A unique concept
Coollector Movie Database is the only program of its kind !
It's at the same time a personalized movie database and a video collection manager.
Until now, the best programs that you could find were just video collection managers...
You started with an empty database, and you downloaded information, one by one, for each movie.
With Coollector Movie Database, it's all different. Right from the start,
you have a huge encyclopedia of 80,000 movies and series, updated weekly.
Because it's installed on your computer, you can use it even when you're offline.
The interface is very easy to use, and richly illustrated with film posters,
video covers, photographs of actors and crew, and even character screenshots.
You can customize the layout to your liking, and make almost any search
you can think of, with no need to be a database engineer.
The main interest is to personalize the included database. With a single click,
you can rate a movie that you've seen, to remember whether it's good or bad.
You can maintain a wish-list with all the movies that you'd like to watch.
You can even organize your video collection, remembering what you own,
where it's stored, and what you've loaned to whom.
You'll soon appreciate that the movie database is personalized.
Indeed, the movies that you own are now highlighted, and colored icons
will instantly remind you of how much you like a movie or a person.
As a movie lover, this will greatly help you when you have to pick up a movie,
when watching TV, or going to the theaters. Does the movie have actors whom you like ?
Have you seen other movies from this director ? At first glance you'll have the answer !
And to help you even further in your choice, the program displays the IMDb rating
and popularity of each movie, and provides a link to the trailers on Youtube.
If you're also a video collector, you'll easily list all the movies that you own.
You can even scan the video files on your hard disk. They'll be added automatically,
and you'll be able to play them from the program. Finally, if you want to grow your collection
at the best price without missing a bargain, a database of existing videos is also included,
with prices updated daily. For example, it's possible to list all the available videos
of all your wishlist movies, starting from the least expensive, down to the most expensive one.
The icons dashboard
There's the Youtube icon, the loaned icon, the IMDb icon,
the wished icon, the ordered icon, the play icon.
And below are the 7 rating icons.
To improve readability, the icons are ghosted
when the mouse isn't over the dashboard.
Only the activated icons are never ghosted.
Notice that there isn't a "seen" icon, as it's not needed.
To show that you've seen a movie, simply rate it.
Rating movies
Here are some guidelines to help you rate a movie as objectively as possible.
Please consider those guidelines seriously, as a new feature will be introduced
to predict how much you'll like a movie based on how you rated similar movies.
Excellent: one of your favorite movie, always a great pleasure to watch.
Very good: a pleasure to watch from time to time.
Good: it was good, but you won't watch again, or maybe in a long time.
Neutral: you wouldn't say it's bad, but you didn't really enjoy it.
Bad: clearly not good.
Very bad: a terrible movie, but you watched it nonetheless.
Awful: you left before the end.
Rating persons
Here are some guidelines to help you rate a person as objectively as possible.
Excellent: one of your favorite artist, you don't miss any of his movies. Very good: great artist, always nice to have him in a movie. Good: you have a rather good feeling about this artist. Neutral: you have nothing good or bad to say about this artist. Bad: you have a rather bad feeling about this artist. Very bad: you dislike this artist, it's a pain when he's in a movie. Awful: you can't stand this artist, you flee away from all his movies.
The IMDb
The Internet Movie Database is a great website for movie lovers.
Many consider it's the absolute reference.
www.imdb.com
Coollector Movie Database works great as an IMDb companion.
When you need deeper information about a movie or a person,
you just have to click the IMDb icon to get to the webpage.
You'll use Coollector for its unique features,
and you'll keep going to the IMDb as a reference.
For each movie, Coollector displays the IMDb rating and popularity.
The popularity is proportional to the number of votes that a movie has received.
We use a logarithmic scale that is adjusted so that a movie with 5 votes
is 1% popular, and the most voted movie (The Shawshank Redemption)
is 100% popular. And of course, a movie with zero votes is 0% popular.
At first glance you can tell if a person was in good or bad movies, popular or obscure movies.
The grids
Even inside the grids, your personal information is displayed.
You can change the list order.
You can also modify the layout.
The video boxes
For each movie, there are 2 boxes.
One to list the videos of that movie that you own,
and the other to list the videos of that movie that exist.
If you want to see all the technical information about a video,
click the corresponding video box, and choose the video from the list.
Notice that the "existing videos" box contains
videos that are currently available in stores (with a price)
as well as videos that are no more available for sale (no price).
This will help you to enter your owned videos,
even the ones that are not sold anymore.
Owned videos
To add an owned video (to the currently displayed movie),
click the green ADD button from the "Owned Videos" box.
You'll have the choice between adding from scratch or from an existing video.
The most convenient way to add your video is from an existing video.
But if your video is missing from the database of existing videos,
you still have the possibility to add it from scratch.
You can of course adjust all the technical details to your liking.
Note: you can input whatever value you want,
you're not limited to the values listed in the dropdown.
Custom packs
If you own a pack, but it's missing from the database of existing videos,
it's still possible to add it by creating the pack from scratch.
Start by adding the first movie, and choosing a pack name.
Now, add the second movie, and make it part of the pack you've created.
And so on with all the remaining movies of the pack...
Videos on hard disk
Use the "Play" icon to associate or play video files.
