PVD and PVDimport

[georgeomoregie@frontierne]

Rick; sorry if I bother you or anyone. I just registered on this forum 2.00AM Sunday. I am trying to understand why this pvd is so difficult to handle.  It should not be like this.
I have made a few progress earlier today. I was able to edit the.modedate in the MC area.
I now get "Database connection was successfully established"
Here is my issues : I am only inputing two Blu ray movies.. Braveheart and Dark Knight. Most of the time, the movies do not get found in all the movies sites in Europe/East Europe.
But If I type in Dark Knight or Braveheart 1995, they are found. I have been typing the names as they are on the package. Even I noticed a different in graphics. Can the programmer add databases  like gracenote found in North America?
Also use of UPC , Bar Code will make things easier. It is taking almost a whole day to input two movie titles.


Per instruction. the MC expression  to search is located at "Upper Right Corner Of MC"
I am using XP SP3, for now. I am also using MC 15??49 with 2nd stage skin. The only thing I see on the right side of MC is something like "wizard, options, and more" It does not allow me to select any option. Could this be as a result of the skin I am using?. Again, I see no menu or expression at the right side.

I am going to continue to fight with this PVD and its import utility. It looks very promising, if it could be made a bit clearer. I hope the manual is almost complete or completed .

Please accept my gratitude for your help. It looks so simple to use, but it seems I am struggling with it. For a dbase plus programmer to be struggling with this type of application is frustrating.
Again, thanks for helping out.
George
Edit:

I found another  info on thread:Pvdimport plug in for JRMC:Not Reading .pvd  . so I went back to see if I can  MC Search Expression. I had to select Video on the left pane or tree to allow me to choose "Wizard, Options, and More."
I will play with the expression search on Monday. Going to bed now.
Thanks.

George.

Edit: 06/07/2010:
Success at last.
This A.M.. AutoImport CyclicNow adding 0 files to processing que.
Autoimport: This Pass has now finished!
Hopefully, I will play with it often, and later use this pvdimport on my permanent server.
Thanks again.
George

[rick.ca]

Here is my issues: I am only inputing two Blu ray movies. Braveheart and Dark Knight. Most of the time, the movies do not get found in all the movies sites in Europe/East Europe.

Where are you located? What language/location of data source are you looking for. Most English (and many non-English) users would use IMDb as their primary source—because it is the most comprehensive.

Any movie which you can easily find in a theatre or buy a DVD for should be easy to find on IMDb. The problem will not be that it's not there—it will be that there are a number of items with the same name, or you are not searching for the original title. Most ambiguities can be resolved by including the title (or translated title) and year. If you have an existing database—even a simple list of title and year—the most efficient way to get a database started is to import this information. With those records established, you can then run the plugin in "silent mode" to download information for most of the movies automatically. Then, for the ones that didn't work, run the plugin with "silent mode" off—and manually resolve the ambiguities.

Can the programmer add databases like gracenote found in North America?

I believe Gracenote is a commercial site. Are you a subscriber? If so, maybe you can ask them if they provide an API for such purposes.

BTW, I sent you here from the J. River forums to ask questions about PVD. The reason for that is PVD and MC are completely independent applications. The developers and most users of MC know nothing about PVD. And the developer of PVD ("nostra") and most of it's users know nothing of MC. Furthermore, the author of PvdImport ("raldo") is an independent programmer who is a user of PVD and MC. I know it's awkward, but please try to direct your questions to the applicable forums.

[georgeomoregie@frontierne]

I am sorry if I offended you by my problems while being introduced to pvd/pvdimport.

Just yesterday, in the MC forum, someone was having problem getting the database to search and find info.  The person is a respectable MC third party programmer and user. So when I read his troubles, I said, to my self, ditto.
No database is perfect, even Gracenote is not fault proof, but that is the largest DB owned by Sony.
A title like Braveheart Sapphire series Blu-ray, and The Dark Knight two disc special Edition, when entered to be searched for, IMDB-UK, Amazon UK and all other listed sites in the pvd program, had difficulties in searching and getting results. These are US Versions of these titles. The cover art  on the Dark Knight US version is unigue, but what I got from the Amazon UK, IMDB sites are not the same -different from what I have here. Here in the USA, folks take pride in the accuracy of the cover arts and covers arts on these disc differs a lot, showing the various type of releases or -Re---releases, it even distinguishes each version from each other. Some version may have more movies time, more editorial comments,. more scenes etc. Some people even take the time to redesign covers of CDs and movies- grin.

What I have in front of me is different from that produced by your search engine. I did finally got the pvd to locate the movies, (silent mode/or no silent mode)but with much difficulties. When it gets the info, it is supposed to fill it with info.. lots of info. For almost a whole day, info on both discs barely one third of a page.
Not to make  this drag on, I am a user of DVD Profiler, all I need to do is key in UPC to get the complete info, or use a scanner to scan the bar code. The result from  dvd profiler is accurate and detailed info with the correct cover art. DVD Profilers pull info from GraceNote- Primary and maybe a few others sites.


Braveheart UPC code is 097361396743. type this in, it will fetch exact Bluray with Braveheart Sapphire series 2 disc version, the same goes for the Dark Knight   which is 085391176572. I have keyed in more than 300 DVD info, all accurate and I get detailed info.
Please do not be offended with my suggestion. If I have to use PVD to key in all my DVD or CD, I will spend more than 6 months keying info.
I hope Nostra the programmer will improve the package. I am barely on the pvd bandwagon, less than 4 days, using it, and less than 4 days in the PVD forum. I ask the programmer to re visit the code, make it flexible for all of US to use, and the ease of "USE" by North American users should be taken in to account.
What draws me to PVD and PVDimport is the comment from Beta testers and Users of PVD/PVDimport asking or urging Jim, JRmediaCenter to include this program-PVD Database and its import utility as an add-on to JRMedia Center. As you see now, there must be something good about the program folks at JR love.
Please let us work together to make this program work better for everyone, even given the Notra- the author some donation for his work will not be a bad idea.<grin>
I have used it now,  will play with it more often to get used to.
Thanks.
George

[rick.ca]

As I've already said (in the MC forum)...

Please understand PVD is a movie database, not a movie media database. In other words, the primary interest of the developer and most of it's users is in the movies, not the (soon to be obsolete) shiny disks they're recorded on. You can record information about the media if you like, but it's not a priority in the design of the program. Accordingly, there are no plugins for downloading DVD-specific information.

And there's otherwise nothing that needs to be done differently to accommodate North American users. In fact, we're better served by the features and available plugins than most European users.

From everything you've said, I have to wonder if you're not better served sticking with DVD Profiler. Maybe your time would be better spent finding a way to import it's data to MC, if that's your primary objective. There probably will be features added to to PVD to better support DVD collectors, but I doubt it's a high priority, that they'll happen soon, or that they'll ever make the program comparable to a DVD-centric program like DVD Profiler.

That being said, you're welcome to write plugins or scripts for finding and downloading DVD information—or look for others who may be willing to do so. The design of PVD is flexible enough you should be able to handle the information. And nostra would probably be happy to add whatever additional program features might be required—if this level of interest were demonstrated.

[georgeomoregie@frontierne]

ok, thanks.
George