Gracenote Video Explore™
Video Explore enables developers to seamlessly incorporate a global database of rich video metadata, visual assets, trailers, and commerce links into their products, enriching and customizing their users’ digital media experiences. Developers can integrate this database with local media collections or within their existing interfaces, and link to their preferred commerce providers, all without compromising their brand or their control of the user experience.
A Global, Multi-Platform Video Search, Navigation and Discovery Solution
Video Explore also allows for intuitive search and navigation of any video library from metadata fields on any connected device, including media servers, personal computers, televisions, set top boxes, BD-Live features, mobile phones, and more. Users can read about their favorite cast and crew, explore comprehensive filmographies, learn more about their favorite movies and TV shows, enjoy rich imagery, watch trailers, and download and purchase content.
In addition, Video Explore creates value by seamlessly integrating with Gracenote’s VideoID™, MusicID® and link to commerce, giving developers the ability to leverage media consumption and profile collections to promote search and navigation experiences and commerce opportunities.
Comprehensive Global DVD and Blu-ray Database
Video Explore draws from the Gracenote Global Media Database, the world’s largest and most comprehensive global database of music, commercial movie and episodic TV information, enhanced through exclusive relationships with the world’s leading media information and content providers. The robust database includes exhaustive information from the British Film Institute (BFI) catalog of data on feature films, TV episodes, documentaries and animated films, and Stingray, a video data provider for the Japanese market. It features more than 800,000 total works with virtually every DVD and Blu-ray disc released in the United States, United Kingdom, and Japan, and includes cover art, credits, synopsis, reviews, and more. Gracenote’s in-house editorial expertise is continually expanding these licensed datasets by focusing on highly desired content like episodic synopses for TV Series DVDs.
Search: Tying Video with the Global Media Database
Gracenote’s world-class network service gives developers fast, accurate, and customizable search capabilities.
- Multiple key fields are indexed for text Search, including Contributor Name, Work Name, Product Name, Series, and Franchise.
- Based upon the developer’s interface requirements, clients can filter pre-constrained results by production type (movie, TV, etc.), genre, language, country of origin, format, rating, and more.
- Easy searching with input constrained devices using type-ahead technology which limits the number of character inputs.
Client Side Controls: Enabling Intelligent and Efficient Interfaces
Even the best search terms and search engines can deliver duplicate or an unmanageable number of results. Broad search words like “Christian” can result in multiple pages of matches. Video Explore puts clients back in control by filtering and sorting elements within search results. Clients can specify sort results by multiple fields such as franchise, season, or production type.
Navigation: Facilitating Entertainment and Discovery
Video Explore makes discovering and navigating video related content natively within a developer’s device and interface easy. Flexible data models deliver data for Contributors (cast, crew, etc), Works (movies, shows, episodes, documentaries, etc), and Products (DVDs, Blu-rays, digital products, etc) allowing developers to implement open navigation paths and experiences. Consumers can navigate from a movie to the Director, from the Director to Filmography, from a TV show in that Filmography to the Screenwriter, from the Screenwriter to another TV Episode, and from that TV Episode to any of the Actors – the options are endless.
Rich Media: Visual Assets for Next Generation Interfaces
Rich media delivers rich consumer experiences. Video Explore delivers rich media assets from the world’s leading providers of images and trailers including Contributors, Works and Products, and Trailers to support video previewing ensuring a compelling media experience.
Links: Tying Navigation to Commerce
Today’s home entertainment devices have endless content channels and exploration models. Content is available streamed, from multiple providers from around the world, on demand or accessed locally, and in multiple formats. Video Explore can deliver a seamless and centralized experience integrating multiple content sources while including preferences from a user’s local collection into the navigation experience.
Architecture: Designed for Flexible Deployment Options
Video Explore APIs can be integrated into client software or accessed as a hosted web service. Built upon the Gracenote Service that handles billions of queries each month, responses are lightweight and queries are fast.
Video Explore supports endless use cases, including:
- Extending the data presented within an EPG interface on a Set Top Box and linking downstream navigation to VOD stores (or back to the EPG).
- Searching by TV Series based on DVR/PRV recordings, viewing previous Seasons, and linking to physical media commerce.
- Viewing rich metadata related to video files stored on a local hard drive, then storing that data to enable collection management.
- Recognizing discs within a DVD/Blu-ray player, then displaying rich information about Cast and Crew, their Filmographies, etc.
- Building a multi-screen application that spans device, personal computer, and phone.
