Profler2MP, FileStack patch & MyMovies Assistant for DVD Profiler & MP (1 Viewer)

[yatesd]

Thanks for the quick responses and for the great add on as well.

I will try the new options you listed today as I did miss those. With reagrds to b) I will look into DVD profiler today to see if there is a script available for that as all ANT does is grabs the rating from IMDB maybe someone has done a similiar thing in DVD Pro.

WRT c) I can obviously add these manually the same way I have the rest of the collection and then everything will work fine. On my first reading of your notes I had hoped that the Assistant would be able to alter the DVD Profiler DB to scan the HDD files and then add a kind of place holder in the DVD profiler DB (dpb file I think) so that I could then use DVD Pro to download information on each film and track the entry. Looking at it this seems impossible as there are no import functions to DVD pro and I assume that the format of the DB is proprietry compared to the xml export version.

 

[cyberfix]

With reagrds to b) I will look into DVD profiler today to see if there is a script available for that as all ANT does is grabs the rating from IMDB maybe someone has done a similiar thing in DVD Pro.

WRT c) I can obviously add these manually the same way I have the rest of the collection and then everything will work fine. On my first reading of your notes I had hoped that the Assistant would be able to alter the DVD Profiler DB to scan the HDD files and then add a kind of place holder in the DVD profiler DB (dpb file I think) so that I could then use DVD Pro to download information on each film and track the entry. Looking at it this seems impossible as there are no import functions to DVD pro and I assume that the format of the DB is proprietry compared to the xml export version.

Let me know if you do find anything for the rating and DVD Profiler. Once I get a free moment, I will see if I can find anything on this too.

Yes, the whole purpose of MMA was to put directory path information into the DVD Profiler XML export and Disc names based off the directory names. The patched configuration.exe can read those directories if they are available or if they are manually entered in the Notes section with quotes around each path. A year or so ago, I had looked at connecting to DVD Profilers database. I discovered they were using some uncommon database engine and never got anywhere with it. Maybe I will look into that again this weekend. The problem with trying to load a place holder is that DVD Profiler pulls its information based on Disc ID or ISDN code. So putting a title in the database based on a directory is not really going to be helpful.

It would be great to querry IMDB for this information, but I have yet to see a program that does a good job at this. On mainstream and obvious titles, there are usually not many issues, but on unique or titles that are not mainstream, programs seem to fail.

Thanks for the feedback...

 

[yatesd]

I tried the options you suggested and get lovely covers from DVD profiler now, thx.

Unfortunately my employee expected me to actually work for a change today so no time to play and surf on DVD profiler forums yet, I will try and get time tonight

Thought that that would be the case with DVD profiler. Now have to think about whether I teh hassle of adding HDD files to database is better than maintaining two and the hassle of using ANT which can be awkward at times.

I think it probs is so will try a few bits tonight.

One other thing I noticed, is that if I click on a film that is a DVD and not stored on HDD I get an error message from MediaPlayer about opening a filename with ",". Is there a way around this for items that are not loadable direct from HDD so that it can open a proper MP box asking to insert DVD or something?

 

[cyberfix]

One other thing I noticed, is that if I click on a film that is a DVD and not stored on HDD I get an error message from MediaPlayer about opening a filename with ",". Is there a way around this for items that are not loadable direct from HDD so that it can open a proper MP box asking to insert DVD or something?

I will have to research how MP is handling offline files. I am still learning the overwhelming amount of options in MP. All my movies are online, so I did not have that problem. I will let you know what I find about the offline items. It may be tomorrow before I get to it as iit has been a very long work day and an alcoholic beverage or two are calling my name!

Do you have any sets ripped (with multiple episodes)? If so, how do they show up for you to select within MP?

 

[yatesd]

I have been playing a little more last night and this morning and managed to get rid of the error "," but strangely if it is an offline title it assumes that it now has started it correctly as the Preview window appears and the Now Playing indication is displayed.

It's not a big deal but will be confusing to those that do not know the system. In the myFilms plugin if it is offline it can bring up a window asking you to insert the disc or the like, or simply a message saying it is not available online.

General question on MyVideos - Is there a way by the way to bring up the Film Details via a button? What i can see is that using Spinsafe and XFace if I am in Filmstrip if I hit select then it will automatically try and play the film. What I would prefer is that it would go to a details page about the film that contains information for that one film and then I can play from there. I thought the "i" on the remote would do this but it seems to only bring up IMDB options which I do not want to use as I have everything already from DVD pro.

