Collectorz.com Reviews

The hi-fi doctor

Q. I have more than 600 CDs and 100 music DVDs. I'm looking for a software package that will enable me to easily catalogue my collection, and "prepopulate" track listings after entering the CD/DVD title. Where do I find this software as music store staff I have asked look at me blankly?

A. There are a few products around and, thanks to the magic of the internet, you don't have to rely on your local music stores. Music Collector on Collectorz.com could well be what you need for your CDs. It automatically catalogues CDs that you insert into your computer. I expect it gathers the information from one of the internet's CDDBs (CD databases).
Music DVDs may be more of a problem since these tend to be less international, and thus less likely to have entries on the internet. Try the same site's Movie Collector. Both programs can be downloaded for free in restricted versions to see if you like them before you buy them.

My movie database

I’ve used software for years to manage my movie database. I have 442 DVDs and HD-DVDs in my collection. They are each labeled and organized in numerical order. It’s very simple to add a movie to the database - type in the title and click “search”. The software looks up the details on the movie from a variety of online databases, downloads the description, actors, etc. It even downloads the cover art.

Follow the link for the complete article.

Warning: I'm armed with a laser scanner, I'm hazardous to your books' health

I checked the mail before getting home last night, and lo and behold, my scanner from Collectorz.com had arrived. Wheeeeeeeeeee! I was so excited. I opened the package and set it all up and then realized that the scanner needs 3 AAA batteries. Triple A? I have a lot of AA batteries, but not AAA batteries. Luckily, my neighborhood is across the street from a Food Lion and a Hardware store. Of course, I went out and bought some batteries. The scanner is awesome and easy to use!

Follow the link for the complete article.

Book Vs. Scanner

I like to think that I'm an organized person, but I'm really not. My basement is nearly drowned in piles and piles of books that are in great need of organization. However, every time I go down there to start, I'm overwhelmed by the prospect. So when I got to review the Flic Scanner Media Organizer -- a package containing a small, handheld scanner and three applications from Collectorz.com for tracking music, books, and DVDs -- I was ecstatic. This was it. Order out of chaos. We were finally going to get those shelves upon shelves of volumes accounted for and organized so that we could actually find a book when we wanted to.

Follow the link for the full acrticle.

Collectorz Game Collector Software

As you could probably guess from a recent post, I’ve become particular about my gaming collection. I’ve got all sorts of games for just about every system, and I am trying to get it as organized as possible. One thing I've become really interested in was finding some nice inventory management type software for games collections. I knew a ton of them existed for movie collections, but I wasn’t quite sure if there was one out there for video games collections.

Turns out there is, and it’s a great piece of software. Collectorz.com offers a whole line of collection management programs for managing your Books, Movies, Music, Games, and Comic collections. All of them offer the same set of features, but tweaked for different things. This review is primarily about the Game Collector (heretofor GC) program, but I also purchased the Movie Collector software, which is just as great.

Read Big Head Mode's complete review on his website, just follow the link.

MovieCollector templates

I have a knack for collecting. Whether it is music, videos of particular type (like Steve Jobs keynotes), paper gadget ads…or DVDs. I used to have huge DivX movie collection, but essentially give/threw it away due to really bad image quality. This coincided with start of my DVD collection, which has now grown to over 200 movies. And which naturally leads to cataloging software, which is this post’s topic.

Just follow the link to read the complete review.

Software per collezionisti

Published in the Italian PC Professionale

Volete organizzare le vostre collezioni di libri, musica, foto digitali, giochi o fumetti? Collectorz.com ha in catalogo il software che fa per voi.
Collectorz.com è una software house olandese che produce sette pachetti specializzati nella gestione di collezioni. Ogni programma è del tutto autonomo e offre la possibilità di salvare una granda varietà di informazioni per ogni oggetto della raccolta; inoltre prevede una serie di funzioni automatiche - che si appoggiano a database accessibili tramite Internet - per limitare al minimo indispensabile i dati da digitare. Nel caso dei CD audio, ad esempio, basta inserire il disco nel lettore per ottenere quasi sempre tutte le informazioni sull'album, immagine di copertina compresa.

