DVDprofiler.com down? (1 Viewer)

[Oleg]

Since the base functionality of the program is still there it wouldn't be an 'awful' thing for anybody but IVS if IVS went down permanently. It would be a major inconvenience, but it is possible to add one's own artwork and film data to the database on one's own computer. The one thing that IVS does is provide a central repository for all of the data entered by users. Should they go away, it would be possible for someone else to set up such a repository, and barring that, for all of the users to simply enter their own images/film data for themselves. Granted, the latter would be a bad and inconvenient thing, but you'd still have the program and the catalog of your collection.

As far as scanners, provided they are cuecats, there is plenty of software out there to spew out cuecat scans in arbitrary format. Normal scanners should work just fine without any add-ons, just like they do without DVDProfiler.

 

[dpippel]

Maybe everyone here should just take a deep breath and give them the benefit of the doubt. We're hardly well into a new work week. Today is only Monday, the *first* working day of the week. I think if we're patient and give IVS and their hosting people a little time and understanding they'll be back up and running soon. It's obvious they're dealing with a less than ideal situation.

 

[Joel Vardy]

Thanks for bringing a little 'sanity' back into the situation, Doug. I have full confidence that they will recover from this minor setback. Like broken bones, this may heal into a 'stronger' structure.

Joel

 

[GregGS]

Since the base functionality of the program is still there it wouldn't be an 'awful' thing for anybody but IVS if IVS went down permanently.

I can't add anything to my local list right now, so the functionality isn't there for me. Does anyone know what setting I need to change so it won't try to download everytime I try to add a DVD to my list?

 

[ChrisBEA]

All you need to do is uncheck the box labelled "Download Profile from IVS" then you will be able to add any disk in.
Hope that helps!

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

Well, I went to check the status of the site, and I got a different message than I had been getting recently. Whereas I was getting the "The page cannot be displayed" message, now this one appears.


I thought that was interesting.

 

[ChrisKe]

I think they're going to have masses of traffic when they finally do come up - I've got a couple of updates queued waiting to go..

Fortunately, timezones mean I can do this while the US people are (hopefully) sleeping..

 

[RAF]

A point of clarification since I obviously didn't make myself clear and probably didn't choose my words carefully enough. Yes, I know that it's "only" Monday so "well into the work week" is misleading. No, I haven't lost my sanity, nor was my intention to ask hourly "Where is it? Where is it?" In fact, in one of my previous posts I agreed with Sam Davatchi that asking about the outage over and over again doesn't solve the problem.

However, my recent remarks were predicated on the fact that this situation has now been out there for approximately 3 days or maybe more (since I became aware of it on Saturday). And I also understand that most ISPs have 24/7 technical resources and we were assured several days ago that this problem was being worked on. So it's not like they started to work on the problem at 9 a.m. Monday morning. That's what I meant by my "well into the work week" comment. It was not meant as a rant and I apologize for any misunderstanding.

It doesn't help the situation to have a message on the IVS site for over three days. In fact I would think that there should be some mechanism there that would allow a little better explanation of what's going on so that the people at IVS and their ISP can spend time rectifying the situation rather than having to answer questions on the various forums that their customers frequent. They are obviously being pulled in several directions at once and I'm also interested, like most of you, in seeing this resolved as quickly as possible. This can't be any fun for them.

Hope that clarifies my position a bit on this.

 

[Dan Rudolph]

This is starting to really worry me as well. I already converted my whole collection to DVD Aficionado. I'm checkign out DVD collector as well.

 

[nolesrule]

No need to get worried or panicky.

I've run smaller sites that were down for days because of a hardware failure that the host wasn't prepared to deal with. It happens.

The only way to prevent this would require outrageous hosting costs...redundant servers and more. IVS would have to raise the price AND make the fee non-optional.

I'm sure they'll be back in a few days.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Correct. Problems of this type can easily be fixed with enough money. At $25 per voluntary contribution, I doubt that InterVocative generates enough revenue from software sales to justify that expense.

Hopefully they will get their issues fixed soon. I do agree with Robert, though, that a more helpful message on their website during this outage would be nice.

 

[Chris]

It's also not as easy as it seems fit.. realize, dependant on what hardware failed, and what OS they are running, it can be a bit of a trick to port data, database extensions, etc.

(And still down this morning)

I'll give it time, though

 

[Mark Zimmer]

And as I'll point out again, these guys have day jobs that are NOT DVD Profiler, and this is their busy season at those. Be patient. I'd like to do my updating too, but sometimes you just have to take a deep breath.

 

[Joel Vardy]

That's a good point, Mark. It certainly stands to reason that DVDProfiler revenues can not sustain anybody's fulltime professional attention. Even if every one of their hundred's (?) of users were to contribute the very reasonable $25 fee it would be unlikely to cover all their expenses, including salaries. I'm certainly very grateful that I've had access to their intellectual property for such a small sum. Being in the computer business, I'm quite impressed with what they have achieved to date.

Joel

 

[Tom_Bechet]

aah patience is a virtue, while I wait to update my collection with new titles I will just watch them

I thought we were all addicted to DVDs not the programme that lets us list them. I'm sure they've fixed it in a few days.

 

[Oleg]

Data to the profiler database is contributed by the users, not IVS. $25 bought you the license to the front end program (I would hope, as licensing out the cover images and film data is... problematic for anyone but the copyright owners).

If IVS cannot support the basic functionality of their software for $25 'lifetime' license, then perhaps they ought to change their business model, such as charging a monthly/yearly fee for downloads, with offset credit for uploads (upload credit being a large multiple of download debit to encourage uploads).

I'm at the point where if the outage lasts much longer, like say to this weekend, I'll just go out and buy a scanner, then do all my updates. While this won't affect IVS as they already got my $25, it'll clear up the backlog and scanners are cheap.

 

[Eric Huffstutler]

Unchecking the profile download feature doesn't work for me to add discs. It doesn't download the individual profiles, only the graphics but doesn't add them to the collection? They stay in spool.

 

[Kai Zas]

Argh... way to celebrate my 500th dvd. Can't even add it to my profiler. Dang.

(It's a good one too: Blakes 7 - Season 1.)

They should do something about the message on the site, though. I am a paying customer. Shouldn't I be entitled to a little more information? It's already been a LOT of minutes. Oh well... nothing to do but wait.

 

[Dave F]

It isn't that simple. You are paying for the interface (which is actually a gui for a database hosted on your own system), and access to the online database which is owned by IVS. Data may be submitted by users, but the database is property of IVS.

I totally agree that IVS should consider changing the business model, but man, that'd tick off a lot of people.

-Dave

 

[Jeff Schnebelen]

WOW! I too, love this program. The funny thing is, I never knew it was in MY home town Liberty, MO.
I just live a few blocks away. How bizarre is that. I may have to just go and introduce my self.