Just wondering if there is any plans to integrate DVD Profiler into Vista Media Centre?

take a look here:
New Plugin: LoadDVD - Open / Play Media and Disc Changer Support

I'm using My Movies mentioned in the Imoelleb post. Works really well including with Media Centre Extenders. However I currently choose to maintain two DBs although I used the import / Export functionality to originally populate the local My Movies DB.

I regard the data quality of DVD profiler better - mainly due to more detailed contribution rules. But I must say that recently I have been changing the source of many of my titles to the My Movies online db and dropping the data imported from DVD Profiler (which cannot be contributed anyway)

I disagree with Giga Wizard - the LoadDVD, whilst being a great plugin, is not a Windows Media Centre integration which I think is the question behind the post.

The My Movies product whilst it has it's drawbacks is rapidly becoming an via alternative to DVD Profiler and if the developement rate continues ithe the point at which when I had to make a choice of one or the other and pick My Movies is fast approaching.

I correctly or incorrectly assumed that Lars was referring to the Windows Media Centre product/interface. DVD Profiler does not sit inside this User Interface.

Now I know why i do not bother to post in these forums - Why is everybody so touchy..

quoting lmoelleb:

Quote:
I just think he doesn't know what Media Center is

Well there is a difference, running dvd profiler on a Vista Media Center or giving it a Vista Media Center Interface. There are al ready users running dvd profiler on Vista Media Center and playing dvd's from
harddisc from within dvd profiler.

So I don't know if the possibilities from within a layout can solve the font issue and can give the look and feel of the Vista Media Center Interface. I'm not a programmer or a layout designer.

Change fontsize

What you are asking is a new program made with these tools:
Windows Media Center Software Development Kit That is a total other ballgame.

Quote:
Evaluating Usability

Users expect applications for Windows Media Center to be very simple and intuitive to use—like their televisions, not their computers. As enhancements to home life, these applications are enjoyable but optional. If an application is too difficult to learn or use, the user may simply quit using it.

Usability evaluation is a key activity in designing the user interface for your application. It is nearly impossible to be immersed in application development without forming at least some false assumptions and misconceptions about how users will respond to and use the finished product. Evaluation almost always leads to important discoveries about usability and creates opportunities for valuable design improvements. Plan to include usability evaluation in your budget and schedule and to conduct usability studies several times during design and development.

If you do not have the time or budget to conduct full lab evaluations with real users, you can still gain some of the benefit and spot potentially serious usability problems by conducting "discount" usability studies. Discount studies are conducted from the user's perspective, but are done by members of the product team who pose as users. The following topics give a brief description of two such techniques, along with tips to help maximize effectiveness.

Quoting Giga Wizard:

Quote:
What you are asking is a new program made with these tools:
Windows Media Center Software Development Kit That is a total other ballgame.

It might be another ballgame from what you where thinking of, but it's not really another ballgame from what was requested, and it is exactly what we want.

If DVD Profiler would simply expose it's data we could build it ourselves, but DVD Profiler is pretty outdated at this point (unfortunately it means the value of the program is rapidly apporaching zero - what is the purpose of the most accurate DVD data on the internet if you can't get to it?)

Personally I think I'll wait until My Movies ship a native Media Center interface (the current is done though the HTML plugin architecture), then buy a couble of TB disks with the best of my movies. If I drop DVD Profiler at this stage I don't know - if it doesn't become easier to get data out of it, then I probably can't be bothered maintaining my database.

Quoting Mithi:

Quote:
Quoting lmoelleb:

Quote:
if it doesn't become easier to get data out of it, then I probably can't be bothered maintaining my database.

Pardon?
The XML-Export carries everything(!) you need. Any other format (CSV) or direct access to the DB would be 'outdated' at this moment.


cya, Mithi

That is like saying a Ford T is all you need because a horse would be outdated. Yes, the horse is outdated... but so is the Ford T.

Yes, CVS and direct DB access are more outdated than the XML export, but today we expect SOAP and/or REST interfaces to access data.

If you could set DVD Profiler to automatically maintain the XML export as data is changed it would help. I tried writing a plugin, but did not have the needed events (or at least, I couldn't find them), even though all I needed was; DVD added, DVD deleted, and DVD changed.
The direct DB access would at least always be up to date, and we could easily build a SOAP/REST interface on top of it ourselves.

Another alternative would be a nice domain model we could load and access the data through, but that would be language specific (so either Java, .NET, or something else), hence the typical approach is to expose the data though SOAP/REST, then you can build a small client side domain model on top of this if you need to do anything fancy.