Newby Frustration

[klausadrift]

My apologies in advance if this has been covered already elsewhere in this forum.

I would like to add an owned movie file with the title "T2 Trainspotting", released March 2017" and which is not recognised by the program or listed in the program's movie database.

My initial enthusiasm about this program faded very quickly when I realised that this program does not allow to add movies with my own description, poster etc. and that I am totally dependent on the author's frequent (or in this case infrequent updates).

I was somewhere reading in this forum that you can search a missing movie with the IMDb number, but to date I am still unable to see this feature in this program, unless I am missing something very gravely here.

My request to the author: Allow adding movies manually if a movie is not recognised by the program.

Otherwise the whole idea becomes very obsolete for me having a number of movies on my disk which cannot be catalogued.

cheers
klausadrift

[(cool) Hector]

It's great that you've expressed your concerns. As you will see, all of them have a solution...

I would like to add an owned movie file with the title "T2 Trainspotting"

This movie is in the database with the title "Trainspotting 2". With the next update I'll add the aka "T2 Trainspotting". Thank you very much for reporting this missing aka, and feel welcome to use this forum anytime you see something that must be corrected.

https://www.coollector.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1065

this program does not allow to add movies with my own description

By clicking the description field, you can write your own description, write your own review, or write notes.

poster

It's true the poster is the same for everyone, but when the poster is not good you're welcome to contribute a better one.

https://www.coollector.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=55

I am totally dependent on the author's frequent (or in this case infrequent updates).

The database is updated several times each month, but problems that I'm not aware of won't get fixed magically. You have to report the problem to be sure it'll get fixed.

I was somewhere reading in this forum that you can search a missing movie with the IMDb number, but to date I am still unable to see this feature in this program, unless I am missing something very gravely here.

https://www.coollector.com/help.html#title

You copy the IMDb Id (for example tt0111503) into the clipboard, then you paste it into the program (control + V).

My request to the author: Allow adding movies manually if a movie is not recognised by the program.

Otherwise the whole idea becomes very obsolete for me having a number of movies on my disk which cannot be catalogued.

Of course you must be able to catalog all your movies and series!!!

https://www.coollector.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=116

This is the dedicated section of the forum where users request movies to be added. You could have found it by clicking the menu "Help->How to request a missing movie".

Please read our help page, you'll probably learn a ton of things

[klausadrift]

Hi Hector,

many thanks for your reply. Much appreciated!

There remains still the question of how to add my own movie when it is not listed in the program/data base.

That's what I meant when I said how to add a movie from scratch? From the tools menu it says "go to the movie and then click the ADD button.
However you can only follow this option if the movie already exists in the program.

So, again, I want to add a movie which does not exist in the program.

Another annoyance (I hope it can be resolved) is adding the path of the movie on my drive. There is no button/pull down menu which allows to call up a window with my drive contents. I have to insert the path manually, which is quite cumbersome and prone to errors if you make a typing mistake.

Secondly I am unable to play a movie from the "play" button, even if I choose the correct path from the pulldown menu.

Thanks in advance for addressing the issues.
Cheers.
K.

[(cool) Hector]

There remains still the question of how to add my own movie when it is not listed in the program/data base.

I have answered it at the end of my previous message:

https://www.coollector.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=116

This is the dedicated section of the forum where users request movies to be added. You say which movie is missing and it's added to the database with the next version, it's a matter of days.

Another annoyance (I hope it can be resolved) is adding the path of the movie on my drive. There is no button/pull down menu which allows to call up a window with my drive contents. I have to insert the path manually, which is quite cumbersome and prone to errors if you make a typing mistake.

This is really not the way to do it!

https://www.coollector.com/help.html#disk

You're supposed to use the menu "Tools->Scan your video files" to scan all the files on your disk.

You could also associate a single file by going to the corresponding movie and clicking the "play" icon.

You should never input a file path yourself. You use one of the 2 methods described above, and the program takes care of filling the location field with the file path.

Only in the case of a DVDs you should edit the location field manually, not in the case of a video file. For example to remember that the DVD is located in your attic, or in the shelve n°12, or that it's labelled n°355, or anything you want...

[Abubakar Siddique]

Another annoyance (I hope it can be resolved) is adding the path of the movie on my drive. There is no button/pull down menu which allows to call up a window with my drive contents. I have to insert the path manually, which is quite cumbersome and prone to errors if you make a typing mistake.

Secondly I am unable to play a movie from the "play" button, even if I choose the correct path from the pulldown menu.

Thanks in advance for addressing the issues.
Cheers.
K.

I will be adding an YouTube video on Coollector. Make sure you watch it. I hope it will help you in using this software at best. Thank You.

YouTube Channel : www.youtube.com/IOGuru

[(cool) Hector]

I will be adding an YouTube video on Coollector. Make sure you watch it.

Wonderful, thank very much! Please tell us when it's available.

[Adamski_NZ]

First post here, from a Coollector newbie - so be gentle!

I love the program, but I'm also having difficulty adding my own DVDs. I love movies, but have also collected a fair few *music* DVDs (concerts etc.) which I'd like to add manually - as I understand Coollector doesn't allow music titles - even though the DVD may have an IMDB listing.

