2010-07-18, 07:02 AM
The new release works well; the basic genre support is a good start, and I know you're working on it. Unsurprisingly, I have some suggestions:
1. Netflix seems to have top-level genres and then a bunch of sub-genres. It'd be a lot easier in both the plugin Settings screen and within the app itself if the genres could be arranged in that order instead of simple alphabetical order. If you can't get that detail from the Netflix feed, then at least hard-code the top-level genre list (or perhaps put the top-level list in a config file somewhere that could be changed if needed) and then list them separately from the multitude of sub-genres.
2. Based on #1, I think it should default to listing all top-level genres, and have the sub-genres deselected. Then I can go in and pick the additional sub-genres I want to call out. Important point: I want to be able to enable a sub-genre even if the associated top-level genre is disabled.
3. Following on from there, I'd like two All Videos lists available. Obviously one would be literally an ALL VIDEOS list, simply every video in the feed. That should be available, though I actually don't want to use it (presumably someone will want it, just not me); I'd like to disable this list in Settings. Second should be a filtered All Videos list, which would only include videos for which at least one of the genre/sub-genre tags is enabled in Settings... if all of a video's tags are disabled, then the video should not be listed at all.
4. A slightly more advanced concept, but which should be nothing more than simple sql logic: For the top-level genres it'd be very clever to have 3 possible states of selection: Disabled, Enabled and Display Only. The meaning of Disabled and Enabled are obvious. Display Only would mean that while all videos from the top-level genre are not enabled, there are several sub-genres enabled and so videos from those sub-genres should still be grouped and listed under the main genre. Maybe it needs a better name than "Display Only", but I think you get the idea.
The essential idea behind #4 is to be able to display a top-level Genre of videos, such as "Dramas" without necessarily having to include every single video in that Genre, or conversely select and display an entire top-level genre, while not having to individually enable all the sub-genres.
5. Similar to 4, but slightly reversed. For the sub-genres, again have 3 states of selection: Disabled, Enabled, and Include-only. Again, Disabled should be obvious. Enabled means the videos tagged with the sub-genre are included, and the sub-genre itself is selectable in the menu. Include-only then means that videos from that sub-genre are included in the overall list, but the sub-genre itself is NOT displayed seperately in the menu. Videos in Included-only sub-genres would be displayed under enabled top-level genres and All Videos lists.
The essential goal behind #5 is to be able to build have variety of sub-genres selected, without necessarily having to see and scroll through each one.
#4 & #5 obviously mix two concepts - which videos will be available to watch, versus which genre lists will be seen on-screen. However I think it makes sense to mix the two. Windows of course already has the selection concept - the empty check box for Disabled, checked box for Enabled, and grey-filled box for the in-between state. It's necessary to reverse the meaning of the in-between state between top-level genres vs sub-genres simply because every single video has at least one top-level genre assigned.
The goal of #1-5 then is to have a default setting that lists all videos and the dozen or so top-level genres, and then let the user have very detailed control over which videos are available and how they are presented. Simple for the user who just wants it to work, powerful options for those who want it.
Some examples illustrating the above concepts: I would disable the various gay & lesbian genres & sub-genres; however I have no objection to a movie like Philadelphia, so that would still get listed as a "Drama" because I would leave various other sub-genres that include the movie enabled (in all cases "Disabled" should mean 'not-included' rather than 'excluded'). I would disable the entire Foreign genre, since our household has little use for foreign-language films... however NetFlix does have a nice list of such films that might still deserve our attention, so I'd want to enable just the "Foreign Must-See" list. I'd enable the entire "Children and Family" top-level genre, however within that there are some sub-genres I'd like to have explicitly listed such as "Ages 5-7" (and "Ages 8-10" soon), "Animal Tales", "Disney", etc.
6. More advanced, maybe a future idea: - add a fourth state for every genre - Protected. Any video with one of it's genre tags in the Protected list doesn't show up at all until a password or PIN code is entered. Once the user has entered the protected mode you could either show all the usually selected videos plus the protected ones, or perhaps more usefully (and logically easier?) switch to showing just the protected genres (i.e. the user entered the password, he's looking for the secret stuff now, no point in still wading through the rest). In that mode, all genres marked Protected would be interpreted as simply Enabled.
There should also be a ratings limit that can be exceeded only by PIN; perhaps a different PIN for the ratings limit. For the most part I find the Ratings a little too coarse for most uses though, having Protected genres would give much finer control.
NetFlix doesn't have porn, but still has plenty of stuff for grown-ups you don't want the kids accessing, either by accident when they're little or on purpose when they're a bit bigger. Example - Horror, Erotic Thrillers, etc.; not for kids, but fair game for mommy and daddy after the darlings are off to bed.
I hope you find all of this helpful rather than badgering. I've tossed out my ideas, which I hope are good ones. You're free to do what you want with your plugin.
