Category Archives: Movies

Watching Movies – Noticing Rik Mayall

I’m a big fan of Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson.

(Bottom, Dangerous (Danger) Brothers, Young Ones, Black Adder etc)

I love the live shows, I’ve mentioned that before.

Today we were watching a movie, just one in our collection.
It was American Werewolf in London.
I knew there were some great practical effects in there.
(All pre CGI)

Then I saw a face a few seconds. Damn could it be Rik?

Yes it is ..

But I know he did several movies

  • Drop dead fred
  • Guest House Paradiso
  • Harry Potter

Welllllll, I more identify with Ade.

Bald, mostly interested in being drunk, and playing in a folkband. 🙂

We did it! .. The best movies according to IMDB watched! (TOP 250)

Woo-hoo!

In 2013 I converted an online list of movies from here:
https://www.imdb.com/chart/top/

We watched all of them. ( And others .. )

Some unknown beauties. Some we didn’t understand or liked. But we persevered. We can do this!

Just a generic movie image .. Maybe i’ll make a complete movie cover thingy ..

See also:

Are we done? .. No, next to check, are the movies which entered the list after 250. Maybe half of the new ones we’ve seen ..

Triple screen movie player in python

I didn’t find an easy and working movie player for wide screen setups.
Like double/triple monitor setups.

I’ve got 3x 1920×1080 monitors connected to my battlestation.
With a resolution of 5760×1080

Simple Python code to play a movie fullscreen

# importing vlc module
import vlc
 
# creating vlc media player object
media_player = vlc.MediaPlayer()
 
# media object
media = vlc.Media("movie.mp4")
 
# setting media to the media player
media_player.set_media(media)
media_player.toggle_fullscreen()
 
# start playing video
media_player.play()
 

But trying to get this stable working, I resorted to pysimplegui

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import PySimpleGUI as sg
import vlc
import sys
from sys import platform as PLATFORM

try:
    movie=sys.argv[1] 
except:
    print(sys.argv[0] +  " filename")
    exit()

sg.theme('DarkBlue')

layout = [[sg.Image('', size=(5760, 1080), key='-VID_OUT-')]]
window = sg.Window('Triple movie player', layout, no_titlebar=True, margins=(0,0),location=(0,0), size=(5760,1080), keep_on_top=True, finalize=True,resizable=False)

window.bring_to_front()
window.Maximize()
window.bind("<Escape>", "-ESCAPE-")
window.bind("<Return>", "-ENTER-")

window['-VID_OUT-'].expand(True, True)

inst = vlc.Instance()
list_player = inst.media_list_player_new()

media_list = inst.media_list_new([])
list_player.set_media_list(media_list)
player = list_player.get_media_player()

if PLATFORM.startswith('linux'):
    player.set_xwindow(window['-VID_OUT-'].Widget.winfo_id())
else:
    player.set_hwnd(window['-VID_OUT-'].Widget.winfo_id())

media_list.add_media(movie)
list_player.set_media_list(media_list)
list_player.play()
while True:
    event, values = window.read(timeout=1000)

    if event == sg.WIN_CLOSED:
        break
    if event == '-ENTER-':
        list_player.play()
    if event == '-ESCAPE-':
        list_player.stop()
        window.close()
window.close()

I’ve converted some of my Vuze media to the correct resolution using kdenlive.

I’ve added a new profile. 5760×1080 dont forget to change the display ratio!

Kdenlive howto

Identifying asian languages

My girlfriend sometimes asks me what country/language is that?
(When seeing written text or hearing people talk)

I’ve studied japanese a long time ago, and I still can read some characters. Sometimes the western words are translated using katakana.
Those are easier. ( For years i had a little card in my wallet with katakana, written a large japanese scroll on ricepaper, a computer demo and terminal tools)

Modern Japanese is written in a mixture of three basic scripts: Kanji — which are Chinese ideographic symbols — as well as Hiragana and Katakana — two phonetic alphabets (syllables). There are a few thousand Kanji characters, while Hiragana and Katakana have 46 each

Katakana chart
ア a イ i ウ u エ e オ o
カ ka キ ki ク ku ケ ke コ ko
サ sa シ shi ス su セ se ソ so
タ ta チ chi ツ tsu テ te ト to
ナ na ニ ni ヌ nu ネ ne ノ no
ハ ha ヒ hi フ fu ヘ he ホ ho
マ ma ミ mi ム mu メ me モ mo
ヤ ya ユ yu ヨ yo
ラ ra リ ri ル ru レ re ロ ro
ワ wa
ン n

So mostly a consonant combined with a vowel.
A dash – for a dubble vowel, and a u can be silent.

