Coollector: new FREEWARE for movie lovers (1 Viewer)

[Hector_]

(posted with permission)


Hi everybody !

I'm very happy to announce that I've just released a program called Coollector, which is totally FREE. If you like movies, you'll probably be interested. Please give it a try:

www.coollector.com


DESCRIPTION:
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Coollector is the last generation of video collection managers. It's a completely new way to manage your collection of movies, because it's not only a video collection manager, but also an encyclopedia of movies, and a store catalog too... All at the same time !

1/ Coollector looks like a large movie encyclopedia.
Only 14 MB to download, and you get a database of 33,000 movies and 68,000 persons.

2/ you can personalize all that data.
You can rate all the movies and persons that you know (from "excellent" down to "awful").
You can tell which movies you own in your collection, with all the technical details ( media type, image, sound, languages, subtitles, running time, studio, etc... )
You keep track of the movies you loaned.
You manage your wish list.

3/ all the movies in the encyclopedia are available in store.


To summarize, Coollector blends 3 types of information into a unique interface:

1/ your cinematographical culture (rated movies and persons).
2/ your personal collection (with technical details).
3/ the videos availables in store (with technical details too).


Coollector's interface is extremely user-friendly.
Coollector includes a very powerful and innovative search feature.
Coollector is a surprisingly lightweight application with low resource usage.
Coollector does not contain any spyware or malware.

Last but not least, Coollector is TOTALLY FREE !!

 

[TonyD]

how about a working link

 

[Brandon Conway]

It's in his signature and in the post itself (though not linked directly).

 

[TonyD]

wasnt working earlier

 

[Radioman970]

It works now. Shame the "store" portion only seems to be tired to CDuniverse.com. Several stores would be better. Like amazon, DDD, overstock.com....

 

[Demis G]

does this have the option to update through internet like the one Collectorz.com have ?

 

[Hector_]

Hi,

(I could not post a direct link because I need 10 posts to be allowed to do that)
(maybe a moderator could arrange that)

I'm not tied to CDuniverse. I chose to begin with CDuniverse, but there will be other catalogs as soon as possible. It's a start, and I think not a bad one

When you first use my program, it takes time to realize that it's CDuniverse stock. You're just in front of a pretty decent movie database which you can browse and search very easily, and completely personalize to reflect your cinematographical culture and taste. I've done a lot of work on their data, to make it a real MOVIE database, not a DVD/VHS database. There's 1 entry per movie, not as many entry as there is DVD/VHS. And packs of movies are well broken down into single elements.

Added to that, there are several advantages to the fact that it's based upon CDuniverse stock.
1/ you can see what DVD exist in store (I will soon add price information)
2/ if you're used to shop to CDuniverse, it's an alternative to browsing their site (now with your tastes and wishlist superimposed on it)
3/ when you input your owned movies, it's as easy as ripping the technical details from CDuniverse.

If I am to really tell you everything, when I started developping Coollector, I did not have enough courage (madness) to create my own movie database, so I had this idea to take an online store catalog, because they're just happy that we browse their catalog, no copyright infringement. But I changed my mind, and now I'm well decided to create my own movie database, and the store catalogs will still be there to offer a shopping companion service.

Voila.

 

[Hector_]

With Collectorz.com you say what movie you own, and it goes fetch the information on the net.
With my program, the information on 33,000 movies and 68,000 persons is already inside the program (that's why it's 14MB install).

That's the BIG difference:
*with Collectorz, you start with a dull empty database (will repell the less tech-savvy users).
*with my program, you directly have a large movie database you can immediately browse and personalize (it's fun right from the start, person's filmographies also show movies that you don't own, easier to create a wishlist, etc...).

Another big difference:
*Collectorz is media-centric.
*my program is movie-centric (more natural).

 

[Radioman970]

I rarely use them because they are 5% or more pricey after you add shipping. DDD and amazon both do special deals with shipping. DDD=free. amazon=$25+ purchase ships free.

But anyway, I guess they have a good enough movie database.

I programmed (loosely using that word, heh) something that would randomly pick out a movie from my library of flicks for me to watch based and my mood. It sucked. But that would be a fun thing to have if it worked. Type in several parameters, etc....and it'd spit out the right flick for me at the time.

 

[Tory]

So no TV series? I have yet to try it and downloading it over dialup will take some time, probably this weekend.

Are short films in it?

Any quick import for those who have things listed elsewhere?

How frequently is it updated with all these new fangled films coming out.

Does it have films not available at cduniverse?

 

[Hector_]

Yes, that will be a nice feature to add, but don't expect it any time soon. My todo list is already soooo long.

 

[Hector_]

The database is an exact replication of CDuniverse catalog. As I've said, I plan to change that, but it will take between 3 months and 6 months.

 

[Ken Cline]

Nice job Hector!

Any chance we could download just the data? I already have my own database I've developed over the years - many, many years It would be nice to be able to use the data though.

 

[Hector_]

Well, maybe your program could handle all that data, but it would most certainly become sluggish to use. I'm using a very fast C++ database (Metakit), and I had resort to tons of optimization tricks. I'm definitly an optimization freak LOL

Are you certain that your program won't choke on it ? To my knowledge, my program is the only one able to handle it (no kidding).

 

[Ken Cline]

If you can believe it, this is an Access database. I've had several people tell me it doesn't look anything like Access (they think I'm lying), but it is. It's been a work in progress for 10 years - when I started collecting DVDs. Yeah, I love my DVDs that much

I'm a database programmer by day and the database I developed for work, which has about 15-25 users at any given time, has 60,000+ records without any hiccups (or slow downs). If there's slow downs it usually our network
It's even faster that the Oracle we have.

All I wanted the data for is to lookup info when I need to add a DVD to my database. I used to do this with the MovieBrain (pumpkinsoft.de) data, but that been abandoned. Right now, I manually enter data from dvdempire.com and allmovie.com.

 

[TonyD]

i thought this seemed familiar.
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/...or#post2667021

guess the testing worked out.

 

[Demis G]

SO, what does one do when a NEW movie comes out? one that is not in the database I downloaded included in the program?

thats why I asked if there was an internet database update thing

 

[Radioman970]

Add that and I'll download it!!

Joking. I'll give yours a go some time soon.

 

[Rolando]

Well I quickly see a pro and a con to the fixed database.

It will be annoying to buy a DVD on release day and not be able to "add" it to your collection and/or the info for that DVD to not be available yet.

However it will be nice to have one dedicated person doing the database than having just anybody adding their info to an all access user updated online database. I have the specs to one of a few of my DVDs "updated" 2-3 times a week by guys constantly updating their updated profile of the discs.

 

[Hector_]

(Sorry for the late reply, I was volley training)


I'll have a look at your program. I'm impressed because I've heard so many horrible things about Access... In fact, my first version of Coollector was written with VBA (Visual Basic for Access) but I quickly changed to C++ because not everybody has Access.
To use your program, is it necessary to have Access ?

I wouldn't really mind sharing my database with you, but that's not trivial, I definitively don't have time to do it now :frowning: