Part I: Requirements

For usage of my skin you will need the following software items:

1. Intervocative’s DVD-Profiler 2.3x and greater
This skin was developed and tested with version 2.3.x. I have no idea if this runs on earlier versions and therefore cannot give any support if used on them. Some features supported by this skin like COLORNAMES and automatic setting of it's language will only be supported by the new version of the DVD-Profiler (2.4.x)

2. Internet Explorer 6.0
As the DVD-Profiler depends on the installation of the Internet Explorer, I assume this being installed in the actual version (>= 6.0).

3. Java Virtual Machine
A Java Virtual Machine (Microsoft or Sun) is not absolutely required, but highly recommended. Some features, such as the Download feature, the Statistics and the management operations do however need Java to be functional.

Typically the MS VM comes installed by default with Internet Explorer. However, as of February 4, 2003 Microsoft has removed Java from XP SP1a. This only effects XP users who did not have the Microsoft Java VM previously installed.

There are still indirect ways to get the VM from Microsoft (e.g. it is contained in the Service Pack 5 for Developer Studio 6.0):
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/downloads/updates/sp/vs6/sp5/default.aspx
but it is no longer supported by Microsoft.

You can however use Sun's VM available at:
http://java.sun.com/j2se/downloads.html

4. DVD Player software
A DVD player software must only be installed if you want to start and view your DVDs inside of the DVD-Profiler. If you want, you may want to get the Freeware Player VLC at http://www.videolan.org/vlc/.

Part II: Installation

Extract the contents of the file "mithirandir_v_153.zip" into a temporary directory, this should give you the files "mithirandir_v_153.dps", "mithirandirDownload_v_153.dps" and "mithirandirs_skin_master.zip" (along with some ReadMe files).

Copy the files "mithirandir_v_153.dps" and "mithirandirDownload_v_153.dps" to your "<DVD-Profiler>\skins" directory (<DVD-Profiler> refers to the installation directory of DVD Profiler).

Extract the file "mithirandirs_skin_master.zip" inside of the Archive "mithirandir_v_153.zip" into the DVD Profiler directory, preserving the included directory structure. This should put

the file "settings.js" in the "<DVD-Profiler>\skins" directory

various *.class files in the "<DVD-Profiler>\java" directory

various subdirectories in the "<DVD-Profiler>\images" directory

various text files in the "<DVD-Profiler>data\infos" directory

To install the java classes, copy or move them to the "classes" directory of your virtual machine:

For the Microsoft VM this is the directory "<Windows>\Java\Classes\" (<Windows> refers to the Windows installation directory of, e.g. "C:\Windows" or "C:\WinNT").

For the Sun VM this is the directory "<Program Files>\Java\j2re1_x.y_z" or "<Program Files>\Java\jre1_x.y_z" (depending on the version of the VM). If the subdirectory \classes does not exist it has to be created.

Notes:

1. When using Sun's VM you must take a closer look at Part V: Troubleshooting .2 (Java Classes Error) in order to create/adjust the necessary policies for the java classes!

2. The required files for the display of Awards must be downloaded separately and placed into the directory "<DVD-Profiler>\data\infos", replacing the existing dummy files.

3. Before starting the skin in DVD Profiler, make sure to verify that ALL settings in "Settings.js" match the situation of your setup! You will definitely encounter problems if not done correctly! With each new version of this skin and each new feature added, there may be some new adjustments necessary in the settings file.

The official download sources of this skin and it's extended files are the following:

http://www.geocities.com/ya_shin/

http://www.dougweb.org/dvdpro/

http://www.mithirandir.de/dvd-profiler/skins/mithirandir_v_153.zip

Part III: Features and Limitations

The skin "Mithirandir's skin" in it's current version 1.53 has the following features and limitations.

Part III.A: Features:

1. Language:

You can set the language of the skin to the values "English", "Deutsch", "Nederlands", "Français" and "Português". If other languages are wanted (like Spanish oder Italian for example), you would have to provide me with the translations of the strings used inside the skin.

2. Tags in the Notes field:

You can use the Notes field to store additional info about the DVD like an alternative title, the original title for foreign films, the IMDB tag or when the DVD was last watched. For that, the relevant information must be enclosed by special tags, these must begin with <TAGNAME> and end with </TAGNAME>, for example <AKA>...</AKA> for the alternative title. The tags are not case sensitive.

Illustration 2: Tags

Currently, the following tags are supported by the skin:

<ORI>:

Displays text from the Notes field that is enclosed in <ORI> </ORI> as Original Title in the title section of the skin. For example <ORI>Lola rennt</ORI> would show the original title for the film "Run Lola Run" (see below).

Illustration 3: <AKA> and <ORI > tags

<AKA>:

Displays text from Notes field that is enclosed in <AKA> </AKA> as Alternative Title in the title section of the skin. For example <AKA>The Gates of Hell</AKA> would show the alternative title for the film "City of the Living Dead".

<COUNTRY>:

Displays text from Notes field that is enclosed in <COUNTRY> </COUNTRY> as production country for the current title in the title section of the skin. For example <COUNTRY>USA</COUNTRY>.

Illustration 4: <COUNTRY> tag

<TAGLINE>:

Displays text from Notes field that is enclosed in <TAGLINE> </TAGLINE> as tag line, for example <TAGLINE>In space, no one can hear you scream.</TAGLINE> would show the tagline for the film "Alien" under the title in the header of the skin.

Illustration 5: <TAGLINE> tag

<WATCHED>:

Displays text from Notes field that is enclosed in <WATCHED> </WATCHED> as date when the DVD was watched in the "Pers. Infos" tab. For example <WATCHED>2005-03-18</WATCHED>. Since DVD Profiler 2.4 the "Last Watched" date is also shown here.

<STORAGE>:

Displays text from Notes field that is enclosed in <STORAGE> </STORAGE> as storage place for the current DVD in the "Pers. Infos" tab. For example: <STORAGE>Living Room</STORAGE>

Beginning with version 1.53 of this skin, you can also define the path to the DVD itself if it has been copied to the hard drive, for example

<storage>M:\Movies\Disney\LITTLEMERMAID\VIDEO_TS\VIDEO_TS.VOB</storage>

for the complete DVD structure or

<storage>M:\Movies\FantasticFour.mpg</storage>

for the movie as a single file. The skin is even able to play the movie, for that you will need the installation and definition of an external DVD player program inside of the skins settings (see Part IV: Customization for options).

<COMMENTS>:

Displays text from Notes field that is enclosed in <COMMENTS> </COMMENTS> as comment for the current DVD in the "Pers. Infos" tab. For example <COMMENTS>2-DVD</COMMENTS> or <COMMENT>Made for TV</COMMENT>

Illustration 6: <WATCHED>, <STORAGE>, and <COMMENTS> tags

<STUDIOS>:

Displays text from Notes field that is enclosed in <STUDIOS> </STUDIOS> as additional studios for the current DVD. For example <STUDIOS>Marvel Entertainment, BMG Video<STUDIOS>. This allow the user to display more than the three studios allowed within DVD Profiler; given the amount of companies involved in making movies, this is occasionally necessary.

<GENRES>:

Displays text from Notes field that is enclosed in <GENRES> </GENRES> as additional genres for the current DVD. For example <GENRES>Mystery, Crime</GENRES>. This allows the user to assign more than three genres per DVD or use additional Genres, not defined in DVD Profiler.

<RUNTIME>:

Displays text from Notes field that is enclosed in <RUNTIME> </RUNTIME> as runtime of the DVD in an extended format. For example: <RUNTIME > 1:37:14 </RUNTIME>. This allow the user to display a more precise runtime than supported by DVD Profiler. This may be interesting for horror films and the related Cut/Uncut situation. The supported formats are: "hh:mm:ss" as well as "mmm:ss", e.g. "01:37:14“ or „97:14“.

Illustration 7: <RUNTIME> tag

<URL>:

Declares the text enclosed by <URL> and </URL > as a direct Web-Link to the official Website of the arbitrary movie, for example

<URL> http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/underworldevolution/ </ URL >.

Illustration 8: <URL tag>

<CUSTOM>:

Displays text from Notes field that is enclosed in <CUSTOM> and </CUSTOM> as user defined description for the current DVD. The <CUSTOM> tag supports HTML code, such as the integration of images or background images, playing of music or sounds, setting of back- or foreground colors as well as many other HTML tags. Some HTML code will, however, not be displayed properly, as the HTML parser used by the skin does not support .all available HTML tags. The contents of the <CUSTOM> Tag is shown on a special tab page, which name can be adjusted with the variable “CustomTabName” inside of the settings file.

<IMDB>:

Uses text from Notes field that is enclosed in <IMDB> </IMDB> as a direct IMDb link in the "Pers. Infos" tab.

For example <IMDB>tt0130827</IMDB> would provide the direct link for the film "Run Lola Run" in the IMDb (see Part IV: Customization for options).

The format of the link can be adjusted in the settings by means of the variable IMDB_Title (see also: Part IV: Customization), wherein <TITLE> will be replaced by the Title of the selected profile, <YEAR> will be replaced by the production year of the selected profile and <LINK> will be replaced by the actual link

For example, the format "<TITLE> (<YEAR>) [<LINK>] will result in the display as shown in Illustration 8:

Illustration 9: <IMDB>, <RATING> and <VOTES> Tags

<RATING>:

Displays text from Notes field that is enclosed in <RATING> </RATING> as IMDb rating of the current DVD in the "Pers. Infos" tab. For example <RATING>8.2/10</RATING>.

<VOTES>:

Displays text from Notes field that is enclosed in <VOTES> </VOTES> as number of IMDB votes for the current DVD in the "Pers. Infos" tab. For example <VOTES>7.351</VOTES>.

<QUOTES>:

Displays text from the Notes field that is enclosed in <QUOTES> </QUOTES> as quotes collection for the current DVD in the Add. Infos tab.

Illustration 10: <QUOTES>-tag

<TRIVIA>:

Displays text from the Notes field that is enclosed in <TRIVIA> </TRIVIA> as trivia collection for the current DVD in the Add. Infos tab.

Illustration 11: <TRIVIA>-Tag

<GOOFS>:

Displays text from the Notes field that is enclosed in <GOOFS> </GOOFS> as collection of Goofs for the current DVD in the Add. Infos tab.

Illustration 12: <GOOFS> tag

<REVIEWS>:

Displays text from the Notes field that that is enclosed in <REVIEWS> </REVIEWS> as collection of reviews for the current DVD in the Add. Infos tab.

Illustration 13: <REVIEWS> tag

<DETAILS>:

Displays text from Notes field that is enclosed in <DETAILS> and </DETAILS> as detailed description for the current DVD, for example TV episode guides (EPGs) or track listings for music DVDs, as these often exceed the capabilities of the Overview field.

The <DETAILS> tag supports HTML code, such as the integration of images or background images, playing of music or sounds, setting of back- or foreground colors as well as many other HTML tags. Some HTML code will, however, not be displayed properly, as the HTML parser used by the skin does not support .all available HTML tags.

This feature was mainly implemented to support the EPG project of user addicted2dvd. Take a look at "http://dvd.snowhopers.com/epg/"!

Illustration 14: <DETAILS> Tag (EPG)

Illustration 15:Entering the <DETAILS> tag for EPGs

Notes:

1. To use EPG's, download the definitions located at the URL given above. Copy existing pictures to the path you defined in the settings file ("MyDetailsPath", see also Part IV: Customization) and insert the HTML text of the EPG into the Notes field. Afterwards, enclose it by <DETAILS> and </DETAILS>.

2. Optionally you can remove the paths of the pictures inside of the HTML code, as this is replaced by the path defined by the variable "MyDetailsPath" from the settings. However, if you do this, the images will not be displayed when the Notes field is viewed with other skins.

3. Music files (Midi/MP3) which are possibly included in the EPG could collide with the support of audio files inside the gallery. So it would be best do disable one of them.

4. Alternatively to entering it into the Notes field, beginning with the version 1.52 the content of the <DETAILS> tag can also be read from an external file. In order to do this, the filename of the EPG must be entered into the "Titles.txt" file. For example, the entry "German/24 – Season 1- Mithirandir.html" would read the content of the file
"<MyInfosPath>/Details/German/24 – Season 1 – Mithirandir.html"

5. Alternatively to entering it into the Notes field, beginning with the version 1.52 the content of the <QUOTES>, <TRIVIA>,<GOOFS> and <REVIEWS> tags can also be read from an external file. These files must be placed in the folder(s) <MyInfosPath>/<Tag> (e.g. <MyInfosPath>/Quotes) and their name must have the structure <title>_<year>.<tag>.html, with <title> being the local or original title of the DVD (characters that cannot be used for filenames will be replaced by "_"). For example for the film "Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope":you would use:

<MyInfosPath>/Quotes/Star Wars_ Episode IV_ A New Hope_1977.qotes.html

<MyInfosPath>/Goofs/Star Wars_1977.goofs.html

3. Headshot display:

Headshots are small images /typically showing the head only) of actors/actresses or crew members. To use this feature you must create a directory called "headshots" in the image directory of the DVD profiler directory (this would usually be "<DVD Profiler>\IMAGES\headshots") and place your pictures in there. This path must also be adjusted in the variable "MyHeadshotsPath" in the settings file to allow access (see also: Part IV: Customization).

Illustration 16: Headshots

The naming convention for the headshot files is "<name>.gif" or "<name>.jpg", where <name> consists of all parts of the name exactly as spelled in the actor listing. So for Mel Brooks it would be "Mel Brooks.gif" or "Mel Brooks.jpg" and for Brooks, Mel (setting in DVDPro options) it would be "Brooks, Mel.gif" or "Brooks, Mel.jpg". I suggest you chose one way and stick with it.

Illustration 17: Options

A special case is if the name of the actor/actress/crew member only consists of one single word, like "Cher" for example. In contrast to other skins the headshot may also be named "Cher.jpg" or "Cher.gif" instead of "Cher .jpg" or "Cher .gif" (note the space between the name and the extension).

From version 1.51 of this skin it is possible to display an overview of the available headshots for the currently selected profile, shown below the credits listing in the "Prod. Infos" tab. This is activated by means of the variable "ALL_HEADS" in the settings (see also Part IV: Customization).

Illustration 18: Headshot Overview

4. Gallery:

In order to utilize existing poster and gallery pictures, the gallery and slide-show feature was added.

Illustration 19: Gallery

For use with DVD Profiler each DVD must have a corresponding subdirectory named "<UPC>" in the Gallery base directory ("<DVD-Profiler>\IMAGES\Gallery\") in order to allow proper identification: "<DVD-Profiler>\IMAGES\Gallery\<UPC>". where <UPC> equals the UPC/EAN of the DVD within DVD Profiler. For Example the gallery for the R1 DVD of "2001 - A Space Odyssey" would be located at "<DVD-Profiler>\IMAGES\Gallery\1256950002". The gallery base path must also be adjusted in the variable "MyGalleryPath" inside of the settings file to allow access (see also: Part IV: Customization).

If gallery images exist, a narrow strip is displayed at the top between the title area and the main window with characters denoting the gallery items:

Illustration 20: Gallery access bar

„P"	Poster	(filename begins with „poster")
„T"	Title images (screenshots of film title)	(filename begins with „title")
„S"	Screenshots	(filename begins with „screenshot")
„D"	Pictures shot on filming location	(filename begins with „shooting")
„M"	Menu screenshots	(filename begins with „menu")
„C"	Alternate covers	(filename begins with „cover")
„V"	Film-Trailer or other video files	(recognized by file extension
„A"	Music or other audio files	(recognized by file extension)
„DVD"	The complete Movie	(recognized by <STORAGE>-Tag)

All other items are sequentially numbered.

Display of these items is triggered by "mouse-over". If you move the mouse pointer away displaying or playing the item will be stopped and the normal skin window is shown again.

Illustration 21: Gallery- Image

Clicking on the strip will open a Windows Explorer window of the gallery subdirectory to help you keeping the gallery organized.

4a. Images:

Supported images types are: *.gif, *.jpg, *.bmp and *.png.

In addition to the regular display of images you can see an overview over all images using "<ALL>" or a slide show using "<SHOW>".

Illustration 22: Gallery- Overview

If any gallery picture exists, the tab page named "Gallery" on the right side will contain thumbnails of the gallery pictures; clicking a thumb will display the selected picture.

Typically, title pictures (screenshots of the onscreen movie title) are just part of the picture gallery (like posters), but there are some other modes which can be set up in the settings:

Illustration 23: Title image

It is for example possible to have the title image ("title.jpg" or "title.gif") displayed by hovering with the mouse pointer over the Title. Alternatively it is also possible to display the title image only or a combination of the title image and text. You will find more details about this in the Customization section (Part IV: Customization).

4b. Video and Audiofiles:

Video and Audio files are stored in the gallery directory similar to gallery images. The skin looks for *.mov, *.avi, *.wmv, *.asf and *.mpg video files as well as *.wma, *.wav, *.mid and *.mp3 audio files. The skin will only play formats which have a plug-in installed. You can test it by trying to open the file in Internet Explorer.

Video files will play at their standard size. An exception are Quicktime files (*.mov) which will be played at the standard size 320x200 To override this behavior you can include the dimensions in the filename. e.g. trailer(320x160).mov, trailer_480.mov or just (480x200).avi. If dimensions are explicitly given, TRAILER_FACTOR from the settings will be applied (see also: Part IV: Customization).

Illustration 24: Gallery- Trailer

If a sound file "title.mp3" or "title.mid" exists in the gallery, the skin will play it automatically as background music when the profile for the DVD is opened. In the settings it can be selected if the file is to be played once or looped (see also: Part IV: Customization).

