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Invelos Forums->DVD Profiler: Desktop Technical Support |
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Where Can I See How Many Titles Are in my Collection? |
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Message |
| Registered: May 11, 2009 | | Posts: 11 |
| | Posted: | | | | In DVD Profiler the count of my DVDs is for total discs, which is fine but I would also like to see how many total movies/boxed sets, or titles, I have. I have been through all the Charts and they all appear to be based on total discs also. E.g., everywhere I can find that shows statistics at all in DVD Profiler shows that I have a total of 507 discs, but I believe that I have somewhere between 200 and 300 actual DVD titles.
So where or how can I see the total number of actual titles are in my collection?
Thank you.
Jim |
| | Registered: May 19, 2007 | Reputation:  |  Posts: 6,730 |
| | Posted: | | | | The count is not for total discs, but for total profiles.
The difference is significant because a two- or more disc-edition usually only counts as one profile, while a boxset always counts one more than actually included movies (x child profiles (movies) + 1 parent profile (boxset).
The number of profiles is to be found in brackets in the collection window (tab: owned).
The number of owned movies (without packages. boxsets) is a bit harder to get and needs a liitle prework. You'd have to completely renumber your collection using the following basic numbering-rules
Movies: Always count 1
Boxsets: remove the number from the parent profile (highlight the parent profile, press "CTRL + P" and check "None" next to the coll.#) so that only the included movies get a number
TV-Shows: This is depending on your preferences, I usually don't count the separate discs but give them 1 per season, but some users are usng the disc count here too.
When done with this the highest collection # should match the total of your owned movies / TV-Shows. | | | It all seems so stupid, it makes me want to give up!
But why should I give up, when it all seems so stupid?
Registrant since 05/22/2003 |
| | Registered: May 9, 2007 |  Posts: 1,536 |
| | Posted: | | | | Another way of doing this is using tags, and tag everything that you want to be included in the count. | | | | Hans |
| | Registered: May 11, 2009 | | Posts: 11 |
| | Posted: | | | | @goblins:
Wow - more than a little pre-work! I really appreciate your reply; very informative. Hard to believe that the program doesn't have the total titles stored somewhere in its database, but I do believe you. Two other programs I have used can show me the data counted by title and by disc. This sounds like more work than I care to do though to try and "trick" the program into giving me a very simple count. When I first switched to DVD Profiler I decided to keep my previous program's database updated also, since it doesn't take much work to just add a DVD or three now and again. I'm really glad I did because there are some gaps - in my opinion anyway - in what DVD Profiler can show me from my database.
@Staid:
Thank you for the tip on tagging. How do I tag the movies/TV Series in a way that will allow DVD Profiler to show me a count of my titles?
Thanks again.
Jim |
| | Registered: March 14, 2007 | Reputation:  |  Posts: 4,684 |
| | Posted: | | | | The first thing you need to decide is "What constitutes a title?"
Is a double feature on a single disc two titles? If yes, then keeping an accurate count in Profiler will be very difficult. Are box sets one title per box or one title per film? Would bonus discs count as titles?
Also, for TV shows, is it one title per box, per season or per show? Remember that a box can be half a season, a full season or several seasons. Or even just "best of".
When you start thinking in these terms it becomes clearer why Profiler counts profiles rather than titles... | | | My freeware tools for DVD Profiler users.
Gunnar |
| | Registered: May 11, 2009 | | Posts: 11 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting GSyren: Quote:
The first thing you need to decide is "What constitutes a title?"
Is a double feature on a single disc two titles? If yes, then keeping an accurate count in Profiler will be very difficult. Are box sets one title per box or one title per film? Would bonus discs count as titles?
Also, for TV shows, is it one title per box, per season or per show? Remember that a box can be half a season, a full season or several seasons. Or even just "best of".