My name is ヘンリ

In my mind i use below to identify languages.

  • Indian: Lines with things hanging from it
  • Thai: round stuff with circles
  • Korean: straight lines with circles
  • Chinese: Very busy lines (blocks filled with lines)
  • Japanese: Blocks with lines alternated with simple characters
  • Vietnamese: They borrow chinese characters, rest “western” with dots and ^ ‘ stuff

Spoken language is difficult to explain, but these guys nail it.

Movie stabilisation and music suggestions

Some suggestions/answers for some friends.

Movie stabilisation from action cams:

Mostly I use kdenlive, but if you have an actioncam which also records movement (pan, tilt, zoom, and rotation) use a tool like Gyroflow!
This will use the motion data to correct the movement!

https://userbase.kde.org/Kdenlive/Manual/Clip_Menu/Stabilize

I’ve tried Davinci Resolve also. But I’m not sure which i’ve used for below movies.

Using blender : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCHjdEODrpM
OR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=982RL4a899g

Me flying a Cessna 172
Arja on the Death Road in Bolivia (8x speed and stabilzed)

If you want even an easier way, upload to YT, stabilise and download you movie. 🙂

Something else, what music to listen to? Any suggestions?

I had to name some (most by heart), I will edit/alter this list.
The folk/pipes artists will be in a next post.

Heavier stuff:
The prodigy, nightwish, in extremo, tanzwut, after forever, faun, gathering, therion, withintemptation

Folky
Trolska polska, dervish, gaelic storm, lunasa, michael mcgoldrick, peatbog faeries, beoga

Jazzy folk
Borne and mcleod, Bees Knees (Hamish moore and dick lee)

Film music
Akira, Vangelis (bladerunner), Kill Bill music (all kinds of sources)

Electro
Junky-xl, Trentemoller, Alt-j, Avcii

Classical
Einaudi, ennio morricone, Paganini,Rondò Veneziano

Easy listening
Aereda, Andreas Vollenweider,Anuna, Clannad, Dead can danve, enya, Era, Lais, kitaro, Moya Brennan,omnia

Blues
BB King

Divers
Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto, Buddha bar, Buena Vista Social Club, Cafe del mar, Mark Knopfler, Easy Alohas

Indie
Kensington, Imagine Dragons, 77 bombay street, Mumford and Sons, Lumineers, Of monsters and men,

Scottish Rock
Runrig

Find other music/genre’s

NFO creator with poster art generator

Created this for usage with Kodi, for our own personal movies, which can’t be scraped by movie scrapers obviously.
(dvd-rip,digital video, mobile movies, OBS, Vuze and Nikon movies for example)

UPDATE V2 added functions

This is a followup on:

Works on Windows also!

Needed libraries: (install with pip)
pathlib, Pillow, pymediainfo,PySimpleGUI,python-vlc

NFO created

Title – editable (generated from filename)
Duration – mediainfo data in seconds
Plot – Single line type it yourself
Actors – Predefined
Tags – Predefined checkboxes
Country – Pulldown ( I use this as location, Scotland, Asia, Garden)
Year – default 2023, copy button from mobile phone metadata year
Genre – Pulldown

Works

  • File select and loaded
  • Play movie, scrub thretro movie
  • Create snapshot
  • Play/Mute/Pause
  • Playtimer
  • Auto update NFO text field with selectable options
  • Poster art – rotate
  • Poster art – brightness
  • Reload Thumb after snapshotting
  • Year extracted from filename
  • add tag field
  • Next file (button AND functionality)
  • checkboxes from text list
  • Read NFO from file into fields
  • Poster art – aspect ratio

Needs work

Wish list

  • Poster art – contrast?
  • Low – more mediainfo?
  • Low – Media rotate??

The GUI in action (V1)

Kodi example

CODE ( WIP ) V2
I place this python script in every library directory. So i can change the checkboxes and the NFO being generated.
I fill the directory with symlinks for every movie I want to have included in this directory, but this is not needed. (thats the way I like to do things)
(This is the directory I scrape into Kodi)

from pathlib import Path
from sys import platform as PLATFORM
import os
import re
import PySimpleGUI as sg
import vlc
from pymediainfo import MediaInfo
from PIL import Image, ImageEnhance, ImageTk, ImageOps, ImageFilter
from xml.etree import ElementTree as ET


'''
WARNING, NFO overwrites previous!!



