Anime Watchers, Take Two - Looking for Beta Testers

[Ommina]

Preamble - as before, this post is targeted to anime collectors / viewers only. It will not offer much (well, anything) to mainstream movie & video watchers. While I've no doubt that news will leave most of you devastated, try to struggle on.

Next - an open thank you! to psicotron3 who, over the past three weeks, has helped me identify number of bugs, and, just as importantly, has been no small help in working through a number of usability stumbling blocks. Program flow and operation is easier now than it was on the tenth, thanks largely to his input. (Including gently, yet persistently, convincing me that he didn't care HOW much work I had put into the progress bar, it had to go.)

So - I'm now opening the plug-in up for testing by anybody who wants to give it a try. Again, I'm not sure how large my audience is, but a couple more users poking at it would be a treat and leave me feeling better about the application overall.

You'll need to have:

• Some anime files in your collection
  
• An account at anidb.net (or willing to sign up).
  
• PVRX2 1.1.5 (as before, the previous version will work, but you will have to manually move a file into plugins/common).
  
• The ability to stumble your way around a computer
  
• Patience with software that has bugs.

The anidb.net account is a requirement, as the plug-in integrates heavily with the anidb database to retrieve anime, episode, and file details.

Screenshots here, look at that amazing display of HTML prowess.

A full installer is included, thanks largely to a script provided by JavaWiz, so you will not have to do a lot of fussing about getting files to their right homes. Double-click and go.

Skin files for Blue-Retro-SHV (provided by psicotron3) are also part of the package. I'm going to do my very best to avoid any further skin changes in an effort to keep him from lynching me.

Regarding feature requests - I'm willing to entertain them (tell them jokes and such), but not for this version. Presently, my goal is to get the plug-in as well behaved and as bug-free as possible, so my attention will be focused on bug fixes, testing, and usability. Once this version has been wikified and seems stable, then I will be able to turn to new features.

First drafts of the documentation will be posted here first and added to the Wiki later after editing.

Again, this is directed towards anime viewers only. The plugin is not suitable for general media.

Once more, thanks all!

Edit: I'm sneaking this in here for the moment. The installer can be found here for anybody that wants to give it a go. This is probably, barring any last-minute discoveries, the version that will be posted to the wiki. Stable as far as I know.

[kaizen]

OMG! My prayers answered, finally. This looks AWESOME.

Almost 70% of my storage is Anime series, and I've always had to rename them so that they would appear somewhat comprehensible under GBPVR. File management has always been an issue and one of the reasons I have temporarily stopped acquiring new series. Currently, I have about 50 series and a few dozen OVAs kicking around, so this should be a good test for you .

This would be a godsend for people like me (I had asked in the MovieWiz forums if AniDB support could be added for just this purpose), so rest assured
I would be overjoyed at the prospect of beta testing for you, and I have experience (ICLP, RSS reader, WebCams2, etc.) beta testing for other GBPVR devs.

Please contact me when you can and let's get started!!

^_^!

[Ted the Penguin]

Ditto!!!

this plugin is sweet, i will have to check it out sometime.... if only i still watched alot of anime

I am willing to give it a shot, but i cant commit to being a rigorous beta tester.

[Ommina]

Interestingly, kaizen, it was the display of the names in Video Library that motivated me to start the plug in back in September. A list of files to the effect of "[Genjo]_Ghost_Hound_-_10_[XviD][5452DACA].avi" just doesn't look nice, and, depending on the naming convention of the group that released the file, may or may not even sort correctly.

When I discovered that AniDB offered an API of their own, offering me not only the ability to get file details, but maintain MyList and votes, without having to do any painful HTML scraping, it was too good to ignore. And here we are.

Ted the Penguin - at this point, even installing it and ensuring it shows up in config and, subsequently, on the menu, would be appreciated. Even if you uninstall it right away. Uninstall needs to be tested too. /grin

I'll PM both of you with the address of the installer executable.

[Ommina]

As an aside - is there a Wiki registration page somewhere that I'm missing? Lots of login places, but no place to register...

[Ted the Penguin]

I currently use anidb o matic, and I have had that go through all of my files and hash them, is there any possibility for integration with that utility?

to register for the wiki you actually need to send a PM to blader_se (IIRC), but it seems that he hasnt been active for a little while. you could just try starting a thread in the documentation forum saying you want wiki access, some other people might be able to give it to you.

[kaizen]

I currently use anidb o matic, and I have had that go through all of my files and hash them, is there any possibility for integration with that utility?

Teddy - I removed the hash codes from many of my files for the same reasons that Ommina mentioned; are you saying that AOM would correct this or am I going to have to rename my files manually (oy that'd be a job and a half...)?

[Ommina]

I currently use anidb o matic, and I have had that go through all of my files and hash them, is there any possibility for integration with that utility?

Sadly, no. The AoM database is encrypted as part of the agreement for using the TCP protocol to AniDB rather than the UDP. I can't sneak data out of it.

Besides, I'm not sure I would even want to if I could, since it takes me back to relying on third party formats not changing -- if AoM's author decided to change the database, for whatever reason, I risk the plug-in breaking. (This is why I don't use screen scraping, and pay the $20 a year for TV guide data instead of fussing about with scrapers there).

But I admit hashing twice is a bit of a pain, although far less so once the initial population is done.

Thanks for the note on the wiki editing. Although having to PM somebody just to register seems somewhat against the whole point of a wiki. Perhaps I should think of it as a 'collaborative editing tool' instead.

kaizen - If you just want renaming, take a look at http://wiki.anidb.info/w/WebAOM -- if you want a more integrated MyList support, check out AoM instead. The first is a Java applet but has quite beefy file renaming abilities. The second is a locally installed application, but slow and takes up huge chunks of memory in its present form.

Every now and then I'm tempted to add renaming to the plug-in, but I remind myself that's not what the plug-in is for.

As far as the plugin is concerned, if doesn't care what you have the file named. You could have them sequentially numbered from one to 1000 with phonemes from the Byzantine alphabet appended on for all it cares. So rename them only if it makes you happy to do so.

What the plug-in does it searches through the supplied folder(s) for files with appropriate video extensions (so avoid the Byzantine alphabet in the extension I guess), calculates a hash of the file, and does the AniDB lookup with that. From there it gets the English / Romaji names and the rest of the associated details of the file.

That hashing DOES mean that the initial population of the database can take some time, depending on the size of the collection.

[Ommina]

Question for both of you (and anybody else that may be interested in answering).

Do you both use Haali media splitter for, er, media that needs splitting? MKV files and the like. And if not, what do you use?

[psicotron3]

Question for both of you (and anybody else that may be interested in answering).

Do you both use Haali media splitter for, er, media that needs splitting? MKV files and the like. And if not, what do you use?

I use haali media splitter for avis too, It does a good job with dual audio animes.