DVDpedia: Release Date country specific

[noribori]

Tested with the latest 4.5.5 Beta.

When I add a movie I search for it using "IMDb", e.g. "in a lonely place".
In this case DVDpedia finds at once the right movie, "In a Lonely Place" from Nicholas Ray.
Checking the list of alternative movies (arrow button) shows on top of the list: "In a Lonely Place (1950)".
But the release date field shows: 1989
This is, for some reasons, the release date for Germany.
My Mac system is German, that may be the reason why www.imdb.com shows the German release date on the main page: September 1989 (West Germany).
But it also shows the real release date in the title: In a Lonely Place (1950).
I certainly want the official release date, 1950, not the regional one, which is often misleading.

[Conor]

You are correct that we select the main release date as it contains the day and month information as well. For most of the movies this is not an issue. Thanks for the report, will take a look at adding a cross check against the original premier in the original country. What was going on in West Germany that this was not released for 39 years?

[noribori]

Thanks for your reply.
I don't think my example is a rare exception. Even for the German movie Metropolis (1927) I get the release date "2010", for whatever reasons.
And in many cases there's at least one year difference between those two dates, since most movies are released later in other countries. So when you say "For most of the movies this is not an issue", I have to disagree. Maybe other people didn't notice the wrong date yet, because there's only a small difference.

The release date in round brackets after the title is a widely accepted way of identifying movies. That's why I care about it. Even the full screen mode in DVDpedia makes use of it. But there is no such film as "Good Night, and Good Luck (2006)". It must be "Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)".
Thanks for taking a look at it. I know this wasn't an issue in earlier versions of DVDpedia. I see forward to have it the right way again.

[kbarnes70]

Thanks for your reply.
I don't think my example is a rare exception. Even for the German movie Metropolis (1927) I get the release date "2010", for whatever reasons.
And in many cases there's at least one year difference between those two dates, since most movies are released later in other countries. So when you say "For most of the movies this is not an issue", I have to disagree. Maybe other people didn't notice the wrong date yet, because there's only a small difference.

The release date in round brackets after the title is a widely accepted way of identifying movies. That's why I care about it. Even the full screen mode in DVDpedia makes use of it. But there is no such film as "Good Night, and Good Luck (2006)". It must be "Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)".
Thanks for taking a look at it. I know this wasn't an issue in earlier versions of DVDpedia. I see forward to have it the right way again.

There's something odd here. I can't find a single example in my (UK) database of about 900 movies where there is any difference between the Theatrical Release date and the date in the title in round brackets. In fact, I always assumed that the two dates were derived from the same source information and so *had* to be the same. I only use the Theatrical field in Info View so that I can sometimes sort on the release date. There is another date field which is just called 'Release' - that is, I think, the date when the DVD is released. Is that what is causing the confusion?

Conor, Nora - can you confirm (or not) that the Theatrical field and the date in the title derive their information from the same source and so must always be identical? Or not, of course Thanks.

Kind regards,

Keith

EDIT: I just added the movie 'In a Lonely Place" and in the Theatrical Field I get 17 may 1950. In the title I get (17 May 1950) but in the Release field I get 18 Mar 2003. I suspect that the OP is confusing the release date of the DVD (in Germany) with the theatrical release date of the movie.

[noribori]

I suspect that the OP is confusing the release date of the DVD (in Germany) with the theatrical release date of the movie.

That's not the case. There is some confusion, because I have to retranslate the German field names of DVDpedia back into English, and that's not always the same expression. But as you can see on the picture below, there are 3 dates:
1950 on the right side, top of the list
1989 release date
2003 DVD release date.



Full screen mode shows 1989:



Here's what I see on http://www.IMDb.com:

[kbarnes70]

I suspect that the OP is confusing the release date of the DVD (in Germany) with the theatrical release date of the movie.

That's not the case. There is some confusion, because I have to retranslate the German field names of DVDpedia back into English, and that's not always the same expression. But as you can see on the picture below, there are 3 dates:
1950 on the right side, top of the list
1989 release date
2003 DVD release date.


Full screen mode shows 1989:



Here's what I see on http://www.IMDb.com:




Not how I get it for the same movie, added by IMDB the same way you do it. I don't know how to insert an image here - if you can advise me, I'll let you see the corresponding screens here. Something strange going on for sure. I definitely get the theatrical release as 1950, the title as 1950 and the DVD release date as 2003 - all of which seem correct. The strange thing you get is that you get 1989 in the title.

