Personal Video Database

Thank you buah,

How to "update online" (not to rescan)? Nevermind about this. I figured it out.  Just select all movies on the left then use the Toolbar icon to get IMDB info. again.

Before proceeding, for the plugins preferences I decided to select both Silent mode for all plugins and Download all available images.
I made a backup of my database just in case.  I did a rescan of all the directories.  A lot of movies were found to have changed file path, ok and some were new, again ok.
No interaction was required, but for each and every new movie the data was downloaded for, Not 1, has an image attached to it.  Do you know why?

Below is the way Votes are displayed after downloading (it looks to blah):


But I'd much rather it would be displayed as below when using both PVD Classic and PVD Classic Tabs for the Movie Info. Skins :

(this is just an edited image, not due to reworking the XML files)

Do you know I might be able to make changes to .xml of the skin to get the above?

Thank you rick.ca for clarification on some things.

1.
I originally set this option to Not Seen as apposed to the Default Seen, when I did my original scan for movie info.  Then, a while later, I went to update the database with another directory of approx. 30Gig of movies.  After downloads were complete, all the movies were added as "Seen" rather than 'Not Seen' as I had set it too a while ago.  Why must I prior to doing a scan always have to check and reconfigure this option prior to doing a new scan.

2.
The placement of pvdconf.ini and what it retains in it.  I set my windows options to 'Not show hidden files' and to 'Hide system protected files' yet in order to be able to view the contents of pvdconf.ini I have to delselect the 'Not show hidden files' option and then reintialize it when finished, that is if I don't forget.  
- Why does this pvdconf.ini file have to be placed in this strange place? (C:\Documents and Settings\*UserName*\Application Data\Personal Video Database" this is an Hidden Sytem File folder) under XP.  
 -Why can it not be placed in My Documents folder under the Personal Video Database folder that this program creates there? I'd prefer this much more.
- While viewing the pvdconf.ini file I see it has [FileScanner] options but there is not entry made for 'Information Card' where it would = Seen (1) or Not Seen (0).  I would like it if this option could be added and to pvdconf.ini and that the pvdconf.ini be moved to the My Documents folder for PVD.

3.
I was using the PVD Condensed skin but later changed to PVD Classic Tabs skin, Because there are No Votes attached to the IMDB rating given, I tried to get to IMDB (to check on how many people had voted for this movie) through a people link provided in the Condensed skin but found out that link only took me into People mode, of which I could not find a way out of, or how to get back to Movies view mode, so I deleted the pvdconf.ini file and started the program over again.
- Even though if your in People Mode, there should be some simple way under "View" to get back to 'Movie Mode' as there is already a simple way under 'View' to 'Switch to People' Mode.
Because this program when retrieving the IMDB data does present the viewer with votes and nor does the PVD Condensed skin show URL or IMDB site link in the reason I changed to using the PVD Classic Tabs skin which fits pretty good for a resolution of 800 x 600 and I am quite happy in the end with its look.

4.
When will this program and plugins be capable of displaying 'Votes' by people to get the IMDB rating imposed on the movie in question?

Thanks to all. Most of prolems are of minimal concern, but should still be looked into.

Thank you rick.ca

I was wonder how you put everthing under 1 column for the 800 x 600 resolution.
So I tried a coulple of the different Movie Information Skins that were provided but I couldn't find one like the one you posted with everything under one line.
The PVD Condensed I think works quite well aside from the background colour, I'd prefer light blue.  Next best would be the PVD classic tabs.
 
One other problem solved with the use of toolbar button 'open containing folder' button or right-click on the movie.

Now I can watch the movie then check it as seen, open containing folder move the movie to a Good, Fair etc. directory then close windows explorer and move on to the next movie.

Thank you.

Hi,

I would like to put in a request for you to add a Find Target button to the Toolbar button section. Whereby when selected Windows Explorer will open taking you directly to the first movie if more than one is under the title.

I would also like it if sides could be applied to the Search Options button for it doesn't really stand out as a button until you hover over it.

One more thing, is there anyway to remove the web search from the toolbar.  It appears in the toolbar options as an option to only apply but it is already visible on the toolbar and yet not located on the right side of the toolbar options for you to deselect it. Just mentioning this because of all these extra buttons people are asking for like Previous and Next buttons, something on the toolbar will most probably have to go.

Thank you Nostra for this great product.

Thanks rick.ca.  Nice to know it's possible to do that.

Because after watching a movie, I mark it as been seen, then I move the file from its primary directory to another; Good, Fair, or Time Waster, within its container; so being able to see the FilePath to me is at the moment slightly more important. I can still see the IMDB rating which is fine and I'm still able to read the Description on what the movie is about so again this is fine.

I was just hoping there could be some sort of resolution made where I could in this case reduce the images to a predertimed size this way when I open PVD, I wouldn't have to scoll down almost all the time to see the FilePath because the image is too long.
But as I found out and to what you are saying is that it doesn't matter if the image is smaller than the column width, the column width remains the same even if the image is smaller, and if the image is larger than the column width, it will be reduced to the fixed column width.
Is there anyway to reduce the column width for the image?

