Mac/PC App to get metadata (posters, backdrops, actors...) for Movies and TV series

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live Hub Discussions
41

Hi Chris,

just acome across a new naming rule: S03E04 = 3.04

for a future release :slight_smile:

42

Hi YasrKasem,

Not sure I fully understand the situation. In any case, WDFlow won’t modify the behaviour of the Hub.

When you enter a folder, the backdrops are activated because you are on the first episode  or movie of this folder. So the Hub reads the matching xml file and download the backdrops in real time. If you go back, you shouldn’t get backdrops unless this folder is itself a subfolder containing episodes. Let me know how movies or episodes are stored on your Hub, I could provide a more specific explanation.

Chris,

43

Hi zballz,

Well, this naming rule shouldn’t be too difficult to implement but some files downloaded from the net have dots instead of spaces i.e “the.greatescape.of .the.3.mice”. WDFlow should identify the pattern correctly so that “The 3.5 musketeers” is not interpreted as S03E05. The case wold be relatively rare, i agree, but since WDFlow is fully automatic (it doesn’t ask the user what to do), I should  think of an algorithm that would avoid any confusion.  Probably in the next version.:smiley:

Chris,

44

Hi Chris,

Thanks for your reply, I believe it was a misbehaving from the hub as its back to normal now after restarting it.

Thanks

45

Hi Chris, I’m italian and I have a question for you: have you ever think to give the WDFlow’s user the chance to select the database/website to retrieve informations?

Thanks a lot for your precious work!

Marco

46

Hi Marco,

Good question. Actually the code to deal with foreign languages is already within WDFlow
But inactivated. Why is it so?

When I discussed the idea of developing an app to solve the WDTV problem (no poster unless you manage to get a connection to a movie database- contrary to the AppleTV for example), a (French)  friend of mine told me that the real benefit would be to get the info in the local language rather than English. And I couldn’t agree more.

However, the first tests were rather disappointing as the Hub was incapable of displaying accented characters correctly (Ă©,Ăš, oĂč, and even l’). So, since I knew that the Hub was a relatively expensive device, I assumed that the sales would be probably not in Asia (fierce competition) or Europe (many other local or imported brands) but in US and Canada.  This is why WDFlow is retrieving data in English only. Actually downloads statistics show that: US, Canada,Germany, Australia and UK are the countries that download the app the most, in that order. Italy is number 9 :smiley:.

I didn’t test recently, maybe the Hub firmware upgrades improved the situation, and if this is the case, then I will seriously consider this feature as this would obviously make the app more useful for non-English speakers.

Point taken.

Chris,

47

Hello.

A few suggestions for the Windows version.

  1.  Highlight the content of the search box when you click in it.

  2.  Allow right-click and paste in search box.

This is a very nice and simple app.  Love it.

Thank you very much, Chris.

48

Hi TheCoolDude,

Thanks for your suggestions.

Version 1.11 is implementing this. Just a few tests and some “cleaning” and I should release it later in the week.

Chris,

49

Hi,

Version 1.11 aka Ter, is online:

http://tobogan.nozonenet.com/WDFlow

Changes include:

  • New naming rule, X.YY , where X is season number and YY the episode number.
  • Glass sound when the saving operations are finished
  • Search box highlighted when clicked.
  • Right click in the Search box pastes clipboard content (if this is text)
  • Updated User Guide

Best,

Chris,

1 Like
50

A great application.

Just found it


Work great for tv series but I just can’t do anything with movies
 No movies appears on search.

Maybe the movie server is down


Will test it later

51

Hi,

Could be the case. TheMoviedb.org servers are quite often down or very slow.  

Make sure you have the last version (1.11), WDFlow should test for this (availability of servers) and report if it can connect to the online database.

Chris,

52

Hi,

WDFlow is now 1 month old!

A new version is online.

Version 1.12 aka Better is including a new function: drag and drop.

It works for movies only: whenever you’re looking for a movie that WDFlow finds but without a poster you’re stopped. WDFlow won’t allow you to save the movie as there’s no matching poster.

With version 1.12, you can now drag and  drop any image from your computer to the application and this image will be used as the poster of the movie. Typically you would browse the web searching for the missing image, download it and then drop it to WDFlow.

