Overview

Update your movies, including covers, fanart, online availability and related trailers from within My Films (AMC/XML database only)

Single (selected) film updates

My Films offers many features to update your films and catalog within My Films, including the ability to update by field or selected fields. Thus you can update different fields using different grabbers/websites and even preserve your manual updates/edits by not updating those fields.

You may update almost any movie data for a single (selected) film within MyFilms, based on the settings you select in MyFilms Setup > Update Tab for:

• grabber script(s), behaviour and options
• automatic updates for watched status (including for Multiple Users)
• automatic deletion of movies from your catalog (See Delete Films Setup guide for full details)

The Setup Wizard presets the most common settings for you, and often you do not need to customize them, but you can!

These updates are normally done by selecting options on the context menu (F9 or Info/More button) > Updates, in either the Main or Details window.

Note: You can also update movies in your Ant Movie Catalog or using the Update Movie option on the View Movies tab in AMC Updater.  Updates will display in MyFilms as soon as you reload it.

Get Internet Info

This will likely be the method you use most frequently to update your data. Access the 'Get Internet Info' option via the Updates option on the context menu (F9 key or Info/More remote button in either the Main or Details window): 

Note: Filename and Update film data by field only appear on the Details Updates menu.

Choose your Grabber Script

My Films provides a variety of grabber scripts and options you can select when grabbing data from Internet websites. See Grabber Scripts for details. My Films will use the grabber script you selected in the Setup Wizard, or in MyFilms Setup > Update Tab under Internet Grabbing options

However, you can manually select which grabber you wish to use for updates if you prefer by:

1. Selecting the 'don't use default script (ask)' option in Update Setup
2. In My Films, select the Global Settings on the Options Menu, then enable the 'Manually Choose Grabber Script'

Then My Films will display a list of the grabbers, based on the filters you select in MyFilms Setup > Update Tab under Internet Grabbing options > Filter Grabber Scripts, including any custom grabbers you may have created:

Select the matching Film

If you do not enable 'try to find best match automatically' in Update Setup under Internet Grabbing options, or enable 'Auto Select best match' in the Options > Global Settings menu, then My Films will display a list of possible matches for your film:

Select the Update Method

Once you select the film you wish to update you may select which method you wish to use:

As of v 6.0.0 you when you choose 'Select fields(s) for update...' you can select one or more fields to update:

My Films displays the "current value" >  "grabbed value" (from the internet website) for each field. Simply select one or more fields you wish to update and then click the check icon for OK or Done.

If you change you mind, press Esc/Back and select a different update method - such as all fields or only new data, etc.

Update a field manually

As of v 6.0.0 you no longer need to define update fields or properties, you can manually update any field within My Films. 

From the Updates Menu in the Details window, select Update film data by field.

My Films displays the most frequently used fields.  Select the "Show All' option to select any other field.

When you select a property or field, My Films will display the virtual keyboard with the current value entered in the field for you to edit.

Movie File names

Have ever tried to play a file, and it won't play? Or says 'file not found'?  Chances are you (or someone else!) moved it or renamed it and forgot to update the database. Now you can edit the filename in My Films, and go ahead and play the file.

Tip  - if you select Search by Movies name in My Films setup on the General tab, then even if the file name is incorrect, My Films will search and find the correct file to play. However, this option can require more processing depending on the size of your database, number of movie files, folder structure and storage location(s), so it is not enabled by default.

You can only update the movie filename from the Detail window, by using the context menu (F9 or Info/More remote key):

Select the Updates option for the Updates Menu:

Choose Filename. My Films will display the Virtual keyboard with the current filename for you to edit.

Persons Info and Images

From the Updates menu, select Update Info for all involved persons (IMDb)

This will download persons and info for all persons: actors, directors, producers, writers etc. which will display: 

• actors images in the Details window
• persons image and info in any persons views
• persons image and info when you select 'Info for related persons' from the context menu.

Watched Status

You can automatically update the watched status when you play a film, either when it is finished (>80%) (default) or whenever playback starts, it's your choice. Just select the option you prefer in MyFilms Setup on the Update Setup tab.

Note: This option is only available if you have defined a field for Watched Status under Update Setup. However, when you use the Setup Wizard it is automatically preset to the Checked field.

