Movie plugin question

[markm]

I've been poking around the forums a bit, and I think I can do what I'd like with a custom plugin, but I'm not positive.

I'm looking for something like a merge between the IMDB plugin, and the built-in Video player capability. I want to use something like the IMDB plugin to browse the media collection, then once a movie is selected, hand it off to GB-PVR to play normally.

The built-in video module appears to lack any form of meta-data support for the videos, ie; descriptions, runtime, covers, etc. I like the OSD and the resume feature (especially the resume feature) though, and it's not clear if I'd have to code all the internally in the plug-in, or how I'd call the player from within the plugin.

If I can do this, I might have finally found my ideal package. I'd been using a custom written VB front end, but couldn't figure out how to do OSD on the xcard. I switched to Joveplayer, but that also lacks the metadata, resume function, and some other things.

It seems like I should be able to use GB-PVR as a base to add a custom plugin to that will allow me to navigate and view the metadata for my collection, and then hand it off to GB-PVR to play. If I have to code all the FF/RW/OSD/resume etc into the plugin, well, then I'm back to my standalone VB app

[sub]

You should be able to do the things you've described. There is a PluginHelper class that provides methods for playing video files. It uses the normal GB-PVR playback, so would automatically inherit the resume/osd/skip/ff/rw etc. It would also be able to work on the PVR350, XCard and MVP.

[jorm]

My suggestion would be to download IMDB add a new field to the xml which is the mpeg to play or the path to play. Inside IMDB source

grep for
Logger.Verbose("description would be ["+ description + "]"

right there we should we should pull the path (new attribute) from the BookEntry class.

and set a member to that path.

Then maybe when the blue button is pressed
that would be in

public bool OnKeyDown(System.Windows.Forms.KeyEventArgs e)

I am not sure how to detect the blue button being pressed. Any help?

We would call

PluginHelperFactory.getPluginHelper().PlayDVDFromDirectory(description);


It would be a really easy change. I could make the change if it sounds useful.

Can someone explain how to test for the one of the colored buttons being pressed

[markm]

I didn't see the source to IMDB anywhere?

It seemed like IMDB tried to retrieve the info online all the time? I don't want that, since a large portion of what I'm managing isn't in IMDB, or might be, but I don't want to dig up the IMDB URL. My PVR solution already generates most of the metadata I need, which I can alter to be XML, or some other format the plugin reads.

I guess ideally, I'd like to see the IMDB plugin look for a local XML defining all the metadata and cover for the movie, and if not found, and there's a URL, go fetch it. Maybe that's what it does, and I just haven't dug deep enough yet. Then it just needs the ability to kick off a play, which could even be there. I haven't been able to test it much at work behind the firewall, it spits out an error trying to hit IMDB.

I need to install this at home and kick it around more. I might have finally found my ideal front end!

The other thing I'd like to see is someway of knowing while browsing that a movie has a resume marker.

[aegisx]

I have been looking for a plugin like this too, would be great The source to the IMDB plugin would be helpful too.

I would like the option to get the data off of the website... but i could deal with a static file that has all the info, so long as its easy enough to add new movies.

[jorm]

I sent the source to sub. Hopefully it will get posted in the next few days. In the mean time if you want the source email me.

[sub]

Jorm, the blue button is ctrl-b so:

case System.Windows.Forms.Keys.B:
if (e.Control)
{
...do something }
break;

[markm]

It's taken me awhile to find the time to sit down and tackle this, but I think I've got it going.

I added several new attributes to the BookEntry class for the metadata I want to display, along with the filename, and the image filename (I could have derived it from the filename, but I wanted the option to override it).

I then placed the code to build up the description in the false case of the if(imdb) block, thus leaving the imdb functionality in place (I think )

So far, in my crude testing, it's working. I don't have any real videos or catalog to play with here at work, so I need to do more testing when I get home tonight.

I also kinda hacked the key handler to call the enter key on left/right/up/down so they act more like hotkeys. I didn't like having to hit enter each time I changed category/movie focus.

If I get time, I'll do some more tinkering tonight and see what problems I've caused once I throw a real catalog at it.

[markm]

I'm off and running. Thanks for the source to imdb, saved me a ton of time.

Another question..

Is it possible to determine if there's an resume entry for a video in the DB? I poked around through the dll a bit, but didn't see anything.

The next thing I'd like to do is toss a blurb into the description like:
Resumes at: 1:20
or something like that.

I suppose I could always hit the db directly since I know the filename, but I'd rather get it via the api (especially since I don't know how to hit it directly )

[sub]

No, unfortunately there isn't an API for this. It just happens automatically as part of playing a file using the provided APIs for playing video files.