As a new feature the handling of background music was substantially modified for version v1.52. An additional Gallery folder <MyThemesPath> was introduced to store music files. This serves mainly to handle common music tracks for several DVDs, such as TV Series, so that the same files do not have to be placed in several different Gallery folders.

In order to associate the tracks in the common folder with a DVD/ several DVDs, the filename must adhere to a certain format: <Title>.<Extension> or <Title> - <Description>.<Extension>, with <Title> being the local or original title of the DVD, <Description> being some kind of description of the music track and <Extension> being the file extension DVD (characters that cannot be used for filenames will be replaced by "_"). For example:

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer.mp3"

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Main Title.wma"

4c. DVD Playback:

Playback of complete DVDs was integrated into the skin as a new feature in Version V1.53, either supported as a single file or as a copy of the complete DVD structure. For playing the contents of the movie, the skin uses an external DVD player software, which must be downloaded and installed independently from the skin. A necessary condition for the player software is, that the player can be started (and configured) via the command line and that it is able to play DVD structures from hard disk folders. I personally use and recommend the Freeware player software „VLC“, which can be downloaded under the URL http://www.videolan.org/vlc/.

After the installation of your player software, you have to define the path to it’s executable and the desired options of your favoured player with the variables PlayDVD“ and „PlayDVDOptions“ inside of the skin’s settings (see also: Part IV: Customization), for example.

var PlayDVD = "C:/Program Files/VideoLAN/VLC/VLC.EXE";
var PlayDVDOptions = "-f";

You can read about the options supported by your player software inside of the arbitrary manual, for example the “-f” option advises the player of the VLC software to start in full screen mode.

The path to the DVD structure of the current movie itself must be given to the skin by usage of the <Storage>-Tag either directly or with the external data file „Titles.txt“. Examples for that would be:

M:\Movies\Disney\LITTLEMERMAID\VIDEO_TS\VIDEO_TS.VOB

for a complete DVD structure or

M:\Movies\FantasticFour.mpg

for the main movie as a single file, here in MPEG video format.

Notes:

1. The number of the file formats supported for DVD playback only depends from the external player software and not from the skin itself. The player „VLC“ recommended by me supports all common video formats like MPEG, DivX, AVI and Quicktime.

2. Please notice that the external player software must first be closed before you can continue using DVD-Profiler.

5. Links to other websites:

5a. Standard Buttons

The skins provides you with some buttons, providing some fixed defined links to standard sites. Five of them are located at the bottom of the "Overview" tab page, the last on the "Pers. Infos" tab page.

Illustration 25: Standard Buttons

IMDb Search:

Searches for the entry of the current title in the Internet Movie Database. "www.imdb.com" for international resp. "german.imdb.com" for German users (depending on the language setting of the skin).

OFDB Search:

Searches the entry of the current title in the "Online Film Datenbank" "www.ofdb.de". Especially useful for the cut/uncut problematics of your DVDs.

DVD-Live Review:

Opens the review for the current title on the server of the German DVD Forum "DVD-Live" "www.dvd-live.de". This is a very nice German forum with very cool reviews.

Google Review:

Searches for reviews for the current title on the Google server "www.google.com".

MRQE Review:

Searches for reviews for the current title on the MRQE server (Movie Review Query Engine) www.mrqe.com.

Price finder:

As Intervocative’s standard Pricefinder does not apply to German titles and dealers, this gives you the opportunity to make a price comparison for the current title, too.

5b. IMDb Content

In addition to the above mentioned 6 buttons the five buttons at the end of the Add. Infos tab provide links to the quotes, trivia, goofs, soundtrack listing and external review sub-pages at IMDb.

Illustration 26: IMDb Content buttons

5c. User defined buttons

In addition to the above you have the possibility to define the title and the contents for four user defined buttons, which can also be found on the "Pers. Infos" tab page. Titles and URLs for these user defined buttons can be adjusted in the settings (see also: Part IV: Customization)., the skin will replace the word <TITLE> inside of the URL by the title of the actual disc, for example "http://www.allocine.fr/recherche/?motcle<TITLE>".

Illustration 27: User defined buttons

With these buttons it is also possible to called local applications. One could for example start the HTML application "DVD-Folks" (which can be downloaded at "http://www.dougweb.org/dvdpro/dvdfolks") by the following URL given in the settings:
"file://C:/Programme/InterVocative Software/DVD Profiler/skins/DVDFolks0.8.hta"
(Please note the use of "/"!).

Illustration 28: DVDFolks

6. Cover images:

6a. Standard Covers:

The path to the cover images (usually "<DVD Profiler<\IMAGES") must be adjusted in the variable "MyCoversPath" inside of the settings file to allow access (see also: Part IV: Customization)!

There a some enhancements to the standard cover display. Clicking a picture in the "Cover" tab with the left mouse button will display it for a (configurable) amount of time, clicking it with the right mouse button will display both front and back cover horizontally arranged.

Illustration 29: Simple Cover display

Illustration 30: Extended Cover display

6b. Alternate Covers:

Beginning with version v1.53, alternate covers are supported inside of the gallery. If a gallery picture contains pictures which filenames contain the string "cover", they will be treated as alternate covers and displayed with a "C" inside of the gallery bar. This could be useful for storing different covers of newer/older releases of a DVD, additional pictures for the drawers (or their contents) and for special pictures of digipacks like the "TCM - Saw Edition", which are too big for the normal cover display.

6c. Revolving:

If you enable "Revolving" in the settings (see also: Part IV: Customization), both covers images are displayed with the "Revolving Spinning Effect" (3D rotation). Large display of the two covers is now only possible with the slideshow feature.

Illustration 31: Revolving Feature

Note:

If you get the error message "Cannot create Object" after activating the Revolving feature, please refer to the measures described in Part V: Troubleshooting 3.

7. Awards:

From version 1.40 of this skin, it will support the four big award types (in versions 1.51/1.52 a fifth and a sixth award type was added) and display the awards of the current movie in the "Awards" tab page. In order to provide the skin with the necessary information, the arbitrary data files must be located in the directory defined in the variable "MyInfosPath" ("<DVD-Profiler>\data\infos\" by standard) in the settings file (see also: Part IV: Customization).

Illustration 32: Awards

The following information is available:

Academy Awards (Oscars):

Contains the Academy Award winners and nominations from the beginning to the present time. The files are different for the various languages, for example "academy_awards_ger.txt" contains the German version while "academy_awards_eng.txt" contains the English version.

Golden Globes:

Contains the Golden Globe winners and nominations from the beginning to the present time. The files are different for the various languages, for example "golden_globes_ger.txt" contains the German version while "golden_globes_eng.txt" contains the English version.

Berlinale:

Contains the Berlinale winners and nominations from the beginning to the present time. The files are different for the various languages, for example "berlinale_ger.txt" contains the German version while "berlinale_eng.txt" contains the English version.

Cannes Festival:

Contains the Cannes Film Festival winners and nominations from the beginning until the present time. The files are different for the various languages, for example "cannes_festival_ger.txt" contains the German version while "cannes_festival_eng.txt" contains the English version.

BAFTA:

Contains the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards winners and nominations from the beginning to the present time. The files are different for the various languages, for example "bafta_ger.txt" contains the German version while "bafta_eng.txt" contains the English version.

Saturn Awards:

Contains the Saturn Awards Awards winners and nominations from the beginning to the present time. The files are different for the various languages, for example "saturn_awards_ger.txt" contains the German version while "saturn_awards_eng.txt" contains the English version.

All these files are specially formatted text files which have the following structure:

for example:

Finding Neverland|Wenn Träume fliegen lernen|Finding Neverland|2004|USA| Academy Award|Best Picture||Richard N. Gladstein, Nellie Bellflower|77th|6987

Million Dollar Baby|Million Dollar Baby|Million Dollar Baby|2004|USA| Academy Award|Best Picture|X|Clint Eastwood|77th|7016

All rows are separated by <CR>, all entries within a row by the character "|".

Coordination and maintenance of the award files (at least for the English Version) is the responsibility of ya_shin.

Since the award data files - at least partially - depend on the language and maintenance of these files is a lot of work, we would gracefully accept translations into some other languages!

Note:

The data files for the Awards must be downloaded separately from one of the above-mentioned URLs. On the one hand it is not useful to add the files for all language into the installation package of the skin, on the other hand this will make it easier to maintain the files and keep them up to date.
8. Other data:

8a. Titles:

From version 1.40 of this skin, additional information about the whole collection, such as the original titles of the movies, is looked up in data file called "Titles.txt" and displayed if available. This will save you from manually adjusting the <ORI>, <AKA>, <TAGLINE>, <STORAGE>, <COUNTRY> <COMMENT> <STUDIOS>, <GENRES> and <RUNTIME> tag for each disc inside of your collection in the Notes fields.

