Best way to back up data as of today

[MilesAhead]

Miles, does Personal Video Database give you a web page so you can share your collection with your friends, like with Profiler?

No, I don't think it's designed for that. What it does have that Profiler doesn't is plugins for lots of online databases in various languages for both movie info and covers. During install you can select those you want. I hope it stays lean. As of now there's not even a printing function. It exports to file in various formats with scripts you can customize. Then you just use whatever application you want for that format to print.. be it .html tables or plain text or whatever. One thing I do like is the plugins are pretty much done the way you'd use them. About the only thing I added in Plain Text or HTML output was to insert the ID number(equivalent to a Slot.) They're pretty much ready to use other than that.

One of the things I advocated was some kind of help file that installs with the app. As it is, if you have a question you need to post in the forum. But once you learn to do a few things like generate ID numbers automatically, and control some of the export file output, there's not that much that's complicated about it. It has an Excel interface but I don't do spreadsheet. If the developer puts the grid back in the side-bar I think I'm happy.

[dr_ml422]

Ok guys I'm ready now to arrange these videos. So what exactly do you need or use Profiler, or Personal Video Database for? Just to print the covers for your videos/music and insert in the plastic sleeves in the DJ case we got? Tell you the truth it still seems like it's going to be a minor chore to go through them and finally pick the flic you want even w/a cover. Thnx.

[MilesAhead]

The big chore is processing each disc and hangin' 'em in the hanger. Once you have the database you can search on it. In PVD as soon as you type on the search line it searches title cast etc.. so if say I type "Godzilla" it will bring up Monster Zero even though Godzilla isn't in the title. You get the exact location and just go to it. With PVD it automatically searches IMDB and a few others when you are doing the data entry. If you don't get a direct hit it pops up a dialog with likely entries, you can select one and hit "go to this site" and it will launch the default browser to that entry on that site so you can decide if it's acurate. I do a lot of foreign films and even with those most of the time it gets the automatic entry and fills in the data for you, or the one at the top of the list of possibilities is the right one about 80% of the time. If you do mostly American films the percentage will be even higher.

Even with autosearch it can get a bit tedious. I took a break after doing 360 discs. In a week or two I'll get around to doing a hundred more. The main thing though is getting rid of stacked jewel cases. Those were driving me crazy!! Touch one the wrong way and the stack falls over!!! Arrrggghhhh!!! Much better with the DJ cases. And like you say, you don't want to be sliding those hangers around looking at covers. I don't even download covers. I just make sure the database entry for that movie has the hanger number right. Two or three stabs and you are usually at the right disk. Getting the right disc out is the fastest part of the whole operation.

My modus operandi has been to do maybe a dozen entries, then make a couple of backups of the database. The main danger being if your sequence gets out of whack you don't want to be reentering movie data. If it goes out of kilter I copy the backup back over. With the stable version I haven't had any glitches though. The only wrinkle was when I tried a beta version. PVD seems very stable esp for free software. Plus there's a forum and if your question is pertinent often you can get an answer from the developer.

[dr_ml422]

Thnx Miles. So what I think I'm lost on is where do you go to see where your movie is on the hanger? Do you print out the database info w/all the movies and the corresponding numbers to the hangers? I would suppose so, being that always having to go online to see where the flic is in the case would be double work, am I correct?

I want to make good use of this DJ case as I don't think I'm going to keep storing hard copies much anymore and buying cases to put them in.

[ipaulo]

@dr, You can use either program, they will both help you to catalogize your collection. I can only comment on DvdProfiler, cause thats is the I own. You can download the free version to see if you like first. Though I highly recommend buying the paid version, for the graphics you'll see on your monitor will be way better.

Once you have the program you can mess around with the settings to get the look you like.

You can enter the disc by it's UPC code or title or disc ID when you stick it in your drive. I myself like to use the UPC code and preview the picture then enter by title to see if there is a better one.

Once you have entered a fair amount, then you can run a report (which is a list of exactly where each disc is located) and print it. They have hundreds of different styles of reports you can choose from.

I like to use a real simple report which is just a list. This list shows me which case a particular disc is in and it's exact location number. The location number matches the number thats print on each sleeve. An example would look like Case #2 spot 720.

So now I keep this printed list inside the case and when I want to find a disc its a snap. The only thing is that you must make sure you return the disc to it's exact location after watching it.

