It seems to me that the rate of DVD/BD releases has increased quite a bit in the last few months. Is it just me? Anyway, I have been wondering if the Contributions Community was getting enough help with tools that facilitate making contributions. I have put in whatever stuff into BulkEdit that makes sense as I see requests. And I know that the various Cast/Crew editors and other tools out there are also helpful.

So I am simply querying whether there are additional features that could be added to existing tools, or some new tool concept that the developers could undertake that would improve your ability to keep up with the pace of contributions and profile updates. This activity is a tremendous value to me, and since I am totally inept at contributions, the least I can do it try to make some new tools, or enhance the ones I have.

Of course the best tools are the ones that are built-in to DVDP, so I personally wouldn't start any major new project until I see what is (not) in 3.8. But just to get the thought process going ...

Quoting synnerman:

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As for your tools, I was wondering if there is anyway for a plug-in that could read a disc and be able to enter some of the data directly.  For example, when it enters the disc ID, it could read and add the audio track info, the subtitle info, the region coding and running time from the film.  I don't know if it's possible, but that could be a huge timesaver.

Nice idea. I'll put on the list for BulkEdit, but I will defer to DJ or one of the other guys if they want to jump on it. Of course, I don't know how to do it (yet, but that's part of the fun).

Quoting VirusPil:

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How about this:
A Tool for adding DVD child profiles at BD/DVD-Combos. One Click to add a child profile with the Disc Id taken from the parent profile. All the stuff that stays the same could also be copied. (e.g. Coverscans, Title, Production year, Cast & Crew, CoO, release date, ...)

Is this different from the one already in BulkEdit (Collection/Flagged/Clone Children From DiscIDs)? If so, how? Or what do I need to add/change?

Quoting synnerman:

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As for your tools, I was wondering if there is anyway for a plug-in that could read a disc and be able to enter some of the data directly.  For example, when it enters the disc ID, it could read and add the audio track info, the subtitle info, the region coding and running time from the film.  I don't know if it's possible, but that could be a huge timesaver.

That's definitively possible, tools like DVD Decrypter do it all the time.

Unfortunately I have no idea how they are doing it.

DJ, I found an open source, actually public domain project that is a .NET wrapper for the MS direct show interfaces. There are sample apps, such as a DVD player, with snippets that we can use. Turns out that the absolute easiest thing to get is the discID. And there seems to be a way to get titles, aspect ratios, and other video / audio metadata. Didn't get a chance to play with running times yet. Why not pop over to the developer forum and we can talk about how to proceed. Maybe we can both makes some stuff - so people can have options.

Quoting Addicted2DVD:

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I just wanted to make sure you kept that in mind going forward.
The obsessive compulsive part of me would have to double check everything it adds for a while though... but that is just me.

Oh yeah, totally. I was also thinking about that. I mean, we're on the tip of the iceberg. It might not even be possible to do effectively for the reasons you cite. But I agree there should / could possibly be a rule that says something like: "If you get metadata from a tool - say so, and whether or not it has been verified ..."

Quoting Winston Smith:

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I like your thinking, dogg. If I can be of any help, let me know.

Thank you. Assuming this thing is even feasible technically, it would be helpful for the community to decide up front: (1) is it allowed / what are the rules and (2) Eaxctly which data are acceptable to get from a tool.  (apologies if this is already in the rules - as I said, I am useless when it comes to contributions)

Even then you have to be careful. I have seen lots of times where the running time of a documentary is approximately the same length as a feature.