Topic: Get Movie & TV Info Problems (Read 7420 times)

RussellS · « **on:** October 01, 2012, 02:57:04 pm »

Hi, I'm a new user still trying out Media Centre as a possible replacement for my MeediOS system. So far I am very impressed with the system especially the video player and the MCE remote integration without the need for third party software to make it all work.

However, one area that I do think falls short is the movie data scrapers. I have somewhere in the region of 600 movies and quite a large number of them have had foreign covers downloaded by the scraper. I started out using MC17 but when I came across this problem I checked the forums and I read that MC18 is supposedly better in this respect. However, I have found no difference. As an example of what I mean here is the details found for the movie "Dr Strangelove":

As you can see, the TMDb entry shows a German cover and doesn't give any option to select an alternative even though the TMDb website shows 14 English covers (as well as 7 Italian, 6 German, 5 French) as shown here:
http://www.themoviedb.org/movie/935-dr-strangelove-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-bomb/posters

Why does the 'Get Movie & TV Info' system pick one particular cover out of the 40 or so different ones of various languages on offer and is there any way of forcing it to choose a different one.

I'm hoping that I'm doing something wrong or just not understanding the system because this just seems to be a massive problem. I've used both MeediOS and XBMC and you just don't get these problems. Certainly, in the case of MeediOS, you setup the scraper for the language you want and all the covers are downloaded in that language. The only time user intervention is required is on the odd occasion when a movie is not identified correctly and the wrong movie cover is downloaded.

I think what I'm finding most frustrating is not the fact that it downloads the wrong language cover but the fact that you can't then scroll through the available ones to select the one you want. I just gives you one out of the 40 or so available.

Please don't think I'm complaining or ranting, it is just that the rest of the system is so good that this just lets it down a bit.

Regards

Russell

Matt · « **Reply #1 on:** October 01, 2012, 05:26:23 pm »

Media Center v18 should prefer English images, as it uses the latest API from TMDb. With v17, we didn't have a way to filter on language of the images.

When I look up "Dr. Strangelove" with MC18, I get this English image:
http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/original/512N3nHiwJWUQO2ORoqi49RwcKT.jpg

I can't think why your results would vary. Are you sure you're testing MC18?

JustinChase · « **Reply #2 on:** October 01, 2012, 05:37:32 pm »

When I do a manual lookup, I get the same (correct, English) cover that matt showed.

Are the incorrect covers only found when doing a bulk search, on multiple files?

gvanbrunt · « **Reply #3 on:** October 01, 2012, 05:59:46 pm »

I think he stated that he started out with MC17 so likely the cover art is pre existing. Would that effect bulk importing?

RussellS · « **Reply #4 on:** October 01, 2012, 06:48:43 pm »

Thanks very much for you replies.

With the example I showed of 'Dr Strangelove' I was just doing an individual movie data lookup and not a bulk one. Also, I was deleting the previous cover before getting the new info.

So, what I have now done is completely uninstall MC and installed a fresh copy of MC18. It is now doing a full library import which is going to take a while. When it is complete I will report back and let you know the outcome.
At least I now know that it should be returning the English cover and it is probably something I've done wrong that is causing it to go display the foreign covers.

I shall report back tomorrow. It's bedtime now.

JustinChase · « **Reply #5 on:** October 01, 2012, 08:36:09 pm »

FYI, I don't think it's anything you've done wrong. I've had the same issues before (as have others), but as Matt said, he thinks he's got it fixed now. hopefully your new attempt works better, but if not, I'm sure you'll get the help you need to get it resolved

vairulez · « **Reply #6 on:** October 01, 2012, 11:33:31 pm »

Quote from: Matt on October 01, 2012, 05:26:23 pm

Media Center v18 should prefer English images, as it uses the latest API from TMDb. With v17, we didn't have a way to filter on language of the images.

When I look up "Dr. Strangelove" with MC18, I get this English image:
http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/original/512N3nHiwJWUQO2ORoqi49RwcKT.jpg

I can't think why your results would vary. Are you sure you're testing MC18?

don't forget your foreign customers, english images is not always the choice we want

.For instance for the movies for my kids i'd like to be able to select french images.

