I am writing to you after having recently purchased Coollector. Working in the IT (project coordinator) and the Movie Industry (local here, not Hollywood) I think that this software is probably the best idea I've come across for my private use. Very well done! The price was perfect for what you offer.

I will tell you what makes it great.....and then I will offer some suggestions that me and two of my friends have come up with in the last 2-3 days. (we're all using v.3.26.7 and we're all on Macbook Pro's using Snow Leopard and Mavericks. I'm using Mavericks). I have heard that v.3.26.8 is out but I can't seem to get it updated. I can't seem to get an update off of the Apple App store which is where I purchased Coollector. Is it released and or how do I get an update. The update window says I'm up to date, but I have .7 not 8.

We are using your database for organizing/creating a library of our movies. Between the 3 of us we have over 25,000 movies. Me having the smallest collection of 1,200. All of us are using external drives and working with our digitized files. No DVD's. We are all primarily concerned with our own collections and searching them in various ways.

1) IMDB is by far the best source for movie data. So plugging into their Dbase was perfect if that is what you've done. (I'm not a programmer, just a manager )
2) The searching queries are for the most part quite well done ( We have a few suggestions)
3) The fact that the "owned" movies are automatically saved without having to save. ( I think they are)

4)Overall, the general appearance is quite nice and easy to use. We like it.

So. Here are the suggestions we have come up with. (I will add that I have skimmed the forum but if I have missed a subject or a question already asked, I apologize in advance for being lazy and new. )

1) When we click on "owned" and then attempt to do a search either by actor or title, it seems to go to the entire Dbase when in fact we only want to search our owned movies not the entire IMDB or coollector database.
a. Come to think of it; I don't think a person can search strictly their own OWNED movies by actor?

2) Which also brings another point. We most of the time can't tell which dbase is being queried because they don't appear to be highlighted during searches. Can you keep a box around whichever dbase is being searched like "owned" or "IMDB movies"?

3) When I had the software auto detect files it detected over 2,000. Almost 500 of these were from a language tutoring file/application I had installed. No problem so far. I just clicked to install files. (I didn't understand how to use the first prompt window that is automatic after the automatic file detection process completes which shows the "finds or matched files" so I didn't use it properly.

I thought that I would be able to delete the files by selecting and deleting the DVD covers in the left panel. (You know, mass select, hit delete key type stuff) No can do. I had to click on each DVD cover , go to the right panel, and some DVD's showed up as "40 owned for one DVD" in the right panel. So I clicked "del" and had to click to confirm and click again to delete etc. It is like 3-4 key strokes to delete one file. Can you make this simpler for those of us that mis-use your initial offering to not install files in the first place? Some sort of graphic based select then user hits delete on the keyboard, and then gets 1-2 windows asking for confirmation for safety. If I could select DVD covers with my mouse, then simply hit delete, the next 2-3 hours I have to spend deleting could be a matter of seconds! Of course maybe I'm just being paid back for being stupid. I don't know.

4) I could be wrong about this one but here it goes. Are the DVD covers of "owned" movies kept in my files or are they online and only stored in RAM? I haven't taken the time to test it out so I apologize.

5) In the owned pane on the left showing the DVD covers, I want to click on the blue/white play arrow but when I opt to choose the file path, it wants to use media player which I don't use for most of my files. I use VLC which is the most universal and plays all of my file types. Most of my friends also use VLC. Could you make VLC an option? Or add several options of media players? Perhaps in preferences you could make it a choice for the user so they don't have to choose each time?

6) Being on a Mac, Safari is of course the most logical choice for a browser to most. I'm not sure if it's Mavericks that has changed something but when I click on the IMDB logo/link of movies I want to learn more about the Safari browser either locks up or just shows a plain white page and locks all the buttons so we can't do anything but force close the window. Could you make the browser something the user can choose in preferences so a user only has to choose once but isn't forced to use Safari? All three of us use Opera or Firefox.

Either way, it's a great product so far and we look forward to hearing from you when you get time. I realize it's a lot of questions and comments and I do appreciate any feedback you could give. I've got to get back to work deleting about 300 more files.

Thank you very much for supporting our work!

Why is your name the name of a competitor program?



Thank you! It's indeed much cheaper than Movie Collector Pro



We still haven't gone through Apple's review process, but the program should have updated the movie database and you should have the same data as v.3.26.8 (with 110,131 movies in it).

In fact, we will skip version 3.26.8 on the Mac App Store. The version I have submitted is version 4.0, with our brand new feature: movie recommendations. Don't be afraid, it's a free upgrade for the owners of version 3

.

Impressive!!!



You'll love the new version! I've improved the scanning feature, and fixed several bugs.



I agree with you.



No, we maintain our own database, but the program provides direct links to the IMDb because it's the reference.



