| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| HaraldBluetooth |
Posted - 01 Dec 2013 : 14:59:42
Hi, I've used XMM for over 6 years now and have been a very happy user.
But now I have chosen to make the tough decision to leave EMM. I could have leaved without a comment, but decided to do it anyhow.
The reason is the way development XMM8 has gone. To say it short. While XMM7 was more management-oriented and user friendly, XMM8 is more about look. XMM7 was actually realy focused on flow, when you import and upgrade your movies from your harddisks.
When you as I do have more than 5.000 movies and 126.000 people, XMM8 is very sluggish to use, even with a quad processor and 4GB RAM. The strengths of XMM8 is the many data fields and the nice people overview, but at the same time these strengths are also XMM8's Achilles heel from a performance point of view, this also because of Microsoft Access Database maybe.
All this in my opinion of course.
XMM8 had been a killer movie manager if:
1. The quick edit view was expanded even further than XMM7 (I know you could customize the quick edit view in XMM7 and move the fields around as you pleased, and I also did this, but it would have been really nice, if the default quick edit view was expanded so ALL the fields were on one single page/screen, max. two and customizable. Look at the old ANT movie catalog f.ex. It gives a quick overview and very quick to change different fields instead of cycling through a lot of tabs, where you easily lose track of the information.
2. A fancy theater mode a la the StreamedMP skin for MediaPortal and XBMC. With SimpleCard you are on the way in XMM8, but compared to StreamedMP it's like pre-pre-alpha state. The same goes for the MyWebsite export.
3. Speed!Speed!Speed! - I think it's time to change the database engine. IMDB scraping also takes years to finish compared with alternative competition.
4. Scraping scripts are the heart in every movie manager and more focus for faster updates of the scripts, when something is changed at these sites, is alfa omega.
5. Full unicode support for all characters in all languages, also in scrips and export modules is also a mandatory feature here in 2013.
6. Don't advertise with features, that are broken or not implemented in XMM8 yet.
I will not slam with the door, because I've been a happy camper up until XMM8 and wish you all luck in the future and a big thanks goes to Alessio for his great commitment to this project and for all the fast and helpful answers here in this forum.
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| 20 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| apd |
Posted - 30 Aug 2015 : 09:03:43
By the looks of it, XMM 11 would be more apt when it comes out ;) |
| Mawu |
Posted - 26 Aug 2015 : 18:58:24
quote:
I am really busy these months, I will try to start to update XMM soon.
You should name the update "extreme Movie Manager 10". |
| JDommi |
Posted - 19 Aug 2015 : 21:12:54
WOW, the master was here!!!!!!!!!
Really a rare honor these days  |
| Alessio Viti |
Posted - 19 Aug 2015 : 11:13:07
Sorry guys, I am still alive 
I am really busy these months, I will try to start to update XMM soon.
Alessio |
| JDommi |
Posted - 18 Jul 2015 : 22:13:32
***BUMP***
Reminds me of my youth... Kilroy was here
\|||/
(o o)
----ooO-(_)-Ooo--------
But where is Ale???
|
| Mawu |
Posted - 19 Apr 2014 : 14:02:28
***Bump***
And what are your plans? |
| Alessio Viti |
Posted - 19 Apr 2014 : 06:54:48
I am here guys...  |
| JDommi |
Posted - 17 Apr 2014 : 10:22:07
In the middle of the last week Ale has arrived back from holidays. I think now he soon will release a new update |
| Rincewindwiz |
Posted - 17 Apr 2014 : 02:08:46
. . . . . if Ale comes to it!! |
| JDommi |
Posted - 10 Mar 2014 : 09:24:01
We'll cross that bridge when Ale comes to it. |
| Rincewindwiz |
Posted - 10 Mar 2014 : 07:51:32
Hhhmmm - gone very quiet.
Seems we don't have a plan. That is a shame 'cos its a decent product at heart. |
| Rincewindwiz |
Posted - 09 Feb 2014 : 21:27:43
Interesting - we all like different things and in many ways its XMM strength (lots of different ways) and weakenss (they all have to work!). I use quick edit because
- its there
- it shows, in groupings that I find useful, all the information in the database
- I positively hate the 'pretty' html presentation because the presentation obscures the data. Personally, I don't care if it looks pretty (multiple fonts, pictures, italics etc etc), I just want XMM to give me the bl***y information - preferably today rather than tomorrow!
And I find I have to edit data quite a lot mostly when a script has picked up the wrong movie and loaded the data without giving me the option!!
But all this is irrelevant without some policy statement from Ale.
From my perspective, either I get some idea of when the product will be usable (in that it has no significant bugs) and works at a sensible speed (v7 speed will just about do) otherwise I have to go elsewhere. The quickest approach must be to fix v7 while working on v8 because v7 mostly works and at a sensible speed (not lightning, just sensible v7 was jut about OK).
I've been hanging in with v7 in the hope of a working version 8 but the v7 scripts simply don't work properly any more.
And I said most of this in a post over a year ago but nothing changes.
So Ale, what is the plan?
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| JDommi |
Posted - 02 Feb 2014 : 23:47:02
Well, I never have used the Quickedit. A doubleclick to edit the movie is enough for me as I rarely modify or add data.
Therefor I don't wanna give values of what to do first. But the main bugs in XMM should have priority before adding more features. |
| Rincewindwiz |
Posted - 02 Feb 2014 : 23:15:56
Bug tracker is critical for those who have to fix things. It is also critical so we can 'agree' if a bug is critical or not. IMHO far too much time is spent providing features that very few people want. I understand why - its much more fun creating new stuff than making old stuff work but for users it is mostly the other way round.