'''

alltags = ["music", "pipes", "computer","bbq","fun","art","travel","hobby","family","retro","compilation","retro","vuze"]

#------- WINDOWS FIX --------#
if PLATFORM.startswith('linux'):
    print("yeah linux baby!")
else:
    os.add_dll_directory(r'E:\VLC')

duration=0
tmptag=""

def nextFile(currentfile,dir):
        newfile=""
        dirpath = os.path.dirname(dir)
        fileList = []
        for f in os.listdir(dirpath):
            #fpath = os.path.join(dirpath, f)
            fpath = f
            if os.path.isfile(fpath) and f.endswith(('.mp4', '.mov', '.mpg','.avi','.mkv','.3gp')):
                fileList.append(fpath)
        fileList.sort()
        for i in range(len(fileList)):
#            print("fileList[i] " + fileList[i])
            try:
                if (fileList[i]) == currentfile:
                    newfile=fileList[i+1]
                    break
            except:
                newfile=fileList
        return newfile

def loadthumb(thumbfile):
    # IF exists
    path_to_file = thumbfile
    path = Path(path_to_file)

    if path.is_file():
        im = Image.open(thumbfile)
        im=ImageOps.contain(im, (640,640)) 
        thumbimage = ImageTk.PhotoImage(image=im)
        window['thumb'].update(data=thumbimage)
    else:
        window['thumb'].update("")

def loadnfo(file):

    #LOAD NFO
    nfo=file + ".nfo"
    path = Path(nfo)

    if path.is_file():
            f = open(nfo, "r")
            innfo=f.read()
            f.close()
#            print ("file : " + nfo)
            innfo="".join([s for s in innfo.strip().splitlines(True) if s.strip()])

# Clear some fields
            window['year'].update("")
            window['plot'].update("")

            # Update fields test
            if ET.fromstring(innfo).find('country') is not None:
                nfolocation = ET.fromstring(innfo).find('country')
                window['location'].update(value=nfolocation.text)
            if ET.fromstring(innfo).find('year') is not None:
                nfoyear = ET.fromstring(innfo).find('year')
                window['year'].update(nfoyear.text)
            if ET.fromstring(innfo).find('plot') is not None:
                nfoplot = ET.fromstring(innfo).find('plot')
                window['plot'].update(nfoplot.text)
            if ET.fromstring(innfo).find('title') is not None:
                nfotitle = ET.fromstring(innfo).find('title')
                window['-NM-'].update(nfotitle.text)
            if ET.fromstring(innfo).find('genre') is not None:
                nfogenre = ET.fromstring(innfo).find('genre')
                window['genre'].update(value=nfogenre.text)

            window['coline'].update(False)
            window['henri'].update(False)
            window['monique'].update(False)
            for actor in ET.fromstring(innfo).findall('actor'):
                name = actor.find('role').text
                if name == "Coline":
                    window['coline'].update(True)
                if name == "Henri":
                    window['henri'].update(True)
                if name == "Monique":
                    window['monique'].update(True)
            for alltag in alltags:
                window[alltag].update(False)

            if ET.fromstring(innfo).find('tag') is not None:
                for tag in ET.fromstring(innfo).findall('tag'):
                    if tag.text in window.AllKeysDict:
                        window[tag.text].update(True)

            window['coline'].update(False)
            window['henri'].update(False)
            window['monique'].update(False)
            for actor in ET.fromstring(innfo).findall('actor'):
                name = actor.find('role').text
                if name == "Coline":
                    window['coline'].update(True)
                if name == "Henri":
                    window['henri'].update(True)
                if name == "Monique":
                    window['monique'].update(True)
            for alltag in alltags:
                window[alltag].update(False)

            if ET.fromstring(innfo).find('tag') is not None:
                for tag in ET.fromstring(innfo).find('tag'):
                    window[tag.text].update(True)

    else:
        innfo=""
    window['LOADNFO'].update(innfo)





#------- Button definition --------#
def btn(name):  
    return sg.Button(name, size=(6, 2), pad=(1, 1))

#def tag(name):  
#    return sg.Checkbox(name, enable_events=True)

