I have a site that publishes a series of Media RSS feeds as version 3.x views, and I need to be able to include just the MP4 or FLV version of the video in each feed. However, in the Views UI only the original video files show up as the values for the video field on my content type. I'd like to have all the transcoded videos show up in the view, just as though they were all separate video field values, so that views filters can be applied to select just the desired format(s). (And along with this, to be able to formally filter / sort by mime type or video format).

If it isn't exactly possible to simulate extra values on a video field, then as an alternative, I'd like to have a set of field formatters that accomplish the same thing. For example, a formatter named "original or transcoded video" with a secondary option to select the desired video format, and possibly an option named "best format" that would prioritize the most compatible formats first. And of course, a second option on the formatter to choose thumbnail (with optional link to content or file), 'video player' or - with videojs - HTML5 Video.

I'm trying to implement this concept myself using a formatter, but of course I have to delve into the video module to understand how it all works. I'd rather someone more expert implemented this in the video module so that it will be fully compatible going forward. Unfortunately, we need to launch in the next 2 weeks, so I can't wait for this feature.

I hope this makes sense and you can see the value. I'm sure it would be a great improvement to the module. As for my custom 'views_mrss' module, it is able to grab the media:video and media:thumbnail URLs either from a "thumbnail with link to file" or by going to the field table's 'fid' and 'thumbnail' FIDs columns, so the $row / $data / '#markup' values coming out of the query should look and behave the same for transcoded versus original file values.

Comments

brycefisherfleig’s picture

Status: Active » Postponed

I'd be open to accepting a patch to do this. However, I don't currently have the energy to this myself.