Name Variants for DVD Profiler Cast & Crew

What's This?

A tool for analyzing your cast & crew data to find similar names that most likely refer to the same person. Results are presented in an interactive report, where you can resolve name variants by choosing a common name, or exclude incorrectly associated names. See screen shot.

New Features in Version 2.5

• Integrated as plugin in DVD Profiler 3. You will find the new Name Variants command on the Tools menu.
• Can analyze the Live database currently open in DVD Profiler or an exported XML file.
• Lets you pick a common name from all the variants for a person and update the affected DVDs just with a mouse click.

Other Feature Highlights

• Choice between separate and merged analysis of cast and crew.
• Maintains an Exclusion file for incorrect name variants (false positives), which is updatable just with a mouse click directly from the generated report.
• Customizable report format. You decide, whether details such as production year or UPC should appear in the report.

Requirements

• DVD Profiler 2.4/2.5 (InterVocative) or DVD Profiler 3.0 (Invelos). The latter one is needed to use the new features.
• Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP or newer.
• Microsoft XML Parser (MSXML) 3.0 or newer. Installing either MSXML 4.0 or 6.0 is strongly recommended.
• Optional: DVD Profiler Automation Object, for jumping directly from a DVD in the report to DVD Profiler 2.x. You don't need the Automation Object for DVD Profiler 3.

Terms of Use

This software is Copyright (c) 2005-2008 Matthias Wolf, Germany AKA goodguy. All rights reserved.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to use and redistribute this software in unmodified form, for non-commercial purposes, and provided that any use or redistribution retains or reproduces, in the documentation and/or other materials, the copyright notice above, this permission and the following disclaimer.

DISCLAIMER This software is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and noninfringement. In no event shall the author be liable for any claim, damages or other liability, whether in an action of contract, tort or otherwise, arising from, out of or in connection with the software or the use or other dealings in the software.

Feedback

If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, you can send a PM to goodguy on either the Invelos or the InterVocative forums. Alternatively, you can reply to this Invelos forum thread.

Make a Donation

Name Variants may be used free of charge, but if you wish to express your appreciation for the time and resources I have spent on developing this software, you are welcome to make a donation by using one of the following PayPal links:

Install Steps

1. Download NameVariants.zip (73KB) and unpack it into a dedicated folder.
2. Close DVD Profiler 3, Name Variants, and any report.
3. Double-click the file install.cmd to register the plugin.
   The next time you start DVD Profiler 3, the new Name Variants command will appear on the Tools menu.
4. If you want to use the stand-alone version (for DVD Profiler 2.x), create a shortcut to the application NameVariants.exe on your desktop or in your Start Menu.

Uninstall Steps

1. Close DVD Profiler 3, Name Variants, and any report.
2. Double-click the file uninstall.cmd in the dedicated folder. This will run regsvr32 to unregister the plugin.
3. Manually delete all the files in that folder (and the folder itself).

Common Name Selection

When examining the report, you just right-click on a name variant and select the Common Name command from the context menu. You can either choose an existing variant as the common name, or you can enter a custom common name.

Use the checkboxes that appear besides each DVD if you want to restrict the update to certain DVDs or name variants. Finally, click OK to update your DVD Profiler database, or Cancel to abort the operation. Resolved name variants are displayed with a green background, the common name is marked with a bold font.

When updating the database with a common name, the formerly used name variants are copied to the Credited As field. If the Credited As field already contains data, you are prompted to confirm the overwrite.

How the Exclusion File Works

The Exclusion file is an XML file that keeps track of name variants you deemed incorrect (false positives). When examining the report, you just right-click on such a variant and select the Exclude command from the context menu. Pending exclusions show a grayed background and will be saved when you close the report. For newly added exclusions to take effect, you have to re-create the report.

Variant exclusion is context-sensitive. The context is either defined by the names and the DVDs they appear in, or by the names only. For DVD Profiler 3.0, the birth year is considered a part of the name.

• Assume, you have a person P with the name variants V1 and V2.
• You exclude V2, which effectively excludes P from subsequent reports.
• You add a new DVD, which also contains V2. But this V2 may or may not be the same V2 as on previous DVDs. If your exclusion context is name & appearances, V1 and V2 of P will be reported again, and you can re-evaluate the exclusion. If your exclusion context is name only, the exclusion is still in effect.
• Now you add another DVD, introducing the new variant V3 of P. Since V2 has been excluded only in relation to V1, all three variants of P will be reported again, allowing you to re-evaluate the exclusion. This will happen regardless of the exclusion context you have chosen.

Known Issues

• Analyzing the Live database is currently much slower than analyzing an exported XML file, it takes about the same time as the XML export process itself.
• The Plugin adds the Name Variants command to the Tools menu of DVD Profiler. If your Tools menu is named differently due to localization, an additional menu with the English name 'Tools' is added to the menu bar. This is a limitation of the DVD Profiler Plugin API.
• If the Name Variants Report prompts you to overwrite existing Credited As data, you cannot switch to the DVD Profiler main window (it appears to be frozen) until you have answered the prompt.

Version History

• v2.5.3: Fix: Jumping from a DVD in the report to DVD Profiler 3 now clears filters if necessary.
• v2.5.2: Bugfixes and enhancements.
• Can flag DVDs changed during a common name update.
• Custom common names can be entered.
• Prompts before overwriting existing Credited As data.
• Fixed: Credited As field no longer populated for uncredited entries.
• Provides better error context if loading from the Live database fails.
• v2.5.1: Bugfix for accidental data loss during common name update.
• v2.5.0: Plugin/stand-alone hybrid.
  New features (see top of this page) apply to DVD Profiler 3 only, but DVD Profiler 2.x is still supported.
• v2.0.5: Jumping from a DVD in the report directly to DVD Profiler is now supported for both DVD Profiler 3.0 and 2.4/2.5.
• v2.0.4: Names for new localities #40 to #42 added (Austria, etc).
• v2.0.3: Names for new localities #32 to #39 added (Argentina, etc).
• v2.0.2: Bugfix for finding changed last names in cast, e.g. Robin||Wright = Robin|Wright|Penn.
• v2.0.1: Bugfix for names that do not contain any meaningful characters.
• v2.0.0: Major revamp.
• Much faster due to native code.
• Improved name matching algorithm with variable spelling tolerance and better results for omitted and swapped name parts.
• Choice between separate and merged analysis of cast and crew.
• Can maintain an Exclusion file for incorrect name variants (false positives).
• Can exclude all variants that are already covered by the Alias.cfg of Tom Gaines' CCViewer.
• Customizable report format. You decide, whether details such as production year or UPC should appear in the report.
• v1.0.0 - v1.0.4: Script versions.