Force movie lookup using different scraper (1 Viewer)

rconstantine

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September 29, 2011
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I hope I'm missing something here and someone can just point me in the right direction.

I'm new to MP, and so I first populated the built-in videos database using the built-in IMDB lookup options. It was very easy to use. I found that using the filenames my DVD ripper used was a bad idea. I renamed them to better accommodate the scraper. I have been able to find and download images and data for all but a few movies.

However, that has not been the case with the scrapers for moving pictures. I'm having some serious WTF moments. Many, not just a few movies, have had completely wrong data downloaded and I don't see how to fix it. Where is the option to select from a list of choices for a given movie or to force using a particular IMDB number or to force using tmdb instead? I'm stumped. For example, I have a file called ISLAND.iso for the 2005 movie "The Island". I was not given an option to select this movie at all.

Also, is there a way to edit the data including the images, like there is for the standard my videos data?

Also, would it not be a good idea to use the data that the standard video plugin collected as a primary source?

Lastly, why limit the choice of posters to 3? Many of the best posters are missed in this case. i typically look for ones without all of the fine print. The standard scraper for the standard video plugin lets you select from all images available. couldn't some of this functionality be reused?

Sorry if I'm coming off as demanding. i don't mean to be and believe me, i have contributed to community efforts like this one so i know what that means.:D

BTW, I do know about the binolcular button. The above is regarding once you committed a choice that you found with or without the binoculars and it ended up being wrong - plus the cases where the binolculars never returned acceptable results (which I find odd since the standard videos scraper did).
 

Merlyn

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July 8, 2011
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AW: Force movie lookup using different scraper

In Moving Pictures Configuration go to the Movie Manager tab. Select the movie that you want to rescrape and click on the small gear icon, then click on "send to importer".

In the Importer Settings tab you can adjust the number of covers to download. Furthermore on this tab you can change the scrapers, that are used. You might want to consider changing the default scraper to IMDb+, as it yields much better results than the default scrapers.

If I remember correctly MovPic does reuse the info from the default video database through a scraper called MyVideo (local). But I'm not sure here as I have only but once used the default Media Portal videos.

In any case it will be a good idea to at leas add the release year of the movie to the filename. For best results I'd also suggest to add the imdb tt-id number. In your case Island.iso has only the word "Island" for the scraper to identify the movie and if you think about it you will agree, that this is not very much. Head over to imdb.com and just enter "island" as a search term, and you will see, that imdb does not know what you are looking for.
 

rconstantine

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September 29, 2011
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excellent reply. i thank you. one more question. you suggest adding the year and tt# to the file name. what is the recommended file name format? <title><(year)><tt#>.<ext>?

i'll give your advice a try.

much thanks.
 

Merlyn

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AW: Force movie lookup using different scraper

personally I name my files like this movie title (year) (tt-id).ext
 

RoChess

Extension Developer
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  • March 10, 2006
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    excellent reply. i thank you. one more question. you suggest adding the year and tt# to the file name. what is the recommended file name format? <title><(year)><tt#>.<ext>?

    i'll give your advice a try.

    much thanks.

    All you really need is tt-ID, so "tt1234567.avi" is guaranteed a 100% match and the fastest way to import (it skips the entire search system). But looking at those filenames is confusing for other uses, so "Example (2011) (tt1234567).avi" is a little easier then. You could also go for "Example (tt1234567) [2011].avi", or any other format you prefer.

    Just be aware that the default noise filter (under advanced settings), is only able to strip away a certain amount of additional text that does not belong to the title. So if you end up not getting any automatic approved matches, then you either have to adjust the regular expression based noise filter, or rename your files to adjust.

    During the search phase, the MovingPictures system will look for tt1234567 in the filename, and if enabled also look for an NFO file containing that tt-ID. It then also looks for a 4-digit number and uses that as the 'year', and after it then cleans up the filename via the noise filter, whatever is left is used as the 'title'. All that info is then sent to the scraper script, and any scraper script that can use the tt-ID will immediatly get the correct movie info. Otherwise it will try to locate the movie based on title+year, or just on title. There are many movies sharing the same title, but it can still get auto-approved then due to popularity. Of course that is no guarantee that the auto-approved match is the actual movie you are trying to import, and adding 'year' is not always enough information.

    So the best guarantee is to include tt-ID in the filename, or inside an NFO file with the same filename and then make sure the "Simple NFO system" checkbox is enabled in config. The NFO files can also be used by the XBMC compatible import system, but that's a different story.

    MovingPictures also has a rename system, so that you can rename your existing collection to have the tt-ID added to the filenames afterwards, but that is only a good idea if you are positive your collection does not contain any false-positives.

    As for scrapers, by default the imdb.com one is used, and if that one is unable to find anything it also shows results for TheMovieDb. But the default settings are to only auto-approve from the primary/first scraper, so if the imdb.com scraper can not find any results you have to manually approve the movie inside MovingPictures configuration screen. There is an enhancement request already to have that approval process be done via GUI, but for the time being you have to once in a while check config to make sure everything auto-approved (or check log file).

    Instead of relying on the automatic scraper order, you can also manually adjust the order and put another scraper first to act as primary scraper. The configuration dialog that allows you to do this, is also where you can add other scrapers, which brings us to the IMDb+ scraper. If you have any movie series such as James Bond, Star Wars, Matrix, etc, then you might prefer the IMDb+ scraper so that those series are nicely grouped together. If you have any foreign movies, then the default imdb.com scraper will add them with their original foreign title, but the IMDb+ scraper will get you the English title. The IMDb+ scraper also allows you to change this behaviour and adjust it to your likings. It also supports RottenTomatoes ratings and much more.

    All the info you need is at the forum thread: https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...ame-group-rottentomatoes-more-v3-2-5-a-98978/

    :D
     

    rconstantine

    Portal Member
    September 29, 2011
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    thanks for the replies folks. all of my issues have been resolved. the imdb+ scrapper seems to have done a somewhat better job for me. i appreciate the help. i ended up reordering the scrappers so that imdb+ was first and my local 'my videos' db second.

    one thing i didn't understand right away which other users may find useful is that while the standard 'my videos' scrapper pulls down ALL posters at once, with moving pictures, you have to hit a green curved arrow button to download more posters and that depending on the scrapper used you only initially get 1 or 3 posters even if you have set the maximum much higher. in my case i had it set to 35 and couldn't understand why i was only getting either 1 or 3 posters to choose from.

    great plugin btw. much thanks.
     

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