Regards,

Keith

[noribori]

The strange thing you get is that you get 1989 in the title.

It's not a mystery. The release date fetched from IMDb is country specific, maybe depending on the language of your OS.
Try to add the movie "Das Boot (1981)". I bet you get 1982, or worse.

To add a picture:
Picture must already be on a server (I used flickr)
Paste the image url (begins with "http...") into message field and select it
Click the "Img"-button

But maybe it's better not to flood this forum with screenshots.

[kbarnes70]

The strange thing you get is that you get 1989 in the title.

It's not a mystery. The release date fetched from IMDb is country specific, maybe depending on the language of your OS.
Try to add the movie "Das Boot (1981)". I bet you get 1982, or worse.

To add a picture:
Picture must already be on a server (I used flickr)
Paste the image url (begins with "http...") into message field and select it
Click the "Img"-button

But maybe it's better not to flood this forum with screenshots.

I already have Das Boot (great movie). The date shows as 1981 for the theatrical release and 1997 for the (UK) DVD release. So I guess it is a mystery

Thanks for the tip on adding an image.

Regards.

Keith

[noribori]

I already have Das Boot (great movie). The date shows as 1981 for the theatrical release and 1997 for the (UK) DVD release.

Try to add it again. This behaviour has changed. I'm using DVDpedia since 2007. Those movies I added some time ago have the right release date.

[kbarnes70]

I already have Das Boot (great movie). The date shows as 1981 for the theatrical release and 1997 for the (UK) DVD release.

Try to add it again. This behaviour has changed. I'm using DVDpedia since 2007. Those movies I added some time ago have the right release date.

It has changed. Adding it again gives me a Theatrical release date of 1982 - this is in the Title in brackets and also in the Theatrical field. The DVD release date is unchanged. So yes, something has changed. Conor or Nora might be able to shed some light on it when they pick up this topic.

Thanks for finding this. Do you know when it changed because, when it is fixed, I will need to correct the movies I have added since the change. Like you, I want accuracy in the dates.

Regards,

Keith

[Conor]

Thank you both for the meticulous testing and bug report. DVDpedia should show the official year that is included with the title and then try to make it even more specific within that same year. Due to a change on the website it was failing to get the year that is listed with the title. Sorry, I mistook it for a international localized date issue and thank you for clearing it up. You can now download beta 11 or wait for the official next release.

[noribori]

I downloaded the beta 11 and the release date issue is fixed. Thank you, Conor!

I don't know since when this issue started, so I decided to replace the release date of all the movies I added this year. That were about 150 movies.
Here's again how to do that, in case someone else wants to do the same and didn't do that before:
1. In list view sort by the date when the movie was added
2. Select (with shift-key) all those movies where you want the release date replaced
3. Double click the selected movies - now you see a window with all the empty fields and empty check boxes
4. Click the check box next to the (empty) release date field and click ok. This will delete the release date for every selected movie.
5. Now go to the menu bar ->"Extra"->load extra info for selected movies->IMDb.
It will take some time, in my case loading the data for 150 movies lasted about 30 minutes.

[kbarnes70]

Thank you both for the meticulous testing and bug report. DVDpedia should show the official year that is included with the title and then try to make it even more specific within that same year. Due to a change on the website it was failing to get the year that is listed with the title. Sorry, I mistook it for a international localized date issue and thank you for clearing it up. You can now download beta 11 or wait for the official next release.

Thanks Conor for this fix! It is updating the release date field on my entire database right now. We really do appreciate your responsiveness and all your hard work.

Kind regards,

Keith

[kbarnes70]

I downloaded the beta 11 and the release date issue is fixed. Thank you, Conor!

I don't know since when this issue started, so I decided to replace the release date of all the movies I added this year. That were about 150 movies.

150 movies added *this year*!! That's about 3 new DVDs every day! You must have an amazing collection.

Kind regards,

Keith

[noribori]

That makes about 3000 movies since 2007, doesn't it? Not too shabby.
I wish I had them, Dr. Watson. But actually I lost some data last year, that's why I entered the data of about 150 movies again in only 2 months.

Regards,
noribori