Not sure what you mean by sets, but I guess you mean multiple discs. Normally it should bring up the multiple disc icons in the top left to allow you to choose which disc to play. it is similiar if you have a directory with multiple avi's you can shoose which part to select.

Enjoy the alcohol and the weekend nothing is more important than that

 

[Gunn]

My goodness, I am pulling my hair out trying to get something, anything to work with my DVD Profiler database!

I'm trying to switch from Snapstreams BeyondMedia to MP. And its alll great, except I'm trying to find a replacement for the DVD Library in BeyondMedia.

First I found MyDVDs, then found out it wouldn't work with 0.2.3RC2 that I was using and that it was no longer supported. THen I found MyFilms v2.1. That didn't work. Then found a new version v3.0. That didn't work. Then I found 3.1, and then 4.2.6a only to find out it too was no longer being supported! Then I found this thread.

I'm having some trouble following it completely and have ended up making this post in the hope that someone can finally help me and clear some things up.

I have the straight up install of MP 0.2.3.0RC2. In this thread, it seems to refer to MyMovies, but...all I have is a My Videos. Is this what you mean?

In running the MediaPortal Configuration setup (I assume you mean this when you refer to configuration.exe which this shortcut is hooked to), under Movies->Movie Database and selecting the 'Scan' tab, I found a 'Reset database' button. Is this what you mean when you say to "delete the database"?

Then, in the Movies->Movie Database and selecting the 'Editor' tab, I found the 'Import' button which opens up a file dialog for selecting my DVD Profiler database XML file. Once done, I get the database imported. Hooray. But then when I launch MediaPortal and go to My Videos, there is none of them there?? Only a couple of DVD's that are on my Harddrive show up, which are part of the scanned movie folder (on the 'Scan' tab).

Where should these DVD Profiler movies be seen?

And you talked about the DVD Profiler Options checkbox on the 'Editor' tab and the associated checkboxes. Do these need to be checked for each movie in the database, or selected before I import? When one time I selected before import and checked all of those three checkboxes, then tried to import, I got a continual prompt of the Choose Directory dialog that kept coming up, until I cancelled.

Sorry for all the questions, but this has been very frustrating. I figured it was a good time to post and try to get my head back on straight.

Thanks,

 

[zebons]

I have always maintained a DVD Profiler list for my DVD's but also created an ANT DB from it so that I could easily import in using the MyFilms. If I can import my DVD profiler in directly then that will save me alot of work and also mean I can remove one additional plugin that seems to be supported less recently.
Dave

You can use your DVD profiler list directly with MyFilms without creating an ANT xml file.....

 

[cyberfix]

I have been playing a little more last night and this morning and managed to get rid of the error "," but strangely if it is an offline title it assumes that it now has started it correctly as the Preview window appears and the Now Playing indication is displayed.

General question on MyVideos - Is there a way by the way to bring up the Film Details via a button? What i can see is that using Spinsafe and XFace if I am in Filmstrip if I hit select then it will automatically try and play the film. What I would prefer is that it would go to a details page about the film that contains information for that one film and then I can play from there. I thought the "i" on the remote would do this but it seems to only bring up IMDB options which I do not want to use as I have everything already from DVD pro.

Okay, I have been doing some more digging and coding. I have improved the import some to handle DVD folder structures. It will look for the .IFO files. This still does not resolve the offline video issue. It seems to be a problem with the CORE MP functionality. I get the same result no matter what I try. It will say that it is an unkown format and ask you to try and play it anyway. It should ask for he disc name. I have yet to track down this code in MP as it is a huge code base and I am still learning my way around.

For the DVD Information:
What I have been doing is click on "info" on my remote, sounds like "i" on yours. Then I select the IMDB selection. It seems to pull the data from the DVD Profiler import if it is already there without hitting IMDB. I did notice if you try to change images, it will get one from IMDB and you can not get the DVD Profiler one back. You will have to do another import or go to configuration and correct that one image file. As long as you do not switch images (there really is no reason too), give the IMDB option a try and let me know what happens for you. I suppose this could be labelled better in the skins to clarify.

