The cover image was not being imported correctly from the Cinema Premiere Personal Server when the cover image was gotten from Amazon when the movie info had been gotten from imdb.

The newer versions of PHP that use FastCGI instead of php5isapi was causing the CP Personal Server some problems. A new php.ini has been released to resolve a few of those problems and a new release/update (3.11) for the Cinema Premiere Personal Server is now available to resolve some of the other problems. The cover image issue was also resolved in 3.11.

When setting the Search Defaults in Options to search for movies "Not Seen", it was displaying all the movies seen instead of not seen. This has been fixed.

A new release/update (3.10) for the Cinema Premiere Personal Server is now available.

Amazon.com implemented a new signature authorization requirement to retrieve data from their server. This has now been implemented on Cinema Premiere Online so you can again retrieve movie information and update your DVD cover image from Amazon.com.

I have also increased 2 field sizes in the database to allow for user ratings of 10 and a run time of greater than 255 minutes.

A new release for the Cinema Premiere Personal server will be coming soon.

A new release/update (3.9) to the Personal Server is now available to download.

IMDb.com changed their message format when returning multiple titles for a movie.

A change was made in IMDB_Functions.php to correct that problem and can be downloaded from here for the Personal Server users until a new release is posted. NOTE: Save the file to your hard drive then change the extension from .zip to .php. I only changed it to a .zip to make it downloadable. It is not really a .zip file, but a .php file.

IMDb.com changed their message format for the User Rating field, so Cinema Premiere had to adjust its software.

In IMDB_Functions.php, searched for<b>User Rating:<\/b> and changed the <b> to <h5> and the <\/b> to <\/h5>.

Emails have been sent out to Personal Server users on how to make this minor change until a new release is posted.

After not being able to figure out why Cinema Premiere could not connect to IMDb.com, I decided to update the program to be able to retrieve Amazon.com movie information by title as well as UPC. I felt certain that Cinema Premiere's IP address had been blocked by IMDb.com so I could not freely use their information. After spending many hours on the Amazon update, as I was testing it I found importing from IMDb.com was working again. I'm not sure if it had anything to do with the email I sent IMDb.com or if it was just good fortune.

Anyway, I have not spent a lot of time testing the Amazon changes so please let me know if there are any problems.

On Sunday I was notified by a user that when trying to import movie information from IMDb.com, a fsockopen error is received. On Monday, I researched it and could not figure out the problem. The same code is used in the Personal Server version of the movie manager and it still works fine. I contacted Bluehost, my server provider, and they said nothing had changed on their end but suggested that perhaps IMDb.com has blocked Cinema Premiere from using their movie information. I have submitted that question to IMDb.com and am currently waiting on a reply.

To top that off Amazon has completely restructured their XML web services and I am waiting on a reply from them to get the correct format to pull back movie information from them.

Hopefully I will hear something soon and be able to get this resolved. Sorry for the inconvenience.

When importing a database to the Personal Server from the online movie manger, if the time field was empty, an error was occurring. A fix has been made to the import database function for the Personal Server. a new Personal Server update will be released in the near future. If anyone wants the update before it is released, just email me and I will attach it in an email.

On the Movies screen when the Search Defaults were set to search for more than one, but not 'All', media types and one or more, but not 'All', MPAA ratings are selected, the search results returned movies of all MPAA ratings. This also happened on the Advanced Search screen. The Online Movie Manger has been fixed and an update to the Personal Server will be released in the near future. If any Personal Server user wants the update before it is released, just email me and I will attach it in an email.

A new release/update to the Personal Server is now available to download.

While I was adding DVDs from a text file, I found 3 problems that have now been fixed. The first problem was with importing the countries and genres from IMDb.com. The edit screen was not displaying properly because erroneous data was added to the Countries and Additional Genre Types in the Options screen. If you experience this problem, just delete the erroneous data from those text boxes on the Tools>Options>Misc screen. Sometimes problems importing from IMDb.com occur after they change their screen format. Please report any problems your find so they can be fixed ASAP.

The second problem was with importing movie information by UPC when the UPC is not found at Amazon.com.

The third problem occurred while importing movie information from IMDb.com when there was no plot summary page. A warning message would display and the plot would not be imported.

A new release/update to the Personal Server will be made available in the next few days.

