Rich B's dashboard

I've been on this strange and mysterious journey to try to get my recorded TV shows(no DRM) to be recognized and categorized by Boxee to no avail.

I know that Windows alpha was late in the Boxee timeline, kind of like a baby but with an 'old man' inside. This little baby couldn't speak or understand Win MCE recorded TV unless force fed (via browse to the file and then it would play). BUT, that doesn't leverage one of the main niceties of Boxee's UI, TV Shows!

I'm Dying in the End Too

On this journey, I've tried to play by the rules and change the filename to Boxee's recognized TV show format, but this starts me down a strange, perplexing, frustrating, psychedelic journey.

Renaming to the recognized filename formats for TV shows: 1) This throws disk errors in MCE and 2) Boxee still doesn't see them anyway...So here goes...

1) Use MCEBuddy, a freeware MS-DVR converter, to convert to DivX AVI (you pick whatever other type you want), but that doesn't get things into Boxee yet. or use DVRMSToolbox.

2) I have to now take those files and use a batch file renaming utility to get to the S##E## format (or similar) BUT there's another hitch. MS-DVR files have only date and time stamp in the filename, which means a TWO digit series and episode # are not possible to organize some semblance of order (could use 2 for series - YY; need 4 digits for episode at least MMDD). And no, there are no series and episode # metadata available for ms-dvr's.

3) But the fun isn't over yet in this magical journey. While MCE (and other competent DVR programs) handle drive space quotas for recording pro-actively, now that I've ported my ms-dvr files, MCE can't manage and as new episodes are recorded/converted, the files list just grows and grows and grows.

4) To other DVR software fans, I like free, VMCE is a polished DVR solution, I like free, this is a Windows centric post.

So, Boxee team, please consider this curious case of simply getting my TV shows to appear in your beautiful application and consider a simpler method...

...adding native recognition of MS-DVR filenames, they are a constant,
There is a title tag and episode name tag that could be leveraged to help. (don't forget WTV extension for future Win 7 users) to your scanning routine and bring joyous cheers to your Windows fans :-))

Consider also, the Windows community, rather large install base , growing use of media centers, not having DVR aspirations yourself and the draw this would have to Boxee setting and (almost) forgetting MCE DVR and giving some lovin to Boxee!

Thanks for reading!

Problem: Boxee has proprietary filename scanning process for its library. As a result the disparate filename formats users have are in many cases not recognized when scanned or are improperly indexed in TV Shows and Movies.

Concept: I am NOT proposing a utility/editor that modifies filenames/tags or a media server, rather it interprets your existing filename structures/tags for improved scanning/media categorization to TV Shows and Movies. This "Lightweight Media Mapping/Translation Utility" could be extended to handle music tag scanning/categorization as well.(again NOT editing, use your own editor for now :)

Boxee has an inherent and somewhat opaque method of file recognition, scanning, indexing and display....keep it in place(option to disable), BUT extend/supercede it with User-Defined filename format definitions for media recognition.

Solution: Create a 'client' utility that hooks to Boxee DB or Expose a new UI Section under Media Sources called 'Scanning' allowing Boxee users to add self-defined filename formats to improve media recognition and categorization. Allows for a modular approach and future extensibility as new file formats, conventions and extensions are added.

Not Covered: is the required programming logic, database modifications and validation required to implement, but this should be 'do-able' by the talented C++ developers. DB and UI designers at Boxee. This is simply a conceptual mockup of the idea not fully fleshed out. There are MANY nuances to parsing, multiple formats per filetype, choking the scanning engine with misuse, validation required, identifying conditions to properly recognize a TV show from a movie, so this is meant to put the power in the community's hands and off load that lift (but for developing the module from Boxee.

Please reply with additional comments, considerations and/or concerns.

FYI: Agentlame(moderator) has a kickass overview of Boxee recognized filename formats for TV shows and Movies in this thread . Kudos A.L.!

Key Elements: A button for 'Scanning' and related UI page(s) under 'Settings / Media Sources'

Settings / Media Sources
New Option: Scanning...click

Settings / Media Sources / Scanning

Button: Force Rescan
Button: Add TV Show File Format
Button: Add Movie File Format
Checkbox: Disable Boxee Native Formats

List Box below on screen:
Label: Scanning File Formats
Columns: Format Name(user defined string), Format Type(TV, Movie), Extension, View, Edit, Delete icons for each entry, a checkbox to 'enable/disable' for scanning
Boxee's default recognized formats displayed, but not editable

User clicks Edit on MS-DVR entry...(see screenshot attached for TV Show example)

User then selects the appropriate elements from one or more filename parsing methods(Delimited, Positional, Tags)

Missing element: I haven't mocked up a conditions section at top to treat different media types with same extension appropriately like:

Conditions:
Apply if: Combobox (Any / All) conditions are met
Condition 1: filename 'contains' S##E## for Extension: 'avi' ==> Map To: TV Shows
Condition 2:....etc

I know the UI mockup below shows it within Boxee UI, but this could also be an external utility...


Similar approach to Movies, also this could conceptually be applied to allow user to user defined mapping using tags for MP3 library that the Boxee community would go completely ape sh#t over

Example:

My prime example right now is a wealth of MS-DVR files that will play in Boxee if I manually browse to that smb share, but don't get picked up by the native media scan to TV shows. My little util. would 'add a record/filename definition' to the core Boxee logic to pick them up and categorize. I wouldn't have to manually (or batch) rename them to get them recognized as TV shows.

I actually tried to unit test renaming a MS-DVR file to the standard TV show formats and 1) still doesn't get recognized by Boxee and 2) VMCE throws a disk error when I try to play back same file...arggghhh! Can't win

If I had my magic utility create a small XML file of new format types that the scanning engine could read and include in scanning routine that would be sweet.