DVDPedia advice for storing TV Series

[blackp]

I have not been using DVDPedia since the original PocketPedia disappeared a while back. Now that PocketPedia3 is here I'm happy to go back to DVDPedia being the main source of information about my DVD collection. Because I had not updated it for a long time I decided to delete the old database and start from scratch.

As I'm in Australia and a lot of our DVDs have different UPCs I find that I get a match on about 3 in 10 when using my bar code scanner. I get another 3 in 10 by doing a search by title and I have to manually enter the data for about 4 in ten. So far I've found all the info I need on IMDB, and I've usually found the right DVD cover on google images - sometimes I have to be happy with a similar but not exact cover image. I have not had the time to go thru and find all those entries with wrong UPCs but one day - after all the data is in.....?

My question is how should I handle my collection of TV series?

A lot of TV series are sold in collections. It gets more confusing because often a studio will publish a collection of all series up to date, and then publish separate DVD packs with subsequent series. Even worse they often re-publish the collections with all the series at a future date. With movies it is easy to add the title for each movie in a collection (also movie collections are relatively rare compared to TV series) so that when you are checking to see what movies you have you get an accurate idea.

In my spreadsheet method I only held one line item for each TV series I have and had another field for the series numbers I own. That way when (for instance) "Sons of Anrchy" Series 4 finally ships I just change the Series Owned field from 1,2,3 to 1,2,3,4

What is the best way to replicate this behaviour in DVDPedia?

Thanks for your help.

Peter.

[FineWine]

As I'm in Australia and a lot of our DVDs have different UPCs I find that I get a match on about 3 in 10 when using my bar code scanner. I get another 3 in 10 by doing a search by title and I have to manually enter the data for about 4 in ten. So far I've found all the info I need on IMDB, and I've usually found the right DVD cover on google images - sometimes I have to be happy with a similar but not exact cover image. I have not had the time to go thru and find all those entries with wrong UPCs but one day - after all the data is in.....?
Peter.

Hi Peter - I too live in Australia and you are correct that finding correct info & images for DVD's purchased downunder can be a chore. As part of my Doghouse Moderator duties I wrote an Info View Style Template called Moderator which to some extend is Australian centric.

I have written however my own Info View Style Template which is more Australian/UK centric which I have not submitted to Bruji as I keep adding & deleting Australian sites as I come across them. All these Templates use Title search site icons, not UPC's/ISBN's, though once at the site you can manually enter the number. This Template also has Filter links, IMDb & Wiki links for the credits as well Hot Links for the UPC, ASIN & IMDb numbers. Also it has a 'Play Trailer' link to YouTube.

If you would like this Template drop me PM with your email address and I will send it to you - though you will have to manually install it, for which I will provide instructions for. It is very easy to do.

The sites I have coded in at the moment are: Doghouse, IMDB, Amazon, JB HiFiOnline.com.au, Fishpond.com.au, Sanity.com.au, Alibris.co.uk, Wikipedia. Of course these are Info View Templates therefore does not allow for automatic DVDpedia entry of information, just the searching of info.

I also have another similar Template which I have been working on that has the added bonus of providing actor/director/composer thumb nail images based on a data base I am slowly building. I am upto just over 9000 images so far, divided into child/teen/adult where applicable.

But I am slowly working on a big one where all of the above is included but in a Tabbed format similar to the DVDpedia Tabbed Template.

As far as cover images go - if I can not find an exact or very near exact cover image, I just scan them in. I find scanning them easier than the Pedia's 'Capture Cover' within the 'Movie' menu utilising the selected camera.

Cheers

[blackp]

Hi FineWine - I tried to PM you but I find I have one item in my outbox and zero in sent messages.......

What have I done wrong?

[FineWine]

Just woke up - I have received your PM and will send you the Template and instructions later today.

As for the TV series you will have to wait for Conor or Nora to reply.

Cheers

[Nora]

A lot of TV series are sold in collections. It gets more confusing because often a studio will publish a collection of all series up to date, and then publish separate DVD packs with subsequent series. Even worse they often re-publish the collections with all the series at a future date. With movies it is easy to add the title for each movie in a collection (also movie collections are relatively rare compared to TV series) so that when you are checking to see what movies you have you get an accurate idea.

In my spreadsheet method I only held one line item for each TV series I have and had another field for the series numbers I own. That way when (for instance) "Sons of Anrchy" Series 4 finally ships I just change the Series Owned field from 1,2,3 to 1,2,3,4

What is the best way to replicate this behaviour in DVDPedia?

This is a bit subjective, since it depends on the information you're interested in. Some users like to catalog each individual episode of a TV series in which case the TV Rage or TVDb sites are a good option and the 'Season' and 'Episode' fields come in handy. Others catalog one season as one entry where the 'Season' and 'Series' field come in handy (in DVDpedia the "Series" field refers to the title of the series, the US English use of the word). But if you'd prefer to keep just one entry for all seasons of the series that you have, that's okay too. In this case you won't be able to use the 'Season' field though since it is set to accept only a number so you can't enter 1-4 in it for example. (We might change this for the future.)

[blackp]

Thanks for your response Nora.

Having visibility down to episode level in a TV series is not of great interest to me, although I can see why some people would find this helpful.

One of my main reasons for having my DVD collection in any form of database is so that I do not purchase duplicates. Following your response, I'm guessing that the best way for me is to hold each series of a show as a single item in DVDPedia. My reason for coming to this conclusion is that having a single entry called "the complete series of....." does not tell me that the complete series I have goes from series 1- 4 when I'm looking at the single DVD of series 5 in the shop wondering if I have it at home.

I know that if I pursue this method it will not let me exactly match the UPC's and/or cover art in DVDPedia to my actual collection, but at least I'll know that it is alright to make the next purchase.

If there is a better way I'd appreciate your opinion. Since getting PocketPedia3 I've been re-building my DVDPedia database and am about 75% through the movies, and have yet to start on the TV series, so I am not committed to any strategy just yet.

Thanks again,

pb