Well no need for me to post with quotes - I will just respond to Lowpro and surfeur51.

I actually think most of us feel generally the same way overall about things - certainly about the uniqueness, quality and value of the DVD Profiler software.

Where I think I differ, is in the importance of the other aspects of the DVD Profiler "experience." For me, the biggest enjoyment I have gotten over the years is from the Community. From sharing ideas, from learning about media, the technology of "DVDs" and Home Theater, Actor and Crew credits, the list goes on. I get fulfillment from the collaboration, from the ability to build, promote and support my plugins. Having people feel good about work that I do is important to me. Mostly without prejudice or bias about me as a person or personality. Does my plugin do something for you or not ... does it help you or not. Did my expertise or suggestions or advice make your life better or not. Those things are more important to me than the "software."

If the online database goes away, it will probably be because the environment goes away. The site, the free forums, the collaboration, the fun of hyping my plugins. All of that. I don't care to host my own Profiler web site, or create a support forum for my plugins on my web site, or try to manage collaboration with others, using personal social media. So, if the database (and therefore the environment) goes away, an important enjoyable portion of my life will go away, and I do not look forward to it.

Quoting widescreenforever:

Quote:
Ever since Winston (skip51)  left years ago. ( r.i.p.) . the passion was never there again..

Well I definitely don't agree with that. Mine hasn't changed. Since from your post, I take it that he has passed away, I will leave all other thoughts to myself, out of respect.

I'm with you guys. I'm hoping that we all can enjoy DVDP as long as possible and the servers/database are working. Without those, the program may work, but most people will stop using it. Don't think there are many people who are willing to create their own local database when they just could use another service that will do the work for them, even if it lacks the accuracy.

But what I simply don't get is, that why there isn't a statement from Ken or others. We are all paying customers and contributors of the database, a simple statement would be the least. Even if its just that message that development was abandoned, but the servers will be paid and up and running for x years.

Why the silence, why the hiding (forum posts/last visit)? I am still worried that some day I'm trying to visit ivelos.com and the website is gone and the last thing we ever heard was the from September 2017.

Quoting Nexus the Sixth:

Quote:
Wouldn't it be possible to run it in something like Virtualbox? I used to run old Windows XP applications in it.

That is definitely possible. I'm just trying out DVDP on Windows for ARM in the Technical Preview version of Parallels Desktop on my M1 Mac and it seems to be working fine. Actually it's running better than it used to on an Intel Mac (which is insane considering both Parallels and the OS are beta versions and the OS is emulating an Intel environment to run DVDP).

im sure its possible to run in a virtual environment or whatever, I know what that is, but never have used one or cared to learn... i don't want dvd P to be the reason i need to... AiAustria has it right, that will be just the most narrow user base... at some point it will be easier to maintain a database in another fashion :*(

Last weekend I tried out 2 other database programs: Movie Collector (from Collectorz.com) and My Movies. Only tried the desktop programs, not the mobile apps.

Both programs draw heavily from IMDB data. While that saves a lot of time, a lot of it is incomplete, or at least not as complete as DVDP's data.

Here are my thoughts.

Movie Collector:
+ Easy to add new titles.
+ Import from DVD Profiler is available. Haven't tried it yet, because the trial version only allows 50 titles.
+ Tabs for different collection section (ie. Owned / Ordered / Wishlist / Etc.).
+ Easy to change screen layout
+ Easy to pick fields and sort your collection list(s).
+ Easy to submit profile updates, including crew and cast.
+ No common name discussions.
+ Easy to update value lists of fields like audio, subtitles, studios, genres, etc.
+ Excellent support.
+ Regular program updates.
+ Online collection.
- Cast/crew data draws heavily from IMDB. There's an option to unlink your profile from the general movie data in their Core, so you can add your own crew and cast. However, crew options are limited.
- Data quality is not great.
- Details display template is not easy to update. Requires a lot of coding knowledge.
- No nested box sets.
- No disc ID support.
- No locality support, as far as I can tell.
- Cast/crew are not clickable.
- General movie data (the CLZ Core) is set for all versions: Title, original title, synopsis, crew and cast. That means that overview text, running time and local crew/cast for animated features can't be submitted for general use.

Movie Collector is very easy to use, and the layout is very easy to customize. Their support is outstanding, with regular program updates. I don't like the lack of disc ids or limited profile info in their online database (Core).

My Movies:
+ Lots of profiles are in their database.
+ Pretty easy to import large DVDP collections.
+ You get a mail with all the UPCs that couldn't be imported
+ Disc ID supported (including an update for the Windows 10 Disc ID issue!).
+ Easy to update disc details.
+ Nested box sets.
+ Locality support.
+ Color bar that indicates how much of the profile is completed, with helpful hints which fields are incomplete.
+ Support for Cyrillic and Asian characters.
+ No endless discussions about common names.
+ You can earn points by submitting updates. The points allow you to purchase other sections of the program, such as converting discs to files on your hard drive/server.
+ Online collection. Can be switched on or off too.
- SLOOOOOOOOWWWWW. Good lord, it's slow.... The initial import/sync took about 6 hours on my fairly new & fast PC. Click on anything, and it just freezes.
- Requires installation of about 10 additional SQL programs.
- While importing DVDP collections is easy, they only use the UPC to set up your collection. All the rest is skipped. None of my saved film details, crew, cast or personal info are imported 
- No local database. Everything's done online, and every change requires a sync.
- No tabs. A workaround is to use filters. The filter section is quite elaborate, though.
- The collection list on the left side of the screen can't be customized. Just title and collection number, that's it. No way to view edition, release date, locality, release year, or any other field, never mind sort your list by any of these fields.
- Cast/crew data from IMDB. Crew is limited to a few sections.
- Cast/crew are not clickable.
- Rigid parsing for box set titles, including numbers for movies. 
- Renumber collection can only be done for all items. And it's extremely slow.
- No 'cancel, skip, repeat for all items' dialog in mass changes. After trying out the program, I wanted to delete my entire collection. Every profile deletion had to be sync'd (sloooow), and I had to click yes for every single box set. Took me hours to get it done.

I'm not going to switch to either of these programs, but if I could take anything from My Movies for DVDP, it would be the color bar that indicates how complete a profile is, Windows 10 disc ID issue, and the support of Cyrillic and Asian characters.

On another note, I would have LOVED to see DVDP integrated with Filmogs. Filmogs was set up by the creators of Discogs, which is by far the best music catalog and marketplace in the world. If they would have used the same layout and data structure on Filmogs, fed with data from DVDP, then it would have been great. Add a marketplace, and it would have been awesome. Alas, they pulled the plug last year. Lack of interest, I suppose...

Quoting marcelb7:

Quote:
Movie Collector:
- No nested box sets.
- No disc ID support.


My Movies:
- No local database. Everything's done online, and every change requires a sync.

So, these are (for me) not viable alternatives to DVD Profiler.

Quote:
if I could take anything from My Movies for DVDP, it would be the color bar that indicates how complete a profile is, Windows 10 disc ID issue, and the support of Cyrillic and Asian characters.

If we're never to see another major update to DVDP, I'd at the very least like to see a hotfix for the Windows 10 disc ID problem.  Ken, we need DVD Profiler brought up-to-date, as there are no good alternatives around.

---------------

Quoting scotthm:

Quote:
Quoting marcelb7:

Quote:
Movie Collector:
- No nested box sets.
- No disc ID support.


My Movies:
- No local database. Everything's done online, and every change requires a sync.

So, these are (for me) not viable alternatives to DVD Profiler.

These were my dealbreakers too.