Roman Romaniuk wrote:
I have a fairly large DVD collection, but nowhere near sufficient disk
space to be able to host all of it on my backend server. Is there any
way to maintain the DVD listing within mythdvd, but have a note pop up
requesting that the user insert the appropriate DVD (and possibly
noting the DVD's location) into the drive when it is selected for play?
I like this idea, too. It could really make for an impressive looking
MythVideo gallery view. Imagine having 1000+ movies listed in there.
:) (Although, you'll probably want to make heavy use of categories so
you can find things.)
As of now, there's nothing within Myth to handle it. However, it's not
too difficult to "fake it"...
Create an executable script file (whose contents we'll add later--a
working example is attached) called something like prompt_for_media (or
whatever you like) within a directory that's readable by the mythtv user
(i.e. /usr/local/bin). Then, within the MythVideo videos directory
structure, create a link to the script but with the DVD's name and some
appropriate extension (i.e. ".dvd"--more on that later). For example:
ln -s /usr/local/bin/prompt_for_media \
/path/to/videos/Stargate_SG-1_Season_1_Volume_1.dvd
(if you don't have SG-1 in your collection, you should ;).
Then, in Setup|Media Settings|Videos|File Types, add a file type to
MythVideo associating the extension ".dvd" to your shell (i.e. bash)
with appropriate command-line arguments. If using the attached files,
it would be
bash %s DVD %s
(Yes, "%s" should be in there twice--just trust me; once to execute the
script and a second time to name the DVD.) Also, make sure you
*uncheck* the "Use default player" checkbox.
Now, all you need to do is write the "prompt_for_media" script. I've
included one below that prompts for media using a "poor-man's prompt."
I just pop up an xterm window asking for the DVD by name and waiting for
a keypress (basically, I have xterm execute the "prompt" command--also
attached). As far as the other xterm arguments go, I'm using a
background and foreground color that look OK (at least to me--a guy with
no artistic talent) with the MythCenter theme, telling it not to display
scrollbars, setting a font size that's readable from a distance, and
specifying an appropriate window size. If you also tell your window
manager to remove decorations (i.e. title bar and borders) from xterm
windows, it looks like a pretty respectable prompt message (although my
WM's placement policy gives a weird effect--keeps stairstepping it down
and right about 10 pixels...). BTW, I recommend sticking with xterm
(instead of something like gnome-terminal) because it's pretty lightweight.
In theory, you could get the xterm to respond to remote button presses
using irxevent, but I haven't played with this. Ideally, you would
create a custom LIRC client that listens for any remote keypress and use
it instead of the xterm. This would also give you the benefit of having
access to all the GUI prettiness you're willing to create--even to the
point of using data from the MythTV database to find the DVD
data--title, producer, year, description, movie poster, etc.--and
displaying it. If I really get into this idea and create something like
that, I'll post a followup (but don't hold your breath ;).
The scripts are relatively generic. You could set up similar links for
backup CD's using an extension of ".cd" and a file-association command
of "bash %s CD %s" (where the attached script assumes a backup CD is an
ISO9660 CD with a single file--the video file--on it). If you use real
VCD's, instead, use an extension of ".vcd" and a file-association
command of "bash %s VCD %s".
Note that once you add the ".dvd" (or ".cd" or ".vcd") links to the
MythVideo database, you can do IMDB lookups and everything.
If you accidentally select a DVD/CD/VCD or decide you don't want to walk
over and insert the disc, it won't hurt anything. When you "Press any
key to continue," xine will start up, but it will error out when it
fails to find a disc in the drive, so it will exit. Note that if you
put the "wrong" disc in the drive, xine will just play it, anyway
(assuming it's the same disc type as requested)--nothing is checking to
verify it's the requested disc. If you put in the wrong type of disc,
xine will error out and exit.
Well, I've got to go put 5 volumes per season times 7 seasons of
Stargate SG-1 in my database... I think it's even worth scanning the
cover art from the DVD's since they won't be in IMDB for SG-1.
HTH.
Mike
#!/bin/bash
MEDIA_TYPE=$1
FILE_NAME=$2
# Find the name of the disc
case "${MEDIA_TYPE}" in
DVD)
DISC_NAME=`basename $FILE_NAME .dvd`
;;
CD)
DISC_NAME=`basename $FILE_NAME .cd`
;;
VCD)
DISC_NAME=`basename $FILE_NAME .vcd`
;;
esac
# Prompt the user to insert the disc
xterm -bg NavyBlue -fg White +sb -fs 18 -geometry 40x6 \
-e prompt "Please insert ${MEDIA_TYPE}:" "${DISC_NAME}"
# Play the disc
case "${MEDIA_TYPE}" in
DVD)
xine --no-splash --auto-play=fhq --auto-scan dvd
;;
CD)
xine --no-splash --auto-play=fhq /mnt/cd
;;
VCD)
xine --no-splash --auto-play=fhq --auto-scan vcd
;;
esac
#!/bin/bash
MESSAGE=$1
MESSAGE2=$2
echo "${MESSAGE}"
echo
echo "${MESSAGE2}"
## Uncomment the for loop for a standard 80x24 terminal or use the
## xterm command line to customize the display for 5 or 6 lines
#for line in `seq 1 20`; do
echo
#done
read -n 1 -p "Press any key to continue."
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