MrHaugen · « **Reply #7 on:** October 02, 2012, 05:58:28 am »

We all have different preferences. The scraper have to make room for this. Currently it way to locked down imo. A working default is a start, but not a finished solution.

audunth · « **Reply #8 on:** October 02, 2012, 10:42:46 am »

I just made a new topic that relates to this, but I'll repeat my request here: that when doing "Get Movie & TV Info" for multiple files that already have existing data, like preferred language cover art, fields containing data does not get overwritten. For those who want new cover art, it's VERY easy to bulk delete existing cover art first.

RussellS · « **Reply #9 on:** October 02, 2012, 12:20:52 pm »

OK, I'm just reporting back as promised after a fresh MC18 install and a fresh Auto-Import.

I am happy to report that the import went much better this time and the vast majority of covers were English. One thing I do find strange though is that there were some movies that still returned foreign covers and also some movies that didn't have any data imported. However, if I then do a manual "Get Movie & TV Info" on those titles they populate correctly. So there seems to be some difference between an auto import and a manual one.

Also, could I make a suggestion. Obviously, when doing an auto import you want it to procede in the background without any user intervention required. However, when you do a manual "Get Movie & TV Info" it would be nice to be able to scroll through all the available covers from TMDb rather than just be presented with only one that you have to use.

Anyway, I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that MC is going to fulfil my needs and will be more than worth the cost of the license.

Thanks for helping me.

fitbrit · « **Reply #10 on:** October 02, 2012, 05:53:17 pm »

Quote from: audunth on October 02, 2012, 10:42:46 am

I just made a new topic that relates to this, but I'll repeat my request here: that when doing "Get Movie & TV Info" for multiple files that already have existing data, like preferred language cover art, fields containing data does not get overwritten. For those who want new cover art, it's VERY easy to bulk delete existing cover art first.

At the least we should be able to get info only, or get cover art only in a bulk lookup.

audunth · « **Reply #11 on:** October 03, 2012, 10:31:56 am »

Yeah, at least. I have 100s of movies for which I have added my own cover art because I want the Blu-ray art for all my Blu-ray rips, DVD art for my DVD rips and so on. So far the only way to add additional info such as actors, plot summary, director etc. is one by one, since a bulk operation would replace all my cover art.

A simple policy of not overwriting existing data would actually fix that so no separate lookup for info and cover art would be needed, you would just delete the cover art if you wanted the lookup to add new cover art, or delete it afterwards if you for some reason would like no cover art for certain videos.

audunth · « **Reply #12 on:** October 31, 2012, 03:52:16 pm »

Please, any word on a fix here?

I see that now finally Critic rating is part of the info, but in order to get Critic rating for all my previous imports, I would have to do another Get Movie & TV Info for all my movies, which would replace all my Blu-ray cover art with the ones from the TVDB.

I could of course do several hundred movies one by one to avoid that, but come on, that should NOT be necessary with a program as advanced and flexible as JRiver Media Center!!

fitbrit · « **Reply #13 on:** October 31, 2012, 03:59:12 pm »

Quote from: audunth on October 31, 2012, 03:52:16 pm

Please, any word on a fix here?

I see that now finally Critic rating is part of the info, but in order to get Critic rating for all my previous imports, I would have to do another Get Movie & TV Info for all my movies, which would replace all my Blu-ray cover art with the ones from the TVDB.

I could of course do several hundred movies one by one to avoid that, but come on, that should NOT be necessary with a program as advanced and flexible as JRiver Media Center!!

