TVMan: TV Episode Database Importer

by **The Lynx** on Sat Oct 28, 2006 4:03 pm

I just test your new version and it's perfect

Just 2 ideas :
- i have a problem with the season 2 of Grey's Anatomy because there are 2 episodes dont available... if you go here, you show episode 21 and 32 arent available because they arent really episode of season 2. You should verify if the link "available" exist.
- I have an idea for the cover serie, i prefer this cover for serie it's more beautiful
What do you think ? We can change the regex ?

thanks for your job

by **cinOxen** on Sat Oct 28, 2006 7:12 pm

Unfortunately the partial rescan wants to redo seasons already in the XML file. Does the new exe need to generate the XML file once all the way through itself before the rescan works?

I like the new colours.

by **Jarrod** on Sat Oct 28, 2006 11:20 pm

The Lynx:
1. You can remove an episode from the list if you dont want it in the database. First rearrange the episodes to your liking, then remove the episode. This happens for many series, such as desperate housewives, where 'special episodes' are shown throughout the season. The 'available' link cant be used as a check because many series dont have any downloads available at all. Also cant check the product # for the same reason.

2. What is the actual link for the page where you can search for those banner images? I might add another information field into the database for banner images, so that the square cover image can be used by people who prefer it and the banner can be used on the episode list. Or add an option to choose what size coverart you would prefer, banner or dvd cover size.

cinOxen:
Are you pointing the XML path to the already existing XML file? Chances are you might have to do a full rescan once before it will work. Also, can you check the error log text file to see if any errors are causing the full rescan?

by **The Lynx** on Sun Oct 29, 2006 2:31 pm

1° : thanks for informations
2° : Yes you can add an option to choose banner or dvd cover, its perfect

For the banner serie, i use tv.com. You go to the page serie like Prison Break and you can see the banner at the top. You can find in the source with this tag "<div id="content-head" style="background-image:url("
For the cover season, i use an another site (dvd cover) : http://banners.fluxxx.net
You can find also the banner of tv.com but i think its more difficult to search cover automatically with this site...
For the cover episode i dont use cover

Thanks

by **Jarrod** on Sun Oct 29, 2006 2:45 pm

Thanks for the http://banners.fluxxx.net link - I will use that for downloading all images as it seems to be very well maintained.

Is there any reason you use tv.com for banner images instead?

I think the best way to do it will be to have a database builder scan, which scans the directories for content and also scans internet for information on the tv series/season/episode. Then also have an image scan, which uses the existing tv database (previously built) and searches for coverart. If its a series, it searches for series banners, if its a season it searches for season covers. If more than one banner/cover is found, it will download them all and allow you to select which one to set as the banner/cover. Otherwise it will automatically use the only result found.

Using two scans instead of putting it all into one means you can quickly add new tv episodes to the database as you download them without having to do a full image scan as well.

What does everyone think?

by **The Lynx** on Sun Oct 29, 2006 4:27 pm

Actually, there are the same banner on tv.com and banners.fluxxx.net but usually i prefer download banners on tv.com. I dont know why

. I use both and i choose my favorite banner

For the scan coverart, you can detect if there is a image file (*.jpg) into the serie folder and season folder and you can add this image file in database. If there arent image file you can donwload banner and dvd cover with the site

What do you think ?

by **Jarrod** on Sun Oct 29, 2006 4:34 pm

I'll think it over while I sleep (bedtime...its 3:30AM here!) and post my thoughts tomorrow. Way too tired to make sense of anything right now.

G'night!

by **cinOxen** on Sun Oct 29, 2006 6:14 pm

Jarrod wrote:cinOxen:
Are you pointing the XML path to the already existing XML file? Chances are you might have to do a full rescan once before it will work. Also, can you check the error log text file to see if any errors are causing the full rescan?

I'll try to give as much detail as possible so if I'm confusing just say so.

Previously in this thread I reported that the program would crash on my HTPC so I was running TVMan on a different computer. I'm sorry to say I didn't report back that the problem seems to occur when I point it to a previously generated tv.xml file. What I've been doing since them is putting new content in a separate folder and generating a new tv.xml file there (It's pretty easy to incorporate this file into the main one).

So possibly the reason why my main tv.xml isn't working with the rescan was that it was created in a different folder.

I did some testing by moving some shows into a new folder, generating a tv.xml file then moving more shows in and testing the rescan. I was happy to discover TVMan recognized the existing files within the xml file but it unfortunately crashed like it did in the past.

I put the error here.

PS: There are no errors in the log file.

by **Jarrod** on Sun Oct 29, 2006 11:57 pm

I've been doing some Googling on that error and it is a weird one indeed.
I have tried a few of the recommended resolutions, so please try this beta version and let me know if it works. http://www.guilink.com/tvman/TVMan.exe

If it works fine I will package it into the release version.

If it doesnt work, can you please tell me the exact .NET framework version(s) you have installed by going to c:\windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\ (version numbers are the folder names)

If you dont have v1.1.4322 then i suggest installing it and trying again.

by **cinOxen** on Mon Oct 30, 2006 12:22 am

I duplicated my former actions and got no errors

PS: I had v1.1.4322 already.

by **Jarrod** on Mon Oct 30, 2006 12:31 am

Thank god for that....I have updated the exe into the v0.6 release.

Thanks for your help cinOxen!

by **cinOxen** on Mon Oct 30, 2006 12:53 am

No problem at all - thank you for the great app!

I've discovered something about the partial rescan. It seems to redo a season if all the episodes aren't in the source xml file. Some shows will have a "best of" episode that doesn't appear on the DVDs so if you remove this episode initially it will always want to redo the enitre season. It seems to me it would be better if it skipped a season entirely if that season was in the XML file and ignored individual episodes but I doubt everyone would agree with me on that.

Thanks again!

by **Necro** on Mon Oct 30, 2006 1:10 am

Sorry for the delay, the HD card was more of a pain in the ass then I thought it would be. Anyway, this current version is working great - however SG: Atlantis, for some odd reason, wouldn't download any episode info.

That was the only issue thus far (still in a scan ATM, will post more once done).

by **Jarrod** on Mon Oct 30, 2006 2:05 am

cinOxen: If the scan finds any files that arent in the tv.xml, it will prompt to add it. This is so that any new eps in a season can be added to the database as you download them. The only way around it would be to delete/move the file you dont want to be included.

Necro: What is the name of the folder you have for SG: Atlantis? It must be "Stargate Atlantis" to find the episode details on tv.com
Any TV series which cant find info, your best bet is to go to tv.com and find out exactly how the series is spelt in their system. Then rename your folder to match.

by **Necro** on Mon Oct 30, 2006 2:16 am

I screwed up and accidentally used map drives instead of the universal // etc. paths...so I'm rescanning now and I renamed the folder prior to import.

I'll make sure it works this time. Also, the rescan (as mentioned above) did start downloading everything again when I tried it immediately after doing my first scan. I'll try again after this one and see what happens...it's just I have a LOT of shows and the scans are taking a bit of time.