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| Registered: March 14, 2007 | Reputation:  |  Posts: 4,679 |
| | Posted: | | | | I have looked at all programs that I can find, and I have to say the the result is disappointing.
I have found only two that can import directly from DVD Profiler's export file; Collectorz and My Movies.
My Movies looked the most promising until I tested importing my collection. The import is web based. It has a progress bar that does not seem to work. I could import a very small collection, but when I tried to import the whole thing (a bit over 8000 profiles), it failed. Well, nothing happened, and I let the import run for 30 hours before I gave up. From their forum I learned that others have had the same experience.
Collectorz fared better, but it left a lot of my TV shows without any data. For the PC, the program is fully web based. It looks fairly good, but it lacks many of Profiler's features, there is, for example, no layout customization except for selection and order of columns. You get the cover images from the online, I think, and only front cover. You can add custom front and back images, but as far as I could tell it has to be done one profile at a time.
If you want both PC and phone apps, it'll set you back approximately $50 per year (I can only see the prices in SEK).
There are some programs that can import from CSV, but it's a whole lot more complicated, and those programs look pretty basic anyway.
Bottom line, if DVD Profiler doesn't work on your phone, and you really need that, then I'd say that Collectorz probably is your best bet. But for me personally, there is no way I switch to another program as long as DVD Profiler works. | | | My freeware tools for DVD Profiler users.
Gunnar |
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| Registered: March 14, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 4,679 |
| | Posted: | | | | Re: Collectorz:
It appears that I was wrong about layouts. I see on their web site that there are various layouts. I just didn't find that function when I tested. Still, as far as I can tell, it's nowhere near as customizable as DVD Profiler. | | | My freeware tools for DVD Profiler users.
Gunnar |
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| Registered: June 20, 2015 | Reputation:  | | Posts: 179 |
| | Posted: | | | | I bought a copy of MovieBuddy for my iPad for $5 to play around with. It only imports CSV files, however after a lot of tinkering I was able to import a test section of my library. Unfortunately, MovieBuddy uses IMDb ID and TMDb ID instead of UPC to retrieve film data. So while the import included the movie name and my personal data, it did not retrieve anything else. So in order for it to be useful, one has to include a film's IMDb ID and/or TMDb ID in the CSV import file. Right now, I don't know how to do that. Since I am not too keen on subscription services, I am considering subscribing temporarily to one of the apps you mentioned, importing my DVD Profiler data into it and then exporting a CSV file from it, which I then import into MovieBuddy, in the hope it will add IMDb ID and/or TMDb ID data. Whether this will work is anybody's guess. |
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| Registered: March 14, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 4,679 |
| | Posted: | | | | The XML export from Collectorz does contain IMDb id. It does not contain cast and crew (at least not by default; I guess there might be a setting that I missed). But I assume that MovieBuddy can get that from IMDb.
I am not sure how easy it would be to get a useful CVS file from Collectorz, but it might be worth a try, if you absolutely feel you need an iOS-only alternative to DVD Profiler. | | | My freeware tools for DVD Profiler users.
Gunnar | | | | Last edited: by GSyren |
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| Registered: June 20, 2015 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 179 |
| | Posted: | | | | I got this response from MyMovies when I mentioned your and other's comments about the import hanging:
"There are indeed some files that the importer hangs on - we are working on writing a new importer.
But please do try the existing - note that you just leave it when the progress bar does not move."
Let's hope they fix it. |
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| Registered: June 20, 2015 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 179 |
| | Posted: | | | | I then asked them this question:
Please explain more fully what you are suggesting I do. What would be the result of leaving the import at that point? A partial import stopping at the first problem item? A nearly complete import with only the problem items missing? The former is useless. The latter might be useable if there were not too items affected and they were somehow identified for later manual addition.
And got this response:
It means that when it shows a stopped progressbar, it is actually continuing in the background - so let it run and wait for an email. |
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| Registered: June 20, 2015 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 179 |
| | Posted: | | | | And a followup response:
We will up-prioritize the re-writing of the import feature for DVD Profiler - we are naturally very interested in getting as many DVD Profiler users to switch as possible.
We believe that our service offers by far the best option for those looking to switch with our data quality and coverage, and we know that many of the DVD Profiler users are of great value to our community.
I'm encouraged by their prompt responses. Let's hope they do a good job. I'll keep you posted. |
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| Registered: March 14, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 4,679 |
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| Registered: June 20, 2015 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 179 |
| | Posted: | | | | iCollect Movies is another potential replacement. They claim you can send them a database from "nearly anywhere" and they will import it for you. However they don't specifically mention DVD Profiler. I've e-mailed their support folks for clarification. I'll let you know what they tell me. |
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| Registered: June 20, 2015 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 179 |
| | Posted: | | | | Just got this from My Movies tech support:
This is still working in progress, as especially UI wise there are several things to improve - also the ability to upload the collection in zip is missing. But do give it a try:
https://themovie.network/Import
I haven't tried it yet. |
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| Registered: March 18, 2007 | | Reputation: |  Posts: 6,463 |
| | Posted: | | | | What is often overlooked in these discussions is the fundamental difference between the Invelos data model and most (all?) other collection programs. DVD Profiler considers to be unique any variation of a packaged "DVD" where any one of these things are different: UPC, Locality, Country of Origin, Release date, Cast / Crew, and the list goes on. Each variation is assigned a unique profile ID and there are several ways that Profiler provides so that a user can synthesize a profile ID to accommodate almost any variation.
So, for any given "movie" that might have only one IMDB locator, DVD Profiler could have dozens of profiles that point to that same movie.
Any import or export that overlooks this fundamental difference cannot possibly satisfy a user who expects some sort of one to one conversion. A perfect conversion in either direction will almost always require user interaction to complete the task, once the automated conversion is done. | | | Thanks for your support.
Free Plugins available here.
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Hey, new product!!! BDPFrog. | | | | Last edited: by mediadogg |
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| Registered: June 20, 2015 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 179 |
| | Posted: | | | | I just got this response from iCollect Movies:
Yes, please send your exported collection from them over to us and we can import for you.
Sounds promising. |
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| Registered: June 20, 2015 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 179 |
| | Posted: | | | | Mediadogg: I'm not considering moving to another app because I don't like DVD Profiler. I do. I really do. I am instead looking for a viable iOS alternative, since Invelos seems to have abandoned iOS with the recent server update. While I can still use my iOS devices since I am running Windows 10 on my Intel Mac, Microsoft is abandoning Windows 10 next year. I am not a Boy Scout, but I believe in being prepared. |
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| Registered: June 20, 2015 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 179 |
| | Posted: | | | | While I am impressed that the iOS app is still running reasonably well in iOS 17.5.1, even if Invelos resolves the self inflicted iOS online upload issue, it is highly unlikely that this will continue to be the case in iOS 18 and beyond. |
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| Registered: June 20, 2015 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 179 |
| | Posted: | | | | The really sad part about this is that iOS users who don't have access to a PC or an Intel Mac are totally screwed since they have no way to export their database. I was hoping that Invelos would offer this as paid service from their website, but that does not seem to be the case. |
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| Registered: March 18, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 6,463 |
| | Posted: | | | | Ah I see, I missed that point. Good luck. | | | Thanks for your support.
Free Plugins available here.
Advanced plugins available here.
Hey, new product!!! BDPFrog. |
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