#------- GUI definition & setup --------#
sg.theme('SystemDefaultForReal')


l1=sg.Text("New title")
l2=sg.Multiline(" ", expand_x=True, key='-OUT-', expand_y=True,justification='left', size=(20,15))
l3=sg.Multiline(" ", expand_x=True, key='LOADNFO', expand_y=True,justification='left', size=(20,15))
l4=sg.Text("Plot")
t1=sg.Input("", key='-NM-')
t2=sg.Input("", key='plot',enable_events=True)
cb=[]

for alltag in alltags:
    cb.append(sg.Checkbox(alltag, key=alltag, enable_events=True))




cb.append(sg.Input("", key='addtag',size=(5, 1), enable_events=True))
cb.append(sg.Combo(["Lab","Datacenter","home","Outside","Outside","Lloydwebber","Steenweg","Enschede","Netherlands","Germany","Italy","Scotland","Canada","Egypt","Belgium","Sweden","Ireland","Asia","NewZealand","Hilversum"],default_value='Lab',key='location'))
cb.append(sg.Combo(["Storage","Funny","Vacation","Music","Relation"],default_value='Storage',key='genre'))
nameyear=[]
nameyear.append(sg.Checkbox("Coline", key='coline', enable_events=True,default=True))
nameyear.append(sg.Checkbox("Henri", key='henri', enable_events=True,default=True))
nameyear.append(sg.Checkbox("Monique", key='monique', enable_events=True,default=False))
nameyear.append(sg.Input("2023",key='year',size=(5, 1), enable_events=True))
nameyear.append(sg.Button("copyyear\nmetadata", key='copymeta', size=(20, 1), pad=(1, 1), enable_events=True))
nameyear.append(sg.Input("",key='metayear',size=(5, 1), enable_events=True))
nameyear.append(sg.Button("copyyear\nfilename", key='copyname', size=(20, 1), pad=(1, 1), enable_events=True))
nameyear.append(sg.Input("",key='fileyear',size=(5, 1), enable_events=True))
b1=sg.Button("WRITE NFO", key='write', enable_events=True)
b2=sg.Button("Exit", key='exit', enable_events=True)

#------- Layout total --------#

layout = [[sg.Input(key='-VIDEO_LOCATION-', visible=False, enable_events=True),
          sg.FileBrowse(file_types=(("Video files", "*.mkv *.mov *.mp4 *3gp *avi *mpg"),)),btn('next')],
          [sg.Text('Load media to start', key='-MESSAGE_AREA-')],
          [sg.Image('', size=(600, 480), key='-VID_OUT-', pad=(1, 1)),sg.Image('', size=(600, 480), key='thumb', pad=(1, 1))],
          [btn('mute'), btn('play'), btn('pause'), btn('stop'), btn('snap'), btn('snaprot'), btn('lighten'), btn('darken'), sg.Combo(["4:3","16:9","9:16"],key='aspect',enable_events=True)],
          [sg.Slider(range=(0, 1000), default_value=1, expand_x=True, enable_events=True, orientation='horizontal', key='-SL-')],
          [sg.Text('org title', key='orgtitle')],
          [l1, t1, l4, t2],[cb],[nameyear],[b1, l2, l3, b2],
          [sg.Text('GENERATED                            -= mini nfo writer =-                              PREVIOUS', key='footer')]
          ]

#------- Set window --------#
window = sg.Window('Mini NFO generator', layout, element_justification='center', finalize=True, resizable=True)
#------- VID out window --------#
window['-VID_OUT-'].expand(True, True)               
#------------ Media Player Setup ---------#
inst = vlc.Instance()
list_player = inst.media_list_player_new()
media_list = inst.media_list_new([])
list_player.set_media_list(media_list)
player = list_player.get_media_player()
if PLATFORM.startswith('linux'):
    player.set_xwindow(window['-VID_OUT-'].Widget.winfo_id())
else:
    player.set_hwnd(window['-VID_OUT-'].Widget.winfo_id())

#------------ I Want default mute ---------#
player.audio_set_mute(True)

#------------ The Event Loop ------------#
while True:
    event, values = window.read(timeout=1000)       # run with a timeout so that current location can be updated
    if event == sg.WIN_CLOSED:
        break



    if event == 'mute':
        mutevalue = player.audio_get_mute()
        if mutevalue==0:
            player.audio_set_mute(True)
        if mutevalue==1:
            player.audio_set_mute(False)
    if event == 'play':
        list_player.play()
    if event == 'pause':
        list_player.pause()
    if event == 'stop':
        list_player.stop()
    if event == 'snap':
        list_player.pause()
        filename = values['-VIDEO_LOCATION-']
        shortfilename = filename.rsplit( ".", 1 )[ 0 ] 
        newname = shortfilename + "-poster.png"
        player.video_take_snapshot(0, newname, 0, 0)
        loadthumb(newname)
    if event == 'snaprot':
        list_player.pause()
        filename = values['-VIDEO_LOCATION-']
        shortfilename = filename.rsplit( ".", 1 )[ 0 ] 
        newname = shortfilename + "-poster.png"
        im1 = Image.open(newname)
        im1 = im1.rotate(90, Image.NEAREST, expand = 1)
        im1 = im1.save(newname)
        loadthumb(newname)

