Personal Video Database 1.0.2.7 MOD

[afrocuban]

That is just perfect, Ivek! Thank you so much!
What is even more beautiful, I just redownloaded _adv search script and it miraculously doesn't crash my PVD anymore, on the contrary - it runs smoothly as well!

[Ivek23]

That is just perfect, Ivek! Thank you so much!
What is even more beautiful, I just redownloaded _adv search script and it miraculously doesn't crash my PVD anymore, on the contrary - it runs smoothly as well!

Yes, that's good to hear. The _adv search script had a bug which has now been fixed.

[Lastdino]

Hi guys! Thanks again to everyone who has kept this project alive until now. I’m using the version IMDB_[EN][HTTPS]_TEST_2c.psf (at least, that’s what I was using when it worked ) for importing from IMDb, but it hasn’t been working properly for quite a while now. Is there a functional version of this plugin, at least for importing basic movie information? I don’t need complicated things like awards, keywords, etc. All my movies have info downloaded only from IMDb so far, which is why I’d prefer to keep doing the same.

[afrocuban]

Hello Lastdino.

Well, in the meantime everything and completely changed. IMDb made it so hard for a year and a half to download info. The only way to get info from IMDB now is to use python and scripts. This is the place to to learn:
https://www.videodb.info/forum_en/index.php/topic,4379.0.html


There are 2 ways at the moment but after you set up your system probably the easiest way is this
https://www.videodb.info/forum_en/index.php/topic,4379.msg23045.html#msg23045

I must warn you that it is so slow now to get the info with this method (and pretty slow with both methods) but this one is painfull for mass updates and tolerable with a single add up:
https://www.videodb.info/forum_en/index.php/topic,4379.msg23045.html#msg23045

[mgpw4me_back_again]

I've had considerable luck using PHP to download IMDB pages. OpenSSL has to be enabled, and you have to provide a valid user-agent. Both settings are in the PHP.INI file...just set it and forget it. If you set up a server @ localhost, you could relay requests to IMDB and return pages to the PVD script that made the request without windows opening and closing. I'm using CivetWeb64 server (a branch from Mongoose, I think). When it's installed as a service, it will start automatically when you boot your computer.

That doesn't resolve the javascript "click for more information" on the pages, but last week I found this:

https://imdbapi.dev/

For my uses this site is all I need. Since it's just JSON formatted data the format won't likely change, the queries are very fast and parsing would be simple. In my case, PHP also has a Json_Decode function to convert JSON data into PHP variables, which will simplify the creation of dynamic pages on my server.

[afrocuban]

https://imdbapi.dev/ is indeed very interesting resource, but still it looks to me with limited data?

[mgpw4me_back_again]

https://imdbapi.dev/ is indeed very interesting resource, but still it looks to me with limited data?

True. There are thousands of species of fish and yet I only eat a few of them, so how would I categorize them?
As a casual user, I don't have the same data requirements as a film student.
I'm impressed by your technical acheivement in piecing together multiple programs to scrape every single byte from IMDB. I remember you from times past, from near the beginning of PVD. As a moment in time, this is a huge achievement.
Every 18 to 24 months, IMDB updates it's HTML. I'm sure this just is a refesh of the site and the introduction of new technology. The last update came about when AI became part of the site. When the next update comes, you will be the only person that can resolve the issues.
I'll say simply, "Take what's given" and build from that. The 'dev' site is simple to get data from, and for those want more, you have that solution.

[afrocuban]

https://imdbapi.dev/ is indeed very interesting resource, but still it looks to me with limited data?

True. There are thousands of species of fish and yet I only eat a few of them, so how would I categorize them?
As a casual user, I don't have the same data requirements as a film student.
...
I'll say simply, "Take what's given" and build from that. The 'dev' site is simple to get data from, and for those want more, you have that solution.

I completely understand your point and it's a more than valid one. In terms of analogy I guess my point was (probaly subconscious one) that I wanted to try them all (fish) and then to choose. Subsequently, my contribution is highly personal, without intention to become "official" one, and I kindly offered it to community.