Yes Rescanning did the trick.
But befor I could do that, I had to source out the registry tweek for WinXP that has to be there otherwise I can't map to an external USB connected hard drive.
Once I found this tweek I was then able to map G$ to Z:\ on my other computer.
However, I wish there could have been an easier way to do this without having everything attached as in my sister's home.  A way to simply be able to do a batch File Path change would be nice.

The tweek I needed was this:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters]
"IRPStackSize"=dword:00000031

Without it I was unable to map to an externally connected USB Drive that was connected to another computer on the network.


Thanks for everybody's help.  Much appreciated.
This is still a very good program.  Thank You,

My siduation is this:
I have set up a sort of media server at my sisters house.
I take her hard drive that is connected as an external USB Drive.
I put it on my computer. I load it up with movies.
I take it back to her place and after hooking it all back up, they have 3 computers some are laptops.
They simply map a drive alway the G:\ Drive.  After mapping G$ to their computer it is seen as the Z:\ Drive always.

When I hook their computer up on my computer I hook it up as G:\ Drive. And do up the database.
This database with almost 600 movies took roughly 14 hours to complete.

Now I would like to simply change the Drive path to Z:\ instead of it being G:\.  G:\ will only be useful to play the movies if they RDP to the media server and run PVD there which is useless.
In order for them to play the movies using the PVD on their computer the movies have to be seen on Z:\

I exported the database to .XML file which opens automatically with ie; But if I right-click on this .XML file and choose to open it back up again with PVD it mega errors out and cannot be reopened.  (This should be fixed. If this program generated the .XML file why could not reopen it?)

I once tried to IMPORT using the link Get Movies from MS Excel. A window opened where I guess at that time I was suppose to select some things from the left and apply them to to the right side. The first time I opened it, I didn't select or move anything over to the other side and just hit OK. Now when I try to select this option again, the widow where your suppose to move the criteria over to the other side doesn't come up at the beginning anymore and simply goes straight to the directory to open a file.  But, even though there is a .XML file there, it doesn't get displayed in the window so I cannot open it. So, I went to C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\Personal Video Database and deleted pvdconf.ini thinking maybe that some flags have been setup in this config file that would stop the window from coming back up when Get Movies from MS Excel is selected, whereby I could then be able to make some selections as to what to grab from the .XML File but that window still does not seem to pop up anymore and still goes straight to the directory where there is a .XML file but this .XML file cannot be seen in the window that opens.

Why is this so hard.
I opened the .XML file using UltraEdit.  And simply choose rename all G:\ to Z:\ then resaved the file. But how do you re open it?
This program doesn't seem to want to reopen or Import from these .XML files as you think they should... I errors out too many errors.


To place the drive now on another machine in my home network and map a drive to it as if it were over at her house and then rescan everything might take too long.  I just want to simply change the File Path.
Your Export and Import options need some working on. They don't work.
It would be easier now if I just went through this whole database one by one and change each listing by hand.... Another couple of hours of work.
What's up.

Thank you Nostra for your feedback and I hope you can implement this Explorer type view.
It should only be capable of working if people like I only have 1 movie under each database listing.

Well you see, I think that's where the problem exists period.  It's with multiple file names under one database. Movies that posses similiar yet slight different file names are seperated by the '|' under 1 database.

It should be left up to the user to get rid of these types of listings in their database.
In the end, what is the sense in having these strange file names.
You CAN NOT hit the 'PLAY' key and have the movie 'PLAY', it errors out, and the movies will not play.

If there are two movies seperated by this '|', say the first on this list was ripped 'by lOVE' and the second one on the list was ripped 'by VoMiT'.  Then the user should create a new movie data base listing for the other movie, and edit the existing database's title to reflect the first movie in the list and delete the second listing after a new database has been established for it. So in the end there is simply one filename for each database.  If the first was lOVE, they should edit the database to reflect 'by lOVE' in the tiltle name. For the new database title name should reflect 'by VoMiT'.

If all the listings in the database that have this '|' in the 'File Path' are removed from the database, then this will or should work.

The only thing as far as I can see that is stopping the listing to be presented or grouped by 'File Path' is this '|' in the 'File Path'.
So, I've already removed ALL such listings.  Yet I still cannot have them Sorted or Grouped according to 'File Path'.
So, how can I do this?
Why will the Advanced Sort option not work uising 'File Path' and *.* as the file criteria even though there is not one single entry in my database with this '|'?

Thank you again Nostra.

No, I wouldn't like to to have the 'Seen' check box already flagged.  This database is for my own use.
A lot of the the shows/movies, were downloaded and I have not been able to watch a lot of them as yet.
This database helps me choose which one to watch primarily based on ratings gathered by this program
from imdb.com.  Once I have watched them then I could mark them as seen. The only real way right
now I have to know that I have actually seen the movie is simply move them to a different directory
all together based on my personal rating of Good, Fair or Time Waster.
I would not only like it if 'Seen' could be left untaged, but also to remember the position of this flag
once I have watched the movie, and then checked it as been 'Seen'; then I can move the movie to a
different directory as above. When I do another scan of the primary directory, the name of file or movie
even though it had be moved to a diferent directory should still retain the 'Seen' box as been checked.