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MikeB
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cover photos

Post by MikeB »

I understand that many users like the DVD cover images that DvdPedia downloads from Imdb. I, however, prefer film posters (I know this has been discussed before). Lately, it seems, the cover photos from Imdb have become more useless. I have now, for example, three times downloaded via DvdPedia this image:

Image

Furthermore, if you go to this page (http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3833961728/tt0065780), you will see a list of all the films that use this image. In my experience, I only use the Imdb image once in about 30-50 films. The rest of the time, I get the poster from here: http://www.movieposterdb.com/

In addition to the Dvd "cover" I posted above, I have got numerous unusable images from Imdb (box sets, generic images, etc.). I don't think anyone (poster or DVD cover collector) benefits from the Imdb offerings all the time.

Can you please implement at least an option so that we don't need to constantly replace the Imdb image?
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Re: cover photos

Post by sjk »

MikeB wrote:Lately, it seems, the cover photos from Imdb have become more useless.
Yeah, I've noticed something's been more futzed-up with them lately.
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Re: cover photos

Post by MikeB »

I realise that this has been brought up before. However, when no one -- DVD cover collectors or others -- are getting useful images from ImdB, I don't understand why an alternative source cannot be implemented? I am quite disappointed that there has been no attention paid to this thread/issue yet.
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Re: cover photos

Post by noribori »

I'm also using posters (from different sources) instead of DVD-Covers. Getting them into DVDpedia is most of the work. It takes much more time than adding all the other data. There are different sources for the posters, different qualities, different versions and different tastes. It takes time to decide which poster fits best into my collection.

I just don't see how this process could be automated. Movieposterdb.com has different poster versions for most movies. In my opinion it would require a lot of work to build some sort of browser into DVDpedia to browse those posters, to compare their quality and finally to select one of them. Why wouldn't you want to do that in your standard browser/Safari? I don't think that takes actually much more effort.
Or would you want DVDpedia to grab just the first poster of a movie that comes along on Movieposterdb.com? That seems to be a good choice in many cases, but I found examples where I would prefer another poster (e.g. "James and the Giant Peach").
Another possibility: DVDpedia could add a button which opens the movies page on movieposterdb.com in Safari. That would save me at least some typing and searching, I would appreciate that. And it should be easy to implement because movieposterdb.com uses the IMDb ID for its movie URLs.

So, what exactly was your proposal?
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Re: cover photos

Post by MikeB »

I am certainly glad to hear that I am not the only person who prefers film posters over dvd covers! As DVDPedia works now with 'add film,' for example, using IMDB, I can see a pop-out list of several films that come close to matching the name I put in. I can preview the film data, then pick the one which I want. Wouldn't it be possible to do exactly the same thing with movieposterdb.com?

Users could, for example, in preferences say: I prefer IMDB cover images or I prefer site A, B, or C (there are more than one poster site, though I find movieposterdb the best). Then when they select 'add movie' it could either be a one- or two-step process. One-step: the movie data presented would include the first poster from the site set in preferences. Two-step: movie data would be retrieved from IMDB (or wherever), then a second step would be used for the graphic.

Possibly there are other ways of doing it as well. Personally, I like the idea of setting something in preferences and then having the program work the way I want it to afterwards. DVDpedia is very good at that, except in this area.
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Re: cover photos

Post by noribori »

So we have 3 proposals, let me see:

1. Two-Step solution: You compare it with adding the movie data from IMDb. The pop-out list shows a list of search results, title and year. But there's no search result list for the posters of a certain movie on movieposterdb.com. The posters are spread on different pages. There's additional information like poster resolution and country. Collecting all that data, rearranging it and putting it into a pop-out list must be quite a hassle to program. And who would use it? Wouldn't people prefer "the real thing", using Safari to browse for the poster? It's certainly more comfortable than a pop-out list, and if you have found your poster, just drag it onto DVDpedia from Safari. Where's the big deal?

