New Release Media Companion gen2 3.293

Changes for version 3.293

• New Feature - MC is now able to display episodes that are missing from your collection, only episodes that have been aired will be displayed, although it may be that an episodes that will be aired later in the day will be listed.
  Use the drop down tv menu item 'Search for Missing episodes' to compare all unlocked shows with those on TVDB.
  Due to overlap of function the episode scraper cannot run at the same time.
  Shows can be checked individually using 'Check 'Show' For missing episodes' located within the show context menu.
  
  • Missing episodes will be added to the list and are blue.
    
  • Missing episodes display no details other than the fact it is missing and the air date, no screenshot is downloaded.
    
  • Missing episodes are removed if a scan finds that particular episode.
    
  • Missing episodes are kept between sessions, but a rebuild will remove them
    
  • Missing episodes can be viewed easily by selecting the 'Missing Episodes' Radio button below the treeview.
    
  
  
• New Feature - Custom commands can now be added to MC, use the tab in the general preferences to add a unique 'Name' and the command you wish MC to run.
  
• Added TV Show Context Menu Items to Lock/Unlock all shows, unverified shows are ignored.
  
• Bugfix - Auto episode rename would give the new filename to the nfo and tbn files even if the media could not be renamed.
  

Whats next.
Thats a big question, not really sure what to do next, ideas would be appreciated. Perhaps a batch wizard for TV Shows and Episodes. By the lack of activity on this forum it looks like most bugs have been ironed out.

I have also registered the 'mediacompanion.co.uk' domain and am in the process of rewriting Media Companions homepage, the new webpage will include a userguide, including a video series, part one of which can be viewed here,

Download Version 3.293

Regards

Billy

Excellent. The missing episode checker & lock/unlock all is greatly appreciated. It worked great on the first test.

Batch wizard for TV Shows and Episodes would be great.

Perhaps an added table for TV shows (similiar to movies table) each with a button for exporting the tables
to some format (txt or pdf or csv/xls/ods) thus ending with a movies/tvshows&missing episodes file list.

Also maybe 'Missing actor thumbnail' Radio button if possible

hmmm i got an idea Billy, how back you take a step back relax, and just enjoy your new HTPC.

I'm sure i can say on behalf of everyone thanks for top work you have done on this app


Ok thats enough of a break.

How bout:

MSI and/or update wizard?

What about a check box to add dvd covers or bluray covers to your movie poster
Something like this. In particular i would use this to add dvd cases to just my offline movies so that when i'm looking for a movie on xbmc i can tell if it is one of my DVDs or not. If needed i can change the below image to reflect Bluray or more DVD like.

i definitely think an auto-update function to MC would be really useful.

Also, one of the features that I would love to see is the ability for auto-rename and thumbnail generator (if none exist on tvdb) added to mc_com. these are the last 2 features that I cannot wait to be added.

Maybe you could add a tv schedule section for the TV shows that are scrapped in the MC database. that way users could view upcoming episodes, or even check out related shows or discover new shows in the same genre, etc.

Perhaps another idea you could implement in conjunction with the missing episodes feature is the ability to right click on the missing episode and have it search your favorite torrent or nzb site (nzbs.org comes to mind for me) for the episode.

I also think that a redesign of the tv show page could beneficial. How that could be accomplished is another story. Maybe have options for different layouts based upon poster/banners, etc. maybe have a more fanart centric view, with the fanart taking up the background or something like that, similar to how you would view it in xbmc. obviously i'm not sure if that is feasible but something to get the idea gears moving for everyone.

A few cosmetic suggestions...
Adding a lock/unlock image to the Status button so that the status button can be visually associated with the locked TV Shows.

I sometimes still want to edit a fanart or poster in my preferred image editor. Could it be possible to right click on the picture & choose 'edit' & have in the preferences a path to an editor?
Also I see that you can rescrape the art in the Movies section but not yet in the TV.

The Sets list I would like sorted alphabetically, both on the Movie page & the Movie Sets tab.

When selecting TVShow posters, the Poster/Banner choice is always selected irrespective of the preference set in the preferences.

As you can see all minor things, MC is working very well otherwise

Cheers

Update wizard would be nice. MSI could be nice but I like the fact that I don`t have to install it.
I use MC straight from my portable HDD since it does not really install and that's very handy.

