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Releases: vanishing DVD Empire link


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Shiroi Hane
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Joined: 25 Oct 2003
Posts: 7578
Location: Wales
PostPosted: Sat Jun 02, 2012 2:02 pm Reply with quote
When adding a release you provide the first "seed" URL (currently I'm using Amazon) and it then provides links to other retailers for you to check (Anime Castle, AnimeNation, Barnes and Noble, Buy.com, DVD Empire, Right Stuf).

After adding a second link (e.g. Buy or B&N) the DVD Empire link disappears completely.
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Dan42
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Joined: 02 Jan 2002
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Location: Montreal
PostPosted: Tue Jun 05, 2012 9:50 am Reply with quote
Can't reproduce the problem. Care to give an example?
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Shiroi Hane
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Joined: 25 Oct 2003
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Location: Wales
PostPosted: Tue Jun 05, 2012 11:14 am Reply with quote
I was adding old VHS tapes to Nadesico, since the list was incomplete. I was basing it on an Amazon search and the only other site that returned results were B&N and Buy.com so I was using the provided search links to add those also.
After adding a second link to one of these, DVD Empire disappeared from the list of stores.
I failed to complete the set so I can do some screenshots, but not on this computer.
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Dan42
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 05, 2012 11:22 am Reply with quote
Oh, that makes sense. Once it detected the format was VHS, only stores that carry VHS will show up in the list. You're not going to find VHS on DVD Empire ;-p
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Shiroi Hane
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Joined: 25 Oct 2003
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Location: Wales
PostPosted: Tue Jun 05, 2012 11:32 am Reply with quote
I hadn't realised it was that smart ^^;

Store names can sometimes be disingenuous too; I've bought DVDs in Game.

Is there any likelihood of ever supporting UK and Australian releases on a larger scale? When I stated populating "My Collection" years ago I used record UK discs using the closest US match (it was mostly ADV back then as well, and they often used the same UPCs) and make a note to that effect.

It has started to bother me recently and I'm thinking of removing and re-entering them all manually, but if there's a chance of being able to enter them as "proper" releases in the future I don't want to have to do it all again.
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Dan42
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Joined: 02 Jan 2002
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Location: Montreal
PostPosted: Tue Jun 05, 2012 1:43 pm Reply with quote
Shiroi Hane wrote:
Is there any likelihood of ever supporting UK and Australian releases on a larger scale?

likelihood? 100%
timeline? er...

We can already add DVD and BD from any region, but in practice the main way to populate the database is through North American online stores. Adding other stores is not likely to happen in the near future.

I've just given you the ability to add arbitrary releases so you can add any UK/AU release if you want, but without the stores to grab most of the data from, you'll see that it's a slow and error-prone process. And there's no way to enter the all-important EAN; you'd have to add it as a comment under "Notes"
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Shiroi Hane
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Location: Wales
PostPosted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 6:27 pm Reply with quote
I've added a couple of UK-exclusives (Brave Story and Welcome the the Space Show) and it is certainly time consuming.

HMV and Anime-on-Line provide the SKU, but not the EAN. Amazon and Play provide neither. I have discovered dvdsource.co.uk which provides both, along with the RRP which is also useful. I also discovered http://www.ean-produktsuche.de/ along the way which is useful for EANs, although seems to be based largely around Amazon.de (while still listing UK and even US barcodes).

How do you feel about Japanese discs?
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dormcat
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Joined: 08 Dec 2003
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Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC
PostPosted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 8:17 pm Reply with quote
Shiroi Hane wrote:
Amazon and Play provide neither.

This is what I don't understand about Amazon: one can search a product using UPC or EAN on Amazon, but such info (apart from EAN-equivalent ISBN-13) is not displayed. I even tried combing through source codes of Amazon pages but couldn't find any.
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Shiroi Hane
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Joined: 25 Oct 2003
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Location: Wales
PostPosted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 2:00 pm Reply with quote
For reference, Borders provides EANs for Australian discs: http://www.borders.com.au/

--edit--

For the UK the British Video Association site quotes both EAN and SKU: http://www.bva.org.uk
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Shiroi Hane
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Joined: 25 Oct 2003
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Location: Wales
PostPosted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 11:54 am Reply with quote
Another FYI (for myself as much as anyone else):

http://www.jbhifionline.com.au/ is ideal for scraping should a tool ever be developed, since the source code contains both SKU and EAN

Code:
<span class="SKU">xxxxxx</span>

Code:
http://radar.jbhifi.com.au/radar/?fuseaction=catalogue.catItemView&amp;barcode=933nnnnnnnnnn
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Dan42
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Location: Montreal
PostPosted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 8:35 am Reply with quote
I was writing a response explaining why adding a EAN field would snowball into heavy modifications, but then I realized I could just skip the snowball. So I've added a EAN field that can be used for Japanese and European items. Like the UPC and ISBN fields it will be very useful to prevent duplicate releases.

Amazon only displays the EAN through its API. So when you submit an amazon URL, the product data is fetched from the Amazon API based on the ASIN, and that contains the EAN which allows to find the same product at other stores.
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Shiroi Hane
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Joined: 25 Oct 2003
Posts: 7578
Location: Wales
PostPosted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 10:59 am Reply with quote
Dan42 wrote:
Amazon only displays the EAN through its API.

Ah, I didn't even realise there was one. As it is, doing it manually it is just as easy to copy it straight of the page one one of the other sites. For the time being I'm mainly going to be sticking to the rare UK/AU exclusives, discs I have bought recently so I can add them to my collection, and anything where I am looking up information on the releases for other reasons anyway.
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dormcat
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 4:06 am Reply with quote
Dan42 wrote:
So I've added a EAN field that can be used for Japanese and European items.

I might be asking it prematurely, but can it be used for non-Japanese, non-European items? Embarassed
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Shiroi Hane
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Joined: 25 Oct 2003
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Location: Wales
PostPosted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 8:26 am Reply with quote
EAN is international ("originally European Article Number, but now renamed International Article Number even though the abbreviation EAN has been retained") but I don't know about you, but I can't enter such things since you have to select the English company who is releasing it. I might be tempted to try adding a few Japanese releases which include sub or dub otherwise, for example.
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dormcat
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Joined: 08 Dec 2003
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Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC
PostPosted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 2:22 pm Reply with quote
Shiroi Hane wrote:
I can't enter such things since you have to select the English company who is releasing it.

Same here, and the problem is not a technical one, but of a site policy.

Although you and I know a way to circumvent the limitation; it's not professional to do so, though.
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