The Movie Modify page is where you can add, update, or delete a movie from your collection. It is accessed by the 
icon at the top of the page to or through the "Edit" link in the Movie Detail Page. The page is organized into four tabs: details, casts, images, and episodes.
Details Tab
The detail tab is where you can enter and import essential movie details like title, year, directors, and summary. See below for details on importing movie information.
To make it easier to enter data most fields support the auto completion feature. As you type in the field the system looks up previous used values and displays them in a drop down list for you to select. New values are automatically added to the list after the movie is saved. If a value in the auto completion list becomes unreferenced, it is removed by a background task that runs once a day.
Entering DVD or Blu-ray files
Enter the DVD or Blu-ray backup files in the fields labeled "DVD File" or "Blu-ray File". By convention lower quality or resolution media files are entered in the "DVD File" field and higher quality media files are entered in the "Blu-ray File" field. Look at the table below to see how to specify backup file paths for supported browsers.
IMPORTANT: Only the server computer must have direct access to the media file. Users of the system access the files through the webserver and do not need direct access. However, if "Access Media Through Server" is set to "No" in VLC settings or you are using external media players then the user's computer must also have direct access to the file.
| File type and location | Examples of file paths | Chrome | Firefox | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ISO File on mounted local or network drive | E:\movies\Alien.iso | Y | Y | Y | |
| ISO File on NAS | \\SERVER\movies\Alien.iso \\SERVER\movies\Alien.avi |
Y | Y | Y | Mozilla plugin must use "dvd://" access and '\' replaced by '/'. This is done automatically by the app. |
| Video file on NAS | \\SERVER\movies\Alien.mpg \\SERVER\movies\Alien.avi |
Y | Y | Y | Mozilla plugin must use "smb:" access and '\' replaced by '/'. This is done automatically by the app. |
| Video file on mounted local or network drive | E:\movies\Alien.mpg E:\movies\Alien.avi |
Y | Y | Y | |
| DVD folder on mounted local or network drive | E:\movies\Alien\VIDEO_TS or E:\movies\Alien |
Y | Y | Y | The directory where the *.BUP, *.IFO or *.VOB files exists |
| DVD folder on NAS Drive | \\SERVER\movies\Alien\VIDEO_TS or \\SERVER\movies\Alien | Y | Error | Error | The directory where the *.BUP, *.IFO or *.VOB files exists. For FF and Chrome, mount the network drive. |
| DVD folder on NAS Drive (mounted) | E:\movies\Alien\VIDEO_TS or E:\movies\Alien | Y | Y | Y |
*Firefox sometime does not resize video area correctly. To fix, toggle full screen mode.
NAS – Network Attached Storage
Casts Tab
The Casts tab is where you enter the actors and actresses of a movie. If you are lucky most of casts have already been imported from the web.
The ordering of the cast members is important. On the Advance Search Results Page and the Movie Popups, only the first three cast members are shown. Rearrange your cast members so that the three main stars are listed in the top three positions. You can reorder the list by dragging and dropping the cast members using the little hand icon.
Images Tab
The second tab contains the movie images. The order of the movie images is important. The first image is the cover and is displayed on most pages. Subsequent images are only displayed in the movie detail page.
Reordering the images is accomplished by dragging and dropping the images in the correct sequence.
Add an image by clicking on the “Choose File” button at the top of the page. This brings up a select file dialog where you can select an image on your desktop or paste a url of an image on the web. New images are append to the end of the list.
To delete an image, check the “Delete” box on the image itself. The image is deleted when the movie is saved.
Episodes Tab
The last tab is for TV episodes. To add an episode, click on the “Add Episode” button at the top-right of the page. This adds a new row in the center section where you can add your episode information. The first three fields, season number, episode number, and title are required for each episode. Season numbers should increment sequentially. Episode numbers work similarly but also can handle ranges like 1-2 or 1-4 to support files containing multiple episodes. Enter your episode media file locations in "DVD File" and "Blu-Ray File" fields.
Tip: Enter your earliest episode media file(s) (i.e. usually season 1 episode 1) in the "DVD File" and "Blu-Ray File" fields of the Detail tab. This enables the play button so you can play episodes without having to go into the Movie Detail Page . The application has smarts to start playing from your last episode and position.
"Import" Movie Information
Most of the time, the import feature can be use to retrieve movie information. Only when the import feature fails will you have to manually type the movie attributes yourself. In order to import movie information from the web (hint: you need internet connection), it requires the movie title (with optional year) or UPC code. The title should exactly match the title of your DVD and the year is the year the movie came out in the theater. Click the [Import Movie From Web] button and the application does its best to import the correct information. It imports most movie attributes from IMDB but also gets information from other sites like DVDEmpire.com.
When a movie is saved the first time, more information about the movie is retrieved that are immutable. Immutable attributes can be viewed but not edited by you. The information is usually time sensitive data such as ratings or information specific to a company or site like reviews.
Once a movie is saved the system will not re-import information from the web unless directed by you. To re-import information, navigate to the movie's modify page and click on the [Import Movie From Web] button. To update immutable attributes, check the "Import Immuntable Attributes" option prior to saving the movie.
How new data overwrites existing data
New data that is retrieved overwrites existing data unless that data is no longer available. For example, if you previously imported duration successfully but on subsequent imports the duration is missing then your initial duration value is preserved. If you would like to clear data prior to importing, check the "Clear Data" option next to that scrapper URL (see snapshot below). This option, which only applies to existing movies, clears existing data brought in by that scrapper prior to importing new data.
Person information (including images) is queued for import when the movie is saved.
Import Problems
Although the system tries its best to pick the right movie, in some cases it gets it wrong or will not find the movie at all. If this happens there are some actions you can take to help the system locate the right pages to scrape. If you scroll the center section of the Movie Modify page all the way to the bottom there are fields that hold the urls of the pages that the program uses to gather the information. Go to these websites and locate the movie yourself. Cut and paste the urls into the corresponding fields and re-import the movie information. Remember to also re-import immutable attributes as described above.
Note: For IMDB site, the program uses the “combined” web page.
Subsequent imports alway use the urls in these fields. If for some reason the page url has changed, the system reverts to looking up the correct movie page using the title and year.