DVDPedia and other Mac cataloging software

Ted Todorov · 03-01-2005, 02:27 PM

I recently migrated my DVD database from ReaderWare to DVDPedia and will say a few words about DVD Pedia and Mac cataloging software in general.

First thing first: DVDPedia (along with CDPedia & BookPedia -- for anyone with a comprehensive collection I recommend getting all three) is an excellent new program and I highly recommend it.

Ironically I ended up getting it after a friend kept pushing me to try Delicious Library. Delicious Library, while a nice idea with a good user interface is far from being a usable program for any serious collector. It is buggy, and only supports data import from Amazon -- not having other sources especially the IMDB (and FreeDBD/CDDB and Library of Congress for other media) makes it a non option for any serious collector. D.L.'s support is also bad -- my e-mail concerning a program crash wasn't answered for over a week. One with suggestions never was. Delicious Library also doesn't seem to release patches as bugs are fixed -- only major releases (so far 1.0 and 1.1), so it may be a long wait until the current crop of bugs are fixed. Indeed the only unique to Delicious Library feature, is it's ability to scan barcodes using iSight, which can work better than a CueCat on small barcodes. On the other hand D.L. does not support unmodified CueCats which are much more common than the $149 iSight...

Delicious Monster, the company behind Delicious Library has some talented programmers and some big ideas, so maybe a year from now it can be revisited. For now it makes a cute demo and nothing more.

DVDPedia is a far superior product. They do have very good IMDB support, which produces an elegant cast list as well as filling numerous other fields. They do support Amazon, but through plugins they also support a few other international e-tailers. And proper CueCat support.

DVD Pedia has:

-- an excellent, Mac OS X user interface
-- some great features including easy to use .Mac and iPod export, ability to include and play previews for your DVDs, etc.
--it's very fast, especially compared to ReaderWare.
--a functional import from ReaderWare, though that took trial and error: the trick is to use a TAB delimited file for export and to limit the number of fields you try to import -- it is better to do an IMDB update once your records are in DVDPedia
--pretty good support, including forums on their website (Bruji.com) and generally fast response to e-mail.
--it is still a relative young and slightly buggy piece of software, but one that is being improved and is clearly headed in the right direction.
--and as it is right now (version 1.6.3) it is clearly superior to ReaderWare 2.91.

Edit: The reason that I moved away from ReaderWare is that it is an ugly Java cross platform program, that will never have the take-your-breath-away goodies that native Mac programs like DVDPedia or Delicious Library can and do have -- everything from the Address Book integration to integrated .Mac/iPod support and indeed to iSight scanning -- and of course the clean, easy, logical, pleasant and pleasing user interface. Once you taste first class Mac OS X software, it just isn't possible to use anything else.

Ted

Mark Cappelletty · 03-01-2005, 06:06 PM

Thanks Ted. I'm using Delicious Library now, but while I like (to a degree) the interface, it's a bit of a chore to use. Will check out DVDPedia soon.

Joshua Lane · 03-01-2005, 09:13 PM

Quote:

On the other hand D.L. does not support unmodified CueCats which are much more common than the $129 iSight...

I don't think that's true. Everyone I know who owns a Mac (about 15 people) also owns an iSight... none of them own cuecats.

Scott Kimball · 03-01-2005, 09:50 PM

Quote:

Everyone I know who owns a Mac (about 15 people) also owns an iSight... none of them own cuecats.

I have the opposite experience. I don't know anyone who owns an iSight. If you have no need for a webcam, a <$20 CueCat makes a lot more sense than a $149 iSight.

But, frankly, I agree with Ted's impressions. Delicious Library is a nice idea, and I look forward to trying out future versions. Its current execution, however, is not as good as DVDPedia.

-Scott

Ted Todorov · 03-01-2005, 10:24 PM

About the iSight (which Scott correctly says is $149 -- I edited my original post accordingly -- the DVDPedia people claim they are working on iSight support as well and it is their second scheduled update after improved internatiolnal Amazon support.

In any event, I think that most Mac users have neither a CueCat nor iSight (full disclosure -- I have both, although the CueCate came first) and it is much less scary to take a $10 to $20 plunge on a CueCat (eBay prices) to a $149 on an iSight or an even pricier BlueTooth scannel, which Delicious Library also advertises support for.

Also -- I should mention that all three competing programs that I discussed above -- ReaderWare, Delicious Library & DVDPedia have free and quite functional demo versions available from their respective Web sites: readerware.com; delicious-monster.com & bruji.com (***Pedia). If you haven't tried them, it won't hurt to check them all out.

Ted

**HTF Ads**

Ted Todorov · 03-24-2005, 09:13 AM

DVDPedia 2.0 is out -- it has some very neat new features, including a whole bunch of different formats/appearances in which you can view your collection and a very cool "if you liked this, you'll also like..." type of feature.

Ted

Rhoq · 03-24-2005, 02:27 PM

I tried ReaderWare a while ago. I hated it. It was very unstable.

I haven't tried either Delicious Library or DVDPedia. Here's the thing...Back in the Fall of 2003 I had to put my iMac G3/350 down for good (There was an accident with condensation that had occured a few months prior over the Summer).

Anyways to make a long story short - I couldn't use my iMac anymore and I wanted to wait until MWSF before I purchased a new machine. A friend loaned me a spare PC that he had lying around. I ended up using this PC for about 4 months (November 2003 to March 2004). During that time I discovered DVD Profiler. As unbearable an experience as using Windows XP is to a MacOS-X user, I found DVD Profiler to be light years ahead of ReaderWare in both features, GUI and stability.

Anyways I built my collection in DVD Profiler and I became dependant on it. When I finally bought my new Mac in March of 2004 (PowerMac G4 1.25GHz MDD Tower) I hated the thought of not being able to use DVD Profiler. Luckily, I had a copy of Virtual PC 5 and was able to upgrade to Version 6. I still use DVDProfiler – running in VPC with Windows 2000.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like there will ever be a Mac port of the DVDProfiler software.

Mark Booth · 03-31-2005, 12:46 AM

I friend just pointed me to Delicious Library and I'm sold! I fiddled with DVDPedia a few weeks ago and it just didn't cause me to want to switch from DVDProfiler. I keep a slow, cheap Windows machine in my home office just for the purpose of tracking DVDs with DVDProfiler. Half and hour with Delicious Library on my PowerBook connected to my Mini-DV camcorder had me ready to finally put the Windows machine in the closet.

Yep.. that's right... iSight is NOT required. In addition to working with many USB barcode readers and iSight, Delicious Library works with any QuickTime-supported Mini-DV camcorder or USB camera. I already had everything I needed to have fun and I suspect huge percentage of Mac folks do as well.

BTW, I absolutely LOVE Delicious Library's bookshelf presentation for my collection! Way cool!

Mark

Mark Booth · 03-31-2005, 01:47 AM

BTW, check out David Pogue's video review of Delicious Library (free NY Times registration required):

http://www.nytimes.com/video/html/20...gue_VIDEO.html

Mark