[Gamester17]

I would like to suggest/request that someone put together a modified version of the IMDb scraper that instead of downloding the low-resolution movie cover thumbnails from the imdb.com website download high-resolution movie cover posters pictures from an alternative website like impawards.com, movieposter.com, and/or nicecovers.com

The reason for this is that the low resolution thumbnails images from imdb.com realy does not do XBMC justice on a high-definition (720p/1080i) display, expecially not when you go into movie information and get that low resolution image blown up to fill the screen.

vs.


Alternativly, maybe add support to XBMC to save and support two different sizes of thumbnails and make the scraper download both the low and high resolution images, and then depending on which display and mode the end-user uses the XBMC skin sets which thumbnail to use, (for example when in small icon view then use the low resolution image from imdb.com but when in big icon mode or in the movie information screen then use the high resolution image from a site like impawards.com, movieposter.com), and/or nicecovers.com

[C-Quel]

Correct me if im wrong but i think Spiff? or maybe JM changed the default thumb grabbed from imdb and if you increase your thumbsize set in advancedsettings to eg 512 it would cater for your needs...

But i may be wrong

Edit : Yes a change was made by JM quite a while back... just adjust your thumbsize in advancedsettings and your should be good to go.

[Gamester17]

That only works if the source image is high resolution, it does not and can not improve the quality of the low resolution images from imdb.com

[Freddo]

seconded, imdb's covers are not cutting it on my 55" screen.

[C-Quel]

Serious guys?

Your telling me that http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0373883/photogallery

988 x 1500 does not cater for your needs? must be some kick ass hd your using

Right click on thumb > properties > copy link > change 10m.jpg to 10f.jpg and check out the dimensions!

Please advise me if im wrong but im 99% sure this feature is not a major priority and would slow xbmc down to SHIT anyway if HD thumbs were sourced elsewhere.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That only works if the source image is high resolution, it does not and can not improve the quality of the low resolution images from imdb.com

^^ Even the lowest "**f.jpg" image would be sufficient for XBMC at HD i think?

I've checked a few and the lowest i have found was min 400 pixel height surely good enough?

[jmarshall]

C-Quel is correct.

As far as I'm aware, XBMC uses the "f" thumb which is generally of suitable resolution for thumbs, even in HD modes.

512x512 thumbsize allows for very large thumbs indeed (given that most aren't square, they will in general have a larger vertical resolution than this again).

Cheers,
Jonathan

[BenO169]

I think that most of the new movies have high-quality thumbs on IMDB. There are however some thumbs of older movies that are either not that good of quality or they are not actually "Movie Posters" they are a picture of the case with the DVD hanging out of it surrounded by white space and I usually have to change them and Google it to find a better poster. i.e.

Examples:
16 Blocks and Hooligans

Could be:
16 Blocks better thumb
Hooligans better thumb

Certainly not complaining I am just agreeing with Gamester in that IMDB doesn't always grab the best stuff and it is not always an actual movie poster being grabbed and thumbs could benefit from a "hybrid" scraper with the thumbs from another site while still grabbing info from IMDB.

[rvas18]

I've been hoping someone would support this for way way to long now. I've brought it up at x-scene before but i got one response saying to write my own scraper; a task i wouldn't have a clue where to start. The biggest reason though XBMC should be scrapping from impawards is it looks way better due to consistency. With imdb you may get a movie poster sometimes but often you get a horrible image of the DVD case on a horrid white background. It just looks bad. If the thumbs were scraped from IMPAWARDS you would get nothing but movie posters it would be consistent high-res images with very similar dimensions, every now and then you may get a horizontal poster but that would be rare and more easily remedied than replacing ever shitty image of a DVD case you get from IMDB. It would go a long way toward improving the apperance of the library for movies with most skins PM3, MC360, xTV. This is probaly the single biggest thing i could hope that XBMC could do for me right now.

I really just hope someone would consider developing this i know some of the PC based media centers can scrape from IMPAWARDs, but i don't know if a scraper would be something that could be easily ported

Thanks

[frotsen]

I would like to have options in witch sort of icons to use.
Atm Xbmc supports moviename.tbn to override the imdb icon when you scann it to database, what about the following.

moviname.tilted.tbn witch you can get from mediaicons.org
moviname.poster.tbn witch you can get from impawards.com
-etc

Both paths get scanned to the database, then it would be up tho the skinns to make use of this. Like view tilted covers, view movie posters etc. I personally would love this.

Sry if posted this in the wrong thread

Regards
frotsen

[Gamester17]

Serious guys?

Your telling me that http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0373883/photogallery
988 x 1500 does not cater for your needs? must be some kick ass hd your using
Right click on thumb > properties > copy link > change 10m.jpg to 10f.jpg and check out the dimensions!

Yes seriously! How many "f" thumbnails on imdb.com are of good quality? Please just lookup Pulp Fiction (which was the movie in my example) on imdb.com and checkout at the quality of the "f" picture (which is 225x350 pixel image) there:
http://ia.imdb.com/media/imdb/01/I/82/69/06f.jpg
then compare that to the picture from impawards.com (which will still look much better even if XBMC downscale it to 512x512):
http://www.impawards.com/1994/posters/pulp_fiction.jpg

Note! I am not saying that 512x512 thumbsize is not enough, I'm saying that the source images from imdb.com are generaly of low quality, (most look like image has been blown up from a much smaller image).

[C-Quel]

I dont dispute that Gamester at all

But a majority are good quality but another scraper for the thumbs would not hurt... not sure if it could implemented under the current imdb.xml to grab extra thumbs but i dont think its as easy as that due to the search string that would be used for imdb would not match impawards search engine.

WE NEED SPIFFS INPUT! He is the king of scrapers

[Gamester17]

Yeah the question is first of all if the scraper interpeter allows one scraper to download the metadata from one site and the thumbs from a other site. (Kind of how XBMC for music album download the metadata from freedb.org and the cover thumbnails from allmusic.com)

[sho]

Please just lookup Pulp Fiction (which was the movie in my example) on imdb.com and checkout at the quality of the "f" picture (which is 225x350 pixel image) there:
http://ia.imdb.com/media/imdb/01/I/82/69/06f.jpg
then compare that to the picture from impawards.com (which will still look much better even if XBMC downscale it to 512x512):
http://www.impawards.com/1994/posters/pulp_fiction.jpg

I think you may want to show us the orignal links as these are blocked.

[Gamester17]

I tried, but you will need to go into the sites and do a search.

[sho]

This is what I meant (hope it works )
http://www.impawards.com/1994/pulp_fiction.html

How do you find the "f" poster at IMDb?
Is it not the standard poster when you browse the movie?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110912/