Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - rick.ca

Pages: 1 2 3 4 [5] 6 7 8 9 10 ... 118
81
Support / Re: Scan folders for new movies
« on: November 22, 2012, 08:29:26 pm »
Quote
Is it not allready an regex for that in the program, or am I just "stupid"...

No, that obviously works. I don't know what the problem is. I doubt it, but try moving that regex to the top of the list to make sure another isn't matching first. Also change the 'Smart DVD/BR detection' setting to see if that makes a difference.

82
Support / Re: Scan folders for new movies
« on: November 22, 2012, 04:44:08 pm »
Quote
Am I doing something wrong? Or is it some settings to be done???

You need to add or change a regex in the configuration to properly match the filename scheme you're using. As long as all movies use that pattern, it should be fine matching '[Title].[Year].'.

83
Support / Re: Custom.lng (custom language file) on a server
« on: November 17, 2012, 07:48:39 pm »
Welcome.

I don't recall if there's any supported purpose in having a '(dbname).lng' in the DB folder. I always connect to my database via server, and just use 'custom.lng' in the program directory. It works fine.

84
Changelogs / Re: 1.0.2.3 Beta
« on: October 26, 2012, 09:29:09 am »
Welcome.

You have to configure the scanner (Preferences > File Scanner), providing regex for matching your file naming pattern. For exactly that pattern, this will work:

(?P<title>.*) - (?P<season>[0-9]{2})x(?P<episode>[0-9]{2}) - (?P<eptitle>.*)

85
Feature Suggestions / Automatic update of viewed People records
« on: October 21, 2012, 02:20:13 am »
I don't know why I didn't think of this before. I like the idea so much, I hope it might make it into the next beta release...

What I'd dearly like to see is the option to have people records automatically updated—if and when they're selected from the Movie view. That way, any new link selected would result in the target record being updated within a few seconds. The same thing could be done for existing records that haven't been updated within x days. That would ensure the data viewed for existing records isn't stale.

(See the linked post, and the one linked to it, for more background—particularly the problem of keeping people records up-to-date for a large (500+) collection of movies.)

I did consider whether it might be easier and more useful to apply the optional behaviour whenever a people record is selected, not just when a link in a movie record is selected. But that would be far too annoying when viewing or working with a number of different records in the People view. So this would have to be something that only happens when a link is selected from a movie record.

Selecting a link would trigger an import—using the default/'favourite' plugin or script—under the following conditions:
  • Data has never been imported for the record (that might be determined by comparing [Date Modified] to [Date Added], or perhaps by more direct means); or
  • Data has been imported, but [Date Modified] is more than x days in the past ('x' being a user-specified preference).
[Date Modified] is updated whenever a record has been in edit mode. It will also be updated if something other than the primary plugin is used to import data. It's therefore not a perfect indication of whether data has been imported. But for most users in most circumstances, it should work fine.

For those of us who find impractical to keep all people records up-to-date, this option would provide the next best thing: Any link used to view a person would result in the data being updated immediately—if necessary.

Perhaps a bit more involved, but a future embellishment of such a feature could be a command for updating all people linked to a particular movie a once. I wouldn't use that for all movies, but some of particular interest for which I'm likely to view the records of a number of people, I'd much rather do that than wait for each one I choose to view to be updated.

86
Support / Re: Import people from movies automatically
« on: October 21, 2012, 01:15:41 am »
This post should help. As it explains, you need to carefully consider the consequences of that option.

Even if you do opt to have people records added automatically, they will only show information that already exists in the database. To get a full filmography and other data, you still have to import. So it's kind of a no-win situation. If you automatically add people, you'll then need to update many thousands of records, most of which you don't care about.

What I'd dearly like to see is the option to have people records automatically updated—if and when they're selected from the Movie view. That way, any new link selected would result in the target record being updated within a few seconds. The same thing could be done for existing records that haven't been updated within x days. That would ensure the data viewed for existing records isn't stale.

We would still have the ability to mass-update all people or some reasonable subset of them, but that's just not practical to do on any regular basis—for a large database. With such an option, I'm sure I could happily use my database for six months to a year, then mass-update all records (for people still living) that haven't been updated during that period. 8)

87
Support / Re: IMDB 0.9.8.5 rating no longer imported
« on: October 14, 2012, 08:44:31 am »
Things like this are usually the result of a change in the design of the source web page. We'll have to wait until nostra finds time to update the plugin.

88
Support / Re: Multiple CDs
« on: October 05, 2012, 09:08:03 pm »
Welcome.

[File Path] can include any number of files, separated by a '|'. Play will wrap those in the playlist type specified in at Preferences > Miscellaneous > Playlist type. The outcome will depend on how your player handles that playlist type.