This file is a specially formatted text file which has the following structure since v1.45:

for example:

Der Schuh des Manitu|Der Schuh des Manitu|2001|1183|2-DVD|Manitou's Shoe|0|
Die neue Komödie von Bully|0|Germany|tt0248408|BMG Video|Komödie|82|82|0|
http://www.periode1.de/

24 - Season One|24|2001|35|7-DVD|0|0|Every Second Counts|0|USA|tt0285331|
20th Century Fox|Thriller|1080|German/24 - Season 1 - Mithirandir.html|
http://www.24-dieserie.de/

All rows are separated by <CR>, all entries within a row by the character "|". If an information is not needed or available, leave it empty or enter "0". This file must be maintained by the user and kept up to date, if this feature is to be used. Personally I use a spreadsheet for the data and use the Export function to create the "Titles.txt".

The file "Titles.txt" must be stored at the location defined in the variable "MyInfosPath" inside of the settings file ("<DVD-Profiler>\data\infos\" by standard) to allow access (see also: Part IV: Customization).

Note:

The file also plays an important role regarding the download feature, because many more files (posters, title and gallery pictures, trailers) will be found if the Original or US title is available than for the localized (for example French or German) titles.

8b. Ratings:

From version 1.45 of this skin, it will support direct links to the IMDB and the IMDb ratings for the the whole collection provided in a new data file called "Ratings.txt".

Illustration 33: IMDb Ratings

This file is a specially formatted text file which has the following structure:

for example:

The Godfather|0|1972|tt0068646|9.1/10|122,609

All rows are separated by <CR>, all entries within a row by the character "|".

The file "Ratings.txt" must be at the location defined in the variable "MyInfosPath" inside of the settings file ("<DVD-Profiler>\data\infos\" by standard) to allow access (see also: Part IV: Customization).

Note:

This file can be automatically generated by the management operations of the current version of this skin. Be aware that, depending on the size of your collection, this can take a long time. You need an open Internet connection and the "Applet" tab must be selected for this to work.

8c. Rankings:

From version 1.50 of this skin, it will support the Top-/Bottom-Lists of the IMDb in Form of the following data files:

„imdb_top_250_films.txt" "IMDB Top 250 Movies of All-Time"

„imdb_bottom_100_films.txt" "IMDB 100 Worst Films of All-Time"

„imdb_usatopmovies.txt" "IMDB Tops at the Box-Office (USA)"

„imdb_intltopmovies.txt" "IMDB Tops at the Box-Office (International)"

„imdb_worldtopmovies.txt" "IMDB Tops at the Box-Office (World Wide)"

„imdb_toprated_genres.txt" "IMDB Top-Rated Films by Genre"

„imdb_bottomrated_genres.txt" "IMDB Top-Rated Films by Decade"

„imdb_toprated_decades.txt" "IMDB Top-Rated Films by Gender"

„imdb_bottomrated_decades.txt" "IMDB Bottom-Rated Films by Genre"

„imdb_toprated_gender.txt" "IMDB Bottom-Rated Films by Decade"

„imdb_bottomrated_gender.txt" "IMDB Bottom-Rated Films by Gender"

Illustration 34: IMDb Top-Lists (Rankings)

All these files are specially formatted text files in a proprietary file format developed by me for that purpose.

All files must be stored in the location defined in the variable "MyInfosPath" inside of the settings file ("<DVD-Profiler>\data\infos\" by standard) to allow access (see also: Part IV: Customization).

Note:

These files can be automatically generated by the management operations of the current version of this skin.

8d. Statistics:

From version 1.50 of this skin, it supports statistics of the the whole collection, for example number of profiles regarding genre, production year, studio, audio format or aspect ratio as well as the top values regarding running time, most collected actors, directors, writers, producers and composers to be provided in a data file called "Statistics.txt".

Illustration 35: Statistics

This file is a specially formatted text file in a proprietary file format developed by me for that purpose.

The file must be stored in the location defined in the variable "MyInfosPath" inside of the settings file ("<DVD-Profiler>\data\infos\" by standard) to allow access (see also: Part IV: Customization).

In the amount of Top items to be displayed can be adjusted with the variable MAX_STATISTICS inside of the settings file.

Note:

This file can be automatically generated by the management operations of the current version of this skin. Be aware that, depending on the size of your collection, this can take a long time.

8e. Award Statistics:

From version 1.52 of this skin, it supports Award statistics for the whole collection, such as number of profiles with Awards, Oscars, Golden Globes, Cannes Awards, Berlinale, BAFTA or Saturn Awards. The data for this features is stored in a file named "Award_Statistics.txt" and will be displayed if available.

Illustration 36: Awards Statistics

This file is a specially formatted text file in a proprietary file format developed by me for that purpose.

The file "Award_Statistics.txt" must be stored in the location defined in the variable "MyInfosPath" inside of the settings file ("<DVD-Profiler>\data\infos\" by standard) to allow access (see also: Part IV: Customization).

Note:

The file "Award_Statistics.txt" can be automatically generated by the management operations of the current version of this skin. Be aware that, depending on the size of your collection, this can take a long time.

8f. IMDb Ranking Statistics:

From version 1.52 of this skin, it supports statistics regarding the IMDb Rankings for the whole collection, such as number of profiles in the IMDb Top 250, Bottom 100, Top Boxoffice, Top/Bootom by Genre, Decade and Gender. The data for this features is stored in a file named "Ranking_Statistics.txt" and will be displayed if available.

Illustration 37: Ranking Statistics

This file is a specially formatted text file in a proprietary file format developed by me for that purpose.

The file "Ranking_Statistics.txt" must be stored in the location defined in the variable "MyInfosPath" inside of the settings file ("<DVD-Profiler>\data\infos\" by standard) to allow access (see also: Part IV: Customization).

Note:

9. Other Features:

From version 1.43 of this skin, it will support the following new features:

9.a Extended Box Sets display:

The cover images of all DVD's included in a Box Set have been incorporated into the "Disc Infos" tab page (provided they are available).

Illustration 38: Extended Box Set-display

Clicking a picture with the left mouse button will display it for an amount of time configured in the settings, clicking it with the right mouse button will display an overview of all.

Illustration 39: Extended Box Set display (Overview)

9.b COLORNAMES Support:

One new feature of the DVD-Profiler 2.4 is the optional color marking of the names of actors/actresses and crew members. With this feature, first, middle and last names are shown with different colors for enhanced clarity.

Illustration 40: ColorNames (DVD-Profiler 2.4.0)

9.c Automatic language setting:

One other new feature of the DVD-Profiler 2.4 is the possibility to provide the skin with version number, language and installation path of the program. With the current version, the language of the skin will be automatically adjusted to the current language of the DVD-Profiler and does not have to be adjusted manually in the settings file.

9.d Debug-Output

In order to allow or at least ease the troubleshooting in case of problems with the skin, debug output has been incorporated in the skin. This output will be displayed on the "Debug" tab page. To enable this, when needed, the variable "Debug" in the settings file must be set to "true" (see also: Part IV: Customization).

Illustration 41: Automatic language selection and Debug tab page
10. Downloads:

From version 1.50 of this skin it is no longer necessary to manually download additional multimedia contents like headshots, posters, title screens and trailers and copy them to the correct location.

For this purpose, the download feature was developed as an additional skin (for the users with small resolution displays) and also integrated into this skin. The feature consists of the following three tab pages:

10.a: Applet:

The Applet is the direct link to the Java class mithirandirDownload. Here, debug information and other status output of the java class (which is responsible for the download itself) will displayed. By default only output regarding successful downloads or error messages will be shown here.

Illustration 42: Download Applet

However, by checking the "debug" checkbox in the upper section of the applet it is possible to display additional debug output (which will be indicated by a "D" at the beginning of the row) s well as additional status information (which will be indicated by a "V" at the beginning of the row) by checking the "verbose" checkbox.

10.b: Download:

The tab page "Download" is the actual user interface for the download feature

Illustration 43: Download tab page

The tab page contains five check boxes, where you can select which content is to be searched and downloaded if available:

"Headshots" headshots of the actors, actresses and crew members

"Core" posters, titles and gallery pictures

"Trailers" trailers

"Extended" extended posters and gallery pictures

"Auto Download" download will begin automatically each a new profile is selected
(not recommended)

The default values for these checkboxes can be adjusted in the settings file (see also: Part IV: Customization).

The tab page also provides you with three buttons, which start the download of the selected elements:

"Download current" starts the download for the currently selected profile.

"Download Some" starts the download for a user defined selection of discs, for example from collection number "1" to "100" or all titles from "A" to "B"

"Download All" starts the download for whole collection

10.c: Log:

The tab page "Log" contains the log for all activities of the download feature.

Illustration 44: Download Log

Notes:

1. The amount of downloaded elements will increase !substantially! if original title and the US title are provided by means of file "Titles.txt". I encourage you to keep that file in a current state, even if that means a lot of work.