I found that when selecting "Print All" from the Detail view, it was not always printing each movie on a separate page. That has now been fixed in the online version. For the personal server users I also found that when you export your database, you will get an error when you try importing it back if you have any blank personal rating fields. This is not a problem if you export from your personal server and import to the online version or if you export from the online version and import to your personal server. I have made a fix in the import routine to change blank personal rating fields to zeros. I will post an update to the personal server with these changes in the near future.

I also found that Firefox is not allowing a user to Log Out correctly and I will be looking into this soon.

"Log Out" should now be working properly and a new feature was added to the batch edit screen. Now if you want to change the location field you can use the '*' as a wildcard in front of the 'old location' name or behind the 'old location' name.

The Personal Server Release 3.7 and Update 3.7 has been posted and can be downloaded now. This release/update fixes a problem importing movie information from IMDb.com when there are multiple movies returned from IBDb.com to select from. This also fixes a problem displaying movie covers from Amazon.com when the movie cover image has a '%' embedded in the name. This same fix was also made for CinemaPremiere Online.

A fix was made to correctly import movie information from IMDb.com when there are multiple movies returned from IBDb.com to select from.

An update for the Personal Server will be posted by Saturday.

I'm not sure how long this has been a problem. Like I have said before, please email me if anything is not working properly.

A user informed me that I was propagating the director's name as the name of the first actor and that I was including html tags with the "written by" in the plot. These items have been fixed.

As I told that user, I import data from IMDb.com and sometimes they change their format or position of fields and I have to go in and reprogram Cinema Premiere. I count on my customers to let me know when things change or don't look right so I can fix it ASAP.

ImdB.com changed their message format again. I fixed the problem that I was informed about but let me know if anything else is not importing correctly. For stand alone users, edit IMDB_Functions.php and in the routine function imdbTitle($title), change if (preg_match_all('/HREF="\/title\/tt([0-9]+)\/" onclick="set_args\(\'tt[0-9]+\',[0-9]+\,[0-9]+\)">([&#]*.+?[&#]*)<\/A>(.+?)<\/li>/i to if (preg_match_all('/HREF="\/title\/tt([0-9]+)\/">([&#]*.+?[&#]*)<\/A>(.+?)<\/td>/i'. Save the file.

If anyone is interested, I have a selection of cables, computer components and miscellaneous items that I want to get rid of. You can see the list of items and pictures of each item here.

IMDb.com has slightly changed their message format again for the Director field and I have updated the software to handle the director field correctly.

For Personal Server users, since it is such a minor change, I am not going to put out an entire update/release for it. You can easily make the change by editing IMDB_Functions.php in notepad or any other editor and near the end of the file in the function parsedata, change Directed by to Director:. Save the file and that's all there is to it.

//Director
preg_match('/Director:<\/h5><A HREF=.*?\/">(.*?)<\/A>/i',$resp['data'],$ary);

I have just released a new web site, AtHomeTour.com. It has nothing to do with movies and everything to do with real estate. AHT makes makes creating a web site for selling or renting property fast, simple and inexpensive. If you are not in the real estate market, but know someone that is, you can become an AHT affiliate and make money on every listing sold that uses your affiliate referral code.

Version 3.5 of the Personal Server edition of the movie manager has been released.

1. Cinema Premiere's interface has been updated to interface correctly with IMDb.com’s new changes.
2. The 'wait' screen has been changed slightly, as it was using up additional system resources and causing the server response to slow down and possibly hang.

Thanks to a fellow Cinema Premiere user for bringing to my attention that IMDb.com has changed their message format again. Cinema Premiere's interface has now been updated with those new changes and should be importing all data correctly.

The 'wait' screen has also been changed slightly, as it was using up additional system resources and causing the server response to slow down.

These changes will be updated in the personal server edition and released in the next couple of days.

Updated the script to import the actors into the database since IMDb.com had slightly changed their message format. If you have movies that do not have the actors, edit each movie and press the Get IMDb button to import the info from IMDb.com. Then the press the Update Database button to save your changes.
For Personal Server users, an update will be released in the future, but for now you can change one line of code to fix the problem. Edit IMDB_Functions.php in notepad or any other editor and near the end of the file change VALIGN="TOP" to VALIGN="MIDDLE", then save it.