I did some research on the review rating. DVD Profiler v2.x does not have any support for it built in to it. You would have to manually enter it into another field and I would have to add that to the import parsing. DVD Profiler v3.x does have a REVIEW rating on the main area. This would be easy to add to the import. The only problem is that it seems that it is not filled in automatically at this time. Maybe they will start pushing that out from their database. Right now it would have to be manually set for each movie once.

The new configuration.exe will only be for the later SVNs for now. If you are having trouble with them, I will see about updating the older version.

cyberfix

 

[cyberfix]

First I found MyDVDs, then found out it wouldn't work with 0.2.3RC2 that I was using and that it was no longer supported. THen I found MyFilms v2.1. That didn't work. Then found a new version v3.0. That didn't work. Then I found 3.1, and then 4.2.6a only to find out it too was no longer being supported! Then I found this thread.

I do not seem to find many answers or much help on here for DVD Profiler. I like using it and paid for it, so I do not want to switch to another program. I would rather use MP with the minimum amount of plugins. That is what I am doing with the help of these programs. It still has some issues to work out, but for the most part I am happy.

I have the straight up install of MP 0.2.3.0RC2. In this thread, it seems to refer to MyMovies, but...all I have is a My Videos. Is this what you mean?

Yes, I corrected it in the main post. MyMovies Assistant was inititally developed for the MCE MyMovies plugin. It ended up being useful to work with My Videos and the custom configuration.exe on here.

In running the MediaPortal Configuration setup (I assume you mean this when you refer to configuration.exe which this shortcut is hooked to), under Movies->Movie Database and selecting the 'Scan' tab, I found a 'Reset database' button. Is this what you mean when you say to "delete the database"?

That is correct. MP Configuration is tied to the configuration.exe in the Team-MediaPortal install folder. Once again, you are correct about the "Reset Database" button. It will clear out your database and let you start with a blank one.

Then, in the Movies->Movie Database and selecting the 'Editor' tab, I found the 'Import' button which opens up a file dialog for selecting my DVD Profiler database XML file. Once done, I get the database imported. Hooray. But then when I launch MediaPortal and go to My Videos, there is none of them there?? Only a couple of DVD's that are on my Harddrive show up, which are part of the scanned movie folder (on the 'Scan' tab).

I am attaching a couple screenshots so that you can see the options. You select the "DVD Profiler Options" button. It wll show a couple more options. "Use Sort Title" will use the sort title instead of the regular title (E.g. "X-files" instead of "The X-files"). "Copy Images" will copy the dvd cover from DVD Profiler to the MediaPortal folder. The images look awesome doing this (as long as there is an image present in the DVD Profiler movie). Once you are in MediaPortal, go to My Video and the click on "Switch View". Make sure you select Titles and not Shares to see the database movies. It will not play if the path information is not present in your DVD Profiler XML file. This is where MyMovies Assistant can help.

Where should these DVD Profiler movies be seen?

Switch View -> Titles (Will not show in shares view)(needs path in DVD Profiler XML file in notes section to play movie). Use MyMovies Assistant to get them there or enter them in the notes section of each movie in DVD Profiler. It requires the directory to the movie folder in quotes. Such as "R:\movies1\South Park - Season 1\Episode 1 - Cartman" and then the next Episode folder would be on the next line (hit enter). You do not put the movie filename. MyMovies Assistant tries to automate a ot of this process.

And you talked about the DVD Profiler Options checkbox on the 'Editor' tab and the associated checkboxes. Do these need to be checked for each movie in the database, or selected before I import? When one time I selected before import and checked all of those three checkboxes, then tried to import, I got a continual prompt of the Choose Directory dialog that kept coming up, until I cancelled.

Those checkboxes are to be selected before the import depending on whether or not you want the images copied and the sort title used. You must select the DVD Profiler Options box, though. If you are getting a choose directory dialog, it is because it could not find where your DVD Profiler image files were located. Just select the folder that contains the images and clock OK or open.

Hopefully this will work for you. If you end up getting MesFilms or something else to work, please respond with you findings. I with they would include better My Videos in the core product. If you have a season disc like South Park, I have a patched filestack dialog in the original post now. It will show the name of the disc your selecting. Before it did not show anything.

cyberfix

 

[chrisonline]

Must i use the patched configuration.exe to use this plugin?
I am always updating to the latest SVN and so i cannot use the patched configuration.exe :-(