Personal Video Database

Okay, so you are suggesting what I already figured and that was to just use seperate "episodes" for each file.

Thanks, that's what I figured. I'll have to use custom fields for the totals and such.

- Katleeh

Here's a couple of ideas that I think would work pretty well and would help out quite a bit with functionality:

First, since there's a lot of digital downloads being sold as well as digital versions of movies, I think it would be a good idea to have an option to somewhere display the total space taken up by the video files of the catalog as well as the total files. That should actually be a rather easy thing done as it would only require determining where to put the display at and some mathematical inputs for the totals. If you wonder what I mean, look at Anime List Builder. When you are cataloging your anime collection it will display the total size of your collection as far as the video files go.

Second, one of the things which it seems logical to be there is the ability to work with the various episodes information from within the main series "page" for lack of a better word. What I mean is that somehow, the episodes should be tied to the main series infocard so that you can work with the data. Another way of putting it is, you would click on the series name, then have a tab you could click which displayed the list of seasons/episodes along with other information you wanted listed like maybe length, size, date released, etc...

Oh, what about making it so the skins can use xhtml as opposed to just xml? That way it would make it easier for manipulation of the data for display.

Just some ideas.
- KatLeeH

Thanks for the input. Using refresh doesn't work. Changes made to the XML of the skin have to be saved in the editor and then PVD needs to be restarted before you can see those changes work. I already tried using refresh before. :/.

As far as your suggestion, the banner is still being shrunk. Its weird. The banners are 758x140 and the display is reducing it to like 300x80. That's no matter what I do. Talk about annoying.

- KatLeeH

Well that would explain why the damn banner shows up shrunk. That doesn't work at all... Okay is there any way to display different posters, screenshots, etc in different locations then? For instance, set Poster #01 as being a banner, Poster #02 is the display poster, etc...

Also, I'm still trying to figure out just what can be changed here? Am I only limited to XML or can I use javascript or HTML in these files?

Also, a suggestion, a skin editor would make it easier to make skins as it would provide a visual method for doing the editing. Otherwise, I'm stuck with trial and error here and I'm not even sure what works half the time since I have to close the program before I can reload PVD.

Oh, and if it makes a difference, I'm running Vista x64.

- KatLeeH

Hello all,

I'm trying to either modify one of the other skins that are already there or make my own to help catalog my anime collection. In trying to make the changes I wanted things don't seem to be going correctly so I have some questions on just what can be done with the skins and information display for the movies/series.

1) I want to display a banner for the entire series/movie at the top of the information section as well as displaying posters and screenshots/fanart in another tab, but so far I haven't been able to get a banner to display properly as it keeps shrinking in size whenever I try and use the cdscan item. So what can I do here? If i use the screenshot section, it displays a list and I want to be able to have other fanart/screenshots that won't display with the banner.

2) Is there anyway to display information about the various episodes in the main information page? Information such as file size, length, etc?

3) What properties can be set/changed in the skins for display purposes? I know its based on XML but how limiting is what can be done there?

Thanks to anyone who can provide input here.

- KatLeeH