iFlix User's Guide
last updated 04.05.15
Please visit http://www.i-flix.com/ for the most up-to-date version of this document
What's New
Setup Azureus to Automatically Start Downloading new Torrents
iTVO - Setup iFlix to Automatically Download Your Favorite TV Shows!
Overview
The *Flix List
*My DVDs SmartList
Let's Add an Internet Movie Database Movie
Getting Started
Internet Flix
Smallville SmartList
Adding Files By Drag And Drop
Clearing The Database
Live Edit
Backing Up Your Database
iFlix is a lot like iTunes, but for Flix (movies, tv shows, etc.).
The partial screenshot above shows the sample database included with iFlix.
The iFlix window is divided into 3 main functional areas:
The source list on the left, the flix list, on the right, and the search text field at the upper right:
iFlix can manage/organize several categories of flix:
This list represents all flix in your database, which can be any combination of any of the above categories.
You can quickly find any flix you wish by simply typing a few characters into the search text field:
The above screenshot shows all matching items in the database that have batman in their name, genre, artist, location, or notes fields.
You also see above that several items have a Notes field of [DVD] - this indicates these are DVDs, and you can see the Location field for these 3 items. We use a 6 digit number to easily file our DVDs/CDs, and the 3 numbers 000133, 000064, and 000112 tell us the location of each of these items, so we can quickly find them.
A SmartList is a list that queries the database with certain criteria - the above shot shows DVDs from the sample database - you will note in the top center status area above:
SmartList [notes like %[dvd]% ]...
This tells us this list is a smartlist, and it will display items from the database with a notes field containing the text [dvd].
You also see:
139 Flix Displayed For 116.11 GB, 0 Flix Selected for 0.00 GB...
This tells you information about what is displayed, and the size (if any) of the displayed list as well as the selection. In this particular example, many of the DVDs you see were added from the Internet Movie Database, which is a handy way to quickly populate your database with your DVDs.
Let's Add an Internet Movie Database Movie
Let's say we have a new DVD in our collection - namely Halloween H20 ... We use the New Flick menu item:
Enter in a partial name:
Get a list of matches, and select the one we want:
After we click OK, iFlix adds the flick to the database, puts it at the top of the list, and selects it:
You'll see below that when adding an IMDB flick, the default location is set to [imdb]:
and it has no Notes field set....
Let's set the location to bedroom... There are several ways we can do this, but we like to use the Set Column Values command. Make sure you have the field/cell you wish to set a value for selected (location in this case), then choose Set Column Values.. from the Edit menu...
Enter in the value you wish to set in the dialog that appears:
And you will then see you've changed the location field:
We'll use the exact same technique to set the Notes field to the value [DVD], and when we select the *My DVDs list, we will see something like this:
Before you run iFlix for the first time, be sure you are connected to the internet as iFlix uses our proprietary Live Update technology and will automatically download and install the files required to run iFlix.
Mac Users - double-click on the iFlix Application - you need Java 1.4+, available via software update.
Windows / Other Users - be sure you have a modern JAVA installed.
Windows users - double-click on the Application iFlix.exe:
*Nix users - double-click on the file iFlix.sh or use the terminal to start iFlix:
After the first download/install, you can run iFlix without an internet connection, but many features (browse web listing, retrieving IMDB data, adding IMDB urls, retrieving Internet Items, etc.) will not work.
The first time you run iFlix, it will automatically install the Sample iFlix User Data Database into your iFlix User Data folder. This database has about 2000 items in it, so you can get a feeling of how iFlix works with a fairly large database.
You'll also see the following dialog:
This one-time dialog is a reminder that you'll need to set the column sizes, for example from:
to this:
The sample database is based on a sample Flix collection, and you do not have the files on your computer or on CDs or DVDs as in the sample, so you won't be able to Play, Copy Files, or reveal any items, but you can get a feeling for how powerful and quick iFlix is.
iFlix includes information about the thousands of Flix available via the internet (currently via BitTorrent and Suprnova.org, hi speed internet connection required), and lets you easily keep track of just the genres/categories you're interested in:
You'll then see your internet genres, and can remove 1 or more items:
Or add one, as we'll do here:
When you click OK, you'll see something like this:
When you click yes, iFlix will remove all of your [internet] flix, and refresh your database with the latest information about the flix on the internet for your internet genres:
You'll see above that there are now 1074 new items in the database (location set to [internet]) and that they total approximately 1210.3 GB.
The sample database has many smartlists already setup, but let's take a look at one, and see how we use it.
We happen to enjoy Smallville, and just about each week, someone posts the latest episode to Suprnova.org, but finding it manually via the web is quite cumbersome.
