pko66
2008-08-20, 13:06
Suggestion 1: It could be nice to have chapters for files that do not have the capability (or to change the chapters on files that does have it, like mkv and such). That chapters info should be incorporated into the database and so could be filled from scrapers or from nfo files.
One possible source of "chapters" is mrskin.com, to have information about female nudity in movies... before you switch on the "pervert alert" alarm, think that the chaptering info could be use to *avoid* the nudity! when the raunchy scene starts, just press "next chapter" and it jumps just after the "thing". Some movies will be really short that way...
Suggestion 2: Multiscrapers
This is important specially for us in the non-english language world, but can also be a nice addition to anyone. For spanish movies ("spanish" meaning here both movies filmed with spanish language and also movies dubbed/subtitled in spanish) there are two scrapers, culturalia and filmaffinity; the catch is that culturalia does not offer thumbnails since the host does not allow it, so if you use it you have no thumbnails; filmaffinity offers the cover art but the quality is much lower than IMDB. Also, usually lists only a few actors, less than in IMDB. And if you use IMDB the movie is usually not correctly identified because of the the translated title, and of course the plot etc is in english.
So, the idea is this: in each directory, some "advanced" button in "set content" should make possible to add additional scrapers and the order to use them. Each scraper could be "additional" (use it to get additional info) or "supplementary" (use it if you have not found the movie in previous scrapers). One possible configuration for movies could be:
1.- Culturalia
2.- Filmaffinity [supplementary]
3.- IMDB [additional]
The scrapper behavior would be:
- Get the info from culturalia. If found, will get the plot in spanish and actors etc info, but no thumbnail
- If you have not found the movie in culturalia, get it from filmaffinity (if found in culturalia, skip this)
- get additional info (actors, thumbnail if not found before...) from imdb
This way people could do partial scrapers; for example, a scraper to get the boxart from movieposters and the chapters from mrskin, and so the order could be:
1.- movieposters
2.- mrskin [additional]
3.- IMDB [additional]
and the behavior would be:
- get info from movieposters (only the thumbnail will be found there)
- get info from mrskin (will get only the chapters)
- get info from IMDB (will get all the info, even the thumbnail if it has not been located in movieposters)
Right now, a scraper must get all the information from a site, but with this, a scraper can be made to get just something (like the thumbnails from movieposters) and be then combined by the user as he/she pleases.
BTW, "local nfo files/local tbn files" could be used as "scrapers" too, to give them the priority desired or to supplement the information found there; right now, if you want to get some extra info from internet for a movie with a nfo file, you must edit manually or delete the nfo file.
The scrapers, when scanning automatically ("scan for new content") will all choose the default movie, so there is the possibility to end with info mixed from different movies from the different scrapers... bad luck!. But since 90% of the time the scrapers get the right movie by default I think that is not a big problem. To correct that, when getting info in manual mode, for each scraper it will show all the possible movies found just like they do now, but in addition to the "manual" button a "skip" one would appear and, when pressed, it will skip the current scraper and proceed to the next it the chain. For the thumbnail selection, all the thumbnails found in all the scrapers should be shown to the user to select.
Also, another GUI change should be added to the "movie info" window; now you have the "refresh button" that simply re-scrapes the movie with the defaults in the directory. Perhaps with a new dialog appearing when selecting "refresh" or perhaps with a new "advanced refresh" button, the user could opt to:
- re-scrape the movie with the default options from the directory (current behavior)
- re-scrape the movie from scratch (deleting previous info) with the scraper of choice
- re-scrape the movie to get new information in addition to the one already present
The local nfo/tbn files would be just one scraper more to choose from.
One final consideration; when mixing info from different sources, each field should have its proper treatment (although perhaps that treatment could be changed in advancedsettings.xml):
- most (plot etc) should be skipped if the info already exists
- some (thumbnail) should be added to give the option to choose
- some (actors) should be added, but avoiding duplication of entries that already exist
One possible source of "chapters" is mrskin.com, to have information about female nudity in movies... before you switch on the "pervert alert" alarm, think that the chaptering info could be use to *avoid* the nudity! when the raunchy scene starts, just press "next chapter" and it jumps just after the "thing". Some movies will be really short that way...
Suggestion 2: Multiscrapers
This is important specially for us in the non-english language world, but can also be a nice addition to anyone. For spanish movies ("spanish" meaning here both movies filmed with spanish language and also movies dubbed/subtitled in spanish) there are two scrapers, culturalia and filmaffinity; the catch is that culturalia does not offer thumbnails since the host does not allow it, so if you use it you have no thumbnails; filmaffinity offers the cover art but the quality is much lower than IMDB. Also, usually lists only a few actors, less than in IMDB. And if you use IMDB the movie is usually not correctly identified because of the the translated title, and of course the plot etc is in english.
So, the idea is this: in each directory, some "advanced" button in "set content" should make possible to add additional scrapers and the order to use them. Each scraper could be "additional" (use it to get additional info) or "supplementary" (use it if you have not found the movie in previous scrapers). One possible configuration for movies could be:
1.- Culturalia
2.- Filmaffinity [supplementary]
3.- IMDB [additional]
The scrapper behavior would be:
- Get the info from culturalia. If found, will get the plot in spanish and actors etc info, but no thumbnail
- If you have not found the movie in culturalia, get it from filmaffinity (if found in culturalia, skip this)
- get additional info (actors, thumbnail if not found before...) from imdb
This way people could do partial scrapers; for example, a scraper to get the boxart from movieposters and the chapters from mrskin, and so the order could be:
1.- movieposters
2.- mrskin [additional]
3.- IMDB [additional]
and the behavior would be:
- get info from movieposters (only the thumbnail will be found there)
- get info from mrskin (will get only the chapters)
- get info from IMDB (will get all the info, even the thumbnail if it has not been located in movieposters)
Right now, a scraper must get all the information from a site, but with this, a scraper can be made to get just something (like the thumbnails from movieposters) and be then combined by the user as he/she pleases.
BTW, "local nfo files/local tbn files" could be used as "scrapers" too, to give them the priority desired or to supplement the information found there; right now, if you want to get some extra info from internet for a movie with a nfo file, you must edit manually or delete the nfo file.
The scrapers, when scanning automatically ("scan for new content") will all choose the default movie, so there is the possibility to end with info mixed from different movies from the different scrapers... bad luck!. But since 90% of the time the scrapers get the right movie by default I think that is not a big problem. To correct that, when getting info in manual mode, for each scraper it will show all the possible movies found just like they do now, but in addition to the "manual" button a "skip" one would appear and, when pressed, it will skip the current scraper and proceed to the next it the chain. For the thumbnail selection, all the thumbnails found in all the scrapers should be shown to the user to select.
Also, another GUI change should be added to the "movie info" window; now you have the "refresh button" that simply re-scrapes the movie with the defaults in the directory. Perhaps with a new dialog appearing when selecting "refresh" or perhaps with a new "advanced refresh" button, the user could opt to:
- re-scrape the movie with the default options from the directory (current behavior)
- re-scrape the movie from scratch (deleting previous info) with the scraper of choice
- re-scrape the movie to get new information in addition to the one already present
The local nfo/tbn files would be just one scraper more to choose from.
One final consideration; when mixing info from different sources, each field should have its proper treatment (although perhaps that treatment could be changed in advancedsettings.xml):
- most (plot etc) should be skipped if the info already exists
- some (thumbnail) should be added to give the option to choose
- some (actors) should be added, but avoiding duplication of entries that already exist