[JeromyNix]

Ok I've been getting multiple instances of actors in the library (which means multiple copies of the images for these actors, which is not a problem if your movie database is small, but when it contains up to 17,000 Actors and actresses for which i've downloaded the highest quality images at at least a 600x800 resolution for most it can get to be space consuming on the drive...

for instance Tommy Lister is credited as Tommy Lister, Tommy 'Tiny' Lister, Tommy 'Zeus' Lister, "Tommy 'Tiny Zeus' Lister"

My Proposal has the following advantages:

1. Scrapers can get the "Credited As" instance from sites like IMDB that list actors in this way, quite easily.
   
2. Actors will be linked to single instances and images will be linked to the same image for the same actor reducing repeated actors (and for those of you that have pron in your library you know quite well how often this can happen too, considering most actresses have umpteen hundred names they go by)
   
3. Browsing the library the actor's name will only appear once, but be linked to all instances of that actor credited as another name and actor credits stay true to the movie info (providing less necessity for manually editing /maintaining/dependence of NFOs for correct info) for those of you (like myself) who would rather not maintain multiple files for your movies.
   
4. For those that don't mind maintaining files next to your movies it still can grab actor images from the folder using the "./.actors/actor_name.tbn" method. and you just put the actor reference in the nfo as such
   
   Code:

   <actor>
    <name>The actual name used to connect to movies and retrieve local thumb if exists</name>
    <creditedas>The name that the actor is credited as in THIS movie</creditedas>
    <role>The Role of the actor in this movie</role>
    <thumb>The link to the thumbnail of the actor</thumb>
</actor>
5. When viewing movie info the actor name appears in the cast list as
   
   Code:

   Tommy Lister (Credited As: Tommy 'Tiny Zues' Lister) as D'Bo
   or
   
   Code:

   Tommy 'Tiny Zeus' Lister as D'Bo

I would work on a patch to implement this myself, but i have limited skills in C/C++ and no experience or even understanding of SQL programming .

I can imagine getting the display name for the credit in the movie would be as simple as grabbing the "role" for the movie.

I would also like to propse handing actors in the same way artists are handled giving them the ability for fanart born/died/filmography/biography/comments, etc... and a scraper to boot
HTPC Backdrops already hosts fanart and pictures for artists it wouldn't be a stretch for actors/sctresses too for images and fanart
For instance lets say i a new actor/actress appears in my database and i am quite taken with them, i can look up his/her biography, see what movies he/she appeared in

[JeromyNix]

Come on? this only makes sense! not a comment at all?