2. Downloading elements for many discs or the whole collection can only be done, if the necessary data files have been generated by the user (see also: Chapter 11.a Download Management Operations). This can partially be made automatically; for all users of Non-English speaking countries there remains however an amount of work by manually adjusting the file "Titles.txt" if good download results are desired (see also: Note 1).

3. It may be necessary to change the profile after selecting the "Applet" tab before it becomes active!

4. If a gallery item "1.jpg" already exists, the download function will not be executed in order to avoid existing images to be overwritten.

5. Depending on the size of your collection, the elements selected (e.g. trailers and/or headshots) and your internet speed, the download can take a long time!

6. In order to support this skin in the current version with small resolution screens, the download feature has been additionally separated in the "mithirandirDownload_v_151" skin.

Illustration 45: Download skin "mithirandirDownload"

11. Management Operations:

From version 1.50 of this skin, several of the data files required for the display of the kin's features can be created automatically. This is done by means of the management operations, which can be found in the "Management" tab page.

Illustration 46: Management Operations

The management operations are broken down into three sections:

11 a. Download Management Operations:

The download management operations are meant for the support of the download feature. To be able to download multimedia contents (like galleries) for more than the current profile, the download feature needs information about the whole collection which are not provided by DVD-Profiler, such as the Titles for all DVDs in your collection and other data. This information must be provided to the skin in form of data files.

The first thing to do is Export your profile database to a file (File -> Export Profile Database). Choose XML Format for the output and Owned as filter criteria. Path and name of the output file (normally: "Collection.xml") must match the defined values of the variables "MyCollectionPath" and "MyXMLCollectionFile" in the settings file (see also: Part IV: Customization).

Illustration 47: Export Profile Database

With the button "Generate titles" within the Download management operations, a text file is created from the exported XML file mentioned above, which contains all information needed for the download feature. The value of "MyCollectionPath" will be used as path (that's the same directory where the XML file is located), the value of the variable "MyTxtCollectionFile" (normally "Collection.txt") is used as it's name. This file will be used for downloads for more than one DVD if the language of DVD Profiler / the skin is set to English.

Illustration 48: Download management-operations

With the button "Mix files", the download related information of the two data files "Titles.txt" (Original Title and US_Title) and "Collection.txt" (all) is combined and written to the new file "NewTitles.txt" which is stored in the location defined in the variable "MyInfosPath" ("<DVD-Profiler>\data\infos\" by standard). This file will be used for downloads for more than one DVD if the language of DVD Profiler / the skin is set to another language than English.

With the button "Generate Ratings", the file "Ratings.txt" needed for the ratings feature (see also: Chapter 8b. Ratings) will be generated. If the language of DVD Profiler / the skin is set to English, the value of the variable "MyTxtCollectionFile" ("Collection.txt" by standard) is used as the source, otherwise the file "Titles.txt" is used. For this, an Internet connection is required and the "Applet" tab must be selected and active for this to work. Be aware that, depending on the size of your collection, this can take a long time.

11 b. Datafiles Management Operations:

The Datafiles Management Operations are used for the automatic creation of the data files required by the skin for its various features.

Illustration 49: Datafiles Management-Operations

The button "Generate IMDB Rankings" will automatically create the ranking files

„imdb_top_250_films.txt"

„imdb_bottom_100_films.txt"

„imdb_usatopmovies.txt"

„imdb_intltopmovies.txt"

„imdb_worldtopmovies.txt

„imdb_toprated_genres.txt"

„imdb_bottomrated_genres.txt"

„imdb_toprated_decades.txt"

„imdb_bottomrated_decades.txt"

„imdb_toprated_gender.txt"

„imdb_bottomrated_gender.txt")

(see also Chapter 8c. Rankings). For this an Internet connection is required and the "Applet" tab must be selected and active. Be aware that, depending on the size of your collection, this can take a long time

The button "Generate IMDb Data" will create the file "imdb_data.txt" with the content IMDb-Link, Tagline, Country, US-Title, Alternative Title and foreign Titles collected from the IMDb. For this an Internet connection is required and the "Applet" tab must be selected and active. Be aware that, depending on the size of your collection, this can take a long time. This file is not used directly by the skin. The collected data must be copied manually to "Titles.txt" for use!

The button "Generate Statistics" creates the data file "Statistics.txt" which is needed for the statistics feature (see also: Chapter 8d. Statistics). For this it is not necessary to be connected to the Internet.

The button "Generate Awards" creates the data file "Award_Statistics.txt" which is needed for the Awards Statistics feature (see also: Chapter 8e. Award Statistics). For this it is not necessary to be connected to the Internet.

The button "Generate Rankings" creates the data file "Ranking_Statistics.txt" which is needed for the IMDb Ranking Statistics feature (see also: Chapter 8f. IMDb Ranking Statistics). For this it is not necessary to be connected to the Internet.

11 c. Gallery Management Operations:

The Gallery management operations are meant to ease the maintenance of the galleries.

Illustration 50: Gallery Management Functions

With the button "Create Folder", you can manually create the gallery folder for the current title. Clicking the button "Open folder" will open an Explorer window of the gallery directory of the current title to help keeping the gallery organized. With the "Delete Folder", the gallery directory of the current title and all it's contents will be erased.

Notes:

1. In order to support this skin in the current version with small resolution screens, the download feature has been additionally separated in the "mithirandirDownload_v_151" skin.

2. The creation of the data file "Ratings.txt" and "imdb_data.txt" will take a long of time for large collections, as a search within the IMDb must be done for each title (so please be patient).

3. The duration of generating the statistics grows exponentially (not linear!) with the size of the collection! This requires patience as well.

4. The functionality of the "Generate Ratings" and "Generate IMDb Data" buttons have been implemented in the external tool Re@nimator v2.0 for parallel use. For the use of this tool the Microsoft Java VM must be installed

12. Layout settings:

From version 1.50 of this skin many adjustments to the layout can be done within the settings (see also: Part IV: Customization).

Since it's beginnings, the skin consists of these three main sections:

The Title.

The Gallery Control Bar (if gallery items are available).

The Main Window of the skin.

12 a. Adjustments to the Title

Illustration 51: Title: standard display

The Title displays the title of the currently selected profile as well as the collection status: (Collection No. if Owned, Ordered or Wish List). On the left side an Avatar is shown and the logo of the DVD-Live website on the right.

If the option "TITLETAGLINE" in the settings is set to "true", the collection status is replaced with the movie's tagline (if it is available). Additionally the color of the tagline can be adjusted with the value "TITLETAGCOLOR".

Illustration 52: Title: with tagline and title image

Furthermore it is possible to replace the text title with a small image of a screenshot of the movie's title (title image), as shown during the movie's credits. This is controlled by the value of the variable "SHOW_TITLE" in the settings. The following settings are available:

Value:	Function:
SHOW_TITLE = 3	Mouse-over over the text title will display the title image (title.jpg or title.gif), if available, instead. On mouse-out the text title will be displayed again.
SHOW_TITLE = 2	If existing, the title image will be displayed only.
SHOW_TITLE = 1	The title image (if available) will be displayed together with the collection status or the tagline (depending on "TITLETAGLINE").
SHOW_TITLE = 0	The text title of the profile is displayed only.

The title image must be located in the Gallery folder of the current DVD or in the common folder for title images <MyTitlesPath>. The latter is intended to be used when several DVDs have the same title images, such as TV Series; it will not be necessary to save the same images in several different gallery folders.

In order to associate the images in the common folder with a DVD/ several DVDs, the filename must adhere to a certain format: <Title>.<Extension>, with <Title> being the local or original title of the DVD, <Description> being some kind of description of the music track and <Extension> being the file extension DVD (characters that cannot be used for filenames will be replaced by "_"). For example:

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer.gif"

“Star Trek_ The Original Series.jpg”

12 b. Adjustments to the Gallery Control Bar

Illustration 53: Gallery Control Bar: standard display

The Gallery Control Bar is used for direct access to the Gallery contents. It is, however, only displayed if Gallery content is available.

Value:	Function:
GALBAR_POSTERS	Show posters in the Gallery Control Bar
GALBAR_TITLES	Show titles in the Gallery Control Bar
GALBAR_SCREENS	Show screenshots in the Gallery Control Bar
GALBAR_SHOOTS	Show pictures from the set in the Gallery Control Bar
GALBAR_MENUS	Show menus in the Gallery Control Bar
GALBAR_PICS	Show pictures in the Gallery Control Bar
GALBAR_AUDIO	Show audio files in the Gallery Control Bar
GALBAR_VIDEO	Show video files in the Gallery Control Bar

If the Gallery contains more item than can be displayed in the Gallery Control Bar, then the symbols "<" and ">" are shown on the left resp. right of the bar, in order to allow horizontal scrolling.

Illustration 54: Gallery Control Bar: with scroll arrows

A left-click on the Gallery control bar will open the Windows Explorer with the folder where the Gallery items of the current profile are stored.

