Our headshot master database is nearly four years old and meanwhile the numerous add ons and corrections became really hard to maintain. It is time to get a new Master database...

Here it is: Headshot Master Database v.11 (9991 crew members/88721 cast members)

Fore everyone who has problems downloading large files, here is a compilation of smaller files. There are also PAR files included to check and repair the download.

These smaller chunks could be interesting for everyone, who does not want to import all headshots at a time too...

For everyone who did never import headshots before, this is it. - Others, who previously imported headshots or worry about BYs and common names, might have a look at the following posts...

Another grey area are headshots for names, which are perfectly correct, but where latest common name finding or BY documentation proved that the person should be listed under another name/BY combination. Since I try to use correct cross linking and therefore obey common names as well as BY documentation, I mark such headshots as invalid by overlaying additional information.

As examples the headshots of 50 Cent, Adam John Harrington and Frank Pelegrino (9002):
   

And here is the file including all such headshots from my database.


Again this file contains a profile, which lists all headshots, which are replaced. To restore this file the correct restore settings have to be chosen:


Warning: Forgetting to check the Restore Specific Profiles Option on restore will OVERWRITE THE COMPLETE DATABASE.

And here shows up the usefulness of the included profile. By browsing through the cast or crew of this profile, all other apearances of the cast/crew members are shown at a glance - the best point to start cleaning up:

After cleaning up the database this dummy headshots and the profile can be removed from the database or left to regularly recheck for newly imported profiles using this names.

As above remarks concerning this type of database backup:
- All profiles included in these backups are set to a manual disc ID with 16 digits to avoid collisions with any local manual disc IDs. It is safe to restore them to any pre populated database.
- All backup files include dummy profiles or dummy episodes to avoid automatic BY corrections on import.
- It might be interesting to import the correction databases into an empty database to see, how they are set up and decide if they should get into the main database...
- It is recomended to make a backup copy of the local database up front any import!!

Last not least a post concerning Invalid BYs. They sneak in over various paths: from ancient online entries, over headshot files or simply by typos. Here is an attempt to defeat them.

As already practiced in the posts above, I use a profile with all known invalid BYs to walk through and check, if the invalid entries are used in other profiles of my database.

Because of the import logic of DVD Profiler it is not that easy to handle this dummy profile: when a birth year which is not already existant in the local database is imported, then all profiles for the same name without a BY assigned get the new (in this case invalid) BY - That would be exactly the opposite direction than we want to go...

The solution is a second profile (Valid BYs) which contains the same names without any BY and/or with the correct BYs. Yes, most of the times an empty BY is the valid alternative to an invalid BY...


I see two different use cases (aproaches to get rid of invalid BYs) here:
a) The one shot: Check if there are invalid BYs in the local database, step back to a previously saved backup and remove them.
b) The concurrent method: keep the invalid BYs in the local database but prevent them from getting used in profiles (my prefered variant).

The one shot aproach in detail:
- make a backup of the database
- import this database file (please read the following paragraphs, describing how this file can be restored correctly), which contains both profiles, Valid BYs and Invalid BYs
- walk through the cast and crew members of the Invalid BYs and write down each name, which is used in local profiles
- restore the previously saved backup of the local database (to eliminate the newly imported invalid BYs)
- manually remove the preexistent invalid BYs from the database

The concurrent method in detail:
- make a backup of the database (hopefully we won't need it later)
- import this database file (please read the following paragraphs, describing how this file can be restored correctly), which also contains both profiles, Valid BYs and Invalid BYs - but each invalid entry has a dummy headshot attached to it to identify this name/BY combination as invalid
- remove the Valid BYs profile from the local database - it is not needed for checking...
- walk through the cast and crew members of the Invalid BYs on a regular basis to find invalid BYs, which sneaked in...
- additionally the dummy headshot warns when one of these invalid BYs is assigned to a profile


To restore one of these files the correct restore settings have to be chosen - it is important to select both profiles:


And once again the Warning: Forgetting to check the Restore Specific Profiles Option on restore will OVERWRITE THE COMPLETE DATABASE. Importing only the invalid BYs profile will MESS UP CORRECT BYs.

And a last time - the remarks
- All profiles included in these backups are set to a manual disc ID with 16 digits to avoid collisions with any local manual disc IDs. It is safe to restore them to any pre populated database.
- It might be interesting to import the correction databases into an empty database to see, how they are set up and decide if they should get into the main database...
- It is STRONGLY recomended to make a backup copy of the local database up front any import!!

thank you for your hard work on this, will download the files tonight and then add it to my database during the next days

Thank you very much for the great work! 

This is marvelous!  Thank you so much!  I had lost all my headshots when my previous computer went down, and v10 was way too intimidating with all the addendums. 

Like Dr. Killpatient, I just wish I'd seen it earlier to upvote all the posts.

Here are 500+ new headshots. Some new ones, but most of them are updates for existing headshots and most of them are last names from #-A. If you have any suggestions or comments, please let me know.

Headshots Updates

thanks for the hard work on this