//Cast
preg_match_all('/<A HREF="\/Name[?\/](.*?)">(.*?)<\/A>.*?(\.\.\.\. )?<\/TD><TD VALIGN="MIDDLE">(.*?)<\/TD>/si',$resp['data'],$ary,PREG_PATTERN_ORDER);

1. If you haven't already done so, sign up for a Basic membership.
2. Be sure to use one of these 3 Blockbuster links that has Cinema Premiere's affiliate id in it to register at Blockbuster.
3. Email blockbuster@cinemapremiere.com and include your
   • name
   • Cinema Premiere User Name
   • the date you registered at Blockbuster.
4. Once Cinema Premiere receives it's commission from Blockbuster, your membership will be upgraded.

Released Cinema Premiere Personal Server 3.4

1. Added 3 new fields (Title, Media Type and Seen) to the Simple Search screen.
2. Modified the title text so now when you move your mouse over the cover images of movie files it will display "Play" and the movie file path and name instead of just “Play Movie.”
3. Added title text in thumbnail view so now when you move your mouse over the title it will display “Show Plot.”
4. Modified the timeout value when importing movies. On older, slower computers the script could potentially time out if many movies were being added at one time.
5. Fixed a problem when importing movies from the hard drive and the path entered ended with either a ‘\’ or ‘/’, an additional ‘\’ was appended to the path name. For example, if you were adding movies from h:\, it would add the movies as h:\\movies\pg rated\shrek.avi instead of h:\movies\pg rated\shrek.avi.
6. Modified the Edit > Batch > Change Movie File Path to allow the wildcard (*) at the end of the path name so you could change the beginning of the path, but leave the ending of the path the same. For example, if you had movie files with the path names:  h:\\movies\g\, h:\\movies\pg\, h:\\movies\pg13\ and h:\\movies\r\ and you wanted to change the double slash after the h: to a single slash, then you would type in h:\\movies\* for the old filename path and you would type in h:\movies\* for the new filename path. Now your movie file path names would be: h:\movies\g\, h:\movies\pg\, h:\movies\pg13\ and h:\movies\r\.
7. Added help to the Personal Server Limited screens.

Modified the Edit > Batch > Change Movie File Path to allow the wildcard (*) at the end of the path name so you can change the beginning of the path, but leave the ending of the path the same. For example, if you had movie files with the path names: h:\\movies\g\, h:\\movies\pg\, h:\\movies\pg13\ and h:\\movies\r\ and you wanted to change the double slash after the h: to a single slash, then you would type in h:\\movies\* for the old filename path and you would type in h:\movies\* for the new filename path. Now your movie file path names would be: h:\movies\g\, h:\movies\pg\, h:\movies\pg13\ and h:\movies\r\.

Added 3 new fields (Title, Media Type and Seen) to the Simple Search screen and modified the title text so now when you move your mouse over the cover images of movie files it will display "Play" and the movie file path and name. The Personal Server will be updated soon.

Released Cinema Premiere Personal Server 3.3 to fix the DVD cover image importing problem that was introduced when IMDb.com changed their message format.

Also the plot screen now displays the media type(s), location, and filename at the end of the plot screen so that information will now be easily accessible from all search result screens.

IMDb had changed their format for their cover image. I have modified the movie manager to use their new format to import the DVD cover image.

Added the media type(s), location and filename to the end of the plot screen so that information will now be easily accessible from all search result screens.

CinemaPremiere.com has now been migrated to a new server allowing for more disk space and more monthly bandwidth (traffic). Unfortunately, what was supposed to take my web host 4 hours to do ended up taking 24 hours. I am sorry if this inconvenienced anyone.

If anyone has had a problem displaying the plot or other windows (or links) that are opened from a javascript routine, please let me know. If you have had this problem and resolved it, I would especially like to know what you did. One of my users has reported this problem but I cannot not duplicate it. Please email me here.

If you want to change the color of your screens and buttons, I have found a web site that makes selecting coordinating colors very easy. I have changed the button on the Options -> Display screen to take you to the Color Coordinator web site so you can use their color picker. Selecting the Monochromatic Scheme works very well. Move the little square in the box to the amount of color saturation you want. Make the left box have more saturation than the right box. Next, move the slider on the bottom to select the color palette you want. The colors in both boxes will change, however, their color saturation will be different which is perfect for selecting the 'Selected' and 'Non Selected' button and background colors for your screens. Copy and paste the 6 digit hex value from the Color Coordinator into your fields.

I have just completed a new web site, www.PointPatrol.com, an online point-reward system designed to help promote good behavior in children. Of course, my children inspired me to develop such a program and so far it seems to be working well at home.