Follow the link to read the complete review (in Italian)

Catalogue DVDs, CDs, and books by barcode and online software

Flic Scanner Media Organizer promises to track your DVDs.
If you're a person that has embraced the hording of DVDs, CDs and books, chances are you've got such a collection that you can't remember what you got on the shelf and therefore what you no doubt lent out to your mates.

In steps the Flic Scanner Media Organizer a barcode reader for your media. Scan your items, return to your computer, plug in the scanner and watch the Collectorz.com software work for you.

The device works by allowing users to scan the barcode on your media, then using the built-in features of the software, retrieve cover art, title, track information, and more from Amazon and other trusted sources.
Better still the software actually allows you to check out items to your mates and track when you lent it to them and if you fancy pretending being the local library/video store then you can set it remind you after a set time.

You can even export your collection to your web space, track loaned items, share with friends, and download your database to your mobile device.

A gadget that keeps track of all your discs?

A gadget that keeps track of all your discs?
That's Flic!

Here's one from the anal-retentive department: the Flic Scanner. If you've got an out-of-control disc collection that your friends are always borrowing from, the Flic can help you keep track of it all. It's essentially a barcode scanner like the ones in stores, but it works together with the supplied Collectorz.com software on your PC to keep track of all your media. Scan in all your CDs, DVDs, HD DVD and Blu-ray discs, PlayStation games, and all the rest — hell, it can even inventory your books. Then when a pal wants to borrow your Legally Blonde 2 disc, just log it out and you won't have to make the any more mental notes. At $200, the scanner is a fairly costly investment, so you'd better do a little self-examination before you hand over your MasterCard: are you the type of person who is disciplined enough to really use this thing? And more importantly, what possessed you to actually pay real American dollars for that Reese Witherspoon bomb?

MPC Top Reviews: Collectorz.com software

The package includes the Flic Barcode Scanner, the Collectorz.com software for Movie, Music and Books along with a manual and a cable to connect the scanner to PC.
The software supports different languages which clearly shows Collectorz.com software is tailored for international customers.
The total package might seem low, 1 scanner and 1 CD for E 200, but hold your horses for a couple hours after receiving the package to make a final judgment and make a decision as soon as you have used the software and explored all its options.

Follow the link to read the complete review (PDF file)

Take Inventory of Your Life with the Flic Scanner

It had been three full years since I'd last seen my Jurassic Park DVD and I only recently remembered owning it because it was sitting on my best friend's bed last week. If you have more DVD's, music CD's, or books than you can humanly keep track of, the Flic Scanner Media Organizer may be for you.
(...) You just scan the existing bar code on the back of whichever CD, DVD, or book you own, and the built in features of the software automatically locate cover art, track listing information, and more when you connect it back to your computer and use the Collectorz.com software.

Follow the link to read the complete story on Gearlog.com

Collectorz book collection software review

From Adams to Zelazny, I have a lot of books. If all my books were recycled, I wouldn't be saving trees, but entire ecosystems. That's my lifestyle: I'm a pack rat who loves to read.

I have a pretty good idea of perhaps fifty percent of my book collection's contents. The rest are either literature I haven't yet read, or others I've since forgotten about. (This, by the way, is a great bonus in having a bad memory – the capability to reread an old book and enjoy it all over again. Hawking, Einstein and Edison really missed the boat.)

If someone asks if I own a certain book, I might be able to tell them. If I loan a book out, I might remember who borrowed it a year later. But usually I can't and I don't.

Save hassle and time: Keep track of your book collection on a computer. Like an electronic library, book collection software displays your library contents. Track information about your library, like if you've read a book, who borrowed it, and when they'll return it. Automatically download images of a book's front cover, and track other helpful information, like back cover text, author, cover price, and books missing from your collection which you'd like to buy.

Data entry is easy and fast, important when electronically cataloging a huge book collection: If a book has a barcode, use a handheld scanner to read barcodes and transfer all information to computer.

Handheld scanners and electronic library catalog software are an inventive use on existing technologies. Collection tracking software is certainly worth the price, particularly for those with large collections.

Now that I've completed the wind-up, here's the pitch: "Collectorz" book collection software, when combined with the Flic scanner, does everything I've detailed above and more.

Read Andy's complete review on Collectorz.com Book Collector in combination with the Flic barcode scanner on his website, AndyBrain.com.

