Author Topic: View episodes in people view?  (Read 8017 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline darichman

  • User
  • ***
  • Posts: 59
    • View Profile
View episodes in people view?
« on: July 03, 2009, 06:58:58 am »
Another one from me... when I click on a person in an episode, the episode/show does not come up under their filmography. If they are credited in the actual series entry then the series will be listed (with no episodes). So if John Smith is in an episode, he has nothing listed under his filmography... is this the way it should work?

Offline rick.ca

  • Global Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 3241
  • "I'm willing to shoot you!"
    • View Profile
Re: View episodes in people view?
« Reply #1 on: July 03, 2009, 09:01:37 am »
I believe so. The credits data for the series appears to come directly from the IMDb series page, and the filmography data from the person's page. So I don't think the relationships are handled in the database the same way for episodes as they are for movies.

I'm being influenced by what you're observing, however—I don't bother trying to maintain actors for episodes. On IMDb, it seems "guest stars" get lost in all the regular credits (all of whom are usually listed, even if they didn't appear). I had hoped to get this information from TheTVDb, but their API apparently doesn't allow it.

Offline nostra

  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: 2852
    • View Profile
    • Personal Video Database
Re: View episodes in people view?
« Reply #2 on: July 03, 2009, 11:38:23 am »
It's just the way it is at a time. Filmographies do not support displaying episodes. This behaviour is planned to be improved in future.
Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room!

Offline darichman

  • User
  • ***
  • Posts: 59
    • View Profile
Re: View episodes in people view?
« Reply #3 on: July 03, 2009, 12:28:52 pm »
That's fine, I just wasn't sure what the behaviour was meant to be... I'm still not sure how I'll go about series anyway!

At the moment....
  • I have all my episode files attached to the episode entries, but none to the series entry.
  • I have episode lists/release dates from TheTVDb, and episode info from IMDb.
  • I will get AMG info for episodes where it is available, but this is only really complete for popular US series

I plan to export to MC using PVDImport - but that will only pull the episode info, which is sometimes not as comprehensive as the series info. So I'm in a pickle :)

Still... it would be nice to find 'that episode of The Entourage which guest stars Jessica Alba' by looking up Jessica Alba in the filmography (PVD) or People pane (MC).

Thanks for the replies :)

Offline rick.ca

  • Global Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 3241
  • "I'm willing to shoot you!"
    • View Profile
Re: View episodes in people view?
« Reply #4 on: July 03, 2009, 09:12:41 pm »
Quote
I plan to export to MC using PVDImport - but that will only pull the episode info, which is sometimes not as comprehensive as the series info. So I'm in a pickle Smiley

I use a dummy file, series title.log, to serve as a link between PVD and MC for the series record. In my MC video view (I use just one), I use an expression column that produces "Sxx Eyy" or ".series" if it's a series record. Sorting on this then produces a list where each series master record is followed by it's episodes.

Quote
This behaviour is planned to be improved in future.

Something to consider at that time... It's hard to imagine this working where many regular cast members are going to be credited for a large number of episodes. The series credits already includes the years in which they were as cast member, which is in effect the same information. What would be nice to have is ability to add "guest stars" only to the episode credits. These entries would also appear in the person's filmography, but not the series credits. This seems to be how it works now, so maybe all that's needed is a source for the "guest stars only" data, and a plugin or script to get it. I haven't revisited the question, but I think we found it couldn't be done with TheTVDb.

Offline patch

  • Older Power User
  • *****
  • Posts: 250
    • View Profile
Re: View episodes in people view?
« Reply #5 on: July 04, 2009, 12:39:39 am »
What would be nice to have is ability to add "guest stars" only to the episode credits.
A possible solution would be for PVD to not add people to episode credits it they already appear in the series credits.

Offline rick.ca

  • Global Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 3241
  • "I'm willing to shoot you!"
    • View Profile
Re: View episodes in people view?
« Reply #6 on: July 04, 2009, 03:41:46 am »
That seems like a great idea, but I don't think IMDb is going to cooperate with us. Yes, it should be an effective way to eliminate the regular "star" cast members. But the episode credits are still going to include any minor credits as well as the guest "stars." It's difficult to tell, but looking at a few cases, it looks like the results might be something like this: If credits downloaded are limited to "main page," there would normally be 15 of those. I done know how they determine who gets listed on the series page, but it appears the number that match those in the episode list might be something like five. That leaves 10 credits, of which only one or two would be considered "guest stars."

I think we need a site that consistently provides reliable "guest star" data. I haven't found one. The problem may be there is no standard way of specifying who is a "guest star." One studio may restrict it to what I would expect—the one or two "name" actors who make a one-time or occasional appearance. Another may include any "recurring regulars" who appear in an episode. And I suppose there's another issue—what's the difference between a "recurring regular" and a regular cast member? :-\

I suppose I'm with darichman. I just want to know what Jessica Alba is in, so I can attach a hi-res photo. I was going to attach one here, but then I remembered—I'm the moderator! ;D