Is it possible to use IMDb.com scraper for TV Shows and TV Show Episodes?

honestly i have to say that the tvdb is much more complete than the imdb for tv shows. would be much easier and more helpful for the whole community if you would edit the data in the tvdb instead of programming a scraper only a minority would use for this task... so why don't you just create an account over at the tvdb...it's a nice community too and helpful hands are welcome

vanMiez Wrote:honestly i have to say that the tvdb is much more complete than the imdb for tv shows.

It depends on the series. For American it might be, but not for others...

vanMiez Wrote:Would be much easier and more helpful for the whole community if you would edit the data in the tvdb instead of programming a scraper only a minority would use for this task...

There are series on IMDB with 180 episodes that are unknown by tvdb. I am not in a mood for copy-pasting. It would be far more interesting if tvdb would just copy the details from IMDB first.

vanMiez Wrote:so why don't you just create an account over at the tvdb...it's a nice community too and helpful hands are welcome

Because of the above stated reasons.

The problem is not just that the shows do not exist on TVDB. In my experience they almost always do.

The problem is that they sometimes don`t show up. I re-scrap my XBMC frequently because my work sends me out with different computers all the time.

For example right now Aqua Teen Hunger Force will not recognize. Eventually it will, but some other show will not. I have no idea why this happens. My file names never change. If you go to TVDB right now the show is clearly there. I have cut and pasted the title in, typed it in the same as on the site, used only some of the title, removed spaces, added dashes. Nothing works. I can`t add it to TVDB because it is clearly already there. This has happened for at least 18 months every time I re-scrape with between 1 and 10 out of 87 shows on my hard drive (different 1 to 10 all the time.)

With IMDB you can enter the reference number of the show in the manual entry rather then the title if the title will not work that week. TVDB will not do this.

Also, with two different sources I can used one if the other fails. It is unlikely that two will fail on the same show at the same time.

Does anyone know why this happens? I'm thinking of going back to the old version which will let me choose the IMDB scraper. The whole point of XBMC is to have an awesome presentation of you media to inspire awe and jealousy amongst your peers. Having an ugly blue folder sitting in the middle of my shows. ruins that effect.

For example this time these ones did not work:
-Aqua Teen Hunger Force
-Battle Star Galactica
-Scrubs
-The Shield
-Star Trek DS9

The same happens with Movies. Especially anything starting with a number (18 year old virgin, 50 first dates) and franchise movies (American Pie, Star Wars, Bad Boys)

I can NOT believe there are people on here defending the TVDB! You guys have to be out of your minds! Not only are the shows a total mess, but you CAN'T correct them. When they see that there is a messed up show, they simply LOCK the show so it can't be fixed. And then they leave it that way presumably forever. They run a very non-professional site and I have no idea how they got popular.

Not only can't a scrape Pawn Stars and Mythbusters two WILDLY popular American shows... but I can't even use programs like Sickbeard to download them because according to the TVDB BOTH programs are no longer being made! They simply stopped adding the new shows to their site and they lock anybody out who wants to claim otherwise!

They should be embarrassed at how they run their site and I hope another person makes a REAL site and runs it correctly so they can see how foolish they were for getting so popular and not keeping up on the site!

And did I mention I HATE that site! lol. It's just that there are all of these AMAZING programs out there that are ALL performing poorly because of ONE site that can't keep up! Everybody should just dump them all together!

tommymsw Wrote:I can NOT believe there are people on here defending the TVDB! You guys have to be out of your minds! Not only are the shows a total mess, but you CAN'T correct them. When they see that there is a messed up show, they simply LOCK the show so it can't be fixed. And then they leave it that way presumably forever. They run a very non-professional site and I have no idea how they got popular.

Not only can't a scrape Pawn Stars and Mythbusters two WILDLY popular American shows... but I can't even use programs like Sickbeard to download them because according to the TVDB BOTH programs are no longer being made! They simply stopped adding the new shows to their site and they lock anybody out who wants to claim otherwise!

They should be embarrassed at how they run their site and I hope another person makes a REAL site and runs it correctly so they can see how foolish they were for getting so popular and not keeping up on the site!

And did I mention I HATE that site! lol. It's just that there are all of these AMAZING programs out there that are ALL performing poorly because of ONE site that can't keep up! Everybody should just dump them all together!