When you start thinking in these terms it becomes clearer why Profiler counts profiles rather than titles... Hi GSyren and thank you for the reply. By "titles" I mean exactly in the same way that we commonly purchase DVD movies and TV series. A double feature that comes in one package is one title. A boxed set is one title. A TV series is one title; if a bonus disc is part of a TV series and/or boxed set, then no, it is not a separate title. E.g., I purchase a lot of my DVDs at Amazon.com. If I could get a count that matched the same methodology that Amazon uses to sell "titles", or DVD Empire, or CD Universe, etc. That's pretty much what I am talking about. All of the retail establishments that sell DVD movies and TV series by the "title" rather than by the individual disc sell them in the exact way that the distributors sell the DVDs to them. I don't think there is much deviation from that, though I guess there may be instances where I am wrong. But there seems to be a fairly standard method of tracking DVDs in the retail industry - by title. That is all I was asking about. I see now that there are other opinions about this, and, well, opinions are always all over the place in any topic! But I thought that most here would know what I was talking about, even if they feel differently about it. BTW, I am not suggesting that DVD Profiler track DVDs differently internally; I had just thought that how they are counted would be something that could be configured by users as a simple switch in the database. After all, most databases are designed to allow "slicing and dicing" the data in numerous ways. Thanks again! Jim |
| | Registered: May 9, 2007 | | Posts: 1,536 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting J-Mac: Quote:
@goblins:
@Staid:
Thank you for the tip on tagging. How do I tag the movies/TV Series in a way that will allow DVD Profiler to show me a count of my titles?
Thanks again.
Jim You create tags in the Set Tags window (may need to be activated in View/Windows). You can name it anything you like, for example "Title". For every profile that you want to count, you check the "Title" box. That sounds ike a lot of work initially, but you can use Filters to help you make a selection. Of course, you can also tag the profiles you don't want to count, and filter them out. Then whenever you want to count Titles, filter on the Title Tag being checked. This also works in Charts & Graphs. | | | | Hans |
| | Registered: May 22, 2007 | Reputation:  |  Posts: 1,033 |
| | Posted: | | | | further you can flag all the titles (or non titles) by pressing the space bar when they are highlighted. Now depending on if you flagged the titles or 'non titles' and if you plan on tagging the titles or the 'non titles' you can then click (from memory) DVD->Flagged->Edit Tags and set the tag on all the flagged titles.
as far as your definition for a title. You are probably in the minority (at least on this site) with wanting to count it as units sold. Most people seem to want to count movies. so the Star Wars box set is 3 movies (though it's 4 profiles). And it seems most people reverse this for TV Shows. Each season is counted as 1 instead of for each disc.
to further complicate your sold by approach. Some shows (seen it mostly with anime) the first (or sometimes second) disc of a season is sold with the box but each disc is released and sold seperatly. so as you buy each disc you can put it in the box. They may, when all discs have been released, then release a box set version. A similar thing is when The Lord of the Rings movies came out they were released one at a time but then you could mail away for a box to put them all in, or alternatly just wait till they were all released and they offered them in a box. how would you count that. all 4 profiles (box and 3 movies) are listed on the retailers site.
-Agrare |
| | Registered: May 11, 2009 | | Posts: 11 |
| | Posted: | | | | Thanks Staid! This is probably the best way for me. I can tag them as I wish, set a filter, and then turn the filter on or off depending on what I plan to view. Excellent advice! Agare, perhaps I am in the minority but I think you are most likely correct when you say "at least on this site". I only say that because - as I mentioned before - two other movie databases I have purchased show the counts the way I describe and I haven't seen a clamoring for that to change. As for the rest of your comments many of my DVDs in Movie Collector are by the title as purchased, however I have modified some to my liking. E.g., the LOTR trilogy; I purchased the boxed set and yet I entered them as separate DVDs. Why? Because that is how I want to see it in there. Yet I had the Die Hard trilogy, all purchased separately, but they are in there as a trilogy. Again, just how I wanted to list them. I know that some users here insist on some kind of purity that I just don't need to have in my collection. I like to enter the DVDs and allow them to have fields populated by the database, but then I tend to edit the data as I prefer. For many I have expanded the occasionally anemic plot descriptions and input greatly expanded descriptions. On one that I contributed I had done this and it was rejected because the plots had more info than the original DVDs. So obviously that is critical for some. Not for me! I document my collection for two main reasons: one is for insurance purposes, and the other is for my enjoyment. So I like to enter them as I like to see them. Of course I understand that others think much differently and I respect that. As long as no one sees fit to get all bent over my preferences. Thanks all!  Jim |
| | Registered: March 14, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 950 |
| | Posted: | | | | This is why this is the best program...you can do whatever you like locally! Unfortunately, while cases of the overview not having a lot of info may exist, allowing people to just change it to something else would be unreasonable...before there were contribution rules, there was a lot of ping ponging of titles as one person would feel that their way was best and another user would think their way was. While I wasn't part of the community at that time, I believe any James Bond title was a victim of this. Some people wanted it to be James Bond, others wanted the actual title...all according to personal preference. By keeping it to what is show on the box/movie/dvd, everyone's information is exactly the same and hopefully! fewer arguments and changes can be made to each profile. The rules help to get rid of personal preference and while they might need some tweaking, it'd be hard to imagine what the database would be without them. But, like I said, your local is your local, and you can have whatever you want there! I seem to be in the minority as well...I tend to count each box set as one, rather than one for each movie in the box set. TV as well. For me, it's more that I paid once for a box set, not 3 times--once for each movie, so that's how I keep count. | | | | Lori |
| | Registered: March 14, 2007 | | Posts: 1,339 |
| | Posted: | | | | Hi J-Mac - Welcome to the Asylum,
I count my titles in a similar fashion to you with only a slight difference, and I believe my way of counting may be what you are looking for and much easier then some of the methods described above. I count every movie as a title, except a double feature I count as one... so two movies on one disc = 1 - but a box set with a trilogy would count as 3. Other then that we would count the same...