Or, you can always alter the watched status manually via the context menu on either the Main or the Detail window:

Ratings

You can update the rating of a film only from the Details window context menu: either the main Rating field, or add a User rating (per user) or even via Trakt rating popup when playback is finished. See Ratings and Favorites for details.

Download and select cover

You can update your movie cover using Get Internet Info, from the Context Menu > Updates:

1. Select the grabber/site you wish to use to grab the cover
2. Choose 'Select fields(s) for update...'
3. Select the 'picture' field and then click the OK button to update.

MyFilms will ask you to confirm if you wish to replace your current cover with the new one (any time it updates the cover).

However, as of v 6.0.0, you may use the Cover Manager (from the context menu in either the Main or Details window) to download, filter, delete unwanted covers, and select the cover you wish to display for your film (or change it when you get bored!).

Download Fanart (selected film)

With My Films you can download or add fanart for the selected film using the Fanart Manager option on the context menu in either the Main screen or Details window.

Global Updates

You can also perform global updates on all movies, such as:

• Update Online Availability - to check if movie files or local trailer files are currently available for playback
• Import/Update all movies (AMC Updater) - Scan and add new films, or update all data in batch mode
  • Note: this feature actually uses AMC Updater, and runs in the background
• Download Fanart for all films
• Search and add local trailers - see Trailers
• Find Incomplete movie data - i.e. which movies need updating.

Note: You may also update your catalog using AMC Updater > Update Movies tab which offers even more powerful features for batch updates of selected films and/or fields.

Global updates are usually performed using the Global Updates menu accessed from the Main Menu:

Update online availability

My Films can check if your films or trailers are 'online', i.e. available for playback.  This is especially useful if you have films stored on backup media, DVDs, or network drives which may not always be accessible.

You can choose to update online availability automatically, via the 'Scan Media on start' option in My Films Setup on the General Tab under Movie Playback options. Or you may select this option any time to update online availability.

Media availability icons display the current status for your films and trailers:

• Green = available for playback
• Yellow = available but not accessible for playback
• Red = not available
• Grey = availability status unknown (i.e. no search has been performed to determine if trailer is available)

Note: Grey only applies if there is NO source information available – that is “search mode” is used. It turns to either green or red after Update Online Availability is done either automatically via setup or by using this option.

Import/Update all movies (AMC Updater)

AMC users may use this option to scan and add new films. My Films will automatically update your AMC database and the new movies will display as soon as the update is completed.

If you enable Import if no auto match (default) on the Import Tab in Setup, MyFilms will add the movie to your catalog with only the source/media file and media info. You may then update those movies using Get Internet Info from the context menu > Updates menu.

See Import Setup for more details on Import methods and settings, such as using AMC Updater to import your movies, or auto importing movies by scheduling a Windows task.

Download fanart (all films)

Select Global Updates > Download fanart (all films) to download or update fanart for all your films.  My Films will not re-download existing fanart, but will check and download new fanart images. Or you can use the Fanart Manager to add fanart for the selected film.

Search and add local trailers

Select Global Updates > Search and add local trailers (all films) to 'register' your local trailers in your AMC database. This adds the trailer media file(s) to the field you select in Trailer Setup (preset to Source Trailer for AMC4 catalog types). 

The first time you use My Films you may wish to automatically register all your existing Trailers in your AMC database.

Note: If you select an Extended Search path for Trailer Setup, this can take some time.  If you have many local trailers in several locations, it is better to search and add trailers by film from the Detail window, when you get trailers, rather than globally.

Incomplete movie data

From the Global Updates menu, select "Incomplete movie data" for a list of fields with missing data. 

Then you may select a field to find the films that are missing that data and update them, all from within My Films.

Note: Although the dialog displays global results, you can only update the films one by one within My Films. For batch updates you may use AMC Updater  > Update Movies.

Batch Updates via AMC Updater

Using AMC Updater as a separate Windows application offers even more control and options, such as batch updates of all or selected movies by one or more fields using different grabbers to update your catalog with data from different internet sites.

Examples:

• Update picture/cover for all or many movies using a different grabber/internet website.
• Update ratings (as rating might be old in your catalog) either from the original website/grabber or a new source.
• Update media info, as latest mediainfo.dll better supports your movies, than it did in the past when you initially added films
• Update actors to include roles, which you initially did not select (or vice versa)
• Update missing data in certain fields  

For further information see AMC Updater's Update Movies tab.

Related

• Using My Films