Cast & Crew, Similar Movies, Review in WMC7???

[Kusaywa]

I've seen on a couple of web sites where WMC has options for Cast & Crew, Similar Movies, Review in addition to Synopsis and Actions.
https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1 ... brary.html
The sites don't mention any add-ons being installed in WMC, they appear to be native.
Is there a way to add these to WMC or is there an add-on to do this?
Thanks

[dkrom]

Yes -install epg123 and you will get you back most (if not all) of the original capabilities of the guide in Windows Media Center. The switch over to ROVI is what destroyed my ability to view cast + crew, review, and see other similar movies. After installing I now have everything back (cast+crew, review, similar movies, AND all the genres) and I'm loving it. Worth the $25 for a Schedules Direct subscription.

Here is a picture of my current guide info - also note that I have pictures that actually match the movie (mine rarely matched with ROVI):

[Space]

I believe that the only thing that prevents WMC from using the Rovi data to get the extended movie information is the movie date of release. If Rovi had included the date of release of each movie (instead of setting the OAD for some of the movies) then the extended data server (which Microsoft still seem to maintain) could be used to get that additional information.

That extended data database is still maintained by Microsoft, but WMC with Rovi data can't use it properly because they do not populate the movie listings with the year of release for any of the movies. The reason it works when using EPG123 is simply because Gary made the simple effort to populate the year of release for all movies. Microsoft could (or would) not do this for some unknown reason...

[dkrom]

I believe that the only thing that prevents WMC from using the Rovi data to get the extended movie information is the movie date of release. If Rovi had included the date of release of each movie (instead of setting the OAD for some of the movies) then the extended data server (which Microsoft still seem to maintain) could be used to get that additional information.

That extended data database is still maintained by Microsoft, but WMC with Rovi data can't use it properly because they do not populate the movie listings with the year of release for any of the movies. The reason it works when using EPG123 is simply because Gary made the simple effort to populate the year of release for all movies. Microsoft could (or would) not do this for some unknown reason...

Some good background as to why things don't work with ROVI, but it doesn't explain why so many move pictures are just plain wrong and even if the data is good - fixing a date probably wouldn't fix the genres since three would actually show up. So there was some genre info in ROVI data, just not as thorough as zap2it.

[Space]

Yes, the genre info and movie art is included with the Rovi listings and has nothing to do with the extended movie data.

The genre info that Rovi has is either just wrong or is not mapped properly for use with WMC. As for the art, that is just something that Rovi has messed up on their servers I believe...

[Kusaywa]

This is in the Movies portion, not TV. Does it work in Movies too? Just want to make sure before I spend any $$$

[Space]

This is in the Movies portion, not TV. Does it work in Movies too? Just want to make sure before I spend any $$$

From what I understand, everything works as designed with EPG123, but you don't have to spend any money to find out.

Just make an image backup of your system and then install EPG123, then get a free 7-day trial to Schedules Direct. If you like what you see, then you can pay for a longer term subscription to Schedules Direct.

If you don't like it then you can go back to Rovi (by either restoring your image, or running "TV setup", etc.)

The extended movie information is provided by a Microsoft supported server "on-the-fly", so this feature is dependent on Microsoft maintaining that server. All that EPG123 does is populate the "year of release" for every movie, which allows WMC to query the extended movie data from that server. If that server continues to work, your extended movie data should continue to work.

[Kusaywa]

Sorry, but I'm lost on all this since I don't use WMC to record or watch TV. Should I go through the steps even though I don't have a TV tuner?

[Space]

Sorry, but I'm lost on all this since I don't use WMC to record or watch TV. Should I go through the steps even though I don't have a TV tuner?

No, I am not familiar with using WMC for anything other than recorded TV. I am not sure how metadata for other sources works.