What I use is the collection number section... I simply assign a value of "none" to profiles that I don't consider titles - so the master profile for the star wars trilogy has no number assigned to it, but each movie does...
If i sell a movie I renumber the entire collection, so that my highest collection number is my most recent purchase, there are no gaps, and the highest collection number is simply the number of titles i have.
hope i explained this well enough for you to understand - enjoy! | | | | -JoN |
| | Registered: May 11, 2009 | | Posts: 11 |
| | Posted: | | | | Sorry for the delay - I missed the notification email and forgot to reply... Shame on me! Quoting LJG: Quote:
This is why this is the best program...you can do whatever you like locally! Unfortunately, while cases of the overview not having a lot of info may exist, allowing people to just change it to something else would be unreasonable...before there were contribution rules, there was a lot of ping ponging of titles as one person would feel that their way was best and another user would think their way was. While I wasn't part of the community at that time, I believe any James Bond title was a victim of this. Some people wanted it to be James Bond, others wanted the actual title...all according to personal preference.
By keeping it to what is show on the box/movie/dvd, everyone's information is exactly the same and hopefully! fewer arguments and changes can be made to each profile. The rules help to get rid of personal preference and while they might need some tweaking, it'd be hard to imagine what the database would be without them.
But, like I said, your local is your local, and you can have whatever you want there!
I seem to be in the minority as well...I tend to count each box set as one, rather than one for each movie in the box set. TV as well. For me, it's more that I paid once for a box set, not 3 times--once for each movie, so that's how I keep count. I agree completely. I like having the level of detail that DVD Profiler has, and indeed I do run reports with that level of detail now and then. But I also like that I can filter the reports to see what I want to see. TBH, that's how any database should work! And I figured this one did too. I just wanted to get a sampling of how others are accomplishing it. Thanks for your input. I'm trying all suggestions to see what looks best and what is the easiest to maintain. Quoting ruineddaydreams: Quote:
Hi J-Mac - Welcome to the Asylum,
I count my titles in a similar fashion to you with only a slight difference, and I believe my way of counting may be what you are looking for and much easier then some of the methods described above. I count every movie as a title, except a double feature I count as one... so two movies on one disc = 1 - but a box set with a trilogy would count as 3. Other then that we would count the same...
What I use is the collection number section... I simply assign a value of "none" to profiles that I don't consider titles - so the master profile for the star wars trilogy has no number assigned to it, but each movie does...
If i sell a movie I renumber the entire collection, so that my highest collection number is my most recent purchase, there are no gaps, and the highest collection number is simply the number of titles i have.
hope i explained this well enough for you to understand - enjoy!
-JoN Thanks Jon. I haven't tried this one yet. Have to give it some thought before I go and change a lot of numbers! Thanks for your input. Jim |
| | Registered: May 9, 2007 | | Posts: 1,536 |
| | Posted: | | | | Don't change any numbers yet. The new release (out on beta as we speak) has a new system for handling exactly this problem. | | | | Hans |
| | Registered: May 11, 2009 | | Posts: 11 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting Staid S Barr: Quote:
Don't change any numbers yet. The new release (out on beta as we speak) has a new system for handling exactly this problem. Thanks Staid! Very much appreciated. Jim |
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Invelos Forums->DVD Profiler: Desktop Technical Support |
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