XBMC – No Cast Info from IMDB

If you have been using the latest release of XBMC you might have noticed that XBMC does not seem to pick up the cast information of a movie from IMDB.  The problem here is that Imdb recently made minor changes to its api  and the infomation we are looking for is not available in the same location.

The Fix

You just need to open the imdb.xml file in “/usr/share/xbmc/system/scrapers/video/” directory in linux systems(you will need to open the file as the superuser: sudo nano/usr/share/xbmc/system/scrapers/video/imdb.xml ) and “system/scrapers/video/” directory under your Xbmc installation directory in Windows.

Replace the following section of code:
<GetMovieCast clearbuffers=”no” dest=”5″>
<RegExp input=”$$2″ output=”&lt;details&gt;\1&lt;/details&gt;” dest=”5″>
<RegExp input=”$$1″ output=”\1″ dest=”6″>
<expression clear=”yes” noclean=”1″>&lt;table class=&quot;cast&quot;&gt;(.*?)&lt;/table&gt;</expression>
</RegExp>
<RegExp input=”$$6″ output=”&lt;actor&gt;&lt;thumb&gt;\1_SX$INFO[imdbscale]_SY$INFO[imdbscale]_\2&lt;/thumb&gt;&lt;name&gt;\3&lt;/name&gt;&lt;role&gt;\4&lt;/role&gt;&lt;/actor&gt;” dest=”7″>
<expression clear=”yes” repeat=”yes” noclean=”1,2″ trim=”3,4″>&lt;img src=&quot;(?:([^&quot;]*\.)[^&quot;]*(\.jpg))?[^&gt;]*[^&quot;]*&quot;nm&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;[^&quot;]*&quot;&gt;([^&lt;]*)&lt;[^&quot;]*&quot;ddd&quot;&gt; … [^&quot;]*&quot;char&quot;&gt;(.*?)&lt;/td&gt;</expression>
</RegExp>
<RegExp input=”$$7″ output=”&lt;actor&gt;&lt;thumb&gt;\1&lt;/thumb&gt;\2&lt;/actor&gt;” dest=”2+”>
<expression clear=”yes” repeat=”yes” noclean=”1,2,3″>&lt;actor&gt;&lt;thumb&gt;(?:(http.*?)|_SX[0-9]+_SY[0-9]+_)&lt;/thumb&gt;(.*?)&lt;/actor&gt;</expression>
</RegExp>
<expression noclean=”1″></expression>
</RegExp>
</GetMovieCast>

With this code:

<GetMovieCast clearbuffers=”no” dest=”5″>
<RegExp input=”$$2″ output=”&lt;details&gt;\1&lt;/details&gt;” dest=”5″>
<RegExp input=”$$1″ output=”\1″ dest=”6″>
<expression noclean=”1″>&lt;table class=&quot;cast&quot;&gt;(.*?)&lt;/table&gt;</expression>
</RegExp>
<RegExp input=”$$6″ output=”&lt;actor&gt;&lt;thumb&gt;\1_SX$INFO[imdbscale]_SY$INFO[imdbscale]_\2&lt;/thumb&gt;&lt;name&gt;\3&lt;/name&gt;&lt;role&gt;\4&lt;/role&gt;&lt;/actor&gt;” dest=”7″>
<expression clear=”yes” repeat=”yes” noclean=”1,2″ trim=”3,4″>&lt;img src=&quot;(?:([^&quot;]*\.)[^&quot;]*(\.jpg))?[^&gt;]*[^&quot;]*&quot;nm&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;[^&quot;]*[^&gt;]*&gt;([^&lt;]*)&lt;[^&quot;]*&quot;ddd&quot;&gt; … [^&quot;]*&quot;char&quot;&gt;(.*?)&lt;/td&gt;</expression>
</RegExp>
<RegExp input=”$$7″ output=”&lt;actor&gt;&lt;thumb&gt;\1&lt;/thumb&gt;\2&lt;/actor&gt;” dest=”2+”>
<expression clear=”yes” repeat=”yes” noclean=”1,2,3″>&lt;actor&gt;&lt;thumb&gt;(?:(http.*?)|_SX[0-9]+_SY[0-9]+_)&lt;/thumb&gt;(.*?)&lt;/actor&gt;</expression>
</RegExp>
<expression noclean=”1″></expression>
</RegExp>
</GetMovieCast>

Attachment – My imdb.xml file: imdb.xml