using isight

[Nora]

I am sure that these red lines will appear somewhere (?)

Yes, they appear in the iSight window when you open it for scanning. (Click the plus button in the toolbar to bring up the search window and then press the 'iSight' button to open the iSight window.)

[Conor]

The iSight is slightly different under Leopard but in a technical way. It uses a new API from Apple that supports 64 bit and is more modern, they been trying to deprecate the old Sequence Grabber methods since Tiger. The frame rate is faster in the new version feeding a slightly higher number of frames to the scanner to work with. As a user it should make no big difference.

[DRL]

Many thanks for all the advice. I will try it out, but I think it makes sense to wait until I've got a good period of free time to get to grips with it. It sounds tricky, but, like everything else on this Mac, I imagine it will all fall into place - but I will need to feel calm and unrushed to tackle it. Does that make sense?

[Conor]

Makes perfect sense, it takes time to get used to a new system.

[DRL]

This is amazing!!!!!

I couldn't resist giving it a try. At first I was a bit bewildered and it took me a while to make the Isight work. I found it was easy to put in the numbers manually, but now I'm getting the hang of the right position for the camera. What a welcome "click" that is when it reads successfully!

I'm managing to customise the various columns. Is there a way of renaming a column for me to add name of the orchestra? What is the best search site for me to use (mainly classical, UK based)?

I'll soon be reaching the limit on the free trial, so I'll be going for the full CDpedia. Lots of things to get used to, but it looks as if changes can be made later once the discs are scanned in. This is good, and enjoyable to operate - do I have to go to work tomorrow?

[Nora]

Glad to hear the iSight search is working for you! For classical music, I'd use the ArkivMusic search plug-in. The site is dedicated to classical music. Otherwise use Amazon UK but with the search type set to 'classical'.
To rename a custom field, go into the Preferences/General.

[rembaldi]

I am having a really hard time using the isight. My experience has been what others have described...when I do spot a flash of green I try to find that magical spot again and can't...very frustrating.

[Conor]

What computer and OS X version are you using?

[nbast]

I'm also having quite a bit of difficulty with bar code reading.

I have an original MacBook Pro 17", Core Duo, not Core 2 duo. I'm running the latest version of 10.5.

Some DVDs scan instantly. Some are unscannable, but the barcodes look identical to me. Same contrast, size, paper type, etc. Disney DVDs seem to have the highest scan success rate.

Scanning CDs is hopeless. I gave up and just started typing the UPC codes in manually as it was faster than try to scan (and fail) on each CD.

[MrNN]

Just purchased the whole batch of Bruji software, was disappointed in the iSight camera function. Not as easy to use as Delicious Library, in fact I couldn't get it to read a single barcode, no matter how much i try to align or move to one side or any other method described in this forum. With Delicious Library I move the barcode and it works. I'll continue to use the software, but will have to enter UPC manually. I hope you're working on a fix...

I'm running 15" MacBook Pro, with Mac OSX 10.5.4, all the latest updates, with built in iSight camera. No matter it doesn't work on any of my 3 Macs that I own. But with Delicious Library it scans every time, so it's not my camera or system or how i'm holding it up, it just doesn't work in any of the 4 applications (DVDPedia, BookPedia, CDPedia, and GamePedia).


Thanks, Mark

[Conor]

Thank you for all the information. If you don't mind emailing us a system profile of your 15" machine so that we may compare and find any similarities, that would be helpful. There is a program called "System Profiler" in your Applications/Utilities folder, run it and then use the save command to save a file that you can then ctrl-click and compress.

[DRL]

This is my first posting here since my torrent of requests for help when I first started using CDpedia a few weeks ago. First I should say how impressed I was by the help I got, not only from people on this forum, but, especially from Nora in her patient emails explaining what were really very basic points. I have never experienced such help and support with any other purchase, online or from a shop!

Since entering my large collection of CDs (an exhausting job, but, once done, never needing to be done again), I have been adding links, creating Smart Collections and generally tweaking my records.

Today, for the first time since then, I have got three new CDs to enter. Having had problems with the iSight camera in the past, I wondered how I would get on. The results were perfect. Each registered straightaway, using the camera. I have a suspicion that light conditions are crucial. Today is sunny (Yes, I am in England!) and I am in a north-facing room, facing a window; that seems ideal. The camera certainly does not like artificial light or direct sunlight. Incidentally I am using a MacBook Pro (OS X 10.4.11) and I find the camera works best when in "mirror" mode.

One question. Nora suggested using ArckivMusic for classical searches, but I get no result when using that alone. When switching to Cascade with Arckiv first, followed by AmazonUK, it seems to be Amazon where it registers. Am I doing something wrong? I get the impression that Arckiv will give better information. (Avoiding the meaningless list of movements - eg Allegro - Andante - Presto, with no mention that the work is Symphony No X - would be nice. As well as the awful unattributed Amazon reviews: I wouldn't mind if they said who wrote them, so that I could decide if they were worth reading!) Fortunately all this can be deleted!

Coming back to the point: If you are struggling with iSight, persevere. All it needs is good light and the right technique and that is something which gradually develops.

[Conor]

Thank you for all the information and the encouragement. I think you have a great point about sunlight. The higher the contrast the less blurring there is of the line edges of the barcode, and the better the program is able to determine their relative thicknesss.

The ArkivMusic is organized by catalog number, they do not have the EAN as part of their database, so you can't use the scanning to search. The catalog number is printed on the CD and can be entered by hand to search ArckivMusic, it tends to be only a few digits and I think is printed on the spine.

[DRL]

Thanks, Conor. That's interesting. I tried entering the numbers of my three new CDs. Two worked immediately; one didn't, but did once I entered the title instead of the number. (Strange, but I won't ask why!)

The track list is far more sensible on Arkiv. For the new Horovitz CD, Horowitz in Hamburg: The Last Concert, Amazon has a meaningless list of movement titles. Arkiv has the 8 pieces he played, which is far more helpful. Another example: Chandos 10467: Debussy Piano Works Vol 3 - Arkiv has the individual pieces, while Amazon has nothing.

Are you anticipating my next question? Can I go back over the CDs already entered and substitute the Arkiv details for those I have already? Or to add them when they don't exist? I know I can delete and start again, but that seems a bit drastic and means I could lose links I've already added. There is a way, I'm sure!

Many thanks for your continued help. (Does it actually state anywhere that Arkiv uses catalogue numbers, not EAN? I wonder if other people know that. Or did I just miss it?)

[Conor]

I enjoy classical music, but my expertise is very limited; I was under the impression that for classical music listeners searching by catalog number was common knowledge among those in the know. Probably those familiar with Arkiv know about the catalog search, but you are correct we should include it in our help for those not familiar with the site. The access to Amazon data via their API is great and stable, but is limited in information as you mention. It's hard to have so many items for sale and still do an excellent job with specific information for a single type of item. To download the information from Arkiv you have to remove any information (CDpedia won't replace any existing information) and then download more info from Arkiv. Open an entry, go to the tracks tab and use select all (command-A) then the delete key and then the gear button (on the bottom right) and select Arkiv, if there is more then one result you will be presented with a list to select the correct result. To speed up the process you could put all the entries you want to update in a temporary collection and then once the tracks window is open use the (command-N) shortcut to move to the next entry. Another useful shortcut is that for the gear button, it would be command-ctrl-[the number of the location of Arkiv music]. If your gear button menu looks like this:

• Amazon US
  Amazon CA
  Amazon UK
  Amazon FR
  Amazon DE
  Amazon JP
  Arkiv
  Freedb

The shortcut for Arkiv would be command-ctrl-7, because it's the 7th item on the list.