Below we have selected the Net Smallville SmartList, and sorted the display by descending Date Added so the newest flix are at the top:
You'll note the name of the item selected is:
Smallville.03x18.HDTV.XVID (31s/62d)
The numbers in parenteses tells us there are 31 seeders (uploaders), and 62 downloaders for this particular file at this instant in time, and from the size column, you can see the flick is 350 MB. It was also added 2004.04.22 - this is the latest episode of Smallville that aired last week.
We happen to like the HDTV XVID format, so let's go on to the next step, which is to download the torrent:
iFlix next asks where you would like to download the torrent to (it will use that location in the future):
And, barring any internet problems, you should then see the following (note the downloaded successfully message in the message area near the cursor)
Note that we do not have the flick yet, just the torrent, and iFlix changes the Notes field to [havetorrent]:
Assuming that we have the Original BitTorrent Client already installed our system, we can then start downloading the flick:
This will automatically open the torrent with our BitTorrent client, and after choosing the download folder for the flick, you will see something similar to this in our BitTorrent window:
iFlix then changes the location field to downloading:
After anywhere from a few minutes to several hours, depending on your net connection, the reliability of the tracker, and the number of seeders and downloaders, you should have the file on your system.
Since iFlix does not handle the downloading it can not tell if the download succeeded, if the file is any good, or anything else, so you'll have to check all of that yourself.
Let's assume that we have successfully downloaded this flick, and we want to add it to our database.
The easiest way to do this is by Drag and Drop from the desktop (Finder, Windows Explorer, etc.)...
We simply locate the flick we have downloaded, select it, and drag it to the flix list:
It now shows up at the top of our list, ready for use, or setting any of it's fields:
We've just used iFlix help us to:
Now we can either watch it on the computer or TV / home theater, and when done, probably burn it to CD / DVD for safekeeping and later enjoyment!
If you have the disk space, you may want to keep all your favorite flicks online, and iFlix can help you keep track of that, help you note if you've backed it up or burned it to CD/DVD, etc.
Basically help you keep track of your Flix!
Once you've had a chance to see how iFlix works with the large sample database, you'll want to empty it out and start your own.
Simply select the *Flix list:
hit the tab key to get to the flix list, then select all:
Then type command-delete (Mac) or control-delete or control-backspace (Win), and you'll see:
Click on yes, and you'll now have an empty database (at least empty of all flix):
To remove a smart list, simply click on it's name, and again press command-delete:
This will remove the selected list.
Live Edit is a global setting, which is off by default so that as you navigate around your database, you don't accidentally modify an item.
You can turn it on via the menu or keyboard:
Once it is on, it stays on until you turn it off again - we recommend turning it on when you need it (if you wish to edit an item's fields, and you must turn it on to edit a list's name), but turning it off again as soon as you are done live editing...
With it on, most fields/cells are editable ... If you tab to a field and start typing, your typing will be appended to the item, so you'll need to use backspace to change an item this way.
The alternate is to double-click in the cell you wish to edit, and you'll then get a cursor and can use the arrow keys to navigate within the cell as well as use cut, copy, and paste....
Here's a shot of the location field with Live Edit turned on:
Although iFlix is very stable and uses a very reliable SQL database engine, we don't like to chance losing our work, so we have included a very convenient backup database command:
The first time you use it, you'll be asked for a folder, which iFlix will automatically use for future backups. Backups are folders with a timestamp in the folder name like the one we just did:
_iflix_backup_20040428_220144
You may want to create a special folder ahead of time to store your iFlix backups... Here's what you'll see the first time:
If all goes well (and we've never seen it not!), you'll very shortly see:
We use this very frequently not because we've had problems, but to avoid them!
Setup Azureus to Automatically Start Downloading new Torrents
We recently found that Azureus already has the ability to automatically start downloading torrents. This is fantastic news for iFlix users as you can now setup Azureus to scan a folder for new torrents (default is once per minute), and automatically start downloading them, all completely automatic!
There are 2 things you must set in Azureus, which you access via the Configuration screen(s).
#1 - Configure the save to default data directory so that Azureus knows where to save your downloads. In the shot below, we have also told Azureus to move completed files to a different folder so we know they are complete.
#2 - Enable the Import new .torrents automatically item (checkbox), and set the import directory:
#3 Tell iFlix where to save your torrents ...
If you have Azureus running or whenever you launch it, it will automatically start downloading any new torrents that are in your import torrents directory.
CAUTION: It appears that Azureus will start ALL torrents in this folder each time it is launched, even if the torrent has completed and you have removed it from Azureus.