J'ai toujours aimé lire

The only time I wanted to inventory my personal book collection, computers were as large as ship containers, and I stopped, exhausted, after having painstakingly filled 1,700 index cards. I had many more than that, and that number has significantly increased since then, with the addition of those of my late parents' books that I decided to keep and those which I subsequently bought. A week ago, pushed by necessity, I found a little marvel of a tool which allowed me to catalog 750 books or so in the course of 4 or 6 (longuish) evenings. At this rate, I'll be done in two months.
Read the complete blog entry on Miklos' blog. Note: the original post is in French, the excerpt here above is the English translation, provided by Miklos himself (many thanks!)

Collectionz

For those of you that know us, you know that everyone in my family is an inveterate reader. One of the more unfortunate consequences of this is that we have a TON of books. The front office in our house, the bonus room over the garage, and Daniel's old bedroom are all given over to books, my guess is that we have two or three thousand of them.

For Fathers day this year, Valorie got me a Flic Barcode scanner and some software from Collectorz. The Flic barcode scanner is a small handheld scanner with memory for about 500 UPC codes, combined with Collectorz movie, book and music collector, it has the ability to categorize all our collections.

Initially I sort-of ignored it, but last night at about 10:00, Valorie reminded me of it. I installed the software and played around with it a bit. And a bit more. And still some more.

Darn, I had never thought that I'd spend two and a half hours (with Valorie) running around pulling books from the library trying to find ones that the program wouldn't find. And I've got to say, it did a remarkable job. Except for the hundred or so books that pre-date bar-codes (I still have the very first book I ever purchased (Checkpoint Lambda by Murray Leinster), it did a remarkable job.

Essentially the software reads the data off the barcode, then datamines off of a bunch of sites to build the database, including Amazon.com, B&N.com, Powells.com, the Library of Congress, imdb (for movies), etc. It's actually pretty cool.

Again, this is just first impressions - one tricky bit is that the barcode on the back of the book often isn't the ISBN, which screws up the database lookup, but that's really not the fault of the software.

Anyway, it's a cool toy :)

Book Collector with Flic Portable Bar Code Scanner

If you have many books in your collection, you may be procrastinating about cataloging them for insurance purposes. With Book Collector and the Flic portable bar code scanner, it’s painless. Go to your bookshelf and scan in the bar codes of up to 500 books with the Flic scanner. Then upload them to Book Collector software (PC or Mac).
The software then goes online and gets prices and descriptions of each book from online sources, such as Amazon and the Library of Congress. You can then categorize the entries, as well as print and export the reports. Of course, with older books you’ll have to type in the titles for your online search, but Book Collector still does most of the work.

Movie Collector program assist flick fans in getting organized

'Organization is a great thing to have, but a darn difficult thing to achieve.
Part of the problem is that if you aren’t organized, it’s hard to get started. It’s even harder to stay that way. Luckily, there are tools available to help with this daunting task: Collectorz.com Movie Collector'.

Melissa Jones is a professional software reviewer and put Movie Collector to the test, for both Windows and the Mac platform. Read her full review online at the Arkansas Democrat Gazette's website. This article was also published in the newspaper.

A landmark in good planning and product evolution

Read this review from Heath about Movie Collector Pro.
His Product Rating: 5 stars out of 5.
Pros
Well planned and executed list of necessary provisions in a movie database
Cons
None except the tacky-cheesy company name
The Bottom Line
If your collection is larger than 50 discs, you can use some organization. My opinion: there is no available product at this time that can perform that function better.

Read his full review on Epinions.com.

Collectorz.com Game Collector Pro 2.0

Summary
Game Collector Pro is perfect for people with large game collections or people wanting to catalog their games to show off to their friends.

Collectorz.com consistently produces great collection management database software and Game Collector is no exception. Targeted squarely at gamers with huge game collections, Game Collector Pro keeps track of all your games across all the major console types by cross referencing game titles with information available on the collectorz.com servers and the various Amazon sites around the world.

It then draws that information from the servers and collates it into a coherent information page complete with cover images. Since all information is stored in a database, every record is completely searchable and searches can be filtered via specific criteria to find the exact game you are looking for.

We decided to put Game Collector Pro to the test and try and add obscure games for obscure systems and every time without fail it came back with search results. Unfortunately, for many of these results it was only the barest of information with no pack shots, but when you are trying to add "Rastan Saga" for the ZX Spectrum system, it's a feat in itself that any result is found.