12 c. Adjustments to the Main Window

Illustration 55: Main Window

Since it's beginnings, the Main Window consists of these four main sections:

The title area with the Title, UPC, Genre, Running Time, etc.

The left tab pane with the tab pages "DVD Infos", "Prod. Infos", etc.

The right tab pane with the tab pages "Covers", "Credits", etc.

The lower tab pane with the tab pages "Overview", "Easter Eggs", etc.

In order to allow for smaller screen resolutions and personal preferences, the following adjustments can be done to the Main Window:

Horizontal Layout:

The "horizontal ratio" between the left area of the main window (title area, left tab pane and lower tab pane) and the right area (right tab pane) can be adjusted by means of the variables "leftRatio" and "rightRatio". This allows for example, to provide more horizontal space for the cover images, while at the same time reducing the space used for the information displayed on the left.

Vertical Layout:

The "vertical ratio" between the left tab pane and the lower tab pane can be adjusted by means of the variables "upperRatio" and "lowerRatio". This allows for example, to provide more vertical space to the Overview, while at the same time reducing the space used for the information in the DVD Infos.

Enabling and Disabling of Tab page:

In order to reduce the total number of tab pages, which will be helpful for smaller screen resolutions, the skin (beginning with version 1.50) was designed to allow turning tab pages ON or OFF. As the Features are turned off, this allows for faster loading of the profiles at the same time. This way it is possible that only the tabs are shown, which features one is actually interested in. This is done with the following variables in the settings:

Feature	Beschreibung
ENABLE_	Enable/Disable the Covers
ENABLE_CREDITS	Enable/Disable the Credits
ENABLE_TITLE	Enable/Disable the title images
ENABLE_THEME	Enable/Disable the Theme Feature (background music)
ENABLE_HEADSHOTS	Enable/Disable the Headshots (turns "Prod. Infos". tab ON / OFF)
ENABLE_GALLERY	Enable/Disable the Galleries (turns "Gallery" tab ON / OFF)
ENABLE_BOXSET	Enable/Disable the Extended Box Set display
ENABLE_AWARDS	Enable/Disable the Awards feature
ENABLE_DOWNLOAD	Enable/Disable the "Download" tab
ENABLE_RANKINGS	Enable/Disable the IMDb Rankings
ENABLE_STATISTICS	Enable/Disable the Statistics
ENABLE_MANAGEMENT	Enable/Disable the Management Features
ENABLE_USERBUTTONS	Enable/Disable the User defined Buttons
ENABLE_FILETAGS	Enable/Disable reading Quotes, Trivia, Goofs and Reviews from files
ENABLE_AWARD_STATISTICS	Enable/Disable the Award Statistics
ENABLE_RANKING_STATISTICS	Enable/Disable the IMDb Ranking Statistics
ENABLE_CUSTOM	Enable/Disable the user customizable Tab Page

Optimization for small screen resolutions

In order to improve display on smaller resolutions, e.g. 1024x768, the variable "SMALLRES" activates some optimizations. Especially larger icons will be exchanged by their text variants, in order to save space for other information.

Additionally the variables "PIC_FEATURES" and "PIC_LANGUAGES" can be used to enable/disable the icons for the Extra Features resp. for the Audio and Subtitles languages.

Widescreen Optimization

In order to improve display of the skin on monitors with 16:9 format (Widescreen) an optimization can be activated by means of the variable "SMALLHEIGHT". If enabled, the information of the title area are moved to the "DVD Infos" tab page in order to gain more space for other information.

Illustration 56: Widescreen Optimization

Part III.B: Limitations

The following limitations resp. known issues exist in the current version of the skin:

1. The title of the current profile and the related entry in the data files ("awards_xyz.txt", "Titles.txt") and their production years must match, otherwise no or incorrect information is displayed. This is, of course, by design!

2. Using the skin without installing the Java classes or without using a Java Virtual Machine will bring up a very annoying Active-X Requester, which indicates that a script tries to access the file system. As this skin accesses the file system to read out the gallery contents and the additional information this happens by design and is not an error. This is also by design. Unfortunately I haven't found out how to get rid of that requester and so I can only encourage you to make use of the Java classes instead.

The download feature and the management functions cannot be used without correct installation of the java classes!

3. The additionally provided tool Re@nimator makes specific use of Microsoft Java classes and therefore can only be used with Microsoft's Java VM and not Sun’s Java VM.

4. Playback of DVD-Contents only works with a correctly installed and compatible DVD-Player software.

Part IV: Customization

All customizations of this skin can be made inside of the file "Settings.js" which is stored in the "<DVD-Profiler>\skins" directory. The following options are available:

1. Data Files:

MyLanguage	Actual Skin Language: Currently Supported: English, Deutsch, Nederlands, Français, Português Note: With DVD-Profiler >= v2.4.0 the current language of DVD-Profiler will be automatically used as skin language
MyCountry	Country setting of the skin.
MyTitleFile	File for additional information e.g. Original Titles
MyRatingsFile	File for IMDB Links and Ratings
MyStatisticsFile	File for localen Statistics
MyAcademyAwardFile	File for Academy Award List
MyGoldenGlobesFile	File for Golden Globes List
MyCannesFile	File for Cannes Festival List
MyBerlinaleFile	File for Berlinale List
MyBAFTAFile	File for BAFTA List
MySaturnFile	File for Saturn Award List
MyXMLCollectionFile	File for the collection in XML Format
MyTxtCollectionFile	File for the collection in Text Format
MyInfosPath	Directory for Additional Information, for example the Awards
MyDetailsPath	Directory for Details Pictures, typically for EPG's
MyGoofsPath	Directory for the images within Quotes, Trivia, Goofs, Reviews
MyHeadshotsPath	Directory for Headshots Pictures
MyGalleryPath	(Root-)Directory for Gallery Pictures
MyCoversPath	Directory for Cover Pictures
MyCollectionPath	Directory for collection files (XML, Text)
MyThemesPath	Common directory for music files
MyTitlesPath	Common directory for title images

2. Switching feature On and Off

ENABLE_COVERS	Set true to activate Covers
ENABLE_CREDITS	Set true to activate Credits
ENABLE_TITLE	Set true to activate Title Feature
ENABLE_THEME	Set true to activate Theme Feature
ENABLE_HEADSHOTS	Set true to activate Headshot Feature
ENABLE_GALLERY	Set true to activate Gallery Feature
ENABLE_BOXSET	Set true to activate Extended Box Set display
ENABLE_AWARDS	Set true to activate Award Feature
ENABLE_DOWNLOAD	Set true to activate Download-Support
ENABLE_RANKINGS	Set true to activate IMDb-Rankings
ENABLE_STATISTICS	Set true to activate Statistics
ENABLE_MANAGEMENT	Set true to activate Management-Functions
ENABLE_USERBUTTONS	Set true to activate User defined Buttons
ENABLE_FILETAGS	Set true to enable reading the content of Quotes, Trivia, Goofs, Reviews from external files
ENABLE_AWARD_STATISTICS	Set true to activate the Award Statistics Feature
ENABLE_RANKING_STATISTICS	Set true to activate the IMDb Ranking Statistics Feature
ENABLE_CUSTOM	Set true to activate the user customizable Tab Page

CustomTabName	Title of the use customizable Tab Page

3. Headshots:

GIFSUPPORT	Set true to enable GIF support for Headshots
HEADSHOTGROW	Set true for small headshot pictures be enlarged to fill display area
MAX_ACTORS	Maximum Number of Headshots for Actors
MAX_DIRECTORS	Maximum Number of Headshots for Directors
MAX_WRITERS	Maximum Number of Headshots for Writers
MAX_PRODUCERS	Maximum Number of Headshots for Producers
MAX_MUSICIANS	Maximum Number of Headshots for Musicians
MAX_EDITORS	Maximum Number of Headshots for Editors
MAX_DESIGNERS	Maximum Number of Headshots for Designers
MAX_SOUNDSTAFF	Maximum Number of Headshots for Soundcrew
MAX_CINEMATOGRAPHERS	Maximum Number of Headshots for Cinematographers

4. Pictures and Gallery:

ARSORT	Set true to sort gallery by aspect ratio; false to sort by filename
GALLERYGROW	Set true for small gallery pictures to be enlarged to fill the display area
INCLUDEFRONT	Include front cover in Gallery Overview display
INCLUDEBACK	Include back cover in Gallery Overview display
INCLUDETITLE	Include "title.gif" and/or "title.jpg" in Gallery Overview display
GALBAR_POSTERS	Set true to show posters in the Gallery Control Bar
GALBAR_TITLES	Set true to show titles in the Gallery Control Bar
GALBAR_SCREENS	Set true to show screenshots in the Gallery Control Bar
GALBAR_SHOOTS	Set true to show pictures from the set in the Gallery Control Bar
GALBAR_MENUS	Set true to show menus in the Gallery Control Bar
GALBAR_PICS	Set true to show pictures in the Gallery Control Bar
GALBAR_AUDIO	Set true to show audio files in the Gallery Control Bar
GALLERY_VIDEO	Set true to show video files in the Gallery Control Bar
SLIDEDELAY	Delay between slides during slideshow in ms
THEMELOOP	Set true for Theme ("title.mp3" or "title.wav")"to play continuously, false to play once
ALL_THEMES	Random play of music files in the common folder
XT_THEMES	Set true to enable to expanded music functions
TRAILER_FACTOR	Resize the trailer by factor