Actually, Mythbusters and Pawn Stars do update. the problem is that people put wrong information, like according to the official site Pawns Stars is in it's 2nd season, but idiots were filing out the 3rd & 4th seasons. Many scene groups follow this. With Mythbusters, too many people were writing information for specials in the individual season. Both these shows in response to the MASS of incorrect information were locked and are updated by the site owners.

isamu.dragon Wrote:Actually, Mythbusters and Pawn Stars do update. the problem is that people put wrong information, like according to the official site Pawns Stars is in it's 2nd season, but idiots were filing out the 3rd & 4th seasons. Many scene groups follow this. With Mythbusters, too many people were writing information for specials in the individual season. Both these shows in response to the MASS of incorrect information were locked and are updated by the site owners.

Well the owners who update it sure do take their time. Pawn stars last update was over SIX months ago. And Mythbusters WAS out of date for over four months. And these are just two of MANY examples.

If users miss-date them, then other users can fix them. This is not an uncommon practice for fan content sites. Not allowing them to be fixed for months on end is NOT a good practice. If the owners can't keep up with it, they should allow users to make the correction themselves. With the MANY people complaining about the site on sites like these, I am sure they would have gotten fixed by one of them. I KNOW I would have fixed them!

Go ahead and lock it AFTER the fix, but I see no logic in locking it BEFORE you fix it and then leaving it unattended for months. It is HIGHLY possible that a fan would have made the corrections. At any rate why lock it with the WRONG information? Either fix it or leave it alone... it can't get any worse right? Locking in the wrong information is just a dumb mistake by the owners that is costing them more harm than it should. It's just a dumb idea.

tommymsw Wrote:Well the owners who update it sure do take their time. Pawn stars last update was over SIX months ago. And Mythbusters WAS out of date for over four months. And these are just two of MANY examples.

If users miss-date them, then other users can fix them. This is not an uncommon practice for fan content sites. Not allowing them to be fixed for months on end is NOT a good practice. If the owners can't keep up with it, they should allow users to make the correction themselves. With the MANY people complaining about the site on sites like these, I am sure they would have gotten fixed by one of them. I KNOW I would have fixed them!

Go ahead and lock it AFTER the fix, but I see no logic in locking it BEFORE you fix it and then leaving it unattended for months. It is HIGHLY possible that a fan would have made the corrections. At any rate why lock it with the WRONG information? Either fix it or leave it alone... it can't get any worse right? Locking in the wrong information is just a dumb mistake by the owners that is costing them more harm than it should. It's just a dumb idea.

The reason shows get locked is because people can't agree on things and keep changing it. in the example of Mythbusters, It doesn't have a true season order as all the sites that list seasons, including the DVD releases and official sites all differ in there actual "season" order. As for not updated for 4 months, that is because Mythbusters goes on hiatus at random times with no new episodes for 4+ months at a time (the same reason there is no correct season order) I believe the current ordering for Mythbusters is what the official site for it states are the seasons and episodes BUT whenever it is unlocked people go and change all the episodes and such all over again, where it then needs to be fixed, and there are hundreds of topic posts on their forums over things.
As for other shows all the ones that are locked are either ended with everything already in correct order or people keep making a mess of the show (and there is most likely a forum post about that particular show, and if you see something wrong with a show that is locked you can ask to have it corrected.)

As for you being able to keep track of all the TV shows so you could fix them if you could, honestly I doubt it, it'd be a huge task, I can't even imagine how many different TV shows are on there that people go and change and then need to be corrected on a daily basis.

as for "it can't get worse" you obviously haven't seen some of the ones people go and screw up whether intentionally or because they believe that the order they decided on is more correct then multiple sources and then re-number everything along with deleting other things etc. which then screws up all the numbers and orders for everyone else trying to use that particular show.

And while some of TVDBs ways of doing somethings can be extremely rude (re: some of their responses, when say the same question has been asked and answered hundreds of times), the info on the site is generally one of the best places to get ALL of the info for most shows in one place.

cainecollin Wrote:The reason shows get locked is because people can't agree on things and keep changing it. in the example of Mythbusters, It doesn't have a true season order as all the sites that list seasons, including the DVD releases and official sites all differ in there actual "season" order. As for not updated for 4 months, that is because Mythbusters goes on hiatus at random times with no new episodes for 4+ months at a time (the same reason there is no correct season order) I believe the current ordering for Mythbusters is what the official site for it states are the seasons and episodes BUT whenever it is unlocked people go and change all the episodes and such all over again, where it then needs to be fixed, and there are hundreds of topic posts on their forums over things.
As for other shows all the ones that are locked are either ended with everything already in correct order or people keep making a mess of the show (and there is most likely a forum post about that particular show, and if you see something wrong with a show that is locked you can ask to have it corrected.)

