Kodi Community Forum

(2012-12-16, 10:50)cman2000 Wrote: [ -> ]

(2012-12-13, 16:14)olympia Wrote: [ -> ]I mean odds are pretty high that IMDb scraper will not be fixed. Universal Scraper can completely replace it.
It provides the same functionality and more, so no need to have an IMDb scraper.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I appreciate the work you guys put in and can understand how it must suck to try and update scrapers for websites that have no API. scumbag IMDb

Thank you Olympia. Universal Scraper just works fine!

(2012-12-17, 08:20)Martijn Wrote: [ -> ]IMDb has worse support for non English-speaking than tmdb

It’s always the same pointless bashing: IMDb vs. TMDb. These pro-TMDb reluctant to understand those pro-IMDb, and vice versa…

One will not get far by such counter arguing Martijn. One must accept there is some truth in both sides. That is why I think the Universal Scraper is a great middle way.

As a past TMDb user, and current IMDb user, I am very happy that XBMC gives me the option to choose.

(2012-12-09, 11:57)erikovs Wrote: [ -> ]Just want to join in and say I too hope that the IMDB scraper will be fixed soon.

Same here. I prefer IMDB over The Movie Database. IMDB Scraper is not even listed anymore on the AddOn browser.. I flushed my library and I'm now compleate without it, pure file browsing..

Yeah - I'm file browsing now too

The Universal scraper simply doesn't work anywhere NEAR well enough. I get the following problems, maybe Olympia or some other dev may find them constructive.

1) A number of my films match, but there is no title data returned by the scraper, so I'm left with a load of "empty" titles in the library view. (http://www.themoviedb.org/movie/36837-flesheater as an example)

2) The moviedb search interface places massive emphasis on any year that is passed to it. So for example the following query works fine:

http://www.themoviedb.org/search?query=motorama

however this one doesn't:

http://www.themoviedb.org/search?query=motorama+1992

There are no other films called "motorama", so I would expect the search to return the film, regardless that I got the year wrong (imdb does). Admittedly this is the fault of the search interface not the scraper, but it means the scraper doesn't work as well as the imdb one.

3) ...and because IMDB and TMDB differ on when they think films are release (a LOT as it happens), all my files that were neatly named when I was using the imdb scraper no longer match.

4) ...and because TMDB thinks that any year passed at the end of a query is a release year, any film that happens to end with a year won't match. For example the following can't match:

Death Race 2000
or
Death Race 2000 (1975)

5) The scraper makes bizarre decisions about what to return when it finds multiple search results. For example the following query works:

http://www.themoviedb.org/search?query=batman+1966#0

but the scraper decides the film is "James Batman"!! the 2nd and last film returned by the TMDB interface. Surely it should pick #1 off the list

I've tried to explain a several times already that IMDb search is not fixable at the moment. You guys are relly getting annoying by saying how good the IMDb scraper was. I can tell you that before IMDb changed their search engine, the Universal Scraper was also using the IMDb search. However, since the new IMDb search is a simple disaster, you are crying here for nothing.

Try to understand: You can't get back the same reliable search results as before and this is not because I don't want to fix it, but because the IMDb search itself doesn't work as good as before. How many more times I need to explain this?

You guys who only register to whine about this would be the first ones to rant all over if I was adding back the IMDb search saying how bad is the IMDb scraper (...or Universal Scraper if it was using the IMDb search) and how good it was before

...and on the side note by the way: it's not the scraper what decides on the movie in case of multiple search results, but XBMC!

Option to use IMDb's buggy search engine is added to Universal Scraper v2.0.0

As a developer myself, I appreciate the effort involved in keeping plug-ins up to date, especially scrapers. Thanks for the hard work!

(2012-12-18, 19:49)olympia Wrote: [ -> ]I've tried to explain a several times already that IMDb search is not fixable at the moment. You guys are relly getting annoying by saying how good the IMDb scraper was. I can tell you that before IMDb changed their search engine, the Universal Scraper was also using the IMDb search. However, since the new IMDb search is a simple disaster, you are crying here for nothing.

Try to understand: You can't get back the same reliable search results as before and this is not because I don't want to fix it, but because the IMDb search itself doesn't work as good as before. How many more times I need to explain this?

You guys who only register to whine about this would be the first ones to rant all over if I was adding back the IMDb search saying how bad is the IMDb scraper (...or Universal Scraper if it was using the IMDb search) and how good it was before

...and on the side note by the way: it's not the scraper what decides on the movie in case of multiple search results, but XBMC!

(2012-12-18, 19:49)olympia Wrote: [ -> ]Try to understand: You can't get back the same reliable search results as before and this is not because I don't want to fix it, but because the IMDb search itself doesn't work as good as before. How many more times I need to explain this?

A sticky might help, or an explanation in the first post.

(2012-12-18, 20:55)olympia Wrote: [ -> ]Option to use IMDb's buggy search engine is added to Universal Scraper v2.0.0

First of all, greetings everyone as this is my first post!

I have been "monitoring" the IMDB scraper discussion / situation shortly after I discovered it stopped working. In the meantime I tried
some of the alternatives mentioned here and elsewhere (i.e. use other scrapers, manually using .nfo files to "force" recognize the movie, etc.).
For me, the Universal and TMDB scrapers simply did not work - period. They could not identify "easy" movies such as 'Apocalypse now', or 'Blue velvet'.

Admittedly, I did not spend much time over the issue (btw where can I buy more time to add in my day?), as I am planning to do so over the Xmas holidays.
I will also try the .nfo method, which I haven't tried yet. Then it hit me: since the problem is on IMDB's side, why can't we use the scraper anyway and make any
corrections etc manually if necessary, as it was the case before (I had to manually choose/update a newly added movie once or twice in my 600-movie library).
In other words, the scraper should not be marked as broken/unusable, but we should have the choice to do so.

