tv_imdb (1) - Linux Manuals
tv_imdb: Augment XMLTV listings files with imdb.com data.
NAME
tv_imdb - Augment XMLTV listings files with imdb.com data.
SYNOPSIS
tv_imdb --imdbdir <dir> [--help] [--quiet] [--download]
tv_imdb --imdbdir <dir> [--help] [--quiet]
--output FILE write to FILE rather than standard output.
--with-keywords include IDMb keywords in the output file.
--with-plot include IDMb plot summary in the output file.
--quiet disable all status messages (that normally appear on stderr).
--download try to download data files if they are missing (in --prepStage).
--stats output grab stats (stats output disabled in --quiet mode).
--debug output info from movie matching
--movies-only only augment programs that look like movie listings (4 digit
'date' field).
All programs are checked against imdb.com data (unless --movies-only is used).
For the purposes of tv_imdb, an ``exact'' match is defined as a case
insensitive match against imdb.com data (which may or may not include the
transformation of '&' to 'and' and vice-versa.
If the program includes a 4 digit 'date' field the following
matches are attempted, with the first successful match being used:
1. an ``exact'' title/year match against movie titles is done
2. an ``exact'' title match against tv series (and tv mini series)
3. an ``exact'' title match against movie titles with production dates
within 2 years of the 'date' value.
Unless --movies-only is used, if the program does not include a 4 digit
'date' field the following
matches are attempted, the first succeeding match is used:
1. an ``exact'' title match against tv series (and tv mini series)
When a match is found in the imdb.com data the following is applied:
1. the 'title' field is set to match exactly the title from the
imdb.com data. This includes modification of the case to match and any
transformations mentioned above.
2. if the match is a movie, the 'date' field is set to imdb.com
4 digit year of production.
3. the type of match found (Movie, TV Movie, Video Movie, TV Series,
or TV Mini Series) is placed in the 'categories' field.
4. the url to the www.imdb.com page is added
5. the director is added if the match was a movie or if only one director
is listed in the imdb.com data (because some tv series have > 30 directors)
6. the top 3 billing actors are added.
7. genres added to 'categories' field (current list of genres are
Short, Drama, Comedy, Documentary, Animation, Adult, Action, Family, Romance,
Crime, Thriller, Musical, Adventure, Western, Horror, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Mystery,
War, Film-Noir, Music
8. imdb user ratings added to 'star-ratings' field.
9. imdb keywords added to 'keyword' fields.
10. imdb plot summary is added.
2a. run 'tv_imdb --imdbdir <dir> --prepStage all --download'
to download the list files from imdb.com. Or,
2b If you have a slow network connection you may prefer to omit
the '--download' flag and be prompted for what you need to download by
hand. See <http://www.imdb.com/interfaces> for the download sites.
Then once you have the files rerun without '--download'.
Note: '--prepStage' sucks a bit of memeory, but you can run each
prepStage separately by running --prepStage with each of the stages
(see --help for details).
3. Once you have the database loaded try
'cat tv.xml | tv_imdb --imdbdir <dir> > tv1.xml'.
Feel free to report any problems with these steps to xmltv-devel [at] lists.sf.net.
Could use a --configure step just like the grabbers so you do not have
to specify the --imdbdir on the command line every time. Also this could
step you through the prep stages with more description of what is being
done and what is required. Configure could also control the number of
actors to add (since some movies have an awful lot), currently we are
adding the top 3.
How and what to look up needs to be option driven.
Needs some more controls for fine tuning ``close'' matches. For
instance, currently it looks like the North America grabber only has
date entries for movies, but the imdb.com data contains made for video
movies as well as as real movies, ot is it's possible to get the
wrong data to be inserted. In this case we may want to say ``ignore tv
series'' and ``ignore tv mini series''. Along with this, we'd want
to define what a ``close'' match is. For instance does a movie by the
same title with a date out by 1 year or 2 years considered a match
(currently we're using 2).
Nice to haves include: verification/addition of programe MPAA/VCHIP ratings,
addition of imdb.com user ratings (by votes) to programes. Potenially we
could expand to include ``country of origin'', ``description'', ``writer'' and
``producer'' credits, maybe even ``commentator''.
Heh, if the XMLTV.dtd supported it, we could even include urls to head
shots of the actors :)
DESCRIPTION
Very similar to tv_cat in semantics (see tv_cat),
except whenever a programme appears with ``date'' entry the
title and date are used to look up extra data by using the
XMLTV::IMDB package.
HOWTO In order to use tv_imdb, you need:
1. choose a directory location to use for the tv_imdb database (you'll
need about 1 GB of free space),
BUGS
The '--prepStage' needs a lot of memory to run at a reasonable speed,
over 250 megabytes with the current imdb data files. For there to be
250 megabytes free for tv_imdb, the system will need at least 512 megabytes
of RAM. Running with less can take hours (or days!) - although fortunately
this stage needs to be run only once after downloading the data files.
AUTHOR
Jerry Veldhuis, jerry [at] matilda.com