Since we are unlikely to get a bug tracker can we at least have some idea of when the major broken things are going to be mended.
And its not too bad. If I take Harold's list and rate them
1 critical 5 does not matter) I think
1. Default quick edit view to contain all fields - 1
2. A fancy theater mode a la the StreamedMP skin - 4
3. Speed!Speed!Speed! - 3
4. scripts must work on the core information (IMDB main page) - 1
most information - 3
5. Full unicode support for all characters in all languages, - 2 (major western languages)
6 (My addition) core features to work on all types of data (series, Box sets, movies)
So for me the two critical things are Quick edit all fields (otherwise how to I change the data!!),l scripts (core data)
And then I can live with it PROVIDED there is a sensible list and timescale for future work
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"In order to achieve anything you must first have a plan"
and
"If you are failing to plan, you are planning to fail.” |
| JDommi |
Posted - 01 Feb 2014 : 17:24:48
In general he isn't against one. I think it's the right software and the administration.
But you're right, there is no clear statement from Ale. |
| Mawu |
Posted - 01 Feb 2014 : 15:51:19
quote:
The only thing that I am really mad about is that there is still no bug tracker so that every user can see what's still broken or missing. And of course that the reported bugs will not be forgotten in the tangled mass. I have reported myself a lot of bugs of which I already have forgotten more than the half.
I'm missing a clear statement if Alessio actually wants a bugtracker or not. You can't force a programer to do things he doesn't want. |
| JDommi |
Posted - 01 Feb 2014 : 12:21:38
I fully agree with all your points.
It's killing that after more than a year release 8 is still such an area needing improvement.
The big problem is that Ale is the only programmer and that he is really busy at his job and family. But you all know that real life is always the most important. So we all give him more time - as difficult and nerving that can be!
The only thing that I am really mad about is that there is still no bug tracker so that every user can see what's still broken or missing. And of course that the reported bugs will not be forgotten in the tangled mass. I have reported myself a lot of bugs of which I already have forgotten more than the half.
To the documentation: Ale and me have begun with that documentation on the new wiki site. But that needs a lot of time.
Ale should concentrate on programming.
And for me some functions were never important or needed, so on that I really cannot explain them. Additionally there are things that for me seem to be so clear that they don't need explanation - such as the script options. The more info you want to get the more time you'll need.
I think you should make a list of what should be explained. Beside that you can write about something yourself that you find interesting to share with other users or about the questions that are asked for in the forum. |
| Rincewindwiz |
Posted - 01 Feb 2014 : 11:36:00
Importing Stuff
Yes indeed and I do not want a lot of this stuff.
- Movie connections; I tried setting this to 0 some time ago (in XMM7) and it didn't work. To be honest I had forgotten you could do that so I'll try again
- Awards: yes it can be a lot of information but most movies don't get awards!! I would only really care about Movie awards (as opposed to actor, lighting director or even script editor) so options for
- exclude nominations
- exclude technical awards (script, lighting, casting, etc)
- exclude actors
- major awards only (Oscars, BAFTA, Golden Globes etc)
would be a great help
Looking at the script options, many are unclear. taking IMBD complete for example
- Complete Import - How does this relate to awards? If awards is yes but complete import is main page only, does it just enter the summary from the main page or the detail or nothing or what?
- Movie Compete, Main Page only. Does this override all other settings that might require visiting another page
- Actors Complete Download. What information is taken when you select 'do not take all actor information'
- Movie awards - see above
I have no doubt my perception of the program would be improved if I understood more about the options but documentation is sadly lacking and I am therefore a big supporter of the documentation project. especially if it concentrates on the options people might want to change.
But I still don't like XMM8 because it is too slow (maybe the above will help) and I cannot even see let alone access fields I want in the quick edit feature (which also has what appears to be random use of bold and different font sizes for the data. Its for editing, just display the data in a standard font).
Specifically I cant see - The file names
- The actors (crew in XMM7)
- The main page does not show 'seen', genre stuff.
- Awards number field does not seem to fit;
- Media does not contain the contents of the old media field e.g. Divx;
- The plot has been moved elsewhere. If there is one thing you want on the main page its the plot, what it is all about!
- The media tab is virtually empty Codec, Bitrate, Resolution etc etc did not get converted across from XMM7
- and so on
Sorry to go on so, but after nearly a year of XMM8, it still does not do all that XMM7 did.
So if I can add support for HaraldBluetooth (I'd love to see him smile :-) ), I agree entirely with
1. Quickedit. Default view MUST contain all fields sensibly laid out
2. Of no interest to me
3. Yes Yes Yes. But you would make life easier for yourselves if you made it clear how people can improve speed by getting only stuff they want. (I suspect most like me get everything) So set default script setting for the best combination of what people want and what is speedy. for example in IMDB - take main page only)
4. Yes.
5. Yes.
6. Yes Yes Yes. people are much happier with stuff that works than the "promised land" that doesn't.
But thanks for all your hard work and good luck.
TFAI
R |
| Mawu |
Posted - 30 Jan 2014 : 19:18:21
quote:
you have to say goodbye to awards and movie connections
How can I say "Hello" to the movie connections? This doesn't work for me even with the newest script.
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| Alessio Viti |
Posted - 30 Jan 2014 : 11:30:42
I completely agree with you about the importing speed...
The problem is that if you want ALL data, including awards, pictures, fanarts, Movie Connectionsetc... thats normal that the script take so long to download and process the data.
I suggest you to use THEMOVIEDB script... you will have a big increase in speed download (of course you have to say goodbye to awards and movie connections.
If you take a look to Awards and Movie Connections you will see a huge quantity of data...
Ale |