The Sets list I would also like sorted alphabetically, both on the Movie page & the Movie Sets tab
with the ability to a add poster/fanart for the set itself, something like a boxset cover etc.

Firstly can I just say that your program is fantastic, i don't know about everyone else but i find i use media companion more than I actually use xbmc!

That being said, a function in the TV section, to mark full seasons as being watched with a single click (as opposed to doing every episode individually), accompanied by a filter to view unwatched episodes only would absolutely top the program off imho

Once again, thanks for providing this superb program!

Is there a way to manually remove a show or episode? Specifically, I've run into a couple times where I've renamed a show's folder or renamed an episode or moved something around and when MC does it's next search, it finds the renamed files/folders but doesn't remove the old one. The only way I've found to remove it is to use the Rebuild Shows function. It would be nice if I could just right-click a show/episode and click delete/remove and it would be gone. If the files actually exist, then they will be found again during the next search and if they aren't there, they won't come back.

Thanks and keep up the good work.

Yes Wolf00 what you are doing is what I found to work the best.

Delete the incorrect nfo's, rename the video files correctly & then rebuild & then search for new episodes.

Cheers

To speed this up a little you need not rebuild all the shows,

This builds add the facility to rebuild individual shows, its located within the context menu.

Thanks, I hadn't seen that new feature yet. That will indeed make things a little easier. The times that won't work is when the entire show is gone (a show only has one season and that folder get's renamed, but that should be very rare.

I also vote for the auto-renaming to be added to the command line program. I will probably be using the command line all the time unless I add a new show or need to do some other work that would require the GUI. Right now, I have another script that renames the shows based on the info from epguides.com, but requires some user interaction. I run the script against all the avis in my d/l folder, it renames them, then I move them into the proper show folder. I would like to have it completely automated within MC. Then all I would need to do is move the downloaded file into the right directory, run the command line and I'm done. Maybe I can even figure out how to get my usenet app to put the files in the right folders and execute MC for me.

I do have a question with regards to the auto-renaming. How does MC handle invalid characters? For instance a ? or a / or \ in an episode name or a : like in every episode of 24? I know for my own renaming, I leave the ? out and usually replace other invalid characters with a - but I'd like to know how MC will handle it before I start using it exclusively.

Thanks again and keep up the good work.

Pretty sure wolf00 that invalid characters are just stripped & not replaced at all except trailing dots (i.e. '.') which whilst valid are removed so you don't end up with filenames like E.T..avi

Cheers

wolf00 wrote:

The times that won't work is when the entire show is gone (a show only has one season and that folder get's renamed, but that should be very rare.

Just remove the 'folder'from the folder list and save, then check roots for new shows, or re-add the new folder, these operations are very fast, especially if the show nfo already exists.

feerlessleadr430 wrote:

i definitely think an auto-update function to MC would be really useful.

Also, one of the features that I would love to see is the ability for auto-rename and thumbnail generator (if none exist on tvdb) added to mc_com. these are the last 2 features that I cannot wait to be added.

wolf00 wrote:

I also vote for the auto-renaming to be added to the command line program. I do have a question with regards to the auto-renaming. How does MC handle invalid characters? For instance a ? or a / or \ in an episode name or a : like in every episode of 24? I know for my own renaming, I leave the ? out and usually replace other invalid characters with a - but I'd like to know how MC will handle it before I start using it exclusively.

Thanks again and keep up the good work.

The characters ?\/<>:* are stripped from the new filename.

The rename episode and auto screenshot generator will be added to mc_com by the next build, I am away on Sunday, so it will either be Saturday or Monday.

paybac wrote:

How bout:
MSI and/or update wizard?

The MSI is something I have wanted to do for a long time, but the issue of portability has been the biggest barrier. If MC is to be installed, then any user created settings will need to be located within the systems application data folder, this is fairly simple to achieve, but the last time I had MC do this, I recieved a number of complaints. dbareis has sent me an example for his MakeMSI software, and will look into how to add the question of whether someone wants portability, or a full install.
As for the upgrade wizard, probably not yet, but I will add an optional version check (Needs to be optional since the auto check MC gen1 had raised complaints about unauthorised internet access)

paybac wrote:

What about a check box to add dvd covers or bluray covers to your movie poster
Something like this. In particular i would use this to add dvd cases to just my offline movies so that when i'm looking for a movie on xbmc i can tell if it is one of my DVDs or not.

