DVD Cover Grabber

[Euan]

I have just knocked together an DVD cover grabber for people who have
the Windows XP Media Center Edition My DVD's reg fix enabled and want
to get the folder.jpg file.


http://www.madprops.org/DVDCover/





Basically run this app and 'Select Folder' then point it to your folder
of DVD's (not the DVD folder itself). It will then bring up the list of
DVD's you have. Click on a DVD and it will search Amazon and return
relevant covers. There is a 'Save' button that will then save the
currently viewed cover to the DVD folder and name the file 'folder.jpg'
which is required for viewing in MCE.


Its only simple and early days but makes things a bit easier to get
covers for your DVD.


It has been made in Visual Studio 2005 and required .net framework 2.0
I shall release the code before too long. I just want to neaten it up
and comment the code before its released. Check it out. Test it out.
Let me know what you think... and what you would like to see.


I know there are lots of things I would like to see.


Some technical foot notes:
Basically it does a simple query to amazon using the web services and
returns a xml file. I search through the nodes for the LargeImage node
(theres a bit of messing around for this). The main amazon file is
downloaded to the selected DVD folder (ie X:\My
Movies\Shaft\shaft.xml). Check it out... its relatively straight
forward. I then output my own XML file (ie ie X:\My
Movies\Shaft\shaft_images.xml) in the DVD folder. I then iterate
through each image and display in the app. The rest is pretty simple.
It just does does a save file when the Save button is selected.


Searches for each movie is only done once per day and only the
requested image is downloaded. I have not included caching for images
as yet.


Anyway let me know what you think.

Euan

PS. I know there is My Movies add on which does a nice job but this is just for people that prefer to use the DVD menu thing and want covers.

[Euan]

Oh and if you do have suggestions for the interface I am happy to oblige.

Also I am looking in to the XML meta data caching that Matt Goyer speaks of over here:
http://mediacenter.mattgoyer.com/arc...005/10/21/1007

So before too long it will also support metadata hopefully. Probably not down to the level of the track details but the other stuff shouldnt be too hard.

*** I have just found some titles will throw an error. ie Friday the 13th. Please let me know what titles throw an error for you so I can isolate the issue. I am pretty sure its related to an XML node issue which is only minor.

[simbot82]

This looks quite nifty. Won't need it as I use My Movies (covers, movie rating etc) rather than MCE's own DVD library ut I am sure you will supply a niche.

Cheers

[pac574]

Hi Euan,

Great App, something I've been looking for for a while. For me My Movies is a bit "too much info" but your's is right for me and I bet a lot of others. Just a question for you, what is this "My DVD reg fix" you talk about? I have my DVD files under "My Video", i'm taking it I can use your app under this folder as well? Can you point me to info on the My DVD fix?

thanks mate,

Pete

[Euan]

Hey Pete

Thats exactly how I felt. My Movies was just a bit too busy and a bit of informaiton over load.

Basically the reg fix was something microsoft has released to convert 'Play DVD' to 'My DVDs' so you could attach a multi-dvd device. But you can also just point it to a folder of DVDs on your hard drives (ripped in the VIDEO_TS etc format).

Matt Goyer from the Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition team talks about it over here:
http://mediacenter.mattgoyer.com/arc...005/10/21/1007

Its really pretty simple but does require the XP MCE roll up patch 2 and then the reg fix.

Anyway I am glad your interested in the app. Simplicity is what I am really after and hopefully what I achieve.

At the moment there are a few bugs as its still fairly early. But dont let that put you off as the the bugs are very harmless. The only problems with the app at the moment is creating or reading XML files which can be a bit fiddly. Hopefully I will have the rest of those issues sorted within the week and then I will move on to downloading the metadata Matt Goyer was speaking about (simple details like Title, Description, movie date etc).
But if you use it and you find issues please let me know and I can address them reasonably quickly.

Regards,
Euan

[simbot82]

You have corned a niche and it looks slick, thanks for your efforts Euan

[AlphA]

Fantastic, exactly what Im after, will give it a shot tonight!

[getafix]

Hi there

The link seams to be down. Anywhere else I can try?

What I have done is this.
Ripped my dvds using DVD shrink - no compression into a VIDEO_TS folder.

What next?

Cheers
G

[OffBeatMammal]

I guess my only suggestion/request would be for a 10' UI....

[Euan]

OffBeatMammal: Im not sure what you mean by "a 10' UI...." Do you mean a 10 inch UI?
Could you elaborate?

Alpha: Let me know how you go?

getafix: How did you go? Gotdotnet.com was down for a little while and people couldnt download.

Ok lets assume on your hard drive its like this:

C:\My DVDs\Robocop
C:\My DVDs\Scarface
C:\My DVDs\Surf Nazis Must Die
C:\My DVDs\Anne

Open my program and select the folder My DVDs (either by the button 'Select Folder' or the drop down File option. There are two versions now)
Select a title and press the arrows to go through the images

Let me know how you go... I am releasing fixes and things every few days so if you have any issues let me know and I will fix it asap.

simbot82: Thanks dude... Its a first project for MCE. But wont be the last.

Hopefully soon I will get the metadata off the ground too.

Heres a screenshot of the newer layout. It has drop downs to clean up the interface a little.


I have also taken care of a lot of the crash issues with the XML files now. Hopefully I will finish of a new load of changed tonight or tomorrow. They include a full caching of images and some speed increases.

[getafix]

Nope, just tried GoToDotNet and still down

Any other site I could try.

Also have any of you managed to get Matt Goyers guide right with respect to get all the metadata info as well? I tried with a few dvd's and no joy
This is the guide where he uses Dvd Profiles and his "my dvd settings"

Cheers
G

[OffBeatMammal]

the 10' (10 foot) UI is the 'standard' MCE interface (remote control on TV rather than keybaord/mouse on monitor)