5. Covers:

COVERGROW	Set true for small cover pictures to be enlarged to fill the display area
REVOLVING	Set true for Revolver Spinning Effect for Cover images
COVEREDELAY	Delay for cover display in ms

6. Layout:

FIX_GUI	Set true to fix the table contents to a specific size
SHOW_BUTTONS	Set false for the IMDB, OFDB and DVD-Live Buttons to be hidden
SMALLRES	Set true for small resolution optimizations
SMALLHEIGHT	Set true for widescreen optimizations
TITLETAGLINE	Set true for displaying the tagline (if available) in the Title section instead of the colllection status
TITLETAGCOLOR	Color of the Title Tagline in Hex Notation, for example "000000" = black, "FFFFFF" = white
PIC_FEATURES_	Set true to display Icons for the Disc Features
PIC_LANGUAGES	Set true to display icons for the Audio Formats and Subtitles
BIG_THUMBS	Set true to display enlarged gallery thumbnails ("Gallery" tab)
ALL_HEADS	Set true to display additional headshot overview
COLORNAMESS	Set true to enable ColorNames
leftRatio	Left Ratio for Tab pages; (e.g. width of "DVD Infos" etc.) (leftRatio + rightRatio) must always compute 1.0!!
rightRatio	Right Ratio for Tabpages; (e.g. Width of "Covers" etc.) (leftRatio + rightRatio) must always compute 1.0!!
upperRatio	Upper Ratio for Tabpages; (e.g. Height of "DVD Infos" etc.) (upperRatio + lowerRatio) must always compute 1.0!!
lowerRatio	Lower Ratio for Tab pages; (e.g. Height of "Overview" etc.) (upperRatio + lowerRatio) must always compute 1.0!!

7. Download:

XT_DOWNLOAD	Set true to enable extended Download Features
UseMSJavaVM	Set true if you use the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine, false for Sun's
UseCollection	Set true to use MyTxtCollectionFile (e.g. "Collection.txt") for Downloads (US-Layout), false to use "Newtitles.txt"
UseOriTitles	Set true to use Original Titles from MyTitleFile (e.g."Titles.txt")
CheckHeadshots	Set true to preselect Headshots for Downloads
CheckCore	Set true to preselect Core Files for Downloads
CheckExtended	Set true to preselect Extended Files for Downloads
CheckTrailer	Set true to preselect Trailer for Downloads
CheckAutoDownload	Set true to preselect Auto Download for Downloads

8. Miscellaneous:

DEBUG		Set true to enable output of Debug information for troubleshooting
DEBUGTIMES		Use to enable Runtimes for Features in Debug Output
UseRatings		Set true to use “Ratings.txt” for getting the direct IMDB-Links instead of “Titles.txt”
MAX_STATISTICS		Maximum number of Statistics
BOXSETDELAY		Delay after box set cover display in ms
SHOW_TITLE		Set for title image display in Title the following possibilities exist:
SHOW_TITLE =	3	Display title image on mouse over, text otherwise
SHOW_TITLE =	2	Display only title image
SHOW_TITLE =	1	Display title image (smaller version) and some text (e.g. the collection number) at the same time
SHOW_TITLE =	0	Display only text
IMDB_Title		User defined text for the IMDb link Note: <TITLE> will be replaced by the Title of the selected profile <YEAR> will be replaced by the production year of the selected profile <LINK> will be replaced by the actual link
PlayDVD		Complete path to the favored DVD player software
PlayDVDOptions		Options for the favored DVD player software
Usr_Title_1		Title for User specific Button 1
Usr_Title_2		Title for User specific Button 2
Usr_Title_3		Title for User specific Button 3
Usr_Title_4		Title for User specific Button 4
Usr_URL_1		URL for User defined Button 1 Note: <TITLE> will be replaced by the Title of the selected profile
Usr_URL_2		URL for User defined Button 2 Note: <TITLE> will be replaced by the Title of the selected profile
Usr_URL_3		URL for User defined Button 3 Note: <TITLE> will be replaced by the Title of the selected profile
Usr_URL_4		URL for User defined Button 4 Note: <TITLE> will be replaced by the Title of the selected profile

Part V: Troubleshooting

1. Active-X Requester Warning

If the Java classes or the Java Runtime Environment are not installed correctly or not functioning properly, the skin will use the internal JavaScript code to perform the related functions. For security reasons the system will then show a warning (Active X Requester) each time such code is running, informing you that a script is trying to access the file system. This can only be avoided by the correct installation of the classes and the Java Runtime Environment (Virtual Machine).

Illustration 57: Active-X Requester

2. Java Classes Error

Besides installing the Java classes you also need to grant "permissions" to access certain system resources, such as the file system. For Sun's Java VM this can be done with the tool "policytool.exe", which is found in the "bin" subfolder of the Java installation ("<Program Files>\Java\j2re1_x.y_z" or "<Programs>\Java\jre1_x.y_z", from now on referred to as <JAVA HOME>).

At first startup policytool.exe may give you a message, that the file "<HOME_PATH>\.java.policy"file of your user account was not found, which can be ignored for the time being.

Illustration 58: Sun's Java Policy Tool

Use File|Open to locate and open the file "java.policy" file in "<JAVA-HOME>\lib\security". Then click "Add Policy Entry" to open the Policy Entry window.

Illustration 59: Policy Entry

Now some permissions must be added to the Policy. Click the button "Add Permission", which will open yet another window called "Permissions".

Illustration 60: Permissions

Five permissions will have to be created, in order to allow access to the data files, the pictures and access to the internet for the downloads.

a. RunTimePermission I

Select "RuntimePermission" from the first dropdown ("Permission").

Select "modifyThreadGroup" from the second dropdown ("Target Name").

Click "OK" to confirm.

Illustration 61: RuntimePermission

b. RunTimePermission II

Select "RuntimePermission" from the first dropdown ("Permission").

Select "modifyThread" from the second dropdown ("Target Name").

Click "OK" to confirm.

c. FilePermission I

Select "FilePermission" from the first dropdown ("Permission").

On the right side, next to "Target Name:", enter the full path to the image directory <DVD-Profiler>\\images\\- (i.e. the subfolder "images" in the installation directory of DVD-Profiler followed by a dash ("-")).The dash at the end will include all subdirectories. For example:

C:\\Program Files\\InterVocative Software\\DVD Profiler\\IMAGES\\-

Enter "read,write" into the field next to "Actions.

Click "OK" to confirm.

Illustration 62: FilePermission

d. FilePermission II

Select "FilePermission" from the first dropdown ("Permission").

On the right side, next to "Target Name:", enter the full path to the image directory <DVD-Profiler>\\data\\infos\\- (i.e. the subfolder "data\infos" in the installation directory of DVD-Profiler followed by a dash ("-")).The dash at the end will include all subdirectories. For example:

C:\\Program Files\\InterVocative Software\\DVD Profiler\\data\\infos\\-

Enter "read,write" into the field next to "Actions.

Click "OK" to confirm.

e. FilePermission III

Select "FilePermission" from the first dropdown ("Permission").

On the right side, next to "Target Name:", enter the full path to the image directory <DVD-Profiler>\\media\\- (i.e. the subfolder "media" in the installation directory of DVD-Profiler followed by a dash ("-")).The dash at the end will include all subdirectories. For example:

C:\\Program Files\\InterVocative Software\\DVD Profiler\\media\\-

Enter "read,write" into the field next to "Actions.

Click "OK" to confirm.

e. FilePermission IV

Select "FilePermission" from the first dropdown ("Permission").

On the right side, next to "Target Name:", enter the full path to the image directory <MyCollectionPath>\\- (i.e. the Directory for your collection files (XML, Text) followed by an asterisk ("*")).The asterisk at the end will include all files in that directory. For example:

C:\\Program Files\\InterVocative Software\\DVD Profiler\\*

Enter "read,write" into the field next to "Actions.

Click "OK" to confirm.

Illustration 63: SocketPermission

g. SocketPermission

Select "SocketPermission" from the first dropdown ("Permission").

On the right side, next to "Target Name:" enter "*".

Enter "connect,listen,resolve" into the field next to "Actions.

Click "OK" to confirm.

Illustration 64: Java Permissions

When all permissions are properly set, click "Done" to conclude the procedure. In the main window do a "File|Save As"and save the file with the name ".java.policy" (it is important to place the dot in front of the name!) in the "root" of your user account ("C:\Documents and Settings\<USERNAME>"). Close the Policy Tool.

