Technically, these should be deleted as regular posters since they are not.

In v2, if there is enough requests for it, I could easily add a "type" to the posters and one of those types could be "3D Cover" but I think for right now it's important for us to keep things clean and standard.

I think we should stick to real posters and DVD covers.  Also the size of them appear to be too small...  But I do like your contributions.

I would recommend registering here:  http://movieposters.ha.com/

and then doing searches for posters.  You can find many of the classic films you are adding.  Registering is free.  Just turn off Pan and Zoom images and you'll get a huge Jpg file to use.  You may still have to crop them to get them to look good.  That's a way you can find the right poster/size

Last edited by felixxx999 (2010-01-01 17:41:27)

the tricky thing is that the background images are for things that people create, but the poster should really be a real DVD cover or poster -- and not in 3D. 

I'm not sure how you can share them since they were made specifically for your collection.  If you're using XMBC you could just add them to your library manually.

I don't think they should be uploaded unless we have a separate category in v2

Forced has obviously spent a lot of time on these, and they are done to a superb standard, it seems unfair to arbitrarily dismiss all of them simply because the category section is called "Posters" and not "Posters and Covers" with no consideration given to whether or not people might have a use for them. As has been mentioned, technically they are not allowed... but practically, does it make any difference at all, other than to those who use them?

As it stands, technically many of the entries in  the database are already "cluttered" with DVD art, they're simply not 3D box images. Check the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade entries for an example of this, where you have three DVD boxes, each one being the same with tiny details missing or changed.

The numbers in the apparently correct posters are equally redundant, with the same poster appearing several times with the title being in a different style. There are twenty-three posters in total for that one film. In some cases, you have teaser posters and theatrical one-sheets, what looks like fan art, and more.

If all this is allowed, can it not be permitted to have one 3D box per film?

Since I've had no response from Forced to my private message, it's probably an open and shut case at this point. He appears to be gone, likely taking his work with him.

It may be an idea to consider ideas of this nature in future with more than a stone-wall "No, delete them all" response, especially since the cover art on offer for Media Browser software is the main reason many people use this site, and these worked brilliantly in that capacity.

Nice work forced77, hopefully in the future we will have a category for 3d covers.

Well, I think when you really get down to it, I think the consistency problem goes much deeper than the types of images uploaded.  Be it poster art, dvd art , 3-D boxes or even backdrops, aesthetically any of those are only really useful if complete continuity could be kept throughout that entire category. 

Thousands of contributors of varying artistic and technical skill levels with access to different quality source material make for what I think is both the biggest strengths as well as the greatest weakness of themoviedb.  I think could be possible to decrease the negative impact of those variables.

I had an idea that might solve this problem across the board, though I'm not technically savvy enough weather or not your uploader is capable of it.

What I suggest is that there are official themoviedb photoshop/painter/etc templates made in the officially accepted formats, and those templates are hard-coded with meta-data your uploader sees, and in tern only accepts.  That way backdrops that were not saved from the official 1920x1080 template cant be uploaded, etc.  I now there are probibly easier ways of controlling upload dimensions, but once you get into the dvd cover and 3-D cover area I think this would be more important.

I think if something like that could be implemented, the end result would be simple enough to make moderation much easier for you, and at the same time just complex enough to make the quality of submissions that much better.

But I could be wrong, I'm a designer pretending to be a programmer who is referred to by my boss as the IT guy, so in essence I aint know nothin' bout nothin'...

Later,

Forced77

PS - I think a "miscellaneous" images section would be a good idea as well.  Over the weekend I had some free time and decided to make a new backdrop for the movie "The Great Outdoors".  I got a little crazy and made some funny variations for those of us whose media players show our backdrops as a slide show, but I also left a green screen and transparent version of the main art incase anyone else wanted to have a laugh with it.  As I think this is totally in the spirit of themoviedb backdrops, I don't think that backdrops was the right place for me to leave those two files, so a miscellaneous folder couldn't hurt!

On a second look, I think adding any categories would be a bad idea.  It would be opening pandora's box.  As felixxx's main concern is how his XBMC looks, and mine is how my WMC looks, there are a dozen or more other media center programs and different things look better in each of them.  On top of that, clearly we are all anal retentive and obsessive about how our meticulously organized and personalized collections look,  so the subdividing of categories would never end. 

Reading through the forum, some people want all of there posters to have the same aspect ratio, others would like constant height or width but maintaining there original aspect ratios.  Some people want teaser posters, others want theatrical run or alternate posters.  On top of that, you have people wanting posters in various languages.  If theres a section for dvd covers then you will have a demand for blu-ray covers, 3-d and 2-d.  Some people would want wide screen covers, others full screen covers, special edition, limited edition, unrated edition, double secret probation edition, etc. etc.

I think there is only so much you can do, so I say it would be best to tighten up control of the standards, keep it limited to the most commonly agreeable (or at least acceptable) options, and those (myself included) who are looking for things above and beyond will just have to fend for ourselves for those things outside of themoviedb.

I think focusing on the accuracy and integrity of the data and backdrops are the most important things here, and there's nothing you can do poster/cover-wise that will make everyone happy, so why bother.  Keep doing what you do best, and keep making it better. 

Later,

-Forced77

I am a software developer writing in C# and VB.net. I like the new api, i have been waiting patiently for the MPAA ratings so i can finish my program im working on. During my testing however, i came across a few of these 3d dvd box art images. First, I would like to say I LOVE them, and no, it does not bother me that they are there because my program, and any other good app lets the USER decide which image to have, and therefor, if the user doesnt like the image, they can change it. I DO agree however, that they should be seperated in a new catagory. It should be fairly simple. And, it will not mess up anything programers are doing. I would love to see a seperate catagory, that way i can give the users a choice between normal posters, or 3d box art and have my program automaticly get the correct type.  My program is almost complete, im just waiting to see if we can get another catagory added. As far as the ratings go, ive parsed those from MYMOVIES untill themoviedb.org adds a spot for them.

@Forced77

I agree with Demonseed. Our MediaBrowser fanbase is growing steadily everyday. I'm also a 3D cover creator. I've contributed some of my work to the guys over at StarkCovers, which they in turn, implemented into their program. Your doing some great work, and I personally think you would be a valuable asset to our (ever growing) fanart developing community.

Come check us out.

Can these please be temporarily removed until the new categories are added? Those users of automated grabbing tools are being lumbrered with these images instead of the posters they expect. Cleaning up the mess it creates for media centres such as MythTV (JAMU etc) is a real pain and it's generating a lot of complaints.