IMDb Scraper issues on XBMC for Mac OS X?

[petejo]

Hi,
Just curious, does the OSX version use the same scraper as the Xbox version ?

I only ask because the xbox seems to nail the correct movie 99.99% of the time whereas the OSX is getting even simple movies wrong, ie, it's decides "The Wild" is "The Edge" !

Is there any way to tighten it's allowance in the search to avoid these glitches ?

thaks

Pete

[C-Quel]

look at the year for "The Wild" at imdb and addit to filename eg "The Wild (2006).avi" or add an nfo file, check manual

[petejo]

Originally Posted by C-Quel

look at the year for "The Wild" at imdb and addit to filename eg "The Wild (2006).avi" or add an nfo file, check manual

yeah, thanks for that but I know I can do that, I just want to know why the difference between the accuracy of the scraper between xbox and osx when they are querying the exact same movie files?

It could be just bugs in the osx which is entirely understandable.

[petejo]

Sorry, my bad, it seems "The Edge" was called The Wild whilst in production and imdb throws it up as the first return in a manual search.

Seems a manual search is the way to go for accuracy at this stage.

Thanks for the reply anyhow.

Pete

[C-Quel]

Originally Posted by petejo

Sorry, my bad, it seems "The Edge" was called The Wild whilst in production and imdb throws it up as the first return in a manual search.

Seems a manual search is the way to go for accuracy at this stage.

Thanks for the reply anyhow.

Pete

Add the year and its automated again

[eduo]

C-Quel: I know you think you're being wittily helpful but the whole point of searching through name is scraping all info. As well, there are some that don't keep a single NFO file as they look untidy.

If the scraper is not accurate then it's not accurate. There are problems existing in XBMC for OSX for scraping that are reflecting in different ways, and this is one of them. For some, things that the xbox version found perfectly are not being found in the OSX version.

For me, the scrapers don't work at all and actually freeze XBMC and eventually crash the system.

God knows I've been snarky in the past but I truly believe it's not the proper attitude against the slew of new users the forums will receive, none of which has run XBMC on an Xbox. This could be a real bug but the snarkiness keeps it hidden.

All that said, I'm all for sending people off to read the FAQ and the Manual, as long as we're sure they're properly linked and easily locatable.

[Dudeman]

Originally Posted by eduo

C-Quel: I know you think you're being wittily helpful but the whole point of searching through name is scraping all info. As well, there are some that don't keep a single NFO file as they look untidy.

If the scraper is not accurate then it's not accurate. There are problems existing in XBMC for OSX for scraping that are reflecting in different ways, and this is one of them. For some, things that the xbox version found perfectly are not being found in the OSX version.

For me, the scrapers don't work at all and actually freeze XBMC and eventually crash the system.

God knows I've been snarky in the past but I truly believe it's not the proper attitude against the slew of new users the forums will receive, none of which has run XBMC on an Xbox. This could be a real bug but the snarkiness keeps it hidden.

All that said, I'm all for sending people off to read the FAQ and the Manual, as long as we're sure they're properly linked and easily locatable.

Eduo is right. There are problems with the IMDB scraper to be sure. Adding the year or manually teaking the name sometimes doesn't help.

Here is a perfect example, "3:10 to Yuma (2007).AVI" will not find the correct title regardless of what you try. I mean you can spell it forward backward, with or without year or just type part of the title like 3:10 or just Yuma. It will pull all kinds of unrelated stuff, with the title "Johnny Yuma" at the top.

I have other movies that do the same like "300" and others. TV titles are worse, sometimes you will try getting the title multiple times and occasionally after 4 or 5 tries it will work, sometimes not.

The problem seems to be with the scripts. So here is what I tried and seems to work just fine:

I copied the contents of the scraper folder from my T3CH XBMC SVN that's on my Xbox (1/8/2008), and used it to replace the scraper folder on elan's XBMC v.0.1.2. It now works, at least all the movies that were previously detected wrong now work just fine.

To do this, either download T3CH's SVN (http://t3ch.yi.se/), or if you have an Xbox with one of the latest SVNs, FTP into it and copy the "video" folder from "System/Scrapers". Then right click on the XBMC application, click "Show Package Contents", navigate to "System/Scrapers" and replace the video folder in there with the one from the SVN.

You might want to back up the original "Video" folder just in case this one doesn't work for you.

Anyway, try it, it might help. It certainly did for me.

Dudeman

[spiff]

eduo, if those new users did what new user should, which is to read the forum rules and the faq, they'd submit proper error reports / requests for help in the first place (which usually boils down to one thing; provide the log so we have some info to judge on already).

it's OH so easy for you to judge us - try having to shake the needed information out of users for years and see if it doesn't get to you in the end (or try using HOURS chasing ghosts for that matter - i'm sure you'll grump up soon enough).

to sum it up; it's not the snarkyness that keeps it hidden, it is the users failing to give us some real information to base answers on. give us what we need, you'll get proper answers. fail and we will give you sarcasm / we will do the only sane thing; assume it is user error. it's the only sane thing for us to do cause come on! look at the percentage of real problems reported vs pebkac's.

[eduo]

Spiff: I'm sorry if I sound like I'm judging. I am not but I know when a system is deployed onto new platforms and new users pour in it's easy to be snarky. I know this because I've done it myself.

You can see it in other threads, where Mac users are told to use windows keys they clearly don't have. Where stock answers that only apply to "XBMC in XBOX" environments are given. Or when the actual issue is not answered (it's first assumed the user doesn't know about year and NFO metadata, then it's ignored when he says he shouldn't need to go that way).

Check Dudeman's comment. It's clear there is something wrong with the way XBMC in OSX is scraping as it's not behaving like XBMC in XBox. Dismissing a poster (he was dismissed, just like that) means an error could be mistaken with a "Damn n00b that can't keep the manual opened".

I said what I said having used XBMC for several years (and been a lurker both in this and xbox-scene's forums) and having seen the reaction frequently. I've been one of the literal types too. I too have asked to obviously new users to look for rules that aren't easy to find, read manuals that don't have an obvious link and told them to respect the forum rules that they have not seen posted anywhere.

Remember, in all, that they're being sent here, to this specific subject from the forums. And until two days ago no link to the FAQ existed and you have to go to other topics to get to the rules. Also, searching won't be useful as there aren't many posts yet and the XBMC on XBOX posts don't apply for the most part.

I posted this because it's easy to start dismissing everyone, several of which might have an actual query. It's easiest to ignore them and have someone else answer (like Dudeman is attempting to) than give them a useless answer that, also, makes them feel like crap.

I know all about the "hacker's reaction to dumb answers". I saw the birth of the infamous "how to make questions" document. Part of it is knowing when to understand why new users are coming and where they might be coming from. Most of the XBMC on OSX ones come from OSXBMC directly, from a link where they've been told to post their questions.

I don't say to reply to stupid questions. I'm saying to only reply to questions we have actual answers for.

[eduo]

Dudeman: Weird. I tried your solution on the newest compile (0.1.2) but didn't see a difference. I was hoping it'd fix it, then I'd diff the files and find out it was probably because elan's build is using the wrong carriage returns or some stupid thing like that.

Alas, no luck. My XBMC keeps freezing when trying to scrape.