Illustration 65: Java Policy Tool

3. Error "Cannot create Object" when using the Revolving Feature

When you get the error message "Cannot create object" when using the Revolving feature for the Cover images, follow the procedure below (<typical disclaimer here>):

a. Download and unzip the missing DXtmsft3.dll to your SYSTEM32 directory (typically "C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32" oder "C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32").

b. Register the .DLL like this : Click START > RUN and type (or paste) the following: regsvr32 dxtmsft3.dll

c. That’s it.

Part VI: Thanks

I want to thank the following people, who did some help in creating this skin:

Tom76 from the DVD-Live Team for making me develop parts of the DVD-Live skin. This is the reason why this skin exists in it's present form.

Roolku, who is indirectly responsible for most of the cool features by providing me with the sources of his skin.
Thank you very much for your wonderful ideas and your support.

ya_shin, who is an incredible resource for new ideas and constructive criticism and who did some wonderful beta testing!
Thank you very much for the time you spent in creating this skin and it’s ReadMe file.

MarcCastermans and Martin_Zuidervliet, , who provided the Dutch translation of the skin and it’s ReadMe file.

Annedv, cmaurice and Raymond Pinvidic, who provided the French translation of the skin.

Raymond Pinvidic, who provided the French translation of the ReadMe file.

Zefeer, who provided the Portuguese translation of the skin.

Deniro, for the Revolving Effect.

Erik Arvidsson, for the tab page code (WebFX).

addicted2dvd and ajm for the Episode Guides (EPGs).

Ya_shin for the Academy Award files.

Ya_shin, Hal9g and Jurgy for the Cannes Festival Awards files

Ya_shin, Hal9g and Deadman36g for the Golden Globes files

Deadman36g for the Saturn Awards

DVDoug and ya_shin for hosting the downloads files on their sites.

Intervocative Software LLC, who provide us with the great program "DVD Profiler".

Part VII: Version History

2005-01-12 | First working version

2005-01-14 | Cleaned up for 1.0 public version

2005-01-30 | JavaScript Cleanup 1.04

2005-02-01 | Added Localization Support 1.05

2005-02-06 | Added Headshots Support 1.10

2005-02-07 | Added Original Title Support 1.16

2005-02-10 | Added Gallery Support 1.26

2005-02-10 | Added Cover Support 1.27

2005-02-12 | Added Trailer and Music Support, Added Title Theme 1.30

2005-02-14 | Added IMDB Tag, some minor Changes 1.31

2005-02-22 | Added Academy Awards Support 1.36

2005-02-23 | Added Support for Mithirandir Java Class 1.37

2005-02-27 | Added Awards Support 1.38

2005-03-13 | Dynamically Resizable 1.39

2005-03-15 | Added Enhanced Trailer Support and Revolving Effect 1.40

2005-03-17 | Added Support for COLORNAMES

2005-03-23 | Corrected French Language Definitions

2005-03-26 | Added Support for details tag 1.41

2005-04-01 | Added various Picture Paths in the Settings

2005-04-02 | Added Portuguese language

2005-04-02 | Added Google and MRQE Review Buttons 1.42

2005-04-06 | Added MIDI Support for Gallery

2005-04-03 | Added XML Parser support 1.45

2005-04-05 | Added Extended Download support 1.46

2005-04-12 | Added Extended Box set Support 1.43/1.47

2005-04-14 | Added French Ratings

2005-04-14 | Added Support for COLORNAMES in "Pers. Infos" Tab Page

2005-04-16 | Added Support for tagline tag

2005-04-16 | Added advanced Box set views

2005-04-23 | Added IMDb Rankings 1.48

2005-04-25 | Added alternative cover display

2005-04-26 | Added user specific Buttons

2005-04-28 | Found White Sparkles problem and removed alternative cover display 1.44

2005-04-28 | TITLETAGLINE support

2005-04-29 | Added Support for storage tag

2005-04-29 | Added Auto-Initialization for Version >= 2.40

2005-04-30 | Improved Settings to enable/disable Skin Features

2005-04-30 | Added Collection Statistics 1.49

2005-05-01 | Added Dutch Ratings

2005-05-02 | Added <TITLE> support for user defined buttons

2005-05-03 | Added Runtimes in Debug mode

2005-05-10 | Added Tags for IMDB Ratings and Votes

2005-05-12 | Added Download support for MPTV Galleries

2005-05-14 | Added new Tag system loaded from File Titles.txt 1.45 / 1.50

2005-05-15 | Added Gallery management operations

2005-05-16 | Added Production Country and <COUNTRY> Tag

2005-05-17 | Re-Created Tab Page Code to make Tab Page fade out with Feature

2005-05-18 | Improved Settings to enable/disable Download Checkboxes

2005-05-22 | Improved Headshot Display

2005-05-28 | Added Logos for Features and new studio logos

2005-05-29 | Added user defined Titles for the IMDB Links

2005-06-01 | Added Logos for Audio Formats and Languages

2005-06-02 | NewTitles.txt Support for English-Speaking Users

2005-06-05 | Added MyCountry Support for US/UK Subtitles

2005-06-12 | Added support for <ORIGINAL_TITLE>, <LAST_WATCHED_BY> and
| <LAST_WATCHED_ON> for DVD-Profiler 2.4.0 beta

2005-06-12 | Added support for new subtitles of DVD-Profiler 2.4.0 beta

2005-06-13 | Finally removed the gap problem! 1.51

2005-06-13 | Added support for SHOWTITLE and SHOWDESC of 2.4.0 beta

2005-06-14 | Added support for Contributors, Disc Locations and Disc Slot

2005-06-17 | Added Headshots Displays

2005-06-23 | Some adjustments for the release version of DVD-Profiler 2.4

2005-06-27 | Added Korean and Taiwan Ratings

2005-07-01 | Added Widescreen Optimizations

2005-07-02 | Added BAFTA Awards Support

2005-07-03 | Added Support for Runtime, Studios and Genres Tags

2005-07-17 | Added Support for Quotes, Trivia, Goofs and Reviews Tags 1.52

2005-07-17 | Revised Theme Feature

2005-07-18 | Details, Quotes, Trivia, Goofs and Reviews Tags from File

2005-07-18 | Added Collection Awards Generation

2005-07-18 | Updated Awards Feature with original title

2005-07-19 | Added Buttons for IMDb Quotes, Trivia, Goofs and Reviews

2005-07-20 | Added Awards Statistics

2005-07-24 | Expanded Theme Feature

2005-07-29 | Added Ranking Statistics

2005-08-07 | Added Saturn Awards Support

2005-09-01 | Improved Trailer Display for !Quicktime Trailers 1.53

2005-09-05 | Added graphical display for other DVD Infos

2006-01-05 | Moved the COLORNAMES to the Settings to make it optional

2006-01-19 | Added support for DVD Profiler companion

2006-02-22 | Corrected German Price Guide

2006-02-28 | Added Link to Movie Title

2006-02-28 | Added Link to Production Studios

2006-04-09 | Added Slovenian and Romanian Subtitles

2006-06-25 | Integrated IMDB Link for Gallery Downloads

2006-09-02 | Added User defined Tab Page

2006-09-05 | Added Alternate Covers to Gallery

2006-09-08 | Added Movie Playback to Gallery

2006-09-12 | Added DVD Playback to Gallery

Part VIII: Outlook

Main critic point to this program surely is, that the skin has become rather slow due to it’s many features. This is mainly due to searching and parsing of the multiple data files like „Titles.txt“, the many award files and all the others necessary for the skin’s features on one hand and getting the contents of the accompanying folders to integrate headshots, gallery contents and other media on the other hand. Mechanisms like “Caching” will not get rid of the speed problem as HTML is a very static information and all information cached for one movie is worthless if you switch to another.

The only thing which makes sense in my eyes is to switch data handling to a real database as the DVD-Profiler itself does in form of the DBISAM engine. Because the DVD-Profiler SDK from Intervocative Software, which would make the integration of external modules into the DVD-Profiler possible, had been announced for years and has not been released yet, it is doubtful if it will ever be published. So, at this moment, I will have to chose a proprietary way differing from IVS to further expand the functionalities of future versions of this skin.

Because further integrations of new features in the current form make no sense in my eyes due to the processing speed reduction bound to that, the current version V1.53 will be the last version in it’s present implementation.

I’m currently working on a brand new concept based on the popular local database software Microsoft Access, which I hope will drastically rise processing speed and flexibility of the skin. I would also like to integrate episode handling of TV series and Crosslinking between various alias names of actors and with that support the projects "Cast & Crew of TV-Series" and the „Cast & Crew Editor“ of TomGaines. On the other hand, I would also like to support popular SQL servers at a later time so that nothing would speak against integration of the skin and it’s databases into web sites.

Because adaptation of the skin to databases is associated with far-reaching changes and preparations comparable to a complete new development, this will of course take some months…

... to boldly go where no Skin has gone before!