    if event == 'lighten':
        list_player.pause()
        filename = values['-VIDEO_LOCATION-']
        shortfilename = filename.rsplit( ".", 1 )[ 0 ] 
        newname = shortfilename + "-poster.png"
        im1 = Image.open(newname)
        im1 = ImageEnhance.Brightness(im1)
        im1 = im1.enhance(1.2)
        im1 = im1.save(newname)
        loadthumb(newname)
        
    if event == 'darken':
        list_player.pause()
        filename = values['-VIDEO_LOCATION-']
        shortfilename = filename.rsplit( ".", 1 )[ 0 ] 
        newname = shortfilename + "-poster.png"
        im1 = Image.open(newname)
        im1 = ImageEnhance.Brightness(im1)
        im1 = im1.enhance(0.8)
        im1 = im1.save(newname)
        loadthumb(newname)

    if event == 'aspect':
        filename = values['-VIDEO_LOCATION-']
        shortfilename = filename.rsplit( ".", 1 )[ 0 ] 
        newname = shortfilename + "-poster.png"
        if values['aspect'] == "4:3":
            im1 = Image.open(newname)
            im1 = im1.resize((1920 ,int(1920/4*3)), Image.ANTIALIAS)
            im1 = im1.save(newname)
            loadthumb(newname)
        if values['aspect'] == "16:9":
            im1 = Image.open(newname)
            im1 = im1.resize((1920 ,int(1920/16*9)), Image.ANTIALIAS)
            im1 = im1.save(newname)
            loadthumb(newname)
        if values['aspect'] == "9:16":
            im1 = Image.open(newname)
            im1 = im1.resize((int(1920/16*9),1080), Image.ANTIALIAS)
            im1 = im1.save(newname)
            loadthumb(newname)


    if event == 'write':
        filename = values['-VIDEO_LOCATION-']
        shortfilename = filename.rsplit( ".", 1 )[ 0 ] 
        newname = shortfilename + ".nfo"
        f = open(newname, "w")
        f.write(out)
        f.close()
        loadnfo(shortfilename)

    if event == 'copymeta':
        if datefromfile is not None:
            window['year'].update(datefromfile)

    if event == 'copyname':
        if fileyear is not None:
            window['year'].update(fileyear)


    if event == '-SL-':
        pos=int(values['-SL-'])
        player.set_position(pos/ 1000.0)

        
    if values['coline'] == False:
         colinetext = ""
    if values['coline'] == True:
        colinetext = """<actor>
  <name>Coline Lastname</name>
  <role>Coline</role>
</actor>"""
    if values['henri'] == False:
         henritext = ""
    if values['henri'] == True:
        henritext = """<actor>
  <name>Henri Aanstoot</name>
  <role>Henri</role>
</actor>"""
    if values['monique'] == False:
            moniquetext = ""
    if values['monique'] == True:
        moniquetext = """<actor>
  <name>Monique Lastname</name>
  <role>Monique</role>
</actor>"""

        
    if event == '-VIDEO_LOCATION-':
        if values['-VIDEO_LOCATION-'] and not 'Video URL' in values['-VIDEO_LOCATION-']:
            media_list.remove_index(0)
            media_list.add_media(values['-VIDEO_LOCATION-'])
            list_player.set_media_list(media_list)
            shortname = values['-VIDEO_LOCATION-']
            shortname = shortname.rsplit( "/", 1 )[ 1 ] 
            nextfile=nextFile(shortname,"./")
            shortname = shortname.rsplit( ".", 1 )[ 0 ] 
            window['-NM-'].update(shortname) # only add a legit submit
            list_player.stop()
            list_player.next()
            thumbname=shortname + "-poster.png"
            loadthumb(thumbname)

            #Print org title
            window['orgtitle'].update(values['-VIDEO_LOCATION-'])


            loadnfo(shortname)


            #DURATION
            mi = MediaInfo.parse(values['-VIDEO_LOCATION-'])
            duration=int(mi.tracks[0].duration/1000)
            
