Movie Collector

I purchased the pro version but then shortly after I discovered XMBC which wipes the floor with Movie Collector Pro. I have over 500 movies on my hard drive, to be able to play them directly from the software, Movie Collector required me to manually add the Movie's directory path. It also required me to create a move list for it to import from and when adding the movies "automatically" it didn't always pick the right movie and I had to scroll down through a list to pick out the correct movie, it took me 4 hours to add my movie collection using Movie Collector. XMBC on the other hand only had to be directed to my movie folder and the software did the rest. The user interface of Movie Collector is ugly and even when you generate templates to showcase your movies it looks like a poorly designed web page. XMBC is similar to the look and feel of Apple TV and can be operated with a TV remote.

What is a DVD?

Initially, I was quite pleased with the Movie Collector product. I happily input each of my DVDs, typing each of the barcodes in by hand. Shortly after acquiring the software, I saw the barcode scanner offered on the Collectorz.com website. Unfortunately, that has proven to be less than useful. The scanner itself seems to function adequately; however, the interface to the Mac is inoperable. The troubleshooting pages on the website instruct users to install the drivers provided with the device, no drivers were included in the packaging. There is a helpful link provided to the drivers which I installed; however, the software continues to inform me that it cannot locate the scanner even after multiple reboots, reinstallations of the drivers, etc. So, I'm forced to seriously downgrade the rating on the "Ease of Use" category given the troubles I've had trying to get the scanner, which was designed to work directly with the programs, to actually WORK with the programs.

I am in the market for a good and comprehensive movie cataloging app with all these DVDs I've been getting. At first, I tried DVDPedia, but the things it seemed like I needed to do were just too much. It's a chore with the amount of disks one has... if you have over 20 or so, there's quite alot of stuff to work with. Not exactly satisfied (although I had intended to purchase DVDpedia, sorry), I checked Movie Collector. Much more detail, more comprehensive, IMHO... It tends to be easy to manage and update, if you want to add some info. Now, the tough points. There is a big 'ol bump in the road with dual- named titles for my most cherished database, IMDB. I love spaghetti westerns and martial arts films, and IMDB lists them usually with their original titles (either Italian or Chinese). Try searching with the English, and it can be next to impossible to get hits with IMDB, Amazon, and my other favorite, DVD Empire (with its large cover jpegs). Either you get 2 out of 3 hits or IMDB stands alone, when you have to search for the original title name. Try getting the trifecta, though and you're lucky to do it. You can use the UPC barcode, but IMDB doesn't recognize that. Perhaps there's a way to configure the "aka" title that IMDB uses? But then, some searches give me more hits than I'd imagine for IMDB. Should I give it the high five? I think so, since this is the best I've found. I only hope the developers can see what I'm talking about, like for a movie like "Find a Place to Die." IMDB didn't recognise the search, but if you put "Joe... cercati un posto per morire!" in, it will, yet the other sites I like to garner DVD info from, don't. But geezypeezy, it's fun to use. I've literally been up all night, and plan to buy this, because I've put almost 50 titles in, which is the shareware limit. You can configure and add genres, change pictures, so many different ways to make your search one that YOU choose and like to search. It's very stable, not one crash. Two times it seemed hung up on a search item and it ended its search saying the effort timed out. For ease of use, I started giving 4, but 5 stars since it was easier to manage than the other I tried. It does have search strings for adult titles hrough Adult DVD Empire, but I haven't tried that yet. Works well with OSX 10.4.3 and a G4 processor. It doesn't heat up my Powerbook, so it doesn't seem to consume lots of CPU space.

Up until I stumbled across Movie Collector I was using Delicious Library to catalogue my DVD's. However, I never really liked the feel of Delicious (or DVDPedia for that matter) and thus was quite happy to see an alternative and after having tried out Movie Collector for a while I decided to purchase the full version and to transfer my DVD collection from Delicious to Move Collector. I have not come across any major problem running the software and the interface is very user-friendly and it's quite easy to find your way around the programme. However, I do miss some features, such as importing from, e.g., Delicious Library - I have got just over 1200 DVD's and it was a bit of a pain to manually add all of them to Movie Collector. Also, I like the idea of having the ability to add a trailer stored on my HDD, which, again, is a feature not (yet?) offered by Movie Collector - or if it is possible to do so, the feature is very well hidden... this is the ONLY reason why Movie Collector gets a 4 for its Features - Sorry :) Other than thats, as I said, I have not had any problems running the software, and as far as the price is concerned, $39.95, which comes to about £27 (incl. VAT) seems to be rather reasonable and is, while more expensive than DVDPedia, more or less the same as Delicious Library. I, personally, find Movie Collector to be one of the best DVD cataloguing tools I've come across so far, and while the differences between Movie Collector, DVDPedia and Delicious Library are, objectively, only minor when it comes to functionality, it all comes down to your personal preferences and I find Movie Collector the easiest to use and it looks and 'feels' fantastic and I will certainly stick with Movie Collector as, in my opinion, neither DVDPedia nor Delicious Library have achieve the same user friendliness and quality of Move Collector.

I am so happy to see Movie Collector available for the Mac. I had used Movie Collector on the PC, and when I made the switch to Mac it was the only thing I missed. I tried Delicious Library and DVDpedia (of the two, DVDpedia was my favorite and the one I ended up using), but I never felt I had the level of detail, control and flexibility that I was used to with Movie Collector. Collectorz has now also released Music Collector for the Mac, and they are working on a Mac version of Book Collector. I'll be trying them both as soon as I can. If having maximum detail in your DVD catalog is important to you (as it is to me), then I think Movie Collector is well worth the price, and I heartily recommend it.

I used to use PC Movie Collector, and was very happy with it. I am delighted to see that it has made its way to the mac. The feature set in the mac version seems to be identical to the PC version, and from what I can see, it is more flexible and comprehensive than other mac DVD cataloging software. The price is relatively high, and some people will be satisfied with the features in cheaper options such as DVDpedia. However, if you want the best, Movie Collector is it. I have been using the beta and now the final version, and it has been very stable and reliable. I hope the mac version is successful, and that Music Collector is will also be ported to the mac.