Get (and show) larger cover
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From Amazon, I would also like to retrieve a larger version of the cover (which is then also localized, the cover would be retrieved from Amazon in the country defined in preferences.
Still, where a good idea is required, is how to display the larger Cover.
A few ideas:
1) Show it below the Movie-List/Filter. Would require two more user "slides" between Movie List & Movie Info (vertical), and between Movie-List/Filter and Cover (horizontal).
2) or maybe another (fourth?) tab beside Plot&Misc saying "Cover" (hmm, maybe not)
3) Remove the Colour string above the current cover and use the space to resize the cover as far as possible (though it wouldn't reach the available resoltion)
4) As a image tooltip when hovering the mouse over the smaller version of the cover (where currently the text "Open in browser" shows up).
Thanks,
Matthias
Hi
I don't want to change the main window too much so I'd rule out 1 and 3.
4 isn't all that bad I'd say.
Another idea is to make a totally different view.
I've thought about creating a table view of some sort.
Another idea is a html view where the big cove should fit somehow.
Bro
A table view would be cool.
I'd like one where I can enter my personal cd number directly for each title. (which would require an additional ExtraInfo field to be present in that list)
Option 4) for the cover is probably the best tradeoff between function and effort.
Matthias
Option 5) Just tried something: I set movieListRowHeight to 400 and it looked pretty good actually with a few hires testcovers. Just extending the slider range to maybe 500 or so might even be enough for a first extension.
Still leaves the question open on how to select the right Amazon movie. Showing a cover image next to the title list might be really nice, but I'm not sure if this is worth it - We'll see.
Matthias
The problem is that tit would be very difficult to select other entries, and have a good overview.
I believe a new view using html could be quite useful as we could have a alot of of different templates and users can even make their own.
I'll experiment with this and see how it works.
Bro
Hi Bro,
Sry I didn't really participate lately. I really like where MM is going - esp. the HTML view!
Just discovered, that IMDB also provides large covers now, so automatically downloading bigger covers is possible now.
For this, I extended IMDB.java a little to do this.
I'm not sure if this is the right place, so I'll just drop a patch here:
-- MovieManager/source/net/sf/xmm/moviemanager/http/old/IMDB.java 2009-12-12 18:31:58.000000000 +0100
+++ MovieManager/source/net/sf/xmm/moviemanager/http/IMDB.java 2009-12-29 16:17:25.839100000 +0100
@@ -1321,6 +1321,30 @@
}
}
+
+
+ if (coverData == null) // previous routine failed. Now try changing resolution in cover image URL
+ {
+
+ if (dataModel.getCoverURL() != null && !dataModel.getCoverURL().equals(""))
+ {
+ String tmp = dataModel.getCoverURL();
+
+ Pattern p = Pattern.compile("(.*)(._SX)(\\d+)(_SY)(\\d+)(.*)");
+
+ Matcher m = p.matcher(tmp);
+
+ if (m.find() && m.groupCount() == 6)
+ {
+ url = new URL(m.group(1) + m.group(2) + m.group(3)+"0" + m.group(4) + m.group(5)+"0" +m.group(6));
+ // try 10 times the resolution. imdb will return the maximum resolution possible
+
+ //System.err.println("retrBiggerCover url:" + url);
+ coverData = httpUtil.readDataToByteArray( url );
+ }
+ }
+ }
+
} catch (SocketTimeoutException s) {
log.error("Exception: " + s.getMessage());
Happy new year,
Matthias
Hmm, actually, something got into my mind..
How is Java storing the pictures in the scroll list?
Because, if now with the big covers, the images are 10x as big as before, this could result in high memory requirements/sluggy behaviour for very long lists..
Can anyone test this on a large database?
On average, it seems imdb hires cover files are about 45kB and 500px in height, but there are some covers up to 300kB and 1200px.
Maybe before introducing this patch, it makes sense to add an option to limit the maximum cover resolution.
For IMDB, this would also be very easy to implement - just replace m.group(3)+"0" and m.group(5)+"0" with the max. size. (imdb takes care of the aspect ratio!)
What do you think?
Matthias
Hi Mathias
Thanks for your continuing interest in this project ;-)
I did actually experiment with bigger covers some time ago, and even implemented this, but it broke right before the release.
I haven't had time since last summer to look at it, so thats why it was never released.
I created a new HTML template with the only significant difference to the existing one was a bigger cover. I'm not sure where that one ended up, but not in the SVN repo ;-|
If you check out latest from SVN (or the source distribution for v2.8.7), you'll see the method retrieveBiggerCover. It would retrieve the covers on the first page when clicking the small cover on the main page. This for Terminator 2:
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2025103104/tt0103064
These covers take about 20-30KB, which is about 30MB for 1000 movies. Maybe it's a bit too much, so an option to either not store them in memory, or retrieve smaller covers is a good idea.
If you're interested in creating more HTML templates, please do!
Hi,
yes, I've seen it ;) the above patch applies to 2.8.7 and actually extends retrieveBiggerCover().
But I must admit, I don't quite understand how retrieveBiggerCover is working. And as it actually didn't work for me, but I didn't want to break it, I put the patch into the "if coverData == null" clause at the end of the retrieveBiggerCover function.
On IMDB, it seems you can get a scaled image at any resolution if you change the values after _SX and _SY in the cover URL from the first page, which is what I used.
I'm not good in HTML Design, so I'm sure there are better people than me, but I'll modify your template a little and will check it in ;)
Hi
I'll check out your patch, but I think I'll release a new version without adding big cover support first. It's better to not rush it
Check out this for info on how to create HTML templates.
https://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/xmm/index.php?title=HTML-templates
Feel free to modify the guide, and ask questions ;-)
Regards
Bro