I'm impressed by your technical acheivement in piecing together multiple programs to scrape every single byte from IMDB. I remember you from times past, from near the beginning of PVD. As a moment in time, this is a huge achievement.

Thank you for your kind words. You don't know yet, but now you will: while Ivek's skills were not even considerable for me, actually, I clearly remember, you were the one to inspire me when you offered your simple dark skin with additional photos for IMDb People script (am I right, or I mixed it with someone else?). I liked it so much at the moment and I said to myself I want to do scripting too. It was a long journey to this point, but better late than never, hahaha.


Cheers and really glad to read you back again. I always considered you as one of the main PVD "think-tank pool" members. Now to see rick.ca and eventually nostra and the old crew would be complete, hahah.

[Ivek23]

Cheers and really glad to read you back again. I always considered you as one of the main PVD "think-tank pool" members. Now to see rick.ca and eventually nostra and the old crew would be complete, hahah.

Unfortunately, we won't see Nostra return (maybe be return), and rick.ca will definitely not return (I'm 100 percent sure of that, and on top of that, it's been almost 8 years since his last presence on this forum).

[mgpw4me_back_again]

With the complexity of configuring the programs needed to 'get all the information', maybe it's time to host a zip file (somewhere) that would give new users a working environment without need of an install. That's what Nostra had originally intended, after all.

[afrocuban]

With the complexity of configuring the programs needed to 'get all the information', maybe it's time to host a zip file (somewhere) that would give new users a working environment without need of an install. That's what Nostra had originally intended, after all.

Well, apart from installing python and its necessary modules, nothing else is to be installed. Whole /Scripts folder was posted as a zip file to be extracted replacing existing one and everything should work then.

[Ivek23]

Important notice for all PVD users.

All IMDb scripts that use PVdBDownPage.exe to download information from the IMDb website are no longer working.

Any PVD user who still wants to download information from the IMDb website must have installed python and IMDb scripts that use selenium and selenium scripts that have the .py extension to download information from the IMDb website.

For now, this only applies to IMDb scripts and IMDb websites. This has been the case for a few weeks and is 100 percent true (I know from my own experience).

I don't know about the other scripts at the moment.

[afrocuban]

Thank you for the notice, Ivek.

[RazorHall]

I would love to use Python and get PVD working great again, but I have only gotten as far as "pip install selenium".  Apparently I'm supposed to bring up CMD, but I can't figure out how to make that happen.

So, is there any way someone could post an extremely basic, step-by-step version of how to set everything up, for those of us who have no prior experience with Python?  If not, would anyone here be willing to talk me through it on an instant messenger or something?  Thanks!

[Ivek23]

I would love to use Python and get PVD working great again, but I have only gotten as far as "pip install selenium".  Apparently I'm supposed to bring up CMD, but I can't figure out how to make that happen.

So, is there any way someone could post an extremely basic, step-by-step version of how to set everything up, for those of us who have no prior experience with Python?  If not, would anyone here be willing to talk me through it on an instant messenger or something?  Thanks!

Run cmd.exe as admin, you can find the file in C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe

or use powershell.exe and in its window, for example, type pip install selenium and run this command.

Check the link below, then let me know if you need any more help.

https://www.videodb.info/forum_en/index.php/topic,4362.0.html

or 

PVD Python Scripts board
https://www.videodb.info/forum_en/index.php/board,16.0.html

[RazorHall]

Ohhhhh, I see.  I thought it was saying to use CMD within Python somehow.  Thanks!

But I've hit another snag.

"C. You have your Chrome bin on a PATH (to test this, open cmd and simply type "chrome" and check if Chrome opens)."

I looked up and tried various methods, but no matter which I do, opening cmd and typing "Chrome" results in this message:

'chrome' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

So, can someone just explain exactly how to set my Chrome bin on a PATH?

[Ivek23]

For this, I recommend that you ask at ChatGPT, where you will get answers on how to do and edit it.

I also use it occasionally, where I also got all the information on how it works and how to use the Python program. With the help of ChatGPT, I have been using the Python program for more than 1 year now.

ChatGPT can be found at the link below.

https://chatgpt.com/