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Movie Collector 5 released
TucknDar:
Good news, everyone...
MoC 5.1 has now been released (well, actually it's 5.1.1) with multi-disc and improved box set support!
What's new...Multi-Disc support:
- Use the new Episodes & Features tab page to create Disc items for each disc in a multi-disc DVD set
- Enter Episode lists per disc
- Enter Standard Features and Extra Features per disc
- Improved carousel support: now enter Storage Device and Slot per disc
- Automatic Episode numbering
- Improved View, Export and Print template to show episodes, features and storage data per disc
Enhanced Box Set support:
- Box Set item now has extra fields for Front cover, Back Cover, Release Date, Barcode, Purchase Date, Price, Store, Condition, Current Value and Notes
- All Box Set fields are now shown in a special Box Set bar at the top of the Details View (in both Movie Collector 5 and Classic templates)
- new Box Set List button on toolbar for direct access to the Box Set List screen
- new Movie fields on Edition tab page: Distributor and Extras-Collectorz.com
--- End quote ---
* TucknDar is a much happier customer now ;D
nosh:
MC 6, which releases tomorrow, will now fetch data exclusively from their own online database. Support for IMDB and every other source has been completely dropped.
v5 users should be OK because even after the one year support (IIRC) ends there's a big (geeky) user-base that should take care of changes to data retrieval scripts but this is a controversial decision to say the least. Lots of pissed off users on their forums - and for good reason! :)
CWuestefeld:
MC 6, which releases tomorrow, will now fetch data exclusively from their own online database. Support for IMDB and every other source has been completely dropped. -nosh (December 08, 2008, 11:26 AM)
--- End quote ---
I think it's not as bad as that sounds. From an update email they just sent out:
Now, when you download the DVD details of your specific edition, our system will automatically use Amazon to supply the missing cover image.
The beauty of it is: you won't even notice :-)
Are you using our Flic or CueCat scanner to add your DVDs?
Then version 6 will work out great for you!
You see, now our system will also do automatic Amazon Lookups for all barcode searches that are not recognized by our own database.
Again, you won't notice a thing, apart from getting more hits of course!
And if even Amazon reports: "never heard of that one", we've got a new "last resort" lookup solution (only for Region 1 discs though):
-- The excellent Region 1 DVD List published by hometheaterinfo.com --
It won't give you cover images, but it will at least recognize your barcodes and return basic information like Title, Year, Studio, Genre and Release Date. The list is updated on a daily basis, so it will be a great help keeping our results up-to-date.
--- End quote ---
J-Mac:
MC 6, which releases tomorrow, will now fetch data exclusively from their own online database. Support for IMDB and every other source has been completely dropped. -nosh (December 08, 2008, 11:26 AM)
--- End quote ---
I think it's not as bad as that sounds. From an update email they just sent out:
Now, when you download the DVD details of your specific edition, our system will automatically use Amazon to supply the missing cover image.
The beauty of it is: you won't even notice :-)
Are you using our Flic or CueCat scanner to add your DVDs?
Then version 6 will work out great for you!
You see, now our system will also do automatic Amazon Lookups for all barcode searches that are not recognized by our own database.
Again, you won't notice a thing, apart from getting more hits of course!
And if even Amazon reports: "never heard of that one", we've got a new "last resort" lookup solution (only for Region 1 discs though):
-- The excellent Region 1 DVD List published by hometheaterinfo.com --
It won't give you cover images, but it will at least recognize your barcodes and return basic information like Title, Year, Studio, Genre and Release Date. The list is updated on a daily basis, so it will be a great help keeping our results up-to-date.
--- End quote ---
-CWuestefeld (December 08, 2008, 12:15 PM)
--- End quote ---
Actually, it IS as bad as it sounds - at least until their database gets some teeth. Presently Alwin is trying to boast about how many movies are listed in their own database. Problem that I have experienced, however, is that the movies that are in there have very little detail for almost all movies. Only the front cover art - if any - and a summary of the plot. Not much else. I have mainly used DVDEmpire's database which has a tremendously greater amount of data in it for all movies that I have searched there.
Another issue is that Alwin is claiming that the reason for this change is that new users who download the demo version do not purchase because they are too confused by the Auto-Add dialog; that having multiple data sources is just too tricky for most new users. Sorry but that doesn’t quite go sown easily here. Besides, why not just add a "Simple" auto-add dialog that only searches their database, and keep the existing search dialog there for users who prefer it? Which is almost definitely the majority of existing users. Or, barring that, utilize the two separate versions - Standard and Pro - to differentiate between the multiple database search and the simple, one-database search?
Alwin even posted a thread to gather user suggestions for version 6 about a year ago, and then admittedly ignored all suggestions there in favor of his own - to limit the user data to his own admittedly lacking database.
In cases like mine where I am fortunate to have already built a database of my currently owned DVDs and managed to gather a lot of detailed data, using only the Collectorz.com weak database for new DVDs only is not quite as bad as someone who needs to add several hundred - or thousand - DVDs from scratch. I pity those users, as they will get only a bare minimum of detail for each DVD and will then have to add the remaining detail by searching for it outside of the Collectorz.com software and cut/paste it all into there individual database entries. I would not relish that task.
Jim
J-Mac:
Sorry - I didn't even comment of Alwin's slight capitulation and decision to use Amazon for data missing from his own database. That is not much better of a solution, as Amazon hardly has any more info about the DVDs than the Collectorz.com database has. Amazon also offers only the front covers and also offers little detail. Plus, Movie Collector has NEVER utilized Amazon's meager episode details. Don’t know why but it has always omitted that for as long as I have used it - which is only about a year.
As for the homethreaterinfo.com data, that is also just very basic data - no real details there.
It would still be easier to use both simple and advanced searches. There are most likely other reasons they are doing away with the other database searches. But they are not saying what.
Jim
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