Please consider alternate input sources for VHS/DVD videos

[hardyx]

I am afraid that I am finding IMDb is not meeting my needs when it comes to taking an inventory of my VHS & DVD videos. My collection includes a good deal of music videos and TV series programs and documentaries, both individual programs and boxed sets. None of these seem to be coming up in IMDb with reliability. However, almost all of these tapes and discs are marked with UPC numbers, and many of them even have ISBN numbers. I believe my problem would be relieved if I could do lookups on either of these fields against Amazon.com or Borders.com. Now I already realize that there is a trade-off here; entries for these items in an online purchase catalog for VHS and DVDs are not going to have the amount of detail being captured by using IMDb. This is not a terribly great concern for me. I'd rather pull in what would be available doing an Amazon.com lookup on UPC or ISBN and manually input anything that is missing. As it is now, I will have to input 100% of it!

[steward]

[img]/Forums/emoticons/yeah.gif[/img] iMdb just doesn't cut it for the variety of DVD titles these days. If Amazon accepts lookups on UPC, that would be a good alternative to ISBN for the video search, and then of course the regular searches by Title / Star instead of Title / Author.

[hardyx]

I evaluated three or four of the commercially available database programs for keeping inventories of my CD/DVD/Book collections. I ultimately decided upon AVCataloger for a number of reasons: it's robustness, it was professionally packaged, support appeared better than average, one vs. multiple repositories, etc. I do not presume to be telling you how to run your business; I know enhancements take time to code and properly test, something especially true for a smaller company. However, I must urge you once again, a bit more strongly perhaps, to start accepting DVD input by UPC or ISBN (via amazon.com perhaps) in lieu of IMDB. The current IMDB method is so problematic that anyone in the market primarily for something to help them with their video collection would almost certainly select one of the other available products. Admittedly, during my evaluation my CD and book collections (both in excess of 1200 each) was a greater concern to me than my DVD collection, which has less than 400, otherwise I might have studied this more thoroughly and purchased something else instead. Right now, I am also concerned about your program losing market share, since I really do not want to see AVCataloger discontinued and go away. Currently, I am holding off input of the DVDs and concentrating on my CDs and books, but I cannot postpone it forever and may find it necessary to make a switch to a competing program for my videos if this problem is not addressed soon. Once again, I cannot possibly know the workload and challenges your business presently faces, and I really do respect your right to run your business as you see fit. Nonetheless, I believe there is some merit to what I am saying here.

[NC Software]

Hello,

Can you please give an example where IMDb use in 3.6 is not adequate?

[hardyx]

Certainly. I am happy to illustrate the problem. As I mentioned in the message that began this thread, I encountered problems most often with DVDs of televised broadcasts, more so than movies (TV series, documentaries, music videos). If my understanding of IMDB is correct, this is understandable. The specific example I just encountered was attempting to enter the boxed set of the HBO Series, "The Sopranos". Currently, the first four series, four boxed sets of 4 DVDs each, are available--plus I believe they have another bundle of the entire 16 disks. IMDB only has one listing "The Sopranos" (1999). I believe this is Series I, although the graphic it displays is different from mine. In fact, it appears to a picture of Series IV. A couple of months ago, they repackaged the four "Alien" movies as a boxed set; I cannot find this in IMDB, although each individual movie can be found. Now I have not checked this, but I would bet the same situation exists with the boxed "Star Wars Trilogy" re-released for for the 25th anniversary. I attempted to input a DVD of a concert (pianist Martha Argerich); IMDB brings up only one from 2003 while mine predates that. In the past I remember having problems with some Dame Edna specials, I believe it was "Neighbourhood Watch"; I have a set of two or three of these, however IMDB lists only one. To be honest, I am less concerned about re-released and repackaged movie sets like Star Wars, Aliens, The Matrix, etc., not because I do not own them, but because the basic information for each film is there. It would be nice however, to be able to capture them as they are sold, recording the number of discs in the set and noting the special "goodies" that are typically included in those. My biggest issue are the TV shows though, independent films, documentaries, concerts, since the creators of IMDB probably did not have these things in mind when they built it. I hope this helps. If it would be helpful, I'll go through my file and give you a list of more specific examples. Just let me know.