Yes! I have a similar problem, and have asked a couple of times for the basic functionality of getting (cover art) or (metadata) only for bulk files. The ability to choose to overwrite existing fields or not would be a bonus too. I think this request has been heard and will eventually be addressed. It seems low priority for now. I've been bitten a few times by putting in the work to tag thousands of files with stuff as a workaround, only to have JRiver come up with a faster, better, one-click solution that would render my work useless, and in some cases even overwrite stuff that was better from my sources. For now I am sitting tight, and hoping the occasional reminder will bump this up the priority list.

audunth · « **Reply #14 on:** October 31, 2012, 04:22:43 pm »

No extra options would be needed at all, it only needs to be changed so that when doing bulk info lookup, fields with existing data are never overwritten.

That way, if you wanted new cover art, it's 2 clicks (right click - cover art - remove) to get rid of the existing cover art for all the selected files before you do the lookup. If you want data only, just leave the cover art. Don't want cover art at all? Bulk delete the cover art after the lookup.

You would then be able to select exactly the fields you wanna refresh, just delete the existing data first.

Hendrik · « **Reply #15 on:** October 31, 2012, 04:38:23 pm »

For me that would be quite annoying. I frequently do manual bulk lookups on TV shows after fixing season or episode numbers, having to empty out all of the wrong fields before would get annoying real fast.

struct · « **Reply #16 on:** October 31, 2012, 05:05:45 pm »

There have been multiple requests for info or image only, some flexibility in what gets written where, etc, over quite a few months. I expect JRiver are aware but presume this season is improve audio, lets make a mac version or something else because this very, very low hanging fruit (i.e. a couple of tick boxes) has been there for some time now so it is not yet, improve (video) metadata season. Maybe in the new year?

Anyways, thought I would add a vote for improvement in this area (again

)

Craig

audunth · « **Reply #17 on:** November 01, 2012, 05:10:59 am »

Quote from: nevcairiel on October 31, 2012, 04:38:23 pm

For me that would be quite annoying. I frequently do manual bulk lookups on TV shows after fixing season or episode numbers, having to empty out all of the wrong fields before would get annoying real fast.

Okay, makes sense to make it an option then: "Overwrite fields that contain data when doing bulk lookups" on or off.

And make the menu Get Movie & TV Info -> choice between Data, Images, All

Matt · « **Reply #18 on:** November 01, 2012, 01:52:25 pm »

Next build:

NEW: When manually doing a bulk lookup of TV or movie metadata, the process runs in a background thread and shows progress in the Action Window (instead of blocking the main program).
NEW: When manually doing a bulk lookup of TV or movie metadata, control is offered for whether it should get images, metadata, and/or replace existing values.

nwboater · « **Reply #19 on:** November 01, 2012, 02:50:19 pm »

Quote from: Matt on November 01, 2012, 01:52:25 pm

Next build:

NEW: When manually doing a bulk lookup of TV or movie metadata, the process runs in a background thread and shows progress in the Action Window (instead of blocking the main program).
NEW: When manually doing a bulk lookup of TV or movie metadata, control is offered for whether it should get images, metadata, and/or replace existing values.

Will this deal with the problem of Movies recorded from TV in MC being considered Shows? If so they will then appear under Movies in Theater View instead of as Shows. And we might get Movie covers instead of just a screen grab.

Thanks.

Rod

struct · « **Reply #20 on:** November 01, 2012, 03:16:36 pm »

Quote from: Matt on November 01, 2012, 01:52:25 pm

Next build:

NEW: When manually doing a bulk lookup of TV or movie metadata, the process runs in a background thread and shows progress in the Action Window (instead of blocking the main program).
NEW: When manually doing a bulk lookup of TV or movie metadata, control is offered for whether it should get images, metadata, and/or replace existing values.

Thanks

audunth · « **Reply #21 on:** November 01, 2012, 04:16:24 pm »

Thanks, Matt

MrHaugen · « **Reply #22 on:** November 01, 2012, 05:17:25 pm »

Sounds good. Thanks

fitbrit · « **Reply #23 on:** November 02, 2012, 07:58:50 pm »

Working well so far! Thanks.

audunth · « **Reply #24 on:** November 06, 2012, 03:43:06 pm »

Yeah, works great

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Author Topic: Get Movie & TV Info Problems (Read 7420 times)