If that doesn't work, you can remux the files to one MKV container using MKVmerge.

89
Support / Re: All Movies in a Folder
« on: October 02, 2012, 02:15:04 am »
Welcome.

It's not a folder, it's a grouping. You can change it from the View menu.

90
Support / Re: Newbie import question
« on: September 30, 2012, 01:24:49 am »
No, I don't think PVD will deliver what you're looking for. It's too much work for something that just 'fills in the blanks' left by MC. It's value is in it's ability to manage the whole process of collecting data by various means from a variety of sources. If used for that purpose, then PvdImport provides an effortless and fully automatic way to import the same data to MC.

I understand most MC users want and expect MC to do everything for them. I have a somewhat different perspective because PVD had provided me with a very effective database at a time when MC handling of video (especially meta data) was a complete joke. After a very long time talking and debating about it, and a lot of development work, what MC still falls far short of what I've been able to do will PVD all along. So I'm quite happy to continue using PVD to collect all my data, and ignore all the shortcomings of J River's crappy implementation.

91
Support / Re: Missing Icons
« on: September 29, 2012, 10:54:41 pm »
Quote
Do you know where I should find the icon images in PVD's file structure?

{Installation Folder}\Skins\Images

There's nothing you can do with the images there. Modifying or renaming them will only cause program exceptions.

92
Support / Re: Newbie import question
« on: September 29, 2012, 10:46:29 pm »
I'll try to avoid details, as much of that will be self-evident once you start using the program. I suggest you start with the beta (currently version 1.0.2.3), as it's stable and includes some useful new features.

You probably recall me stating at Interact that importing from PVD to MC is fully automatic. I'm referring to the process PvdImport provides, once properly configured. It monitors the PVD database directly, and automatically updates any records that have changed. The process of collecting data within PVD is better described as semi-automatic. That's not a bad thing. You're probably considering this because you've learned from painful experience the J River approach of trying to be fully automatic just gives you incomplete results for an arbitrary set of data that wasn't what you wanted in the first place. PVD gives you control over what data to collect and where to get it from.

The file scanning process—that matches files to records and creates a new record if one doesn't exist—uses a set of regex (processed in order, first match wins) to do the matching and extracting of data from pathnames (to create new records). If your file naming practice is 100% consistent, then the scanner—if properly configured—will be 100% successful. For practical purposes, expect it to be 95% successful, with the rest easily fixed manually. The exceptions will be mostly unavoidable issues with unusual or ambiguous video titles. Those will be minimized if both an accurate [Title] and [Year] are provided (in the pathname).

The scanner can be configured to run specified meta data import routines on the files it finds, but you still have to approve the processing of the batch. Generally, I prefer to data importing as a separate step I can oversee. Movies and episodes (at least) require different routines. I'd rather select the items I want updated, then run the appropriate updates. Those can be run in batches. For new movies, for example, I run one batch that combines data from four different sources.

So if your expectation is for something you can configure and forget, PVD is probably not for you. It's for those who care about the process of collecting data about movies (as any 'collector' would), and therefore want as much control as possible over it. If that is important to you, the result is a good one. Both MC and PVD will add files to their database as they 'appear' in scanned folders. In PVD, you run the import applicable import routines and make whatever other adjustments you want to make (e.g., adding a bit of data manually, finding a better poster, etc.). All this data then appears automatically in MC. The best approach is to do all the data maintenance in PVD, and then just enjoy it in MC.

93
Support / Re: AllMovie disappeared, Allrovi.com appeared!
« on: September 28, 2012, 10:54:36 pm »
So we may as well leave the script as is for a time, in case the data returns.

I love it when being lazy turns out to be the right answer. ;)

94
Support / Re: Missing Icons
« on: September 28, 2012, 10:49:17 pm »
Hmm. So it seems 'something else' is going on. Maybe nostra will have some idea.

It seems the workaround for the editor is to press <Enter> while still in the 'Value' box. A tab will not advance to the button.

95
Support / Re: AllMovie disappeared, Allrovi.com appeared!
« on: September 24, 2012, 02:28:09 am »
Quote
How it works AllRovi movie script given the changes that I do not know.

I was saving just the link to the tab, which is of course now useless. So I deleted the data and removed that section of the script. For those saving the detail, I'm not sure what it does, but probably nothing (i.e., I don't think it will effectively delete any existing data). So we may as well leave the script as is for a time, in case the data returns.

96
Support / Re: Missing Icons
« on: September 24, 2012, 12:41:14 am »
Quote
I have removed and reinstalled PVD with no change in this behavior.

