Can We Get A Sortname Field In Video Db? Options

[rockdawg]

Since there's already an overhaul of the video db currently underway, could you implement a SortName field into the db? What I mean is a way to sort the videos in the db based on a different name than they are actually titled, but still display the correct title. Example, I have the following movies:

Alien
Aliens
Alien3
Alien: Resurrection

That is the order in which they were released, but alphabetically they will be ordered as:

Alien
Alien3
Alien: Resurrection
Aliens

It would be great if I could give them a sort name of Alien 1 for Alien, Alien 2 for Aliens, Alien 3 for Alien3, and Alien 4 for Alien: Resurrection. That way they could be ordered correctly even though their real titles don't allow for it.

Another example would be the Friday series. Friday, Next friday, and Friday After Next. With their real names, Next Friday isn't even listed together with the others. Once again it would be nice to be able to assign a sort name of Friday 1, Friday 2, and Friday 3 to correct that issue.

[hackmaster]

i doubt the feature will be implemented. its to specialized. not enough people want it

This post has been edited by hackmaster: Feb 7 2007, 06:56 PM

[Exulus]

i doubt the feature will be implemented. its to specialized. not enough people want it

I disagree, i think it makes perfect sense!

[rockdawg]

Well, I know that Meedio and SageTV used it and most DVD cataloging software like DVD Profiler and Ant Movie Catalog have similar fields. And I thought I read there was something similar in the My Movies plugin for MCE. So obviously some people feel it's worthwhile.

Another use for the field is a way to ignore "The" and "A" at the beginning of movie names (or anything else in the title you want to ignore for sorting purposes). I know that XBMC can currently ignore "The", but it doesn't ignore "A". I'm beginning to accumulate a lot of movies that begin with "A" and I'd rather have it ignored. Rather than change/add code to ignore that also, why not just have a SortTitle field? The added bonus would be that XBMC would then be flexible enough to meet most any users sorting demands and not need changed to do so.

More examples like my initial post would include having series like Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings in chronological order when their correct names prohibit it. I can find quite a few example in my collection.

I have no idea how hard/easy it would be to implement and can respect that it might not be worth it if it's a huge undertaking. But I do think it would be a great addition that would give XBMC even more flexibilty. That's just my opinion.

This post has been edited by rockdawg: Feb 7 2007, 07:44 PM

[hackmaster]

it would make more sense if xbmc read the meta data on the file itself, instead of using the database. like mp3s have the IDv3 tags. sort by year, sort by comment even for what you need. it would be much work to update it all on the xbox each time the video is moved or each time you whipe your xbox clean.

[rockdawg]

I'm not sure about all video file formats, but mine are all ripped DVD's not converted to anything else there is no metadata on those. Hence nothing for XBMC to read.

As for moving videos or wiping the Xbox clean, my suggestion doesn't alter that at all. You'd still do things that same way you do now.

[hackmaster]

add metadata. right click it in windows and click summary. i think. if it is a dvd, you gotta do it for the file is detected.