A landmark in good planning and product evolution
Written: Feb 26 '06 (Updated Feb 26 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Well planned and executed list of necessary provisions in a movie database
Cons: None except the tacky-cheesy company name
The Bottom Line: If your collection is larger than 50 discs, you can use some organization. My opinion: there is no available product at this time that can perform that function better.
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| heathcolwell's Full Review: Collectorz.com Movie Collector Pro |
It's pretty rare that I write reviews. It's much more rare that I consider a product as worthy of praise as I do this one. Before getting started, I'd like to have it said I have no affiliation with Collectorz.com.
For the past couple years I've been searching for a reasonable rack system to store all of my dvd's. The most attractive set I've found was from Boltz.com but frankly, losing a 5ft section of a wall to a daunting 6ft tall rack wasn't all that appealing. If you must, I think they're probably near the best.
Whether you choose a rack, or a dvd carousel like I did, there are better ways to peruse your collection than sliding your index finger across 500 titles. Personally, I opted for the Sony 400 disc dvd player which allows me to hide all of my dvd cases. Even before I purchased the player, I knew I had to find the software that would make the catalog process as seamless as possible.
I began the endeavor about the same way most googlers would. After a quick search, I downloaded and either tried, or actually purchased copies of software from top to bottom. Catvids and Intervocative were near the top of google...somehow.
Intervocative's interface felt clumsy and had too few working customization features. Title entry was the slowest of the three. The pictures in the preview section were nice...but not worth a lot in the printed list format I was looking for. Before I had the player, I had thought this software was adequate and began entering titles, and even purchased the software. Moments after the player arrived, the problems began. It's been a while, but if memory serves me correctly, the ability to successfully add a column for dvd location (rack slot/carousel location) was a pain in the neck, and could not be sorted alpha or numerically. I contacted support and their slow response was of little use, not correcting the problem, not even a work around the problem. I think if you were making a list for insurance purposes, this software would be ok, but for purposes of actual organization, no way. For insurance purposes, a pen and paper would probably suffice, with a simple digital picture of the collection cases.
Catvids was simply an interface disaster. Borrowing from a standard Windows XP window with directory/subdirectory structure, it was an example of what to not do in basic programming. Every shortcut was made in development with all burdens and lack of features dumped in the buyers lap. Luckily the ineptitude of this software was apparent long before a purchase had to be made.
Again, it's been a few months, but I think there was at least 1 more smaller and equally disappointing software trials. Collectorz.com was there the whole time, but frankly, the name is so cheesy, I didn't think there was a chance the software was worth a damn. Apparently development worked the extra hours that marketing took as vacation.
Collectorz.com Movie Collector was at the very least funded by, but most likely written by a programmer with an extensive collection of their own. The abundance of features, and perfect functionality of those features don't lend themselves to chance or slow evolution.
Where to begin:
Movie importing across all platforms involve approximately 40% interface and 60% dependence on availability of outside information sources. If you do not have an internet connection (preferrably fast) to the computer you will generate your database on, don't bother. You can export/import the database between computers, so residence and generation do not have to take place on the same computer.
Collectorz allows for multiple movies to be searched at 1 time. Simply enter a collection of titles (partial or whole) or for ambiguous names, enter the barcode from the backside of your dvd case. After a brief moment for each movie entered, options quickly become available for you to specify which movie with similar or exact titles matches your own. A quick click and it will display the case preview and a glimpse at director/star information.
Selecting/double clicking any individual title brings up all the features and customization available to that particular dvd. It is here that you can enter location information. In the case of my carousel, this is as simple as a 1-400 disc location. If in a rack system, I assume there would be something along the lines of an A1-25 B1-25, none of which demonstrate any of the sorting problems (alpha numeric) experienced with the Intervocative software.
The reason I spent so much time searching for, and using this software is simple. I wanted to be able to scan lists to select the next movie I watched. I say lists, because I print several similar lists.
List #1 is the most obvious; an alphabetical order display of my ridiculous movie buying habit.
List #2 is the dvd location. When inserting the movies in the player, I tried to follow an albeit haphazard but selective order for sequels or themed movies. All James Bonds are in order, Back to the Futures, Star Wars, Indiana Jones etc. Even to the extent of all Al Pacino/Harrison Ford/Woody Allen movies being in order. In the mood to watch Mel Gibson shoot and hatchet for a few hours? Start @ disc 328 and watch the next ten discs.
List #3 takes advantage of another feature I like very well. That is the import of IMDB user ratings of movies. IMDB's large visitor base tends to melt the polar extremes into the movies deserved rating.
This is how I chose to organize. The software is all too accommodating for sorting needs. My favorite glimpse into the OCD neurotic programmers habits is the 'Title' and 'Title Sort' box. This allows you to slightly alter, or correct the title of the movie as it was imported from the external sources. It also allows you to tweak how the movies are sorted. Example? Say you have both X-Men and X-2. In alphabetical order, the movies are displayed correctly, but out of chronological order. I keep the "title" correct as X-2, but change the "sort title" to X-Men2, which shifts its display position down a notch just below it's predecessor. These slight manipulation options are awesome.
A list can be sorted by director, actors, location, date produced, date released, imdb rating, title, Genre, your own rating of the films, recent viewing date...pretty much anything.
Surprisingly, I think all of the software packages I tried had an allowance for recording the lending and borrowing of movies.
A list, html or text can be exported with just titles, or both titles and Dvd cover art.
Printed indexes can be sorted however you like, with choice of font, font size, and number of movies printed on a page. Another feature that was handy is the slight darkening of every other line to make sighting title and relative information across a page simple (similar to the bars you see in your check register).
Well, how much more can a person say? If there were any features I would like to see added...I can only think of one. There is no alarm or change in text/display when I goofed and duplicated disc location. If it took me 30 discs to realize my mistake and followed sequence after the mistake, I would either have to change all 30 data entries or (commonly done) just move the disc that was goofed to the back of the line. Not a large project either way, but a simple change in color would have prevented this. Other than that? Darn near flawless for my purposes. You'll experience title conflicts while importing, but they're easily worked out, and are due to importation so would be experienced similarly or identically across all platforms.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
heathcolwell
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Member: Heath Colwell
Location: Cleveland, OH
Reviews written: 20
Trusted by: 1 member
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