Personal Video Database

no probs
Thanks for looking into it.

i have had this discussion with Nostra in previous posts
i dont think it is high on his todo list.
He would need to build a complete scripting language into PVD to be able to extract unknown variables.
 

Hi,

i have just imported 20 odd movies.
most weren't found (i didn't import year)

i removed silent mode option and ran again.
PVD prompts me to select movie, it then downloads info and moves to next one in the list.

To speed things up so i can go and watch tv instead of checking boxes and waiting for info to dl,
could the scripts be changed so it buffers your choices and then downloads all the other info in the background.

eg.
* you have 20 movies in the list where you need to select which is the right one.
* pvd goes off and then presents a dialogue box to choose the movie.
- Now instead of downloading all the info about the movie, it buffers your answer and moves onto the next movie for you to select.

When PVD reaches the end of the list it can go off an download all the other stuff (pictures etc etc) and i can go off and watch tv 
This would be a huge time saver.

You would have 5-10 mins of selecting which are the right movies instead of 30 mins waiting for d/ls to complete.

i know pvd isnt a catalog program, but most people do use it as one.
Deleting duplicate functions need to be looked at with care as (especially now) people have the same movie in different formats
blueray/dvd

personally i would have it so it highlights duplicates and let the user make the choice what to do with them
Perhaps set the bookmarked flag ??

To be honest, I'm getting rather pissed with the attitude (not just your's) reflected by, "I want to do it my way. Please change the program." I'm sorry—I just don't get it. Nostra seems like a sane fellow. Why would he invest more time in some aspect of the program to appease users who don't even respect the work he's already done?

i dont see these (and other suggestions) this way. nostra has super kindly made his program available for us free of charge, but it is the users suggestions helps to make this program great. (btw - nostra seem more than capable to say yes or no to requests.)

these guys are making suggestions, the initial suggestion may not ideal, but it may trigger an idea in someone else to do it another/ better way. it may trigger something in nostra to implement something he hasn't thought of, or even just be something really popular, that others havent thought of. stomping on peoples ideas (whether good or bad) stifles debate and leads to people not participating.

at the end of the day, if nostra wants to implement an idea, he will, otherwise he wont. buts asking for a feature does not hurt anyone and in fact enhances the program as it encourages participation. if it can be implemented without affecting anything else - why not? That will only make the program better and suitable to a wider audience.

like mum says. if you cant say anything nice - dont say anything at all 

my bad.

in main export program line should read:
<id>{%value=url template="urls.tpl" maxvalues="1"}</id>

to link to file urls.tpl which has {%value} in it

hi zacca,

the only way i have found is to limit the output to 1.
imdb has to be first in the list - (you may be able to order this but i haven't tested)

create a file called urls.tpl and have this in it.
{%value}

in xbmc main.ptm file have:
<id>{%value=url template="urls.ptm"  maxvalues="1"}</id>

This will limit the no of urls returned to 1. hopefully imdb will be first and gets returned.
NB: replace="http://www.imdb.com/title/<->"  to strip leading info no longer works if you use this.

hi deazo,

in main body of export script have:
{%value=actors template="actors.tpl" maxvalues="3" params="full"}
this calls the file "actors.tpl" - maxvalues limits the no of returns. in this case the first 3 actors details. params="full". passes all information about actors (i think)

in actors.tpl file i have
%HEAD%<actor>%HEAD%
<name>{%param=name}</name>
<role>{%param=role}</role>
%FOOT%</actor>%FOOT%

this returns the actor name and the role they played in the film.

Hi Nostra.
i have actors working ok.
i cant get credits to work (or understand how grouptemplate works even)

in http://www.videodb.info/forum_en/index.php?topic=766.0 it looks like there is options for exporting credits.


Variables
Variables are formatted like this: {%value=[number] oprion1="value" optionN="value"}
There are also some special variables:
{%value}   (without number or options) is used in subtemplates for fields with multiple values, pages subtemplates for page numbers and in rating subtemplates (rating as stars) for rating value.
{%param=[value]}   is used in subtemplates for fields with different types of data associated (for example actors field can include such information as person id (pid), names, URL, role)
{%groupparam=[value]}   is used in subtemplates that support grouping (for example: awards, filmography) to identify by what parameter values should be gouped


Varables for information fields:
Movies:
...
...
CDCover   66   width, height, template, maxvalues, params
Credits   67   template, grouptemplate
Episodes   68   template, grouptemplate

hiya rick

I'm able to export a text files "beside" media files using nearfiles=".nfo"—so that doesn't seem to be the issue.

yep - you can export .nfo and poster next to media but you have to tell PVD where to save the file. (or it will save to last location)

nearfiles works fantastic, but i want to make it automagic.

if i use tools/import movies/folders Ctl+F to import movies that are saved to the hard drive, PVD will populate File Location: field with path and file name of movie.

I want to be able to use this field when I do the export.

Nostra has made new fields available with nearfiles eg %t% %ot%. For what i want to do Nostra will need to modify nearfiles with extra options to read and export "file location" field.  (sorry Nostra)

Currently - if i have a filtered view of Antz, Australia, Awake and i export using code below.
(note i have replace back slashes with forward slashes as back slashes seem to get filtered when i post)
imagenameformat="%t%%ext%" <==== Exports posters as titlename.jpg
nearfiles="d:/test%t%.nfo"   <==== Exports individual .nfo files. I found I needed to have a file path here: eg c:/xbmc

This will save Antz.nfo, Australia.nfo, Awake.nfo + their posters (nicely named) Antz.jpg, Australia.jpg, Awake.jpg to d:/temp
(great feature for backing up posters btw) 

i have Antz stored on my HD in c:/movies/Antz (1998)/Antz_5.1_R1.iso
Australia is stored in c:/movies/Australia (2009)/Australia_5.1_R4.iso
if i used import from hard drive feature of PVD, the path and file name gets saved to "file location" field inside PVD.

i want to be able to use this path and file name when i do the export.
when i export for xbmc. PVD will save the files into c:/movies/Antz (1998)/ and will save the .nfo file as Antz_5.1_R1.nfo (poster should be saved there as well.

This will fully automate export and would also allow ppl to backup movie info/posters directly to where the media is located.

cool huh