned to being empty after the importing, making it easy
to identify any subsequent images that you might wish to create/manipulate via
paint and import into the software. All these buttons can only be activated by
clicking on them.
Also, after editing a show's details, after clicking on the dialogue box's "OK"
button or after typing [RETURN] or [ENTER], a further dialogue box will be
presented, containing the details of the next episode of that show. Its
details correspond to those for a movie, which has already been discussed.
Rating
The rating for a movie is reflected in the number of stars shown in its panel.
This rating can be modified by clicking on the star that is to represent your
rating of the movie. Clicking on the first star gives a movie the lowest
rating of one star, while clicking on the last star gives a movie the highest
rating, five stars.
Configuration and the Actions Button
The default settings within the software may be altered using the "Actions"
button. The "Actions" button can be activated by clicking on it, or by
typing "a".
The various actions available are presented upon activation of the button.
These actions are:
-
BASIC SETUP This allows you to alter some of the fundamental
settings within the software, such as where the videos are to be found.
-
USERS Here you can add entries for members of your
family, so that their liking of shows and movies may also be recorded.
-
LINES This allows you to change the default use of the
rows of panels that are presented in the "MODE: SUGGESTIONS" and to add
additional rows to that display.
-
VIDEO TYPES This allows you to modify the main categories into which
we arrange the videos on the hard drive. This you should do in conjunction
with making the corresponding changes to the actual file structure, so that
both these correspond.
-
SYNCHRONISE Searches the folders corresponding to the various types
of videos, within the root folder assigned for your collection of videos.
Until this is done, no newly added videos can be presented by this software.
-
FOLDERS This allows you direct access to the database that
lists all the series and season sub-folders found within the video types
folders.
-
RECORDINGS This allows you direct access to the database that lists
all the individual video files found within the subfolders and sub-subfolders
of the video types folders.
-
DISPLAY This allows you to make some changes to the sizes
(in pixels) of the graphical shapes used to construct the panels of the
display.
-
PRESENTATION This allows you to alter the colours and fonts used
throughout the software.
-
WRITE NAMES The DVD ripping software that I used wrote some rather
unsatisfactory names into the AVI files. When VLC playes
these files it will present this name. The object here is to replace those
names with something more appropriate. The names are generated from the folder
and file names.
-
CONTROL VLC Should VLC change its Web Interface protocol, the
entries in this database may help to correct the software's interface to VLC.
Requested Videos Mode
Now, we have already discussed playing episodes of shows and movies and how, if
VLC is not currently playing a movie, any video that you ask to be played will
immediately play, whilst, should VLC be already playing a movie, then the next
requested video will be placed in a queue. This queue is presented in the next
mode, "MODE: REQUESTED VIDEOS".
In this mode several lines represent the next-to-play video and onwards down
the screen. If there are any videos queued, the first will be highlighted.
The highlight may be moved up and down the list using the [UP] and [DOWN] keys,
as well as the [SHIFT TAB] and [TAB] keys respectively, or up and down by pages
at a time using the [PAGE UP] and [PAGE DOWN] keys respectively. Also, the
highlight may be shifted by clicking the mouse on a line and may be shifted by
pages at a time by clicking on the translucent down-pointing triangle at the
bottom of the screen and translucent up-pointing triangle at the top of the
screen. Note that these triangles will only appear when there are lines that
are beyond the screen in the corresponding direction.
Each line presents a description of the video, a genre and a rating. The genre
and rating may be changed here. If you click on the genre, a dialogue will
open allowing you to select an alternative genre for it. If you click on one
of the stars of the rating, its rating will be adjusted accordingly.
Play and Skip
The "Play" button, in this mode, promotes the highlighted line to the start of
the list of requested videos, while the "Skip" button removes the highlighted
line from the list of requests.
Options Button
The "Options" button provides the same dialogue box as it did for "MODE:
SUGGESTIONS", but most of the settings will have no effect upon this mode.
History Mode
The next mode is "MODE: HISTORY", which is very similar to the previous mode,
"MODE: REQUESTED VIDEOS". This mode presents a list of the last 100 videos
played by VLC. It makes more sense to adjust the rating and genre via this
mode than via the "MODE: REQUESTED VIDEOS".
Videos will only be added to this list if they are not already on it, so, if
you play a video from this list, it will not reappear at the top of the list.
Also, any video that is on this list, when played, will not have its count of
times played increased.
Play and Skip
The "Play" button, in this mode, asks VLC to play the highlighted video. The
count of the number of plays will not be incremented and the season and episode
that a show is up to will not be altered. The "Skip" button has no effect.
Browsing Mode
The final mode is "MODE: BROWSING". In this mode there are four rows of
panels. The first row presents each category or type of video, with one
category highlighted. The second row will present the folders, if any, that
reside within that type folder, with, again, one highlighted. The third row
will, similarly, present the folders, if any, within the highlighted folder
from the second row. The fourth row will present the files from within the
last highlighted folder from a previous line. So, normally, the first and last
rows should always have panels occupied, but whether or not the two intervening
rows have occupied panels will be dependent upon the type folder highlighted in
the first row. Also, should the second row be unoccupied, the third row will
always be unoccupied as well.
This mode is similar to the "MODE: SUGGESTIONS" mode in many respects, however,
in this mode there is a hierarchical relationship from the upper to the lower
rows, whereas in that other mode the individual rows were totally independent.
So, here there are two levels of highlighting, because, when navigating along a row,
it is necessary to show which were the panels within the upper rows that fathered
the row that you are, now, navigating. Otherwise the navigation is similar to
that described for "MODE: SUGGESTIONS", so it won't be repeated here.
Genre, Viewers, Searching, and the Options Button
Here, again are presented the "Genre", "Viewers", and "Find" options, but not
the "watchness" nor the "least played" restrictions. Similarly, the effect of
the "Options" button is so limited. This mode is intended to allow you to look
for any video that you might want to play, rather than offering you suggestions
based on which show is next to play and which movies have not been watched, at
least, for a while.
Now that completes the description of the "Movie Suggestions" program.
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