Today, I saw olympia's message about this very thing.So, (and not only for this) thank you olympia!!

Generally speaking, as I am a very new/inexperienced user of xbmc (since around September), I will keep reading (and quiet) as much as possible

Bill

(2012-12-18, 19:49)olympia Wrote: [ -> ]Try to understand: You can't get back the same reliable search results as before and this is not because I don't want to fix it, but because the IMDb search itself doesn't work as good as before. How many more times I need to explain this?

I've read the whole thread, and I don't think it's really been explained what exactly is wrong with IMDB's search interface, other than it "doesn't work as good as before". I've been messing around with it, and it seems to be fine.

Regardless of whether it's not as good as it was before, it's still an order of magnitude better than the search interface on TMDB, which is, frankly, garbage.

I've tried version 2.0.0 of the Universal scraper, and set it to use the IMDB search. It works great! In fact it hit pretty much 100% of my 650 films. So I'm pretty confused about what the original problem was!

It may be because all my films are well named (for example, "Amazon Women On The Moon (1987).avi"), and other people may not have as much luck.

Anyway - thanks to Olympia for putting the option back in

(2012-12-19, 11:17)isurfer Wrote: [ -> ]For me, the Universal and TMDB scrapers simply did not work - period. They could not identify "easy" movies such as 'Apocalypse now', or 'Blue velvet'.

Check your file names. i had no problems scanning Blue Velvet.avi and Apocalypse Now.avi into my video library using the TMDB scraper (just did it now). No nfo files or special handling necessary.

(2012-12-19, 18:45)artrafael Wrote: [ -> ]

(2012-12-19, 11:17)isurfer Wrote: [ -> ]For me, the Universal and TMDB scrapers simply did not work - period. They could not identify "easy" movies such as 'Apocalypse now', or 'Blue velvet'.

Check your file names. i had no problems scanning Blue Velvet.avi and Apocalypse Now.avi into my video library using the TMDB scraper (just did it now). No nfo files or special handling necessary.

I just did (for the n-th time ). Still no success. I even tried another movie, still no joy. Even the fact that the Universal Scraper was automatically
updated to the current version (I hadn't fired up my HTPC for a couple of weeks) did not do the trick. For the record, I am testing with the following
movies (foldernames and filenames EXACTLY as they are, copy-pasted and quad-checked):
- Another 48 Hrs. (1990)\Another 48 Hrs. (1990).avi
- Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979).wmv
- Blue Velvet (1986)\Blue Velvet (1986).avi

I have also tried with the Un. Scraper set to search either IMDB or TMDB. No luck. And of course there are no network/connectivity issues whatsoever.

-----
UPDATE: IT'S ALIVE!!!!
I remembered seeing somewhere that you are supposed to go back in the context menu of the movies/videos folder and (re)set the scraper. Indeed, the
settings for my movies folder were null (no scraper set), so once I set it to use TMDB everything seems to be working!!
Actually, I had to set it twice (don't know why it didn't work the first time), and I have to manually ask for a library update after I copy a movie to my HTPC
(back when IMDB scraper was working it automatically identified the new entry). I can see that the scanning operation does take place as soon as the movie
is copied, but it does not update the library unless I manually ask for it again. Perhaps a bug, but since I intentionally copy 2-3 movies at a time so I can verify
correct identification, it's a minor nuisance.

(2012-12-19, 14:08)interstat Wrote: [ -> ]I've tried version 2.0.0 of the Universal scraper, and set it to use the IMDB search. It works great! In fact it hit pretty much 100% of my 650 films. So I'm pretty confused about what the original problem was!

It may be because all my films are well named (for example, "Amazon Women On The Moon (1987).avi"), and other people may not have as much luck.

No, it's probably because you are either from an English speaking country, or your home country doesn't have aka titles listed on IMDb. As soon as the country you are from has aka titles you will experience very weird issues, see this poor guy here:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...pid1270758

Does any one have the latest (broken) version (v2.6.3) of the IMDB scraper? And can you post it on the web for me and others.
I know its gone from the repo, but I would like to have a look at it.

(2012-12-19, 23:34)olympia Wrote: [ -> ]

(2012-12-19, 14:08)interstat Wrote: [ -> ]I've tried version 2.0.0 of the Universal scraper, and set it to use the IMDB search. It works great! In fact it hit pretty much 100% of my 650 films. So I'm pretty confused about what the original problem was!

It may be because all my films are well named (for example, "Amazon Women On The Moon (1987).avi"), and other people may not have as much luck.

No, it's probably because you are either from an English speaking country, or your home country doesn't have aka titles listed on IMDb. As soon as the country you are from has aka titles you will experience very weird issues, see this poor guy here:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...pid1270758

I'm from Portugal and I like to use English titles and Imdb doesn't work anymore... Movies like "ocean's twelve" it doesn't find "ocean's eleven" gives me the Portuguese title. So THANK YOU for making optional to use the IMDB search and not mandatory. In my opinion the TMDB should be the default search and maybe put a warning in settings that IMDB search is broken for non English users. Thank you for your hard work

(2012-12-18, 20:55)olympia Wrote: [ -> ]Option to use IMDb's buggy search engine is added to Universal Scraper v2.0.0

Hey!

i just read your reply

I disagreed on the fact that imdb scraper will be ditched

...anyhow, I'd like to suggest that writing tt00xxxxx (IMDB movie id) to the name of the film (in the search camp of the scraper, not the file itself) used to do the work for films that coudnt be succesfully scraped, IF this could be added to the Universal Scraper, that would be awesome!

I appreciate hugely the time and effort you put into this, and I really hope this project keeps on going on :-)