            #DATE FROM media
            metadate=mi.tracks[0].encoded_date
            if metadate is not None:
                datefromfile=next(iter(re.findall(r"[1][9][8-9][0-9]|[2][0][0-9]{2}", metadate)), None)
                window['metayear'].update(datefromfile)

            # YEAR FROM FILENAME 
            fileyear=next(iter(re.findall(r"[1][9][8-9][0-9]|[2][0][0-9]{2}", shortname)), None)
            # year from filename
            if fileyear is not None:
                window['fileyear'].update(fileyear)


    if event == 'next':
        
        values['-VIDEO_LOCATION-'] = nextfile
        window['-VIDEO_LOCATION-'].update(nextfile)

        if values['-VIDEO_LOCATION-'] and not 'Video URL' in values['-VIDEO_LOCATION-']:
            media_list.remove_index(0)
            media_list.add_media(values['-VIDEO_LOCATION-'])
            list_player.set_media_list(media_list)
            shortname = values['-VIDEO_LOCATION-']
 #           shortname = shortname.rsplit( "/", 1 )[ 1 ] 
            nextfile=nextFile(shortname,"./")
            #print(nextfile)
            shortname = shortname.rsplit( ".", 1 )[ 0 ] 
            window['-NM-'].update(shortname) # only add a legit submit
            list_player.stop()
            list_player.next()
            thumbname=shortname + "-poster.png"
            loadthumb(thumbname)

            #Print org title
            window['orgtitle'].update(values['-VIDEO_LOCATION-'])
            

            loadnfo(shortname)

            #DURATION
            mi = MediaInfo.parse(values['-VIDEO_LOCATION-'])
            duration=int(mi.tracks[0].duration/1000)
            
            #DATE FROM media
            metadate=mi.tracks[0].encoded_date
            if metadate is not None:
                datefromfile=next(iter(re.findall(r"[1][9][8-9][0-9]|[2][0][0-9]{2}", metadate)), None)
                window['metayear'].update(datefromfile)

            # YEAR FROM FILENAME 
            fileyear=next(iter(re.findall(r"[1][9][8-9][0-9]|[2][0][0-9]{2}", shortname)), None)
            # year from filename
            if fileyear is not None:
                window['fileyear'].update(fileyear)
#        media_list.add_media(nextfile)
##        shortname = nextfile.rsplit( ".", 1 )[ 0 ] 
##        window['-NM-'].update(shortname) # only add a legit submit
#        print(nextfile)
#        window['-VIDEO_LOCATION-'].update(nextfile)
#        list_player.next()
# hier moeten wat update dingen bij!




    # Add tag
    if event == 'addtag':
        tmptag="<tag>" + values['addtag'] + "</tag>"

#------------ exit ---------#

    if event=='exit':
         exit()
#------------ TAGS ---------#
    
    subs=[x.Text for x in cb if x.get()==True]
    for idx, x in enumerate(subs):
        subs[idx]="<tag>" + subs[idx] + "</tag>"


    if values['year'] == False:
        year=str(2023)
    else:
        year=values['year']
    if values['location'] == False:
        location="Lab"
    else:
        location=values['location']
    if values['plot'] == False:
        plot=""
    else:
        plot=values['plot']
    if values['genre'] == False:
        genre="Storage"
    else:
        genre=values['genre']
#------------ NFO TEXT FIELD ---------#

    out="""<movie>
<title>{}</title>
<plot>{}</plot>
<genre>{}</genre>
<duration>{}</duration>
<year>{}</year>
<country>{}</country>
{}
{}
{}
{}
{}
</movie>
""".format(values['-NM-'],plot,genre,duration,year,location,colinetext,henritext,moniquetext,tmptag, "\n".join(subs))
    out="".join([s for s in out.strip().splitlines(True) if s.strip()])
    window['-OUT-'].update(out)

#------------ Messages and timer ---------#

    # update elapsed time if there is a video loaded and the player is playing
    if player.is_playing():
        window['-MESSAGE_AREA-'].update("{:02d}:{:02d} / {:02d}:{:02d}".format(*divmod(player.get_time()//1000, 60),
                                                                     *divmod(player.get_length()//1000, 60)))
    else:
        window['-MESSAGE_AREA-'].update('Load media to start' if media_list.count() == 0 else 'Ready to play media' )

window.close()