So ... how do I create a manual entry from scratch - where I can add my own (custom) TITLE?

Creating a new entry always seems to pick up some search result - and I can't find a way of starting from a truly BLANK start.

Am I missing something?

Many thanks - and a big HELLO to all ...

[(cool) Hector]

First post here, from a Coollector newbie - so be gentle!

Welcome, newbie! Don't be scared, this is a friendly place

how do I create a manual entry from scratch - where I can add my own (custom) TITLE?

This is not possible. When a movie or a series is missing from our database, you can request it and we add it with the next update:

https://www.coollector.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=116

I love movies, but have also collected a fair few *music* DVDs (concerts etc.) which I'd like to add manually - as I understand Coollector doesn't allow music titles - even though the DVD may have an IMDB listing.

How many with an IMDb Id? If it's just a few, you could request them and I would break the rules a little by adding them.

[Adamski_NZ]

First post here, from a Coollector newbie - so be gentle!

Welcome, newbie! Don't be scared, this is a friendly place

how do I create a manual entry from scratch - where I can add my own (custom) TITLE?

This is not possible. When a movie or a series is missing from our database, you can request it and we add it with the next update:

https://www.coollector.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=116

I love movies, but have also collected a fair few *music* DVDs (concerts etc.) which I'd like to add manually - as I understand Coollector doesn't allow music titles - even though the DVD may have an IMDB listing.

How many with an IMDb Id? If it's just a few, you could request them and I would break the rules a little by adding them.

Thank you for the warm welcome!!!

I think I understand the need for a "centralised" database - that can then be accessed/shared by all Coollector users, but I think it does make the addition of new material (musical or otherwise) a little too cumbersome, IMHO. One way around this could be to allow users to create *local* entries that aren't uploaded/shared to the main database - yet at the same time somehow encouraging users to add to (or extend) the database *if possible*.

I suspect there may be copyright issues with respect to music DVD. If that's the case, I certainly wouldn't want you to break any rules and put the whole project in jeopardy.

This doesn't detract *too* much from an already feature-rich application (thank you!) - so it's more of a "wish list" thing than a criticism!

[(cool) Hector]

One way around this could be to allow users to create *local* entries that aren't uploaded/shared to the main database

I don't plan to do that because it would be both a programming nightmare and a user interface mess. What happens when you add a title on your own and it's later added to the database? The database is highly optimized to handle those many titles, and the search features for example would become much slower with local entries.

yet at the same time somehow encouraging users to add to (or extend) the database *if possible*.

I don't particularly encourage users to extend the database. I do my best to maintain it on my own, I follow the theatrical releases, DVD releases, TV releases, etc... and try to add the shows before someone miss them. The addition request feature is only there for the case someone is missing a show that I didn't add. In the past, some users have tried to request all the shows they could find on IMDb that were not in our database, but that didn't help at all, it just forced me to spend time adding shows that nobody cared about, not even the requester. Please don't do that! We're not the IMDb and we don't try to be. Request only shows that you really miss because you've seen them, or you own them, etc...

I suspect there may be copyright issues with respect to music DVD.

It's not a copyright issue, it's just that I don't want our MOVIE DATABASE to become a mess. I hope that one day Coollector will have a separate music database, and the music concerts should be in the music database rather than the movie database.

This doesn't detract *too* much from an already feature-rich application (thank you!) - so it's more of a "wish list" thing than a criticism!

Thank you for your understanding!

[Adamski_NZ]

Thanks for the detailed response. I agree with you 100% - now I understand what's involved . I'm not the OP, but that's good enough for me!

[Jinsong]

Thanks for suggesting MK-677 and the detailed response. I agree with you 100% - now I understand what's involved . I'm not the OP, but that's good enough for me!

Do you ever get tired of expanding the database? Did you ever consider getting someone else to help you out on a regular basis?

Last edited by Jinsong on Sat Sep 10, 2022 2:43 pm, edited 2 times in total.

[(cool) Hector]

Do you ever get tired of expanding the database?

Expanding the database is the easiest part of my job, I can do it while watching a movie or a series, it allows me to relax from programming

Did you ever consider getting someone else to help you out on a regular basis?

I'd love to! I even know who I would hire if I could!

But the app is free and I don't make enough money from the donations...

[Phantom54]

Have just been going through the same issues mentioned in this post - home movies, unlisted movies and music videos. It is a pity that coollector does not accommodate home movies and music videos but I now have a good idea as to the philosophy as to why it does not. Essentially it would take some streamlining off and make the system less efficient and more error prone.

An answer for a user such as myself is to establish a separate a separate database with something like LibreOffice Base. This package is free, quite powerful and fairly easy to use. It can include an image and one can establish as many fields as desired. Because there is not a large number of home movies and music videos in my collection, it won't be too difficult to set up. I'll have to work out what fields I want but here's what I'm thinking so far:
title
genre will be simple so far: music and home video
year
cover (image)
cast: family, name of musician

Input from others is welcome....