[NC Software]

Thanks for the info. It will be researched thoroughly.

[hardyx]

I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but I just received your newsletter and read that you were soliciting input to the wish list. I thought I would make one last pitch. I just got The Exorcist (The Version You 've Never Seen), ISBN 0-7907-5167-4 UPC 085391-863229. Naturally, IMDb only has the original movie from 1973 that runs 122 minutes. This re-release runs 132. If I was able to use either ISBN or UPC, I could go directly to the exact thing I am trying to enter by using Amazon, for example. While it may be due to the type of DVDs I am buying, I am increasingly finding IMDb to be of little value and wind up entering everything manually. This does not make me a happy camper. I sincerely hope your next release will incorporate a revision that provides me some relief.

[hardyx]

While I dislike making a nuisance of myself, I am wondering if you might provide some information regarding your plans concerning the video portion of AVCataloger. I have previously supplied information regarding what in my opinion is a serious deficiency of IMDb as a datasource for movies and videos, which seems to have had some support from a couple of other users also. In February 2005 you said that this issue would be “thoroughly researched”. Have you made any progress on that research, and if so, can you share your findings?

That you and your company have been busy working on other projects is quite apparent (new online store, new web site, aviation software, etc.). So it is not as though I am being impatient and unwilling to “wait my turn”. However learning that recently released 3.6.2 includes an enhancement to the IMDb parser does not leave me with a warm and fuzzy feeling. I say this because an enhancement to what seems to me to be a lame datasource seems like a move in the wrong direction, and that there may be little hope that future versions of AVCataloger will explore using alternate, more robust datasources to obtain movie and video information.

AVCataloger is your program and a manifestation of your vision—I can respect that. If you do not share my views about the viability of IMDb as a datasource for movies and videos, I am not going to make your bad and wrong, or call you names; I will respect your decision. However, I would like to know where you stand regarding my earlier comments about this. If you believe those things I pointed out earlier have merit and you intend to address them, I will continue to wait. On the other hand, if you do not agree with me (whether or not you have completed your intended research and have any results to back you up) then the time has come for me to either seek out a competing product that more adequately meets my needs, or to design my own custom solution and hire a professional Access programmer to implement it. Please let me know so that I (and any other users so inclined) can plan accordingly.

Frankly, the IMDb parser enhancement in 3.6.2 speaks for itself and I suspect this also tells me your answer, however I wanted to give you this opportunity to address my question directly. This parser may have needed attention, but from my perspective, a parser—no matter how complete, efficient, or wonderful it is—simply cannot supply me information about movies and videos that are not in the IMDb to begin with, which I have repeatedly cited as one of the biggest problems continuing to use IMDb as a datasource for movies and videos.

That you have completed an enhancement to the IMDb parser is now water under the bridge, and I am not seeking an explanation to justify your decision. I would just like to know where you stand on my earlier comments and concerns and whether or not you have any plans to address those concerns.

[NC Software]

Hello,

The AVCataloger Wish List forum is for customers to post their wishes for future versions of AVCataloger. This forum is our primary resource and reference when new versions are in development. We typically do not reply or respond to these inquiries as they are simply feature requests. If you require technical support, feel free to post a support incident to the support forum or a support ticket using our support help desk. I'm sure you understand we cannot divulge our future development plans on a public forum. We read all posts and will do our best to support your suggestions in future revisions.

Thank you again for your outstanding feedback.

[tericee]

I just wanted to put in my two cents regarding the possibility of providing an ISBN look-up for DVDs. There are two reasons I have for keeping a list of all the DVDs I own. One of them is so that I don't buy the same movie twice and so that I can keep track of DVDs I have loaned out.

The second reason, though, is insurance. I move a lot and want to make sure that I have all the same DVDs at point B that I had at point A. If I don't, I want to be able to provide my insurance company a list of EXACTLY what is missing. The DVD data based on ISBN that is provided by Amazon is exactly what I need to be able to provide to the bean counters, whereas the DVD data provided by IMDB is more along the lines of good trivia.