Offline IMDb download
#1
hey guys, i have a problem that is probably not so common - i don't have a direct internet connection that i can use with my xbox, and right now it's not possible to have one, for reasons that i don't feel like getting into.

but i would really love to be able to use the imdb features. i am thinking about implementing some kind of offline imdb download tool/feature, that would allow me to use my laptop at home to connect to the xbox, and then to use xbmc to generate a series of "offline download" commands to be registered on my laptop. then later when my laptop is connected, it will download all of the necessary imdb info and then the next time the laptop is connected to xbmc, all of the info will be registered in the appropriate db.

so obviously this sounds like a somewhat long-winded and crazy way to get around a fairly simple problem. does anyone have any other suggestions for how i might be able to do what i want to do, other than getting my xbox connected directly? any other ideas?
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#2
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(gglaze @ nov. 02 2004,11:23 Wrote:does anyone have any other suggestions for how i might be able to do what i want to do
i don't know about imdb but freedb.org (cddb) offer a full download of their database, does anyone know if imdb maybe offer the same? Huh
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#3
ok, getting the dump in whatever format shouldn't be so difficult - i can think of a number of ways to accomplish that.

the real technical question for me is - once i have the data, how do i go about getting it into the database in xbmc? i'll start browsing around the code to try to figure it out, but any pointers or ideas would be helpful.
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#4
it's a plain sql database - the table format is in the somewhat out of date developer docs somewhere i think (otherwise, it's in the code).

we use sqllite which is available pretty widespread, and all the queries are basic sql - nothing tricky going on, so they should be reasonably easy to add to whatever you're using to access the imdb info.
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#5
sounds easy enough then. i guess the thing to decide is whether this is actually a tool that could be usefull to anyone else and should be made available, or whether i'll just keep it in my local build - or whether there is another way of accomplishing the same goal, but would provide some benefit to others.
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#6
you can get an offline dumb of the imdb database. check out http://www.imdb.com/interfaces for details.

one thing which is sorely missing is the ability to update titles in the database from the gui. i typically get lots of wrong titles when i run a scan on my video directories. (it works if the filenames are clear. i typically leave the "release" names, so xbmc matches all kinds of foreign films and whatnot.)

this should be possible with the addition of the context menu. there could be a menu option to update the title, which brings up the keyboard. it would then need to refresh the imdb data to fetch the info on the new title.
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#7
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(gglaze @ nov. 02 2004,13:53 Wrote:i guess the thing to decide is whether this is actually a tool that could be usefull to anyone else and should be made available, or whether i'll just keep it in my local build - or whether there is another way of accomplishing the same goal, but would provide some benefit to others.
if nothing else it would be mighly impressive to have the option of having the full imdb (+ freedb? Wink ) available without internet connected.
even if just to take the xbox to a friends house to brag how you can lookup his cd-r/dvd-r movies on imdb without network, fast too Cool
...but i can imagine a full dump of imdb will be huge so it won't be attractive for everyone, though i think i use it if it's was less than 2gb(?)
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#8
(kraqh3d @ nov. 02 2004,14:29 Wrote:one thing which is sorely missing is the ability to update titles in the database from the gui. i typically get lots of wrong titles when i run a scan on my video directories. (it works if the filenames are clear. i typically leave the "release" names, so xbmc matches all kinds of foreign films and whatnot.)
yes, i do that too...
thats why there is a feature request thread for a imdb filter so lookups will be more accurate


but an offline version would rock too Smile
would there need to be a sql db created from those plain txt files?
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#9
i think gglaze's current code for cleaning filenames up could be adapted for just this purpose.

as for info on the database and how to read it on the pc, i've started the beginnings of a writeup based on info gleaned from this forum (early this year) in the online manual (see advanced features)

cheers
jonathan
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#10
although it's getting slightly off-topic, we could also specify a "match percentage" that could be used in the case of scan (where currently we just grab the first found entry) to decrease the negative hits. ie we'd only retrieve the info for the video if it was a greater than 80% match for instance. this would be performed after filtering out all the xvid_ac3 etc. stuff.
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#11
yeah i'll have a look at adapting that cleaning code to work with the imdb scan in this way - i'm just now starting to look at the imdb functionality, since so far i haven't been able to get connected to use it, but it sounds like this would be a useful fix.
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#12
as i see it, those windows or unix command tools create a db from the plain text files. source code is available for it, but its too complicated for me

if the code from gglaze could be adapted, that would be great.
a setting in xml where people can provide there own statements which they want to be filtered would rock Smile
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#13
(jmarshall @ nov. 02 2004,16:57 Wrote:although it's getting slightly off-topic, we could also specify a "match percentage" that could be used in the case of scan (where currently we just grab the first found entry) to decrease the negative hits. ie we'd only retrieve the info for the video if it was a greater than 80% match for instance. this would be performed after filtering out all the xvid_ac3 etc. stuff.
yes, that would be good.
to continue on it, what if the percentage is too low for instance?
i would like to get a subwindow like you get now when you do a manual retrieval. that way the user can pick one or even skip it?
and after that the scan should continue
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#14
yeah, i would do it kind of like a wizard, where it gives you possible choices when necessary to allow you to pick, or do a completely manual lookup if necessary. i'm guessing the current implementation doesn't have any kind of manual intervention?

if this stuff is not already implemented, it will definitely be on my todo list.
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#15
Rainbow 
sorry to be a party pooper but this is getting to much off-topic, please discuss the imdb filter in this other thread (link) instead, tia
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