Now you can edit the movie from the Plot screen. For example, in thumbnail view when you click on the title, the Plot screen will be displayed. Now you have the ability to click on the Edit link on the Plot screen to edit the movie.

In text view, you can now go to the Plot screen. If you need to edit the movie, you can edit it from the plot screen.

The same changes were made to the limited user screens, with the exception that the edit screen is the info screen since limited users cannot edit the movie information.

Modified the "Export to txt File" feature to have two additional options: Include Date and Include Search Title.

If the Include Date checkbox is checked, the current date will be written to the text file at the end of the list of movies.

If the Include Search Title checkbox is checked, the search query title will be written to the text file next to the number of movies. If it is not checked, only the number of movies found will be written to the text file.

Use the Export to txt File feature to print out a list of all your movies. Keep it next to your TV as a handy reference.

Note to Personal Server users: Get the latest update to fix the change IMDb.com made to their message format.

For 3.0 users, the latest update is 3.1 which will bring you up to date with Release 3.1.

For 2.0 users, the latest update is 2.3 which will bring you up to date with Release 3.1. Since the release of 3.1, I have changed the way I handle releases and updates so the next update you will need will be update 3.2 (whenever there is a 3.2)

I have modified the Personal Server Download page to, hopefully, make it less confusing on what updates need to be installed.

IMDb message format change / Personal Server Update 3.1 / 2.3 is now available. Apparently IMDb.com has changed their format when retrieving movie information for titles that return multiple movies to choose from. I have now made the appropriate programming changes to handle their new format. The PS Update 3.1 / 2.3 also handles their new format now. Sorry for the inconvenience. Note to Personal Server 2.0 users: Update 2.3 will bring you up to date with Release 3.1.

Two new features have been added to the search results screens. When you display multiple pages and you sort by MPAA rating, a "Go to MPAA" drop-down menu with the possible MPAA ratings has been added to make locating movies easier. For example if you select "PG", it will take you to the page containing the first movie whose MPAA rating is "PG".

When you display multiple pages and you sort by Genre 1, a "Go to genre" drop-down menu with the possible genre types has been added to make locating movies easier. For example if you select "Comedy", it will take you to the page containing the first movie whose genre 1 is "Comedy".

A new feature has been added on the search results screens when you display multiple pages and you sort by title. A "Go to title" drop-down menu with the letters of the alphabet has been added to make locating movies easier. For example if you select "P", it will take you to the page containing the first movie whose title starts with "P".

Fixed a problem with the new user registration. I thought it was surprising that I wasn't getting any new customers as I had been getting at least one a day, so I tried setting up a new membership myself and to my chagrin I was unable to add a new user. Luckily it was just a 2 minute fix, however, it probably caused a loss of several new customers. If anyone notices any problems on CinemaPremiere.com, please let me know so I can get it resolved as quickly as possible.

Just released Personal Server 3.0 and Personal Server Update 2.2 (Personal Server .2.0 with updates 2.1 and 2.2 installed is equivalent to Personal Server 3.0.)

Fixed a bug on the Add Single screen where the date added was not being displayed which would cause an error if you tried to update the movie you just added.

Modified the Options -> Display screen to use a different color picker routine when you click on the colored square. When you select the color you want from the pop up window it will automatically fill in the selected color's hex number and display the new color in the square. When you press 'Update Database' all the screens will have the new color selection.

Several new features have been added. Now you can search and sort by media location. On the Search Advanced screen you can select the location to search for from a drop down menu. The list of locations is maintained on the Options Miscellaneous screen. From there you can manually add your different locations or you can press a button to search your movie database and all locations found that are not already in your location list will be added for you.

There also three other ways locations can be added to your location list. On the Edit screen you can either select a location from the drop down menu or you can type in a location in the text field. If you type in a location, whey you press 'Update Database', the location you just entered will be added to the list if it was not already it it.

Another way to add the location is from the Add Multiple screen. You can either select a location from the drop down menu or you can type in a location in the text field. If you type in a location then when you add the movies, the location will be added to the list if it was not already it it. Also, if you appended the |location| to the end of any movie title, file name, or UPC code, then that location name will be added to the list if it was not already it it.

This is also true when adding movies by importing a text file. If you include the :location at the top of the text file, then that location will be added to the list if it was not already it it. Also, if you append the |location| to the end of any movie title, file name, or UPC code, then that location name will be added to the list if it was not already it it.

