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IMDb import

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AimHere:
Hi,

I've noticed a minor issue with importing from IMDb. When I'm in People view and import a person's filmography, I always use the "merge filmographies" option, so that the IMDb data is merged with any existing filmography I have for the person. Trouble is, there are many occasions where the IMDb import creates duplicate entries for movies I already have listed for the person. Now, I can understand this when the year of release listed on IMDb is different than what I had in my database, or the spelling is different, but that only accounts for some of the duplicates.

What seems to be happening is this: if IMDb happens to use different capitalization on a movie title than what I already had, then the import process creates a separate entry. For example, if IMDB has "Pirates of the Caribbean", while I already had "Pirates Of The Caribbean" (note the capitalization differences), then I wind up with two movies listed. In other words, the import process appears to be case-sensitive! (Note that if the capitalization matches, then no duplicate would be created.)

This frequently happens when I add a movie in Movie View with "New Movie Master", then go to People View and import from IMDb to "flesh out" the actor's filmography. If I happened to capitalize the title differently in "New Movie Master" than what IMDb uses, I'll get duplicate entries after the second step.

For what it's worth, I don't know if this is necessarily the fault of the IMDb plugin, or if it's an issue with the internal functioning of PVD.

Would it be possible to change the plugin and/or PVD so it either ignores upper/lowercase or automatically corrects it when merging filmographies?

Aimhere

nostra:

--- Quote ---Would it be possible to change the plugin and/or PVD so it either ignores upper/lowercase or automatically corrects it when merging filmographies?
--- End quote ---

I think it can be done in release version.

dicksonvm:
There is some way to import the full cast from IMDB except the uncredited actors? Often import with the option "from the main page only" is not good because it can miss some important actors but importing the full cast is to much not important information.

rick.ca:
Welcome to the forum, dicksonvm.

As you probably know, IMDb simply includes the 15 "first billed" cast on the main page, whether the number of "important" actors is 5 or 50. Downloading "from the main page only" is the only way to restrict what for some movies might be a very long credits list. It would be possible to identify and exclude "uncredited" actors, but I don't think that would give you the result you're expecting. "Uncredited" just means "not credited." Some movies will only credit "important" roles, but others include "unimportant" roles (man on park bench, all 50 dancers, etc). Some movies list important roles followed by unimportant in alphabetic order, but others do not (e.g., everyone might be listed in order of appearance).

As a practical matter, I've found it necessary to use the "from main page only" option just to prevent my database from being flooded with people I have no interest in. Yes, this means excluding some important actors. Those who have a significant career, however, will likely make it into the database anyway (because they made the main page cut in other movies). The filmographies of these people will still include all the movies they were in. As a note of interest (certainly not a practical solution to the problem)...if the movie in question is clicked in the filmography, the actor will be added to the movie (i.e., to position 16).

dicksonvm:
Thank you for the answer. The problem is that I'm using the excellent Personal Video Database in a little different way. When I see the People Window, I like to see at the filmography field only the movies I have in database (this means only the movies I have seen with that actor). So I configured the people information import plug-ins to not overwrite the filmography. This means that the only way to don't miss important actors is to get the full cast, with all its "garbage".

I agree that ignoring the uncredited actors would not be the perfect solution, but it would minimize the problem. For a better solution I have some suggestions for the import plug-in (just a brainstorming):
1. Create a field where the user can put keywords (like "uncredited", "man on the street", "Man on Bus", ...) that makes the plug-in ignores that actor.
2. Ask for the user how many actors should be imported each time, a cut number. So the user can open the IMDb page and see how many are really important. Some "unimportant" actors will be important together, but its ok...
3. Show to the user a list with the full cast, showing the actors name and his character with check boxes to choose which should be imported...


 

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