Your addition of the Custom Cast feature is really great. The ability to search using Add Actor has helped speed up changes. However, I find some searches I do in Add Actor provide incorrect links. Specifically, Add Actor searches that list actors with duplicate names don’t seem to link to the correct actors in some cases.
I’ve submitted several topics to Core Errors related to what I’ve seen, but I’m submitting this topic to Movie Collector because I may not be using the Add Actor feature correctly.
As an example of what I see, I did an Add Actor search for “John Smith” (just picked randomly). The results yield a long list of names, including 9 hits for different John Smith actors known for different movies. I added each of these actors to a cast list by clicking each name on the list. When I view the results, I see an identical link to the John Smith who was in Will to Die and We’re No Angels (the most popular of the John Smith actors) listed 9 times. And the picture is also incorrect. (I’m not sure, but I think the picture is of the UK Labour leader John Smith.) The same thing happens in other search results where actors with duplicate names are listed.
Am I doing something wrong or are the links created by these search results really incorrect? Should I submit this topic to Core Errors?
I don’t believe that’s the problem. Martin fixed the entries for Richard Reeves, which comes up with four different actors. After he fixed it, I tried an experiment by putting each of the Richard Reeves actors in a cast list. When I look at the result, the list only shows the first Richard Reeves four times.
I think this problem is more serious. You can try this experiment yourself. Pick any actor who comes up in a search more than once. You’ll never get the second and subsequent actors in the cast list. I’ve stopped using this feature because I don’t trust it anymore.
I see two different images there indeed. But those entries are in two different pick lists, one is in the Actor list, one is in the Director list. So there will never share the same entry.
About IMBb data being “rife with errors”: is that really the case? Most people are seeing IMDb as THE best database for movie info. I know we are paying a LOT of money to IMDb to license that data
We are the only movie cataloging software with an official IMDb data license, whereas our competitors have to make do with crowdsourced databases like TMDb.
Alwin,
I agree IMDB is the best option but not perfect as it also is crowdsourced yet seems to better moderated. I refer to it frequently as well as TMDB/TVDB/Letterboxd/Others I’m not a hater.
That explains the increase in prices
Are the images for each of the different picklists coming from the CORE or IMDB, and why do the producer/writer credits not have them?
Good to hear that you agree that IMDb is the best option, even though it is not perfect.
We have been using the official IMDb license since 2019.
The images for actors and directors are coming from Core, not IMDb.
For crew, we decided to do Directors only as for most users that is by far the most important credit. We had to stop somewhere Maybe we should have done actors only.
I don’t think you understand what I’m saying. Let me try to explain again. In Movie Collector, I’m creating a Custom Cast for the movie “The Killing.” I click Add Actor. In the Find Actor box, I enter “Richard Reeves.” I get the following result:
It shows four instances of Richard Reeves. The first instance is the Richard Reeves who was in “Target Earth” and in “The Killing.” I click that first instance and it appears in the cast list.
Now I want to add the second Richard Reeves who was in “Farinelli.” I click Add Actor again, enter “Richard Reeves” in the Find Actor box, and this time choose the second instance of Richard Reeves.
Now I get out of edit and look at the cast list I modified. Instead of two different Richard Reeve links, I see the first Richard Reeve instance listed twice.
If I click each link, each one takes me to the same IMDb entry. So, the problem isn’t with IMDb. It seems to be with the tool.
BTW I tried the experiment of adding “Farinelli” to my movie list. Richard Reeves is listed in the cast, but it’s the wrong one. The link goes to the Richard Reeves in “Target Earth.” The cast link I got in “The Killing” has an incorrect picture. The cast link I see for Richard Reeve in “Farinelli” has no picture. Yet the links all go to the same IMDb entry.
So, if the Find Actor box search gives me one instance of an actor, it’s usually ok. If the search gives more than one actor, I can’t insert a link to any but the first actor instance. As I say, maybe I don’t understand how this feature works.
But is this really new?
I mean, the software has always worked that way. If you have two actors either same name, you need to change the names to make them different, e.g. adding a “I” and “II” to the names. That’s the only way to keep them separate.
The fact that you can now select from a Core list that shows multiple actors with the same name, yes, that makes the problem a bit more visible, but this really is nothing new.
The pick list just doesn’t support multiple entries with the same name. It’s always been like that.