2. One-Step solution: That would be the "at least better than IMDb cover" solution. I wouldn't use it myself, but many people would like it (some more opinions?). There's a thread on http://www.movieposterdb.com/forum/topic/133 where they call the first poster the "primary poster". The thumbnail image URL of the primary poster is http://www.movieposterdb.com/movie/0116684/poster.jpg (the 7 digit number ist the IMDb ID). I suppose it's not so easy to get a better resolution. If you're serious about this feature, you could ask on their forum what the creators of movieposterdb.com think about it. If they don't like the idea I see problems (I'm speaking about the mid-size resolution, the original resolution is of course not free).

3. What do you think about my proposal with the button to open the site in Safari? Just like the IMDb-button it could be placed in the DVDpedia menu bar, if you don't want it, drag it away. That's certainly a compromise, but easy to implement.
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Re: cover photos

Post by MikeB »

As I wrote before, this exact topic has come up before and, so far, nothing at all has been done about it. Before we start discussing possible solutions, I think we need to convince Dvdpedia's programmers to do something about this. It seems pretty clear to me that the situation is getting worse since IMDB has started including garbage pictures for some films.

Once the programmers agree there is a problem, we can better discuss solutions with them. Any solution should include automatic downloading of posters, just as the current version downloads images from IMDB.
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Re: cover photos

Post by Conor »

MoviePosterDB is a great web page and a good resource. The problem at the moment is that their API only delivers posters at a 300 pixel resolution (larger resolutions are bought and help pay for hosting costs). However more importantly it only delivers the first poster for the movie which tends to be the same poster that IMDb carries.

So to achieve the second solution proposed, all that needs to be done is remove the all calls to "amazonImageForAsin:" in the IMDb plug-in source. If you don't have Xcode you can download a built version here to unzip and replace your current plug-in inside the program at "DVDpedia.app/Contents/Plug-ins".

The third solution is most interesting and many similar ideas have been used in the info view template by users as they can be customized for each users needs. For example Leo's has a button that opens up the movie trailer at youtube.com and one that searches for the cover in Google. To implement somehting similar you would modify your favorite info view template to include the link:

Code: Select all

<a href="http://www.movieposterdb.com/movie/[key:imdb]" >Movie Poster</a>
This will lead to the movie poster page where you can drag and drop to set the cover. You could even have links open the page directly inside DVDpedia and by ctrll clicking an image to display the contextual menu you will have the option to set that image as the current image for the selected movie. Thanks to Noribori you could set the above link directly to the image using the API information link, but that would mean you would only have access to the first image as mentioned above which would be the same as the modfied IMDb plug-in.

The first solution is the most involved and one we are considering for the future. A new feature has to be well integrated into the program in order to make sense to those users that are not as familiar with Movie Poster DB. Their site is all about user generated content and sharing that information they are growing rapidly and I am sure they will develop their API further. Once all the images can be requested it will make sense to consider an image selection browser for downloads from Movie Poster. Even potentially an upload as well to contribute images back into the database if the API allows it.
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Re: cover photos

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MikeB
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Re: cover photos

Post by MikeB »

Many thanks for your reply, Conor.
Conor wrote:MoviePosterDB is a great web page and a good resource. The problem at the moment is that their API only delivers posters at a 300 pixel resolution (larger resolutions are bought and help pay for hosting costs). However more importantly it only delivers the first poster for the movie which tends to be the same poster that IMDb carries.
I download images from MoviePosterDB always and the resolution has never been a problem at 300 pixels in Dvdpedia. I also must disagree with your second point. Before posting this message, I added 'Children of Men' to Dvdpedia. The IMDB image was a DVD cover. I then went to MoviePosterDB and their first image was a poster.
So to achieve the second solution proposed, all that needs to be done is remove the all calls to "amazonImageForAsin:" in the IMDb plug-in source. If you don't have Xcode you can download a built version here to unzip and replace your current plug-in inside the program at "DVDpedia.app/Contents/Plug-ins".
I don't have Xcode, so I have download and installed the second plug in. What does it do? I don't see anything different.
The third solution is most interesting and many similar ideas have been used in the info view template by users as they can be customized for each users needs. For example Leo's has a button that opens up the movie trailer at youtube.com and one that searches for the cover in Google. To implement somehting similar you would modify your favorite info view template to include the link:

Code: Select all

<a href="http://www.movieposterdb.com/movie/[key:imdb]" >Movie Poster</a>
Which file needs to be edited and where can it be found?
The first solution is the most involved and one we are considering for the future. A new feature has to be well integrated into the program in order to make sense to those users that are not as familiar with Movie Poster DB. Their site is all about user generated content and sharing that information they are growing rapidly and I am sure they will develop their API further. Once all the images can be requested it will make sense to consider an image selection browser for downloads from Movie Poster. Even potentially an upload as well to contribute images back into the database if the API allows it.
Many thanks. I very much hope this will be implemented. I believe this makes the most sense and would only improve an already excellent program.
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Re: cover photos

Post by Conor »

Thank you for pointing out that "Children Of Men" does have a different image. The movies I tried out had the same image. Don't really worry about the special IMDb version as there is not much difference. The shipping version will prefer to get the image from the DVD at Amazon then the IMDb image, in most cases these are the same, but sometimes they are not. Since you're looking to have the poster and not the DVD cover this will not help. The link in the info view however will be useful:

To modify the default "collection" template you would open the DVDpedia.app program and copy the template out from there. To open DVDpedia use control click and "Show Package Contents" then navigate to Contents/Resources/WebViewFiles/en/ from there copy the Collections.html file into your data folder at ~/Library/Application Support/DVDpedia/InfoTemplates (you will have to create the folder "InfoTemplates"). Also copy the Images folder over. To modify the template open it with a text editor (if using TextEdit you have to use the open command and check "ignore rich text commands"). Add the line of code from above where you would like to see it (to place it after the country in the header place it after "[key:country]").

There is also more information about the info templates in the included help inside the program and our support page has general information about customizing templates and HTML.

The good news is the Movie Poster guys are quite receptive and will consider enhancing the API when they get back from their holidays.
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Re: cover photos

Post by MikeB »

Many thanks (again) for your help, Conor. Although I have over 600 films in my collection, very few are current or recent Hollywood films. Perhaps that is why, in my experience, the images at IMDB and movieposterdb are almost always different.

I have edited the files as you described. How will it work now? If I add a film, will it just get the first image from movieposterdb? Is there anything I must do differently?

I was very glad to hear that you contacted the movieposterdb people and I am very happy to hear that they are interested in working with you. If there is anything I can do to help (such as post on their forum), I will be happy to do it.

Thanks again.
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Re: cover photos

Post by Conor »

Does IMP Awards - All the Latest Movie Posters have an API?
I signed up to the IMP Awards forums in order to do a search, but still need to be approved. But giving the site a quick looks I think it does not have an API.
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Re: cover photos

Post by Conor »

I have edited the files as you described. How will it work now? If I add a film, will it just get the first image from movieposterdb? Is there anything I must do differently?
There is an important step that I might have forgotten to mention that is to rename the file once copied into the InfoTempaltes folder. Once renamed restart DVDpedia and go to the preference under the styles tab your renamed style will appear in the pop-up for info view styles. Select your created style and close the preferences. There should now be a link in the info area (to the right of the title) that will redirect you to the Movie Poster Database where you can ctrl-click on a poster to make it the current image for the selected movie.

Thank you for the offer. If beta testing is needed or anything comes up I will be sure to send you a message.
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Re: cover photos

Post by MikeB »

There is an important step that I might have forgotten to mention that is to rename the file once copied into the InfoTempaltes folder. Once renamed restart DVDpedia and go to the preference under the styles tab your renamed style will appear in the pop-up for info view styles. Select your created style and close the preferences. There should now be a link in the info area (to the right of the title) that will redirect you to the Movie Poster Database where you can ctrl-click on a poster to make it the current image for the selected movie.
I renamed the file 'Posters.html' Unfortunately, it does not show up in the list as you described. Did I need to rename it something specific? I edited it with BBEdit, btw. The line now looks like this:

Code: Select all

<span class="platform">[key:country]<a href="http://www.movieposterdb.com/movie/[key:imdb]" >Movie Poster</a></span></span></div> 
Thank you for the offer. If beta testing is needed or anything comes up I will be sure to send you a message.
That would be fine.
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