You can also ask the program to scan an entire folder from your computer,
to automagically associate each video file with the corresponding movie.
Like a media center, it's even possible to control the program with a PC remote:
"play" or "stop" .................................................... show the list of playable movies
"up" or "down" .......................................................... navigate through the movies
"volume +" or "volume -" .......................................... navigate faster (whole page)
"chapter +" or "chapter -" ............. switch focus between the filters to adjust them
"play" or "OK" .................................................................. play the selected movie
The filtered search
Note: only 6 filters are shown on startup, but there are many more.
Click the "More Filters" button to access those extra filters.
Some search examples
The filtered search is very powerful,
especially when combined with the re-ordering option.
Here are a few examples of the things you can do...
Discover the blockbusters of the year.
Discover what were the biggest blockbusters of all time.
List the 2005 action movies, from the most popular to the least popular.
List all the movies you've seen.
List all the videos you own.
List all the videos you loaned out to your friends.
Print search results
There's a button to print the results of a filtered search.
For instance, you could print a list of all your videos, for insurance purposes.
Price information
The price search lists all the existing videos from the cheapest to the most expensive.
It's a good idea to use it combined with your wishlist.
The price information allows you to not miss a bargain, but it's possible to disable it from the settings.
Keyboard focus
The interface is made of two panels,
but only one can have the keyboard focus at a time.
The panel with the focus is the one with red borders.
To swith the focus from one panel to the other,
you can use the left and right arrow keys,
or you can click the desired panel.
Keyboard shortcuts
LEFT or RIGHT arrows
switch focus between left and right panels
UP or DOWN arrows
navigate through a grid
TAB or SHIFT + TAB
switch focus between the controls
ENTER
in a dialog, equivalent to clicking the focused button
ANY CHARACTER
directly start a string search
(movie or person search, depending on which panel has the focus)
SPACEBAR or ENTER
if no search is active, make appear the last used search
during a string search, validate the current word, and move to the next one
DEL or BACKSPACE
during a string search, delete the last CHARACTER
ESC
during a string search, delete the last WORD
(keep ESC pressed for a second to delete the entire search)
'+' (plus key)
add an owned video from scratch
SHIFT + Click
contribute a picture for a movie, a person, or a character
(doesn't open any website)
CONTROL + Click
contribute a picture for a movie, a person, or a character
(opens some websites to find pictures)
CONTROL + "L"
replace a string by another string in all the "L"ocation fields
F1
display this help file
F5
refresh the pictures
Tip: you can make the string search appear
by directly inputing the first characters.
Tip: if you made a string search and want to quickly make a new one,
you can hide the search panel by pressing the left arrow key,
and then input the first characters of your new search.
Tip: using the keyboard shortcuts, you can input a video from scratch
as fast as pressing '+', 'ENTER', and 'ENTER' again.
The "media type" and "language" values will be set
to the same values used the previous time.
Character pics
The program displays pictures of movies, persons and videos...
But did you notice it can also display pictures of characters ?
We need more of them, please contribute!
Cooliris view
You probably already heard about Cooliris, a great plugin for your browser:
www.cooliris.com
By clicking a button, you can switch to Cooliris gorgeous 3D wall.
Coollection files
We use the word "coollection" to designate the ".cool" file
that holds all your personal data (what you own, what you've rated, etc...)
To locate the coollection file currently in use,
select the menu "Help->Locate my coollection file"
The default coollection file:
When you launch the program, it opens the default coollection file
If you're using the portable version of Coollector,
the default coollection file is "Coollector\MyCoollection.cool".
If you're using the normal version of Coollector,
it's "My Documents\Coollector\MyCoollection.cool"
But you can have other coollection files in your computer,
for instance the coollections of your friends or family.
Coollections are such small files that they can be mailed very easily.
Sharing a coollection file:
Once a friend has sent you his coollection, you can store it wherever you want
and rename it the way you want (as long as you keep the ".cool" extension).
To read it, simply double-click it !
(for more convenience, you could create a desktop shortcut)
A second possibility is sharing a coollection between several users of the same computer.
And finally, a third possibility is having the coollection on a shared network disk.
Since several users could simultaneously modify the same file, there's a mechanism to prevent corruption.
Before modifying a file, the program checks that no other user has made a change before you:
Automatic backups
If some changes were made during the session, the program will create a backup file before closing.
Backups are stored inside a folder named "Backups" and located at the same place as the coollection.
The latest backup is the one with the biggest number, for instance "MyCoollection27.cool".
In case your coollection file gets corrupted somehow, you'll simply restore the latest backup
by deleting the corrupted file, and replacing it by the latest backup (with the number removed from the name).
Your help is welcome
If you're a big fan of the program, you can help us by:
1) Using our shopping tools
Amazon and CDuniverse give us a commission
when you order something from their websites.
That's certainly the coolest way to help us,
because we get some money (to put meat on the table)
and it doesn't even cost you anything.
2) Contributing pictures
You can send us pictures of
movies, persons, or characters.
3) Spreading the word
Talk to your friends about us.
Blog about us, twit about us.
Give us a 5 stars review
on download.com, macupdate.com
or on the Mac App Store.
Thank you very much for your help !