Maybe eventually, but not right now.

feerlessleadr430 wrote:

Maybe you could add a tv schedule section for the TV shows that are scrapped in the MC database. that way users could view upcoming episodes, or even check out related shows or discover new shows in the same genre, etc.

This would actually be fairly simple, shows that have not aired yet (or at least do not air that day) are disregarded. Maybe some kind of report about up and coming episodes.

feerlessleadr430 wrote:

Perhaps another idea you could implement in conjunction with the missing episodes feature is the ability to right click on the missing episode and have it search your favorite torrent or nzb site (nzbs.org comes to mind for me) for the episode.

This on the other hand would be very complex. I have no doubt that sometimes this would work, by selecting preference fot download type (xvid, HD, etc) nzbs.org will probably return good results most of the time. Maybe I could take you to this page, but I would be a little bit worried about MC launching nzb files for download, especially since the accuracy is an unknown factor.

this thing gets better/better.
Love the ability to put my script in the TOOLs section to update my WATCHED status in my database.
Love the missing ep TV search
Love MC

Awesome mods to the already awesome app,

LOVE the missing episode bit/
1 sugestion would it be possible to export a list of the missing episodes ?

Awesome upgrade. I love the missing episode function. You were asking of where to go next. What about the idea of identifying where the missing episodes are missing.? For example:

You search for new episodes and MC finds that you are missing Dexter S04E05. In the list it shows up the title "Dexter" as blue. Once you expand "Dexter" it changes the colour back to default black and Season 4 in the list now shows up blue. Once you expand Season 4 it changes back to black and the missing episode is listed in blue. As you colapse the blue title moves up the branch toward the root.

Just my humble suggestion.

version 293 doesn't work...going back to 253

error to be found here : http://pastebin.com/whDDtFJi
issue: it shows no movies.. I've given it access to 2 samba shares (>1500 movies) and it displays none)...I get an error when I let it rebuild the movielist

no such error with 253

I've been having trouble with locking tv shows lately. It shows a padlock in the left hand side by the show name, but still checks it whenever I search for new episodes.

I was able to get around this by opening the tvcache file and changing the <locked> status to -1, but then when I go back into MC and unlock/lock it, it continues to search the directories.

jives00 wrote:

I've been having trouble with locking tv shows lately. It shows a padlock in the left hand side by the show name, but still checks it whenever I search for new episodes.

I was able to get around this by opening the tvcache file and changing the <locked> status to -1, but then when I go back into MC and unlock/lock it, it continues to search the directories.

I thought I saw this before and mentioned and agree that I still believe i continue to as well.

The ability to scrape movie plots in other languages then English would be a nice feature

TV reports could be cool. Watched filter like Movies.

Is it possible to rename all episodes at once? I know I can have it automatically rename then when added, but for my existing shows/episodes, the only way I see to rename them is to right-click the show and click rename. It would be nice to be able to do it for all shows at once rather than one at a time. If it's there, I've obviously missed it. If it's not there, could it be added?

Thanks

wolf00 wrote:

Is it possible to rename all episodes at once? I know I can have it automatically rename then when added, but for my existing shows/episodes, the only way I see to rename them is to right-click the show and click rename. It would be nice to be able to do it for all shows at once rather than one at a time. If it's there, I've obviously missed it. If it's not there, could it be added?

Thanks

Ive not tried the renaming feature
but Renamer is a free portable app. FlashRenamer is awesome though.
It could do this. just fyi

transcender wrote:

Ive not tried the renaming feature
but Renamer is a free portable app. FlashRenamer is awesome though.
It could do this. just fyi

I know there are quite a few renaming tools out there and I was previously using a perl script to do my renaming. However, since MC will now do it automatically when adding a show, I will go ahead and use the naming convention that MC uses. Since I will be letting MC rename all my newly added shows, I'd like to go through and have MC rename all my episodes so they match since my existing naming structure and MCs are different.

Maybe a custom naming scheme? like EPnamer and rashid TV renamer have.
I think once billy does an expansion on the TVshow context menu (like movies one),
maybe more options like batch rescrape wizard and rename all shows etc. might perhaps appear.