The reason I use a simple list is if you print out one with pictures, it will be to long (thick) and might not fit inside the case. Also you'll use up a lot of your ink.

I'll PM you a link to my collection.

[dr_ml422]

I think I get it. So the profiler will assign a number to the flics as you put them into the database. It has to be this way unless I assign it the number on the slot and it just brings up a report w/all the flics I entered correct? I already have the flics in slots, so if it assigns a slot number to my movies then I'll have to rearrange them. That's not a big deal, because I'm only doing this w/what I have on disc as I'm backing anything from this point on in a hdd, and later a better alternative like the ssd.

Let me know if what I mentioned above is correct ok. I'll get to your collection soon also. I have to enter the title for obvious reasons, except for some I have that came before I learned about 19. Gotta give it to the case though, it does keep the discs clean n fresh. I was going to manually create a list as I'm only using this case, but the database might be fun anyway. Keep me busy.

[MilesAhead]

@ dr_ml422 PVD has a nice html table export template among others. For some reason they didn't have the Number field so I added it to be the leftmost top field. There's a screen shot of a piece of the output below. My one beef with the program is I'd like to see a grid in the tree view. As it is, there's no padding to right justify the numbers in the tree view, which results in a slight staircasing as the number of digits in the number increase. The author says he had a grid option at one time and removed it to fix some stuff. It's due to be reinstated on the next stable release.

But for free I shouldn't complain.

[ipaulo]

You can either just enter the disc that you already have in the sleeves. So the first sleeve with number 1 and 2 will be your first entries and so on. Or you can renumber them accordingly. You won't have to worry about slot numbers until you buy your second case.

[ipaulo]

@dr, here are some pics of what DvdProfiler looks like.

The first one is and example of what I mean about a second case and adding a slot number. My first case ends at number 720 and the second case starts again at number 1. Though DvdProfiler continues to add the new case to the total.

The other two pics are example of thumbnails and details.

[doctorhardware]

DvdProfiler the screen shots are very nice. It looks like a decent program to use to catalog your DVDs. I have a program to catalog my CD collection, I have approximately 2000 Cd's. I have a scanner that I use to scan in the UPC codes in to the program. I have it on an external hard drive. I would not to have to enter all the Cd's back into the data base.

[ipaulo]

That's too cool doctorhardware, you mean you have something like a hand held scanner or something?

Just wondering if that program has a database backup. Profiler has one that I run every time I entry a few dvds. I believe the backup is stored at Dvdprofiler's site. That way if you ever have to reformat, you don't have to reenter everything. I also keep Dvdprofiler and the backup on another drive than C just to make sure.

[MilesAhead]

Heh. That was my excuse for just lumping CDs by the same artist or instrument together inefficiently. I always said to myself "the right way to do it is to get a scanner and just scan the barcode." Then just stick IDs on the bins(those Fellowes 240 CD twirly things.) But I never got around to getting the scanner. I still don't understand why Fellowes quit making those. They were great. Assembled in the box. Just pull the thing out and set it on the floor. Pretty nice looking wood veneer too. When I got them they were @$77. Now if you try to buy anything similar they want you to put it together yourself and charge you @$150 or more.

Oh well. Things keep changing.

[doctorhardware]

No it is a wand/pen style, it is similar to the hand held ccd style upc code scanner. It makes it very nice to use the upc code to enter the data into a data base. No that I know of but it is possible that is does.

[dr_ml422]

I'll start this soon nuff just to catalogue my Hard copies. I would have to rent nother apt. or ministorage if I would of continued the pace I was going. Was hitting BB n then found this mom n pop that had new releases out 2 to almost 3 weeks in advance. So I'd get it nice n crisp. Profiler does look nice. PVD has a simple interface in that screenshot. Most important is theindexing. This 600 case gets me nuts when I'm looking for a flic or w/e.

Mind you I only have my commercial flics in there right now. My personal collection is another story. Lol...

[MilesAhead]

The screen shot I posted was just an exported html table.
Although PVD is simple. More or less a tree on the left
with data for each node on the right.

Here's some screen shots:

http://www.videodb.info/forum_en/index.php?PHPSESSID=0bf05b9cbd3a34ce36ca73d5497f8667&action=screens