1. Netflix seems to have top-level genres and then a bunch of sub-genres. It'd be a lot easier in both the plugin Settings screen and within the app itself if the genres could be arranged in that order instead of simple alphabetical order. If you can't get that detail from the Netflix feed, then at least hard-code the top-level genre list (or perhaps put the top-level list in a config file somewhere that could be changed if needed) and then list them separately from the multitude of sub-genres.
2. Based on #1, I think it should default to listing all top-level genres, and have the sub-genres deselected. Then I can go in and pick the additional sub-genres I want to call out. Important point: I want to be able to enable a sub-genre even if the associated top-level genre is disabled.
3. Following on from there, I'd like two All Videos lists available. Obviously one would be literally an ALL VIDEOS list, simply every video in the feed. That should be available, though I actually don't want to use it (presumably someone will want it, just not me); I'd like to disable this list in Settings. Second should be a filtered All Videos list, which would only include videos for which at least one of the genre/sub-genre tags is enabled in Settings... if all of a video's tags are disabled, then the video should not be listed at all.
4. A slightly more advanced concept, but which should be nothing more than simple sql logic: For the top-level genres it'd be very clever to have 3 possible states of selection: Disabled, Enabled and Display Only. The meaning of Disabled and Enabled are obvious. Display Only would mean that while all videos from the top-level genre are not enabled, there are several sub-genres enabled and so videos from those sub-genres should still be grouped and listed under the main genre. Maybe it needs a better name than "Display Only", but I think you get the idea.
The essential idea behind #4 is to be able to display a top-level Genre of videos, such as "Dramas" without necessarily having to include every single video in that Genre, or conversely select and display an entire top-level genre, while not having to individually enable all the sub-genres.
5. Similar to 4, but slightly reversed. For the sub-genres, again have 3 states of selection: Disabled, Enabled, and Include-only. Again, Disabled should be obvious. Enabled means the videos tagged with the sub-genre are included, and the sub-genre itself is selectable in the menu. Include-only then means that videos from that sub-genre are included in the overall list, but the sub-genre itself is NOT displayed seperately in the menu. Videos in Included-only sub-genres would be displayed under enabled top-level genres and All Videos lists.
The essential goal behind #5 is to be able to build have variety of sub-genres selected, without necessarily having to see and scroll through each one.
#4 & #5 obviously mix two concepts - which videos will be available to watch, versus which genre lists will be seen on-screen. However I think it makes sense to mix the two. Windows of course already has the selection concept - the empty check box for Disabled, checked box for Enabled, and grey-filled box for the in-between state. It's necessary to reverse the meaning of the in-between state between top-level genres vs sub-genres simply because every single video has at least one top-level genre assigned.
The goal of #1-5 then is to have a default setting that lists all videos and the dozen or so top-level genres, and then let the user have very detailed control over which videos are available and how they are presented. Simple for the user who just wants it to work, powerful options for those who want it.
Some examples illustrating the above concepts: I would disable the various gay & lesbian genres & sub-genres; however I have no objection to a movie like Philadelphia, so that would still get listed as a "Drama" because I would leave various other sub-genres that include the movie enabled (in all cases "Disabled" should mean 'not-included' rather than 'excluded'). I would disable the entire Foreign genre, since our household has little use for foreign-language films... however NetFlix does have a nice list of such films that might still deserve our attention, so I'd want to enable just the "Foreign Must-See" list. I'd enable the entire "Children and Family" top-level genre, however within that there are some sub-genres I'd like to have explicitly listed such as "Ages 5-7" (and "Ages 8-10" soon), "Animal Tales", "Disney", etc.
6. More advanced, maybe a future idea: - add a fourth state for every genre - Protected. Any video with one of it's genre tags in the Protected list doesn't show up at all until a password or PIN code is entered. Once the user has entered the protected mode you could either show all the usually selected videos plus the protected ones, or perhaps more usefully (and logically easier?) switch to showing just the protected genres (i.e. the user entered the password, he's looking for the secret stuff now, no point in still wading through the rest). In that mode, all genres marked Protected would be interpreted as simply Enabled.
There should also be a ratings limit that can be exceeded only by PIN; perhaps a different PIN for the ratings limit. For the most part I find the Ratings a little too coarse for most uses though, having Protected genres would give much finer control.
NetFlix doesn't have porn, but still has plenty of stuff for grown-ups you don't want the kids accessing, either by accident when they're little or on purpose when they're a bit bigger. Example - Horror, Erotic Thrillers, etc.; not for kids, but fair game for mommy and daddy after the darlings are off to bed.
I hope you find all of this helpful rather than badgering. I've tossed out my ideas, which I hope are good ones. You're free to do what you want with your plugin.
server: NextPVR 5.0.7/Win10 2004/64-bit/AMD A6-7400k/hvr-2250 & hvr-1250/Winegard Flatwave antenna/Schedules Direct
main client: NextPVR 5.0.7 Desktop Client; LG 50UH5500 WebOS 3.0 TV
main client: NextPVR 5.0.7 Desktop Client; LG 50UH5500 WebOS 3.0 TV