Python pysimplegui with VLC example

A work in progress – see followup

pip3 install python-vlc && pip3 install PySimpleGUI

Kodi movie NFO file editor test

And a player in python

Some example code

from pathlib import Path

import PySimpleGUI as sg
import vlc
from sys import platform as PLATFORM


sg.theme('DarkBlue')

def btn(name):  
    return sg.Button(name, size=(6, 1), pad=(1, 1))

b1=sg.Button("WRITE NFO")
b2=sg.Button("Exit")

layout = [[sg.Input(key='-VIDEO_LOCATION-', visible=False, enable_events=True),
          sg.FileBrowse(file_types=(("MP4 Files", "*.mp4"),))],
          [sg.Image('', size=(600, 480), key='-VID_OUT-')],
          [btn('mute'), btn('play'), btn('skip 5sec'), btn('pause'), btn('stop'), btn('snap')],
          [sg.Text('Load media to start', key='-MESSAGE_AREA-')],
          [sg.Slider(range=(0, 100), default_value=5, expand_x=True, enable_events=True, orientation='horizontal', key='-SL-')],
          [[b1, b2]]]

window = sg.Window('Mini NFO generator', layout, element_justification='center', finalize=True, resizable=True)

window['-VID_OUT-'].expand(True, True)                

inst = vlc.Instance()
list_player = inst.media_list_player_new()
media_list = inst.media_list_new([])
list_player.set_media_list(media_list)
player = list_player.get_media_player()
if PLATFORM.startswith('linux'):
    player.set_xwindow(window['-VID_OUT-'].Widget.winfo_id())
else:
    player.set_hwnd(window['-VID_OUT-'].Widget.winfo_id())

player.audio_set_mute(True)
while True:
    event, values = window.read(timeout=1000)       
    if event == sg.WIN_CLOSED:
        break

    if event == 'play':
        list_player.play()
    if event == 'pause':
        list_player.pause()
    if event == 'stop':
        list_player.stop()
    if event == 'snap':
        list_player.pause()
        newname = values['-VIDEO_LOCATION-'] + ".png"
        player.video_take_snapshot(0, newname, 400, 300)
    if event == 'next':
        player.set_position(0.5)
        list_player.play()
    if event == 'mute':
        player.audio_set_mute(True)
    if event == '-SL-':
        player.set_position(int(values['-SL-']/100))
    if event == '-VIDEO_LOCATION-':
        if values['-VIDEO_LOCATION-'] and not 'Video URL' in values['-VIDEO_LOCATION-']:
            media_list.add_media(values['-VIDEO_LOCATION-'])
            list_player.set_media_list(media_list)
            window['-VIDEO_LOCATION-'].update('Video URL or Local Path:') 
            list_player.next()

    if player.is_playing():
        window['-MESSAGE_AREA-'].update("{:02d}:{:02d} / {:02d}:{:02d}".format(*divmod(player.get_time()//1000, 60),
                                                                     *divmod(player.get_length()//1000, 60)))
    else:
        window['-MESSAGE_AREA-'].update('Load media to start' if media_list.count() == 0 else 'Ready to play media' )

window.close()

Music for movies

We like to listen to movie scores. Those are underappreciated most of the times.

That’s why we go to concerts like

  • Evening of the Film Music
  • Hans Zimmer in Concert
  • The Star Wars Suite

We also do a quizes on YT, general movie knowledge, guess the movie by the scene, and guess the movie by musical scores.

We have a spotify playlist with random movie music. Sometimes very hard.

But sometimes we know the movie by its track before we had seen the movie. (Requiem of a Dream)

A lot of the time we make mistakes with Spielberg movies, there are a lot similar sounding moviescores!

See also John Williams remark at
https://www.henriaanstoot.nl/2022/12/07/i-admire-people-who-excel-at-things-they-do/

I’ve got some 5.1 surround music from movies, very nice to hear another dimension.

Some original soundtracks I have in mp3

  • Akira !
  • Interstellar
  • Pirates of the Caribbean
  • Ghost in the Shell
  • Appleseed
  • Titanic
  • Lord of the Rings
  • Blade Runner (Vangelis)
  • Godfather – ( although i’m not a fan of the movies )
  • Lawrence of Arabia
  • Amélie
  • Requiem for a Dream

Ludovico Einaudi – Composer of amazing piano music
https://www.henriaanstoot.nl/2019/08/31/best-of-einaudi-lying-down/
Ennio Morricone – Composer of many Spaghetti westerns

Although not original music written for the movie, because Tarantino likes to pick out tunes to fit the scenes.
3/4 Of the music of Kill Bill is amazing!

