Movie info to include year of production

Started by ChrisW, June 30, 2006, 10:28:13 AM

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ChrisW

I sent IceTV this request, (they responded, thank you IceTV) but thought I'd also raise it here to see if others agree.

About the only thing I miss with the IceTV data is the year of production on movies, which all other guides appear to have.

With so many remakes these days it is useful to know if a movie is the original or a remake, without having to work it out via the actors. Some examples: "The Thomas Crown Affair", "Oceans 11", "King Kong" (at least 3 that I am aware of!).

I also find it useful to know if a daytime or late night movie is a good old "classic" or one of the woeful "straight to TV" releases of the last 5-10 years.

If the year was tacked on to the start or end of the description it would add just 5 characters, so I can't see it would be a great burden.

Anyone else agree?

Shane

I'd prefer it if it was in the description field rather than the title.

But yes, I believe having this info would be good.

Regards,
Shane.
Shuttle SB83G5M (P4 630 nVidia 6600) running Vista Premium with:
Hauppauge Nova-T 500 MCE Tuner|Ice TV Guide|PIMP|Buffalo LinkStation HD-H160LAN & HD-HG300LAN|Xbox 360 MCE

Russell at IceTV

Hi guys,

Just to give you an update on this, it's definitely on the to-do list.  What we're thinking is we'll add a new field to the database for it, so we can send it out as a separate piece of information to PVRs that can handle it -- for example, MCE has a field for this in their guide data.  For the other PVRs, we'd just append the info to the description field, as Shane said.  We've also talked about doing similar things with directors, actors, etc.  It's just a matter of getting the changes programmed and then adding the new info to programs as they're scheduled for the future.  One potential problem with the description field though, is that some PVRs have a max limit of how many characters they'll show.  In that case, we have the unfortunate decision to make as to where to cut the description so it all fits.  But for PVRs like MCE, it won't matter since the data is being sent separately.  Anyway, coming soon...  :-)

Russell

ChrisW

Much appreciated.

I use the Topfield with ICE data supplied by TED/S, so either method would work for me. My preference would be for the separate field, for the very reason you mention - not getting chopped off a long description.

Regards,
Chris

thepope123

Hey there, I'd love to see the year of the movie also, for the same reasons as Chris. ie: trying to work out if it is the modern or original version of a movie without having to check the detail.

Good to see it is being worked on. I also use Ted/s -ICE. However I am unsure how teds deals with the year of the movie. It always just used to appear in the "title" of the program. Which I found quite convenient as I didnt need to go into the detail of the movie to find out if it was the modern version. Suggest someone talks to John Trapper to see how Ted/s -ICE handles the year.

eg Movie: Road House (1934)
or Movie: (1934) Road House

Infact it appears that a movie in the iceguide on 11/07/06 ch:abc sydney, already has this year in the title, although this may be part of the title of the movie itself I guess.

ChrisW

Hi ICE.

I was surprised to see a very obscure, old movie on the ABC at 4:00am this week with the year AND director included in the description!

Is this the start of such details being included or did it somehow sneak through the system?  :)

trapper

Ideally, this information will be presented in appropiate tags in the XML.

      <credits>
         <director>William R. Greenblatt</director>
         <actor>Andrew Hawkes</actor>
         <actor>Jasmine Guy</actor>
         <actor>Joe Bologna</actor>
         <actor>Tony Crane</actor>
      </credits>
      <category>Comedy</category>
      <year>1998</year>

Cheers...

ChrisW

Hi guys.

Has now been 6 months since I requested this. Are we any closer to having this info?

I can't understand what the difficulty is. Surely it must be in the public domain, so shouldn't cause any legal issues?

It has come up for discussion on the Toppy forum - ICETV is falling behind the "free" guides in this respect.

ChrisW

#8
Heeelllloooooooooo......? Anyone home?  ???

Any response to my previous post about my previous post?  :)

Mitch IceGuide

After your long, patient wait, the year and other movie details will be appearing very very soon. There was nothing to add to previous responses before now and I don't think a 'we are working on it' answer would have satisifed very much. Hope it helps you all. Cheers.

ChrisW

Thanks Mitch.

Just out of interest, will it appear in the existing data (title, description?) or will it be a new field?

If a new field, I'm sure guys such as Trapper (of Topfield TED/S fame) would appreciate a spec so they can prepare.

Either way, thanks in advance!  ;D

Russell at IceTV

Hi guys,

Sorry for the long wait on this, but we've finally got it in there.  Please see this post in the Announcements forum for details:

"New guide features: director, actors, and year"
http://www.icetv.com.au/iceforum/index.php?topic=558

For the XML guide, the new information will be included exactly as Trapper mentioned above, using the standard XMLTV format for the "credits" information.

Thanks!
Russell