Movie Listings... Coming to an RR near you!

**brandensin** · 07-03-2008, 01:24 PM

sonic, would you think of a possibility to expand this for video as well... This is what i have in mind.. In video browser, you will see a list of movies as thumnail image. When you click one of them, it will show the following page..

In this page, it will just have play button instead of navigate.. and perhaps other information... I am not sure how much of coding will be required but you got the most of functionality already working..

What do you think? I am thinking of using RR for HTPC frontend... and i think this would be a good feature for both car and ht pc.

**Enforcer** · 07-03-2008, 01:39 PM

Well the info for films can be got from IMDB.com so it's possible

**Sonicxtacy02** · 07-03-2008, 02:33 PM

after some brief testing i can scrape movie plot, user ratings, cast and release dates from IMDB provided the filename of the movie matches the movies actual title perfectly. I could also download the video art. Looks very doable from an rr plugin standpoint. rrVideoInsider.. i kinda like that lol! i'll take a look at starting on the code over the weekend. Joy another plugin!

**Enforcer** · 07-03-2008, 02:36 PM

And there isn't a sequel etc.

**Sonicxtacy02** · 07-03-2008, 02:42 PM

yea there's a bunch of "exclusions" to be found but a little bit of parsing (comparing film lengths and all kinds of crap) should help. ohhhh boy.

**brandensin** · 07-03-2008, 02:48 PM

cool... Thanks man... i am glad i brought this up since you seem to like the idea...

**JohnWPB** · 07-03-2008, 08:59 PM

I was just reading the past few posts.... and have an idea / suggestion:

Trying to scrape the information from IMDB is problematic at best, especially if the site changes in any way, as it ALWAYS does since Amazon took it over

(Not to mention they strictly forbid people using their information, legally at least....)

It would probably be better to use a program such as DVD profiler to manage the movie collection. After you catalog your movies, it has an export to XML feature. This file contains all the actors, your notes, ratings, album art link ect. It will also be alot better than the 100 pixel wide DVD covers from IMDB

It would be as simple as selecting a movie in your list in Road Runner, pressing say an "Info" button, that would look through the XML and get all the info for that movie.

There are many advantages to doing it this way:

- Never worry about the website changing and the screen scraping breaking.
- High quality album art (both front and back)
- Very simple to parse an XML file
- It's all done locally and no Internet connection is needed
- A LOT more information is available to use (Aspect ratio, Audio Format, Genre, Easter Eggs, Studio, DVD Features and a lot more....)

DVD Profiler is a free download, and I bet many of you use it already.. I know I have for years. It is as easy as entering a movie title or UPC to add a movie to the database. It then gets the coverart and all information about the movie for you automatically.

**treetop777** · 07-03-2008, 09:09 PM

Originally Posted by JohnWPB

I was just reading the past few posts.... and have an idea / suggestion: <eddited to save space>

- It's all done locally and no Internet connection is needed
.

Brilliant! - like this idea better.

**Sonicxtacy02** · 07-04-2008, 07:33 AM

that sounds good as well. I'm willing to work with whatever source is most convenient

**Enforcer** · 07-04-2008, 10:54 AM

Originally Posted by JohnWPB

DVD Profiler is a free download, and I bet many of you use it already.. I know I have for years. It is as easy as entering a movie title or UPC to add a movie to the database. It then gets the coverart and all information about the movie for you automatically.

I have had it for years as you say, however now when it wants to upgrade you are limited to 100 DVD's in the free version.

Also in the free version the quality isn't that high, the paid version though is.