The rest is on streaming services

By the scene example

Soundtrack guessing game

Top IMDB followup using python (openpyxl)

Using some python and a scraped list I can now mark which movies we’ve seen, or have to see.
(Own the movie or have it seen streamed in the cinema)

I just have to place a X after the title in the first column.
Run the python script, and presto

First column, the list we started with.
Second column, mark the movie.
3rd until the end .. years 2000-2023

Blue – seen
Light Blue – seen but was not in original list (so a new movie)
Green – have this movie, but still have to watch it
Light Green – Have this movie but it’s not in the original list
Orange – New in that year (could be an oldie reemerging in the top 250)

Now the python script, maybe it useful for you.

# 20230813 18:49 IMDB overview
# pip install openpyxl

import openpyxl
from openpyxl.styles import PatternFill
from openpyxl.styles.colors import Color
 
wb = openpyxl.load_workbook("clearsheet.xlsx")
sheet = wb['Sheet1']

colors = ['00660066', '00FFFFCC',
          '007b8cf2', '005ace97', '00ffac58','00dddddd','009bd8ff','007aeeb7']
fillers = []

for color in colors:
    temp = PatternFill(patternType='solid',
                       fgColor=color)
    fillers.append(temp)

# Mark found previous years
for colt in range(4, 27):
    for colr in range(3, colt):
        for rowr in range(2, 252):
            for rowrr in range(2, 252):
                if sheet.cell(row=rowrr, column=colr).value == sheet.cell(row=rowr, column=colt).value :
                    sheet.cell(row=rowr, column=colt).fill = fillers[4]

# Mark Our Old list matched with all years
for titlerow in range(2, 252):
    for colr in range(3, 26):
        for rowr in range(2, 252):
            if sheet.cell(row=titlerow, column=1).value == sheet.cell(row=rowr, column=colr).value :
                sheet.cell(row=titlerow, column=1).fill = fillers[5]

# Mark Have / Seen
for title in range(2, 252):
    for j in range(3, 27):
        for i in range(2, 252):
            if sheet.cell(row=i, column=j).value == sheet.cell(row=title, column=1).value :
                if sheet.cell(row=title, column=2).value == "x":
                     sheet.cell(row=i, column=j).fill = fillers[2]
                else:
                     sheet.cell(row=i, column=j).fill = fillers[3]

# Mark non old list but seen
for title in range(252, 400):
    for j in range(3, 27):
        for i in range(2, 252):
            if sheet.cell(row=i, column=j).value == sheet.cell(row=title, column=1).value :
                if sheet.cell(row=title, column=2).value == "x":
                     sheet.cell(row=i, column=j).fill = fillers[6]
                else:
                     sheet.cell(row=i, column=j).fill = fillers[7]
# Info cells
sheet['D255'] = "Downloaded seen org list"
sheet['D256'] = "Downloaded not seen org list"
sheet['D257'] = "Title matches found in 2000-2023"
sheet['D258'] = "Titles found in 2000-2023 not in org list have"
sheet['D259'] = "Titles found in 2000-2023 not in org list have seen"
sheet['D260'] = "Titles found in 2000-2023 previous years"
sheet.cell(row=255, column=4).fill = fillers[2]
sheet.cell(row=256, column=4).fill = fillers[3]
sheet.cell(row=257, column=4).fill = fillers[5]
sheet.cell(row=258, column=4).fill = fillers[7]
sheet.cell(row=259, column=4).fill = fillers[6]
sheet.cell(row=260, column=4).fill = fillers[4]
wb.save("imdbexport.xlsx")

Comedians and standup comedy

I previously wrote about English Humour, now generic standup comedy.

I’ll write what I know and like, can you help me add to my list??!?
Only a few worth mentioning posted below.

I’m having a hard time to distinguish between One man shows, Standup comedians and alike.

Dutch/Belgium

English/Scottish/American

  • Billy Connolly – (Nothing I didn´t like about this guy’s humour)
  • Johnny “Bagpipes” Johnston – A comedian piper! (Got a dvd of his show)
  • Rowan Atkinson – His one man show
  • Eddie Izzard – History/general knowledge fantasy comedy
  • George Carlin

Other

  • Ismo Leikola – Finnish/American mostly word jokes
  • Ari Eldjárn – Icelandic language jokes

Oneliner cannons – ( Funny as hell, no long stories )

  • Stephen Wright
  • Mitch Hedberg

Music comedians

  • Johnny “Bagpipes” Johnston
  • Hans Liberg (NL)
  • Victor Borge ( Hans Liberg got a lot of his material from him )
  • Bill Bailey

Naughty

  • Ali Wong
  • Nikki Glaser
  • Jimmy Carr