[TKDAggie]

I know the last post was years ago, but I'm hoping someone can help me. Recently starting using WMC for some of my movies and wanted to get the movie info for those movies. Problem is, when I use programs like YAMMM or MCM, I only can view the synopsis for the movie. How can I view the cast & crew and similar movies like so many screenshots show? If someone could provide the xml that contains this information so I can see what the metadata tags are so that WMC will read/display that information, that would be great.

Thank you.

[Kick4U]

Am I missing something or did the Similar Movies tab disappear?
I see the Cast & Crew but no Similar Movies.

Using EPG123

[Space]

No, you are not missing anything. Microsoft decommissioned the server that served that information (extended movie data). EPG123 does not include that information as that data was not included in the guide, and EPG123 only updates the guide.

This extended data was dynamically retrieved on-demand. This information included the "similar movies" as well as the list of movies that a particular actor or director was associated with (if you look at that now, you will only see a list of movies that are currently in the guide, not a complete list of all movies associated with that person).

[TKDAggie]

Thank you for your response. I'm aware that MS decommissioned the server for that extra information. I was hoping there was a way to write it to the xml files that are stored in the dvdinfocache folder, or another file/folder, bypassing the need for that server that no longer exists. I know this isn't ideal, but I don't care if it's not an up to date solution.

When the extended info was retrieved from the MS server, was it stored on the hdd? If so, do you know where and possibly have an example of the data that was stored? I'd really like to have similar movies and the cast & crew to see what other movies they were in.

Thank you.

[Space]

I'm not sure that anyone took note of this before it went away.

About a year before this server was decommissioned, I made a post about monitoring the activity (network queries, etc) so that it might be replicated in the future by a replacement server. I don't think anyone did, although I believe that Gary (EPG123) also mentioned that it might be possible to pre-load a cache to get that information, although I think that way would have been unmanageable due to the sheer amount of data that would have to have been cached (pretty much a database of every movie in existence if you want a full replacement).

Robert from Schedules Direct even mentioned that he might be willing to host a replacement server if someone knew the protocol that was used for communication between it and WMC (although I am not sure if Schedules Direct has all the movie information that would be needed, either).

It was a missed opportunity. We knew well in advance that the server was going away, but it appears that no one took any network captures so that the protocol could be more easily reverse engineered. It might still be possible to do this by decompiling the WMC code, but that would require someone who has that skill and also the drive to want to do it in the first place.

[TKDAggie]

Thank you Space for your responses.

[Kusaywa]

I know this is from April but since WMC grabs the synopsis from either the Movie.xml or the XXXXXXXXX.xml located in C:\Users\USER\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\eHome\DvdInfoCache isn't there a way to have WMC grab the other info from these files? They both contain additional information. Movie.xml more than XXXXXXXXXX.xml. It has cast & crew (although in a different title) Genre, Similar Movies as well as Plot. I use Media Center Master to create these files.

[TKDAggie]

I use Media Center Master too, but it appears the data in the xml files are either not formatted correctly, or the data is pulled from somewhere else. I can get WMC to pull in genres, duration, year, synopsis, and rating, but have never been able to get Cast & Crew or Similar Movies.

If you're able to find out how, or figure out a way to get it to work, I'd love to hear it.

Good luck & Merry Christmas!

[garyan2]

A quick look into the WMC code... looks like if you add an element "leadPerformer" in the dvdid.xml file with the text containing all the actors separated by a semicolon (;), then they should show up in WMC.

Code: Select all

<leadPerformer>John Wayne;Shirley Temple;Frank Sinatra</leadPerformer>

EDIT: Scratch that. Just gave it a try and the only thing that is displayed is the Synopsis... no Cast/Crew.

[garyan2]

The only items that go into the WMC database for a movie item are the synopsis, episode title?, genre, parental rating, and year. For everything else, WMC would query the AMG server. It gets the date added and duration from the file itself as far as I can tell.

[TKDAggie]

Does anyone have a patch or work-around to get the info from the xml files instead of having to query the AMG server?