[Films Plugin] Need Some Help - Anyone Interested? (1 Viewer)

[cheetah05]

Hi there,

I am currently developing a plugin for a video/movies on you computer. Its not the same as the standard "My Videos" included in MP by default, but its not quite the same as the "My Films" plugin.

Who is it for?

Well, its for the people that can't quite justify the use of the great "My Film's" plugin, maybe due to the fact that it needs an external program to manage, or the fact that they don't want to document DVDs that don't exist on their harddrive - but its also for the people that don't like the standard My Videos because it doesn't match their films accurately, or for whatever reason.

What does it do that's better than Standard My Videos?

• Quicker searching (hopefully)
• Better Quality Coverart (for the most part)
• Matches film's more accurately to ensure it downloads the correct information and coverart
• Will update the database in the background - eventually.
• More intuitive design for when you want to view/pick your movie (this is the bit i need help on).

What I need help for:

Basically, I need someone to create the GUI for the plugin that will connect to my database/xml file and show the information in an intuitive way. (I have an idea - its quite hard to explain in words)

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Is there any interest in this plugin - and is anyone willing to help?

Apologies for the crap grammar - its probably a poor explanation. If you need further explanation - just ask

Thanks.

 

[mzemina]

What differences do you see in displaying with your plugin than is (was) presented in the plugins myFilms and myDVDs?

For me the biggest thing was taking my catalog of 305 movie sets and getting them into some plugin, I don't want to type information for 305 movies.

 

[cheetah05]

Hi there,

Well my idea was (and its hard to put into words - so bare with me):

When you enter the plugin screen you get:

You get a list of your films, going down the page, with a small thumbnail (~150px tall), and to the side, you get the following information:

• Film Name
• Year
• Rating
• The main Actors (maybe 3)
• Genre
• Duration

All of that will be nicely squeezed in - but the bulk of it will only be viewed when you are hovering over that item.

When you click on a film from there, it will either play the film or (depending on preference):

You will be taken to a screen similar to the one you get in My Videos (imdb section), giving all the information above, a review, and a big, better quality coverart.

Then from here you can play the film.


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Well this plugin is aimed at videos on your hard drive and will not need an external program to manage - hopefully I wish to make it a one-time setup.


Thanks.

 

[Johan]

This sure is a very interesting plugin!

I don't like that I all the time have to manually add new movies and manually have to select a highres coverart.
This should be done in the background. It sounds like you are thinking about creating a plugin similar to My TVseries but for movies which is a really good idea!!

Are you considering http://www.gaz1.com/movdb/ for fetching movie info or is there an other good movie db made for HTPC?

 

[cheetah05]

To be honest, I have been looking around, and I can't find any decent only movie db with complete data, with good high resolution art.

I think, what I am going to have to do is search several databases and compile all the information and in the end choose the highest resolution coverart.

^^ That will take a while to program and it will also take ages when adding the media to the database

This sure is a very interesting plugin!

I don't like that I all the time have to manually add new movies and manually have to select a highres coverart.
This should be done in the background. It sounds like you are thinking about creating a plugin similar to My TVseries but for movies which is a really good idea!!

Are you considering http://www.gaz1.com/movdb/ for fetching movie info or is there an other good movie db made for HTPC?

Do you know how to connect to this database?

 

[lillis_55]

I must say, it sound like a great plugin. It would be nice to be able to automatically add new movies to the database.

To be honest, I have been looking around, and I can't find any decent only movie db with complete data, with good high resolution art.

I think, what I am going to have to do is search several databases and compile all the information and in the end choose the highest resolution coverart.

^^ That will take a while to program and it will also take ages when adding the media to the database

For the movie information, IMDB would be enough i guess?
But for the high res coverart, i haven't found any site that provide these.
I always download images from http://www.impawards.com/. It's only movie posters, so not the real covers, but at least high res images

 

[cheetah05]

For the movie information, IMDB would be enough i guess?
But for the high res coverart, i haven't found any site that provide these.
I always download images from http://www.impawards.com/. It's only movie posters, so not the real covers, but at least high res images

Those images are pretty damn good actually - I think we have a winner for the coverart, should be pretty easy to implement as well actually.

Does anyone know where I can get some code to get information from IMDB?

 

[lillis_55]

Does anyone know where I can get some code to get information from IMDB?

I guess you could have a look at media-portal source code to get some ideas? They get the movie info from IMDB.

Johan suggested http://www.gaz1.com/movdb/ for movie info. I think its easier to fetch info from that page, and they have 275 000 title stored with info, and high res covers for some movies. Not many, but that may change

If I'm not mistaken, it works in the same way that http://www.thetvdb.com/ works, witch "My TVSeries plugin" uses for fetching info.

 

[THDBASED]

Would it not be better to help upgrade the existing "My Video's" plugin instead of starting all over again, this way everyone can enjoy the updates...

 

[dukus]

Does anyone know where I can get some code to get information from IMDB?

IMDb now support scripting like AMC.

Take a look at http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/IMDBScriptgrabbers