I believe this adds more flexibility.

Other changes include:

  • Added: new naming rule: .XYY., where X is season number and YY the episode number.
  • Removed: single click on search box does not select everything anymore as this made editing difficult. Double click instead to select all the text.

Chris,

53

Hi Tobogan, thanks for taking lots of time writing this app. It makes life easier for Mac users.

I hope you can help me because I’m unable to display the backdrop, as well as the other movie info such as year, genre, total time, etc. 

I checked the movie folder and it has the jpg and the xml file. Internet connection also checks ok. My WDTVLH is running on version 2.02.19. Could this be the culprit?

EDIT: Did an update to version 2.04.13 and all is well :slight_smile:

54

is it possible to have 1 more add-on to the app.

Instead of puting a link on the xml file to the background images, could it be possible to download directly those pictures and paste them in the folder movies? Instead of connecting to any server to download the files, it will search them directly on the hub.

I don’t know if I am clear and if you understand what I am writing. (sorry for my bad english).

On the xml file, instead of http://thetvdb.com/banners/posters/80685-2.jpg, it could be 80685-2.jpg. WDFlow had to download those backdrops like the posters and made change on the xml.

It would be great for those who don’t have internet connection on the hub.

Thanks.

55

Hi,
This is unfortunately something that WDFlow can’t do, you need to change the “behavior” of the hub, in other words you need to hack it.
A softer approach would be to make it believe that the link to backdrops are a web link when actually they redirect to the Hub itself. My question to you is: to which folder? A folder having the same name than the original movie , a common folder for all movies, where?, etc

I’ll try to test with a common folder; WDFlow would download all backdrops to this folder and modify the xml files to tell the Hub to look for backdrops in the backdrops folder rather than on the web.
Hope it will be that simple. Thanks for the idea.

Chris,

56

gilweb wrote:

 

could it be possible to download directly those pictures and paste them in the folder movies? Instead of connecting to any server to download the files, it will search them directly on the hub.

 

Tobogan wrote:
Hi,
This is unfortunately something that WDFlow can’t do, you need to change the “behavior” of the hub, in other words you need to hack it.

The Hub’s firmware can’t do it because it would be infringing.  The Hub can cache and display the artwork, but it can not permanently save it, according to the terms of use of TMDb.

The only way to use TMDb is to have a live internet connection.

57

Thanks RoofingGUy,

If saving backdrops to the Hub is infringing TMdb terms of use, then WDFlow won’t do that.

We should be grateful that databases such as TMdb exist as they are free and even better they allow developers to use a well done API to develop apps that are using their services.

So, we should plug our Hubs to our routers or use WiFi.

Chris,

58

Well, Toboggan, I’m not a lawyer
 :wink:

The TMDb Terms Of Service for the API that WD uses states:

YOU SHALL NOT

  • Cache any TMDb metadata or photos other than for reasonable periods in order to provide your service

Is far as my legal understanding goes, any particular user can download things for their own personal use, but they can’t duplicate them or any of the other usual restrictions.  But WD’s firmware can’t save the backdrops for you because it uses the API.

My understanding is that a user could save the backdrop themself, and point the XML to the local copy instead of the onlne copy, but WD can’t save it and point to the local copy.  Which seems at odds to the other TOS limitation about not using excessive bandwidth. :wink:

So, as far as I can tell, there’s nothing stopping you from using your application to point the XML to local copies that users have saved themselves.

The safest is to just say “Sorry, you must have internet access”, of course.  Especially since having to manually download each backdrop somewhat defeats the purpose of having things “automated”. :smileyvery-happy:

59

Hi.

Can anyone give an example of how .xml code can be edited so as to point to a jpeg stored on the hard drive. This would be especially great for improving one’s use of the hub with home videos. Can someone give an example of the xml needed for using a family jpeg as the backdrop for a home video?

60

Hi,
I’m in Greece for the moment, so I have no access to the Hub. My first guess would be to replace the backdrop address (starting with http://) with the location on the hub (e.g. WDTV/Movies/backdrops/mymovie.jpg). Don’t change the rest of the XML file, and avoid adding spaces or return characters.

Chris,