The database would be split into the following groups:
Package level (what we have now)
Disc level (we have this to some degree)
Movie level (this is new)
Name level (as per my previous suggestion)

The package level profiles would have things like release date, SRP, covert art, blurbs, locality, etc. These are things that exist independent of the software.

Each package would have a list of discs. These discs would have their own profiles whose data would automatically be incorporated (this would be mostly seamless from the user POV). This would be done by disc ID. These profiles would be universal: No localities. These profiles would essentially be a list of the movies and special features on the disc along with technical specs. Ideally, we would add disc-level credits like DVD producer and track separate technical specs for each feature on the disc. Also, you could flag features as main features or special features. You would need language variants for the list of miscellaneous special features and to track situations where different language setting are available depending on player language settings, but that’s it. Everything else should be shareable.

Movie level profiles would track runtime (with variants for HD, NTSC and PAL), credits, ratings (ratings would be entered for all applicable rating systems and preferences would set how to display this), original title, production year and country of origin. There would be separate versions for different cuts of a movie where applicable, but different dubs would be tied together with all non-voice roles shared.

Notes: NTSC and HD have different runtimes listed because HD runs at 24 fps, PAL at 25 fps and NTSC at 23.976. This isn’t a noticeable difference from 24, but it adds up to 7 seconds or so over the course of a movie, which can cause it to be rounded to a different number of minutes. Also, I’d recommend changing run time to track in seconds and not allowing differences of more than a second once speed is account for to prevent different cuts of films from being erroneously tied together. This wouldn’t be the only way of matching profiles, though. I’d also like to change how this is entered. Right now, we have to enter in minutes, whereas most DVD players display hours:minutes:seconds, so we have to convert. We should have an option on how to enter and display this info. It would be nice if we had the ability to auto-detect runtimes thrown in as well. Just put the disc in your computer and tell DVD Profiler what title number the feature is.

Commentaries could be entered as dubs. This would allow us to track the participants easily.

Cases where a single feature is spread across multiple sides or discs (flippers, Lord of the Rings EE, Alexander Revisited, etc) would need a way to tie them together in a single profile with a combined runtime.

Special features would get their own entries. They would be flagged as special features at the disc level so as not to add them to the disc running time. This would allow you to see who participated in interviews, who directed the documentaries, etc. I would put something in the rules about nto adding cast lists for trailers, though.

The names would have their own database as I detailed in a previous post. That way, we won’t have to go through every profile if Robin Wright goes back to using her maiden name and surpasses the total credits of Robin Wright-Penn, for instance.

Here’s how it would work in practice: A user discovers The French subtitles on Firefly are just there to translate on-screen text and not full subtitles. She submits the change. The Canadian set is the exact same discs, just in a bilingual package, so people who own that set would also see this and be able to vote and both sets would be affected when it was accepted.

Another user discovers a typo in the credits for the director’s cut of Blade Runner. They submit an update. This can be seen for voting by everyone with a copy of Blade Runner than contains the Director’s cut regardless of what region and release they have and will update everything when accepted. However, it doesn’t affect releases that only have the Final Cut.

I add the French Dub cast to the first release of Spider-Man 2. This updates the full-screen version and the Blu-ray, buy not Spider-man 2.1, because it’s a different cut and not the Superbit because it doesn’t have a French audio.

For a far less radical version of this, we could just forget movie profiles and track data by disc ID, so if I update the US Batman Returns Blu-ray, it will also update the UK, which is the exact same disc.

If the credits are different, you just wouldn't link those, though dubbing casts are covered by this situation anyway. Pretty much every program change requires us to revalidate all data, so I don't see what the big deal is. This would make it a lot less trouble to revalidate in the future.

Quoting Jubal:

Quote:

I initially had the same response you did, forget. then I noticed that Ace was specifying the SAME disc ID, which i think we could safely presume would contain the same data, regardless of the specific locality.

Skip

I'm not sure that he can be talking about disc IDs for this as you're unlikely to get the same ID across formats.

Quote:
I add the French Dub cast to the first release of Spider-Man 2. This updates the full-screen version and the Blu-ray, buy not Spider-man 2.1, because it’s a different cut and not the Superbit because it doesn’t have a French audio.

On the disc level, you would add the list of movies. These would be searchable and you could find them by name, running time and descriptor like "US theatrical version" or "director's cut." You do have to keep in mind when considering whether this is more trouble than it's wrth that you've only gotten used to the current level of trouble, where if somebody makes a cast correction on The Matrix, 80 or so profiles all have to be updated separately.

Well, Ace, I have no problem if the disc ID is the same. But beyond that I DO have problem , we have already documented that Cast and Crew are NOT necessarily the same across All Regions or Versions and there is no way to know without doin an audit. Batman may have different dataset from Batman: Director's Cut of Batman Region 1 may be different from Batman Region 2 which may be different from Batman Region 4.

So as I said based on Disc ID in Region 1 being the same as Disc ID in region 2, seems pretty rare but certainly possible, then i would say NO to the idea in general. I am not interested in entering any sort of error into the database, we have enough of that going on even as we speak. I understand the rationale for it, but it simply is not a viable option. How does it work, for example if a given user, makes a change to all 80 possibilities. Now I come along and audit my copy and find out that his version or Region has a different dataset, I don't want to deal with his erroneous data, nor do I wish to impose my dataset on the rest of the world, it applies only to my Region and My version of the film.

I would like to be able to like it as well, Forget, but I just don't see as viable. I already refuse to accept ANY update from a certain user who is making global changes that are undocumented and that he does not own, based on the copy which he does own. I vote NO to such abuse and always will.

Skip

Quoting Jubal:

Quote:
Well, Ace, I have no problem if the disc ID is the same. But beyond that I DO have problem , we have already documented that Cast and Crew are NOT necessarily the same across All Regions or Versions and there is no way to know without doin an audit. Batman may have different dataset from Batman: Director's Cut of Batman Region 1 may be different from Batman Region 2 which may be different from Batman Region 4.

See my post here
http://www.invelos.com/Forums.aspx?task=viewtopic&topicID=370821&messageID=979544#M979544

Quoting Forget_the_Rest:

Quote:
2) Regarding linking same version of films across localities - While I can see the reasons for wanting this, the info can vary from locality to locality. For example, a non-English speaking locality may add the voice dubbing actors to a films cast list. IF it is possible to allow for accepting/declining based on locality and not just accept/decline all then it might be feasible.

There is a profile up for voting right now (The Green Mile, 053939257922, U.S. locality) with a Canadian user attempting to add a French soundtrack.

Now maybe the setup of computers & DVD players in Canada is different and the same disc ID has a French track but my computer (PowerDVD & DVDFab) and my PS3 see nothing but an English soundtrack and i'm voting No based on this (and Ken's statement here when the same issue came up recently on Blu-ray audio).

How would this be handled under this scheme?

Quoting Unicus69:

Quote:
For the record, my copy has French subs selectable from the menu as well as the subtitle button on my remote so I am not sure why you are getting a different result.

I also French subtitles, what is being proposed as an addition is a French audio track, which i can't find on the disc.