DVDpedia: Update Single Field - and from single source

[joel]

I am new to DVDpedia, and have just imported about 1,000 of my movies.

One of the things I would really like to do is make my data as accurate and consistent as possible, and when you just start out it can be tricky finding the best way to get that data in — do I use Amazon to capture the price and specific edition/cover art, or do I use IMDB to capture extra data, etc.

And when you import in mass using a barcode scanner, you don't really even know which site was used.

So after scanning an importing my movies, I spend a lot of time "cleaning up" the data.

It would be really nice if you could grab a record - or group of records - and then tell DVDpedia to update a specific field (or selected fields) for the current selection (such as cover, or writer, etc).

It would also be nice if you could limit what source (Amazon, IMDB, etc) was used to update the field, so that you knew where the data was coming from (without having to change your general search preferences).

[sjk]

Welcome, joel!

It would be really nice if you could grab a record - or group of records - and then tell DVDpedia to update a specific field (or selected fields) for the current selection (such as cover, or writer, etc).

What I do is select multiple entries, invoke Movie > Edit… (Command-E), clear fields in the Edit Multiple Entries window that I want to update, then invoke Movie > Update from > site. One drawback is that other previously empty fields might also be unexpectedly updated.

And when you import in mass using a barcode scanner, you don't really even know which site was used.
…
It would also be nice if you could limit what source (Amazon, IMDB, etc) was used to update the field, so that you knew where the data was coming from (without having to change your general search preferences).

Reminds me of something I wrote a couple years ago:

It would be useful to know for sure where certain info originated, and even be able select per-field download sources, but I can understand why it's not worthwhile enough to implement.

And recently:

I've finally cleaned up the most undesirable mix of Amazon and IMDb data but there's still room for improvement.

I think I understand and can relate to what you've writing about.

[joel]

What I do is select multiple entries, invoke Movie > Edit… (Command-E), clear fields in the Edit Multiple Entries window that I want to update, then invoke Movie > Update from > site. One drawback is that other previously empty fields might also be unexpectedly updated.

Exactly, that is why I was specifically saying a specific field.

I've finally cleaned up the most undesirable mix of Amazon and IMDb data but there's still room for improvement.

I think I understand and can relate to what you've writing about.

Yup!


And that's why sometimes you need that finer control - because just arbitrarily filling in all (previously empty) fields from a source is not necessarily a good thing!

[sjk]

And that's why sometimes you need that finer control - because just arbitrarily filling in all (previously empty) fields from a source is not necessarily a good thing!

Finer granularity of field control would be cool but I'm still not anticipating it any time soon, if ever, especially after it didn't happen in the recent major v5 release.

[Nora]

Thanks for the feedback, we'll keep it in mind for the future. @joel:

And when you import in mass using a barcode scanner, you don't really even know which site was used.

You can select the site to use via the magnifying glass in the search window - both in the regular search and the multiple add window.

[joel]

You can select the site to use via the magnifying glass in the search window - both in the regular search and the multiple add window.

Of course!

I didn't even think of that!

Too late now! - I've already imported the majority of my titles...
oh well.

You might want to create a better "First Time Users" guide that spells that out a bit more clearly as part of a "So you bought DVDpedia and want to import your movies" section.

I found the help a little hard to follow when getting started.
DVDpedia has a lot of options, which is great, but that can be a stumbling block to getting started smoothly.
The help is pretty good for exploring a specific option, or advanced features, but hard to follow for getting up and running.

I am thinking something like a "best practices" starter's guide is needed....

...I am half motivated to write one myself, after importing 1500 movies into the system over the weekend.