mobilePVD - PocketPC client for movie managment PVD

[Obelix]

Hi all!

This is the PocketPC Version (Viewer) of PVD the very best program to organize your movies.
You can download the PC version from http://www.videodb.info/forum_en/.
My thoughts were: what is the best movie managing and cataloging software worth while in the movie store and searching for a title... or sitting in front of the TV and trying to remember what cool movie I could watch...
That, and enjoying to write software for my mobile phone, were the reasons for mobilePVD.

The software is published at PVD's home and at xda-developers place.


How it works
First of all, you have to get PVD and enter your movies. After that, make a XML export. This writes a file containing the movie information and a directory containing the pictures. Take both and copy them onto your device. I recommend to copy them onto the SD card in a sub directory PVD.
Download mobilePVD and install it on your device. When starting, you will have to select the XML file by clicking Menu->Open DB. Your can select other languages and other skins (if someone makes them ).
You need to have .NET Compact Framework 3.5 installed to run mobilePVD.

When going to a sublist in mobilePVD (i.e. viewing the movie details or selecting directories) and you want to get back, just slide with your finger over the list from left to right...

How to translate
In the program directory on the device is a sub directory called "Languages". Within you find the language files. I deployed English and German so far. To make own translations just copy a file to your desktop, open it with any text editor and translate. Please publish your translation on either forum, so I can build the next version with more supported languages.

How to skin
also in the program directory you will find a sub directory "Skin" with all the images I use. The images in "Manila WVGA" are for a resolution of 800x480. If you like you can take those bitmaps and change them to fit other resolutions and other colors. Don't forget to adapt the settings in the skin.ini file.
And please share your work with us and publish your skins on either forum. I will put them in the download section.


Have fun!
Obelix

If you like my work, you can buy me a glass of wine



Version 2.1 of mobilePVD

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[rick.ca]

Thanks for sharing this, Obelix.

I know very little about such things, so maybe you can clarify... Can this be used on things other than a PocketPC, like a smart phone running Android?

[newsky]

Thank you very much! On HTC MAX4G works. The only thing, from 90 films which the program loads before opening are displayed only 59. All filters stand by default. In what there can be a problem?

[Obelix]

...the software can be run on any device running windows mobile 5.0 and above.

to get those things out I would need the database with your movies. I have 62 movies in my db - all shown. But of course the can be cases in which the export generates data that I do not cover, because I did not see...

please email me the export file and the directory, so I can test...

thanks for the quick response...

[Reset]

Thanks a lot!
Russian translate in attach.
Shortcomings:
- very long load;
- how said newsky, not all films are displayed;
- settings is not enough.

Better luck next time!
I'm looking forward to next version.

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[Obelix]

if anyone of you could send me the export, I could have a look at it...

[newsky]

I am sorry that at once has not answered. I attach a file of base XML and just in case zip archive with pictures.
base+image (6mb)

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[Obelix]

ok - thanks for your database.
It was an "out of memory" issue. I think it is fixed. As far as it concerns the provided database (with less than some hundred movies) it works.
May be I receive a real large (>> thousand) export to test - or at least the result of anybody trying to view that many movies.

next upcoming will be About page and more information in the details page.

[Reset]

In an investment there is a XML-template for export to a XML-file only that field that are used in the program mobilePVD.
We throw in catalogue Plugins\Templates of program PVD

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[Obelix]

hmmm. can this be done with any fields (ok - I am not a genius using PVD)?
So if this can be done with any fields, we can select useful fields (i.e. rating)
If the list of fields is quite ok, I will make the next update to show all information in the details view.

You are the master of PVD using - so suggest the fields we need to know on mobilePVD.

[rick.ca]

...so suggest the fields we need to know on mobilePVD.

PVD handles customs fields, so some users are going to be disappointed if mobilePVD cannot do the same. I have no idea how this works, but if this could be done by editing a configuration file, instructions for doing so would probably suffice.

[Obelix]

ok - this is a step further in the development. First we should be able to manage standard fields (and not all of them - only important, but who decides which ones are).
Later we COULD think about getting some data back from mobilePVD into PVD and managing custom fields.

[rick.ca]

(and not all of them - only important, but who decides which ones are)

Right—this is the issue. I don't imagine anyone wants or needs all fields on their hand-held. The problem is, in some cases a custom field is going to be one of the "important" ones. I suspect your ultimate goal should be to make this completely configurable—so the issue goes away entirely. Maybe that could be handled by requiring field captions to be specified in the XML export. Then mobilePVD would simply display whatever is exported (with fields presented in the same order), without requiring any further configuration.

Later we COULD think about getting some data back from mobilePVD into PVD

But surely you're going to soon replace the XML file with a direct server connection to the database. 

[newsky]

I spread base of films from 6000 records for your tests. Two variants of export. The first: XML (MoviePVD). The second: XML (movie)

[Obelix]

ok - that's a real challenge...
On my HTC HD2 I get some thousand movies read, but on the HP iPAQ 114 I only get 1700. Then I reach the limit of the memory...

I have to think about that for some time...

[nostra]

I think the best thing to do on the mobile device with restricted resources is not to load the whole file, but only make it load the current page or smth...

[Obelix]

Yes, thats what I also thought first - but how to filter then...

what I am playing around is something like having the data in memory and displaying only a few items. When having time left I will make some tests and let you know.

[nostra]

You can scan the document for data according to the filter using some kind of SAX parser instead of DOM, so that only a small part of the document is loaded into memory at a moment of time...

[Obelix]

I am not using DOM because its slowly. I "parse" the XML file with a XmlReader... New tries next week

Anyways, I uploaded version 1.2 which works for about 3000 movies on my HTC HD2 and 1700 movies on my HP 114. For the moment its better than nothing. I hope I will manage the data up to all movies from user newsky.

[CAD]

i have to say - this is Soooo cool.
i just bought htc hd2.
Best thing since sliced bread

looking to use htc as remote - if i can hook pvd to select what i want to watch...