As for you being able to keep track of all the TV shows so you could fix them if you could, honestly I doubt it, it'd be a huge task, I can't even imagine how many different TV shows are on there that people go and change and then need to be corrected on a daily basis.

as for "it can't get worse" you obviously haven't seen some of the ones people go and screw up whether intentionally or because they believe that the order they decided on is more correct then multiple sources and then re-number everything along with deleting other things etc. which then screws up all the numbers and orders for everyone else trying to use that particular show.

And while some of TVDBs ways of doing somethings can be extremely rude (re: some of their responses, when say the same question has been asked and answered hundreds of times), the info on the site is generally one of the best places to get ALL of the info for most shows in one place.

I agree that it is one of the best. But that is too bad.

I didn't say I could fix EVERY show but I would have fixed the two I mentioned, with enough fans of the site, I am sure many if not all shows would get fixed.

Pawn Stars is STILL locked and they are months into the new shows.
And the problem with locking is that programs that rely on the information would still work if the information was wrong, but will NOT work if there is no information at all. If they call it season 2 or 50 the programs could still scrape the info or set them to download (sickbeard) even if it had the wrong season number. With the shows locked, the programs that rely on the site don't work at all. I personally would rather see Pawn Stars with the wrong season number (I really don't care what season you call it) than not be able to have or watch Pawn Stars at all. It just seems like they are making a small problem into a bigger problem. They are stalling other programs AND having the wrong season is no worse or better than not having the shows listed at all. It is not solving the problem.

Solving the problem would be easy!
1. Fix the few shows that are wrong themselves.
2. List specific guidelines to naming the show (must come form the official site, no DVD order, etc)
3. Have members sign up to be "advanced" members and give them the right to change and update shows. And revoke this access for messing the shows up. I would be sure they could find tens if not hundreds of people who would sign up.

They have a good thing going and I hate to see them screw it up over something so simple. There are a TON of people calling for other scraping sites. They are #1 now but that can change and they will never get it back!

tommymsw Wrote:I agree that it is one of the best. But that is too bad.

I didn't say I could fix EVERY show but I would have fixed the two I mentioned, with enough fans of the site, I am sure many if not all shows would get fixed.

Pawn Stars is STILL locked and they are months into the new shows.
And the problem with locking is that programs that rely on the information would still work if the information was wrong, but will NOT work if there is no information at all. If they call it season 2 or 50 the programs could still scrape the info or set them to download (sickbeard) even if it had the wrong season number. With the shows locked, the programs that rely on the site don't work at all. I personally would rather see Pawn Stars with the wrong season number (I really don't care what season you call it) than not be able to have or watch Pawn Stars at all. It just seems like they are making a small problem into a bigger problem. They are stalling other programs AND having the wrong season is no worse or better than not having the shows listed at all. It is not solving the problem.

Solving the problem would be easy!
1. Fix the few shows that are wrong themselves.
2. List specific guidelines to naming the show (must come form the official site, no DVD order, etc)
3. Have members sign up to be "advanced" members and give them the right to change and update shows. And revoke this access for messing the shows up. I would be sure they could find tens if not hundreds of people who would sign up.

They have a good thing going and I hate to see them screw it up over something so simple. There are a TON of people calling for other scraping sites. They are #1 now but that can change and they will never get it back!

I think option 3 is the best of the group, have someone that watches those shows be in charge of just those shows. The problem with having one of the main people focus on keeping the info correct, during that time other series' get messed up or might need lots of edits (I'm pretty sure most of the people moderating TVDB do it in their spare time) Also, I could be wrong, BUT I believe they were working on a new version of their code and DB to allow far more option and possibly allow for more things/better details which could completely solve all the numbering problems that keep arising.

Your best bet right now for a show that is locked and hasn't been updated, is a post in their forums saying there is new episodes, and asking if they could either unlock it (which I've seen them do occasionally) or if they could update it for the current seasons episodes.

Pawn Stars was updated last week, Every NEW episode is in season 2.

Mythbusters updated last week as well (updated to about a week ahead). New episodes in season 9.

If they didn't update then SickBeard would be useless for me since i follow these shows.

Problem, I watch both of these shows. And I'd go with the scene release for the numbering (which conflicts with the official numbering)for Pawn Stars, and Mythbusters as well. But there isn't an official season numbering for Mythbusters.

They block users (which you have to signup to mod or add info) because of the WRONG information being added.

Another example is "The Angry Video Game Nerd" there isn't a differentiation of what is or isn't a special, but there are obvious episodes that should be one. However users will add it as a regular episode (without even watching the episode). Instead of constantly deleting entries and rewriting specials, the admin(s) decided to lock the show and add episodes themselves.

Edit: You can add or edit info in season 9 (Mythbusters) and Season 2 (Pawn Stars).