June 27, 2011

2.0b9: Sync with Miso, New Interface and Bugfixes

This is how the Miso preferences look like

Since the first day we took over TVShows, two functionalities have been heavily requested: subtitles and synchronization with the cloud. The first one will have to wait until the next major version, but we are happy to announce that the second has been achieved in this last beta.

The chosen backend is Miso. We are not the biggest fans of the service, but they offer an API with all we need, a fast and reliable service and a considerable user base. We will probably support other services in the future, but even if you are not a Miso user and you don’t plan to visit their website regularly, we still recommend you to set up your account to work with TVShows.

Once you enter your Miso credentials (we do not store you password but please give access to TVShowsHelper twice), your TVShows will be favorited (followed) on Miso and your Miso favorites will be added to TVShows. Next time you subscribe/unsubscribe from a show in TVShows, it will update your Miso favorites accordingly, and viceversa. For technical reasons, this only works when you are connected to the internet, otherwise the operation will be reverted next time Miso is checked.

Miso also have a concept called check-in, that works similarly to Foursquare/Gowalla/Facebook Places but with shows and movies instead of places. TVShows also synchronizes that data with the episodes you downloaded, and it also works the other way around (it will not download episodes you already marked as seen).

At this point, you could ask why you would want to synchronize that data with Miso. These are some situations where this setup could be useful.

  • Since the show list is effectively backed-up in Miso, if you reinstall or want to move your subscriptions to another computer, you only have to enter your Miso credentials and voilà, there they are. Important: only preset shows will be synced, not custom RSS.
  • You could remotely add or remove shows by favoriting/unfavoriting them on Miso, even with your phone (there’s an app for that). Next time TVShows check for new episodes, the subscriptions list will be updated.
  • Moreover, you could favorite upcoming shows like Terra Nova and when they are available on TVShows they will be added to your subscriptions. Even the first episodes will be automatically downloaded.
  • If you watch an episode on TV and therefore you don’t want to download it when it is available with TVShows, just do a check-in on Miso for that episode.

As you can see, this cloud sync could be tremendously useful and have a lot of possibilities. But, as always, this is optional. You can decide whether to sync the subscriptions list, the downloaded episodes, both or none.

This is how the subscriptions interface looks like

But there is more in this beta. The most visible change is the revamped subscriptions interface, now featuring black background, lovely DVD/Blu-Ray covers (differentiating HD shows from normal ones) and filtering capabilities. It still needs a little polishing and you need to reprogram your muscle memory to find the Add Show button, but it integrates some extra functionality. If you have a lot of subscriptions, the search box and the ability to filter shows with a click will be time savers.

All of this is nice, however, the most urgent updates are bug fixes. Firstly, a severe PPC bug caused to not show any new episodes (very bad). Secondly, some of our sources were giving us bad torrent files. This ultimately derived in episodes not being downloaded (quite bad).

Now, this should never happen. Torrent files are checked when they are downloaded, and torrent links are consolidated from our sources, so if one is invalid, another will be tried. Previously this source consolidation was half-baked, it only chose the link from the first one. This solution also improves the situation when there is no HD version of an episode and you try to manually download it, now giving you the option to download the SD with one click.

The last bug fix I want to talk about is one we received no complains at all. If you suspend your Mac, the interval between checks would be increased because that time the computer is sleeping doesn’t count for the TVShows helper. Now it takes this into consideration and when your Mac is awaked it re-programmes itself. And, if the programmed check was missed, it immediately triggers a check. I used it every day.

Apart from that, minor bugs have been fixed, a couple of preferences have been added, and localizations have been updated (thanks to our translation team!). You can know more by reading the release notes. As always update it from the preferences panel or just download it from our website.