Absolutely. As soon as you make any change (even rating a movie), it's saved on disk.



Cool



It's because there's no need to filter the results of a string search. Indeed, as soon as you input 2 or 3 words, the string search will normally return few results. And the movies you own are easy to spot because they're highlighted.

If I did what you suggest, it'd be very cumbersome, because you wouldn't be able to make a string search on the whole database without unselecting "owned" before.



When you look at the filmography of an actor, your owned movies are highlighted. You can easily spot them, as well as spot those that you don't own or don't have seen

But I plan to add an actor filter in the future. It'll allow for example to list all the western movies that Clint Eastwood played in.



I don't understand your question. We query our database, which is stored on your computer, and you can even use offline. When you make a string search, the whole database is searched.



A much faster way is to use the menu "Tools->Manage your video files->Batch delete several file associations".

Also, if you want to start your coollection from scratch, you simply locate your coollection file with the menu "Help->Locate my coollection file", you close the program, and you delete the coollection file. When you'll start the program again, it'll create a brand new file.

From the help page:

A frequently asked question is "how do I start over with an empty database?".
The answer is "delete the coollection file, and the program will create a brand new one".
Uninstalling isn't the answer because it doesn't delete coollection files (it's a safety).



After they're downloaded from our server and saved on your disk, they're not downloaded again. If you close your internet connection, you'll still see the pictures previously downloaded.



The file plays with the media player associated with the file type. If it doesn't play with VLC, it's because VLC isn't set as the default player for this file type on your system. You have to set it as your default player:

http://www.macworld.com/article/1154861/changedefaultapp.html




Thank you very much for reporting this bug. I will investigate. Maybe it's a Maverick problem, because Safari is supposed to open fine.




Maybe you could write a review on the Mac App Store?



Delete your coollection file, or use the batch feature

I think he might be mistakenly assuming that using the filter shortcuts, 'owned' etc will change the source that is searched.

Thank you, Kakashi.

If that's the case, those shortcuts are just quick ways to set the filters to perform the most common searches.

I will probably re do it from scratch, but it's a good learning experience! All in all great software and thank you for your work. I hope you eventually sit financially well off from this endeavor. You deserve it. Not only is your software pretty nice and functional, but you've answered all of my questions at length. That tells me something about you. (It's good)


P.s. I may have found another bug. If you look at the screen capture where I tried to do a batch delete, you can see the box with the found files. I can only check or uncheck the strings that I can see in the window. I can't scroll the window with the mouse or hot keys or the arrows on my Mac using Mavericks. I can press the "cancel or continue" buttons and the + or - however.

I'm a bit confused for sure now When I do the searches my request is that I want to choose what I search. I mainly want to search only my owned movies. However, when I search, I can't tell which database is being searched so I'm assuming it switches to the coollector database and includes my owned movies. Hence Hectors comments about the movies being highlighted which I haven't seen as of yet.

Let me know if I'm not making sense, and I'll try to re-word it again

I edited my response to Hectors initial response just now. See the "P.s.".....I think I have found a bug with the batch delete window.

Oh god... Maybe a Maverick bug



"Owned" isn't displayed on the upper right of the DVD covers. You probably got that habit from another program. I can see that you own "The Campaign" and "Anchorman 2" (titles are RED), and you don't own "Bachelorette" (title is WHITE).

It always searches Coollector Movie Database... Never anyhing else...

You should consider Coollector as a database of 110,000 movies and series, that you personalize by telling which movies you own and which movies you've seen.



Owned => title is red instead of white.
Seen => a smiley icon shows how much you liked it.
Wished => wished icon.
Etc...

I'm a version of red green color blind where greens and reds look a different shade apparently. However I can tell them from white.

If the colors are not good for your sight, you can choose a different skin, or just edit this one. Takes only a few clicks to define a new color for the highlighted titles.

I could try that I suppose but I don't usually mess with skins. Too technical for me. I'm a manager and a visionary, not a technical guy (I left the programming classes for the smart guys in my university. I was too busy chasing girls). I've always heard about skins but considered it something not really important to learn how to do since I don't care if my desktop looks like a steel plate or a slate desktop....

Edit: Just re-read that it's only a few clicks, so maybe I'll try it, but I don't usually mess with skins.

Thanks for the clarification. That helps me understand a bit better.

What if a user wants to search only the movies he/she owns? Resulting in only choices of movies they own therefore no need to scroll down, see which ones are red or white etc. Only the movies they have are searched (if they choose that option with a simple pop up, or a previous click) and only the ones they own are shown. Nice, easy, and clean for the end user. One more click the other way and they could search the entire database and then the results would show owned and not owned with the red and white words.. This would be great for the home movie buff that just wants your database more as a catalog with their stuff that is searchable with the option of searching the Coollector dbase.