I have also fixed a couple bugs. I had not made the Country and Language fields on the Options Misc. screen large enough to hold the number of different Languages and Countries returned from IMDb.com. I have increased the sizes of those fields. On the Options Misc screen, I have also added a button for each of those fields that you can press and it will search your movie database and all countries/languages found that are not already in your country/language list will be added for you.

I have also added similar buttons to the Additional Genre Types and Media Types lists that will allow your movie database to be searched and any genre/media found that is not already in your genre/media list will be added for you. Keep in mind that most genres are hard coded in the program. Only genres that you add and those that are not already hard coded will be added to the Additional Genre list.

New competitive pricing structure. I am trying out a new low price strategy that I hope proves successful. So many times I have seen a product and I think to myself, "if they reduced the price, more people would buy it and they would end up making as much money (if not more) and would make more people happy." So that is going to be my new philosophy.

There will still be a free trial version and a free basic version. The Unlimited version will be $10. The Personal Server version will be $20. The Unlimited version bundled with the Personal Server will be $25. There will no longer be a yearly membership. Those users who currently have a yearly membership will automatically be converted to an unlimited membership and credited the $2 difference.

If you start out with the free trial membership you can either roll over to the free basic membership or upgrade it to an Unlimited membership from the Membership -> Upgrade screen on Cinema Premiere's home page.

If you start out with the free basic membership, you can upgrade it to an Unlimited membership from the Membership -> Upgrade screen on Cinema Premiere's home page.

Released Update 2.1 for the Personal Server edition.

On screen help is in the process of being modified. Some screens already have the new help and those that don't will be getting it soon. The new help will allow you to click on any field title on the screen and a help window describing that field will be displayed. Clicking the Help tab on the screen will open up the User's Guide to the appropriate page.

Changed the Log In on the home page and the Log In page to display your display name in the 'Hello' line and fills in your user name and password if your cookies are set.

Modified the Search -> Simple and Advanced screens to allow the user to change the number of movies to display on a page. In doing so, I slightly changed the way the screen works. The 'Go' button has been moved down and changing the view will no longer automatically submit the search. You must press 'Go' to submit the search. The number of movies to display defaults to your Options -> Misc values for Thumbnail, Summary and Text. It defaults to 1 for Detail and defaults to All for Text.

Also modified the Movies screen to function in a similar same way.

Also modified all the limited user search screens to function the same way.

Adjusted the alignment on the registration, account and upgrade screens. After changing the font type on my web site I failed to see the alignment problems it caused. At least 8 people joined while the registration screen was so out of alignment. How embarrassing! Please email me if you see anything that doesn't look right, such as bad alignment, poor grammar, misspelling and typos. The quicker I get things fixed, the fewer people have to see my incompetence. You can email me from the Support button on the main menu.

One time when my aunt was visiting me, after rushing around getting the kids off to school, we went out shopping to lots of stores and even out to eat lunch. Several hours later after we got back home, my aunt asked me if I had my shirt on inside out. Gee Aunty, you could have told me sooner! How embarrassing that was. Hopefully, everyone that saw me just thought that was the new style!

Fixed a bug in the Options -> Misc. screen where it would not allow you to change the default view type.

Adjusted the Options -> Misc. and the Edit screens so Firefox will display better. To add your own cover images to movies, a button was added to the Edit screen.

Note: If you cannot find a cover image on Amazon.com or IMDb.com, you can read this to find alternatives cover images.

Please email me with any problems or feature requests you have.

You can read about future enhancements I have in my queue here. Of course, the list is always changing as I get requests and complete others.

If you have experienced weird behavior on your advanced search screen in reference to the country and language field, you may need to check you Language and Country list in your Options -> Misc screen. If you have duplicate entries delete the duplicates. That bug that added duplicate entries has been fixed.

Now whenever you get movie information from either imdb.com or amazon.com it will append the movie's release year to the title. In this way you can automatically add movies with duplicate titles that have a been released in a different year. One thing to keep in mind is when you add multiple movies or import from a text file with the Quick Add option set, it will not add the same title with the same year twice. It will display a message (and write it to the add log file) that it is already in the database. Your best bet is to then print out the log file to review it and either add those movies one at a time or uncheck the Quick Add box and select the correct movie from the list when prompted.

On the Options -> Misc screen you can check whether or not you want the year displayed next to the title in your search results.

The year will never be appended next to the title when you export the search results to a text file.