Sorry, I have no idea what might be causing this that wouldn't be fixed by reinstalling. I suppose the configuration file survives a reinstall, but I don't think there's anything in there that would cause this. There is no limit on the size of the database, nor can I imagine how the size could impact something like this.

Where the icons are missing, is there a blank space? If so, do you see a blank button when hovering over that space? And if so, do you get the expected result when clicking it? It might be helpful if we can establish clearly whether this is a matter of the program not being able to locate the button image, or if something else is going on.

97
Support / Re: IMDB votes in the skin: customsection disappears
« on: September 19, 2012, 07:26:45 pm »
Sorry, I'm not sure what your question is. I know you collect a lot of custom data, and therefore assume you know how to add a custom field to a skin. AFAIK, once you include a custom field in a skin, the special 'customsection' no longer works. It's purpose is to automatically display all custom fields in one section when none of them are explicitly included in the skin.

98
Support / Re: "location" data doesn't show on skin
« on: September 08, 2012, 10:38:58 pm »
Is 'Media Location' checked in Preferences > Movies > Visible?

99
Help / Re: 1050 Database Design
« on: September 05, 2012, 12:12:40 pm »
[MediaLabel] is a linked to the labels table via MovieLabels. [Location] is in the movies table.

100
Feature Suggestions / Re: TheMovieDB.org
« on: September 01, 2012, 09:38:00 am »
Ivek23 asked me to create a plain delphi .psf script for TMDb - so here it is (attachment).
It basically does the same as the other script but should be easier to customize (no need to compile).

Thanks for taking this on. This might be a good way of lightening nostra's burden in keeping things up-to-date. I haven't yet had a chance to test your script thoroughly, but I thought I'd throw out a few comments anyway... [Oops. It ended up kinda long-winded. :-[ ]

I'm not sure there's any disadvantages to a script vs. a plugin. They seem to run just as well, and have the advantage of being easily user-modified. That's particularly helpful for things like enabling/disabling specific functions and saving data in custom fields (or even in different standard fields). These modifications are also easy for anyone to do to a well-documented script. It also allows those will a little understanding of the scripting language to do things like modify or format data before it's saved. Although a script doesn't allow runtime options, many 'options' that might be sought can be handled just by using different modifications of the same script. It's arguably easier just to run the script that's modified to do exactly what you want than it is to start a plugin then have to choose an option from a prompt.

The point of this observation is the idea such a script will be most useful to users generally if it gets whatever data is available and offers to save it somewhere—if not an obvious standard field, then an arbitrarily named custom field the user may modify as appropriate and add to their database. The most difficult part for us amateurs is figuring out how to get the data. If that's done, most of us can deal with what to do with it. And some of us will even customize it further to modify and combine the data before saving it—something simply not possible with a plugin. Using this approach also relieves the author of having to respond to inevitable requests to add whatever scrap of data is offered by the source.

I'm not even sure what you've done, so forgive me if the script already includes everything offered by the API (which, I suppose, isn't necessarily everything appearing at the website). But some of my comments apply to the question of what to do with 'people data'. The first consideration here should be that combining this data from that of a different source messes up the integrity of both. The logical choice for most of us is to rely on the IMDb as a primary source for people data. A secondary source should only be used in a 'do not overwrite' mode so it's only used as a secondary source. Even that runs the risk of being run first and thereby fouling the data that should have come from the primary source.

So the best way to handle this is to offer the option of adding the data that 'fits' the standard fields—primarily for those who want to use this as the primary source. And I think what you've done with what's offered by the API is the best you can do. For those already using IMDb as a primary source, the interest is likely in (1) confirmation our IMDb data is good, and (2) capturing any additional data available (e.g., production crew). That can be done by dumping it into one memo field with any role/job function data. The names can be put in links if that information is available. If the data is easily separated (e.g., into cast and crew), it can be put in different fields. If all this can be done, it offers a full range of choices to users: use the script as a primary source, as a secondary source used only where no data is available from the primary source, and/or as a supplementary source where all the data is added to separate fields.

One thing I did notice, but I'm still not sure about, is how it's determining which poster to get. Sometimes it seemed to be the default poster. In other cases, it seemed to be ignoring all posters classified by language (and the default, at least for English movies, is most often 'English') and choosing from those classified a 'other' (often a bad choice). Does the API offer a way to select the default poster, or one classified by the same language as the user language? (I have a simple self-interest in this one. All I want from TMDb is one good poster and it's 'Overview' which I appreciate as a short synopsis.)

Quote
Another issue i had is preventing PVD from downloading the webpage URL which i don't care about because i only use the API.

The URL doesn't hurt, and can be used to get to the website, should the need arise. For me, that's usually to see what other posters are available.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 [5] 6 7 8 9 10 ... 118