If possible, leave Azureus running (a 2nd machine is ideal for this). If you have to quit Azureus, you need to remove any torrents in your torrent download folder that you know Azureus has already downloaded.
This is a feature of Azureus, not iFlix.
To avoid this problem, before quitting / restarting Azureus, delete or remove all torrents in this folder that Azureus has started. Once Azureus has started a torrent, it does not need the original torrent file as it makes a copy of it.
FURTHER CAUTION: If you are using the iTVO feature of iFlix, be careful you don't delete any torrents that iFlix has downloaded and Azureus has not yet started.
iTVO - Setup iFlix to Automatically Download Your Favorite TV Shows!
iFlix now includes what we are calling iTVO (pun intended :-), which, in combination with Azureus (see above for setting up Azureus to automatically start downloading new torrents), allows you to use iFlix and Azureus as your own personal TV Recorder.
Here's how it works.
Every 20 minutes, iFlix checks an XML RSS feed for the latest TV Torrents. This list contains torrents for about 25-30 of the latest popular TV show episodes.
A special smartlist, called iTVO, defines which items (TV episodes) you are interested in "recording". If a new item appears in the list and matches your criteria, iFlix automatically downloads the torrent(s).
Azureus then automatically starts downloading the Flick, so iFlix + Azureus = your own personal Digital Video Recorder!
#1 Add TV Torrents to your Internet Genres:
#2 Create a SmartList for all TV Torrents
For the query, enter in genre like %tv torrents% as shown below:
Finally rename the smartlist to TV Torrents:
You should now see something like this:
This list shows all the latest TV Torrents currently available at this moment and usually contains about 25-30 items.
#3 Create your iTVO smartlist
What you enter is up to you, but we would suggest you start simple and use the following:
( genre like %tv torrents% ) and ( reallocation like %hdtv% )
This says match any items where the genre contains tv torrents and the reallocation (the torrent name) contains hdtv
We would suggest you copy and paste the text from above into the smartlist dialog:
Finally, and very, very important is to rename this smartlist to iTVO - it must be named this exactly
- select the Untitled smartlist
- Turn on Live Edit (command-e)
- backspace to remove the old name (or double-click), and enter iTVO for the name of the smartlist
- turn off Live Edit
You'll now see something like the following:
#4 Start iTVO
We would recommend that, until you fine-tune your iTVO smartlist, you do NOT have Azureus running.
Then say yes to the following dialog:
You'll then see something like this:
And in a few seconds, something like this:
After adding to the database, iTVO then checks to see if you already have the torrent, and automatically downloads any torrents that you don't have (location = havetorrent):
Since this was our first time, in this example, iFlix downloaded all the torrents with hdtv in their torrent name (reallocation = the torrent filename)...
iFlix also set their location field to havetorrent - this is how iFlix knows it has already downloaded an item...
With iTVO running, you'll see a message similar to the following indicating how long until the next poll:
The next poll means when iFlix will check for new TV Torrents. When it completes (you can also stop then start iTVO to make it happen faster), you'll see something like this:
In this case, iFlix found no new matching torrents because it already downloaded them above. If we select our iTVO smartlist, and order it by name, we'll see something like this:
This list shows that for each of the [internet] items, we havetorrent for it - in other words, we have already downloaded the torrent for each [internet] item!
The next time iTVO runs (every 20 minutes), there may be new [internet] items that have not yet been downloaded, and iFlix will again download those torrents for your, automatically!
In combination with setting up Azureus to actually download your Flix as detailed above, you now have your own personal Digital Video Recorder, and can archive, keep online, watch, view, organize your collection with iFlix!
We would recommend that until you fine-tune your iTVO smartlist, you don't run Azureus.
Here are a couple examples of iTVO smartlists you may fine useful.
#1 - Get every episode of Smallville and Enterprise, only in hdtv format:
( genre like %tv torrents% ) and ( ( reallocation like %smallville% and reallocation like %hdtv% ) OR ( reallocation like %enterprise% and reallocation like %hdtv% ) )
#2 - Get every episode of smallville, regardless of format (we happen to know that the first posting is usually .mpg, and the hdtv .avi version follows in a few hours)... Since this is one of our favorite shows, we want it as soon as it comes out (the .mpg), but we also want the hdtv version which comes out later...
( genre like %tv torrents% ) and ( reallocation like %smallville% )
Note that when writing this documentation, there was no .mpg version available, so you would only see the hdtv version. Next week for the season finale of Smallville, this query would first get us the .mpg version, and then the hdtv version when it comes out!