Read the complete review on Good Gear Guide.

Collectorz.com MP3 Collector 2.2 Pro

Summary
While it probably couldn’t be called revolutionary, MP3 Collector 2.2 Pro definitely delivers a highly functional and professional content management package for audio files.

The proliferation of MP3s is a phenomenon that is reflected in a wide range of digital technology that utilizes this format. Support for the popular music file type is being included in devices ranging from cameras to stereo systems to DVD players. It seems that the MP3, along with similarly compressed digital audio files (such as WMA and OGG), is becoming the medium of choice for more and more people these days. Its compressed size makes it incredibly easy to store on a huge range of devices, from computer hard drives to MP3 players' flash memory to CDs and DVDs. At the same time, it manages to retain an incredibly impressive amount of the original recording's quality. With such advantages, and a constantly growing popularity, sorting, organising and managing an MP3 collection can become an exceptionally difficult task for fans with huge libraries.

This is where software like Collectorz.com's MP3 Collector 2.2 Pro comes in. Providing an easy and convenient, yet powerful organisational tool, MP3 Collector 2.2 Pro gives users the ability to document, edit, sort, and search through their digital music collection. With a broad range of features and a relatively simple and easy to use interface, Collectorz.com help to make your MP3 collection easier to access than ever before.

Read the complete review on Good Gear Guide.

Collectorz.com Movie Collector 4.8

Summary
If you have a large DVD collection that seems un-manageable this software will help you catalog and protect your library and is like nothing else we have seen. It works absolutely perfectly and is particularly useful.

Film geeks of the world rejoice, your 1000+ DVD collection is about to finally become manageable. The days of wondering who you lent what DVD and whether they gave it back are over - thanks to Collectorz.com and their Movie Collector 4.8 software.

Movie Collector is essentially a database of movie collection information. While that isn't anything new or intuitive, the automated entries that make it something unique and incredibly useful. To enter a DVD or movie into the collection all you have to do is either enter the name or barcode of the film into the GUI either via the keyboard or with a barcode scanner. Then you simply click next and the program gives you an option of about 15 information sources to choose from including websites like Internet Movie Database, Amazon and DVD Empire.

Read the complete review on Good Gear Guide.

CD Catelogue-ing - Done!

Read James's blog of his Herculean task of cateloguing his 30.000+ CD collection, using Music Collector and the Flic barcode scanner.

Organize large audio collections

Q. My name is Ed Johnson. I work for Citadel Communications in Little Rock. I listen to your show on KARN News Radio. Some time ago you were talking about an MP3/audio collector. I have thousands of audio pieces I would really like to organize. Everything from old airchecks, celebrity drops, movie drops...you get the picture. I'd like to dedicate a computer to this project, but price is a factor. Do you suggest a certain computer, size, speed, etc? I'm not sure which way to go.

A. It can be difficult to organize audio files at home or at work. You need more than just order. You need quick ways to find the audio should you need it later.
A simple database program can get your collection into shape. Most importantly, it can add a search function for your audio files. And you don't have to physically organize the files on the hard drive.
The organization is in cataloguing or indexing the files. The one that I mentioned on the show was MP3 Collector.
Read Kim's complete column on her website.

Computing Q&A: Moving files can be tricky

(at the bottom of this article about moving files, Collectorz.com features as the Tip of the Week)

Tip of the Week

A number of readers responded to a recent column item about book-cataloging software by asking whether such programs also are available to keep track of CD and record collections. Collectorz.com, a Web site I mentioned in the column, points out that they also have database software designed for music, movies, comics, video games, MP3 files and digital photo files. Hey, what about butterfly collections?

Computing Q&A: Database to keep the books

Q: We need to catalog my husband's book collection. He has about 3,000 volumes, and the inventory seems to keep growing. I want to list the books by author, title and subject, and because many are old, I want to write a brief description and initial cost. Any ideas? When I have asked at the computer stores, the clerks glaze over because this is not the high-tech question they prefer.

A: Yes, the question they prefer is, "Will that be cash or credit card?" Seriously, though, you sound like you're in need of a database. You could build one from scratch using Microsoft Access or FileMaker Pro, two heavyweights in the consumer/small-business market. But they're not cheap -- Access will run you $229 at Microsoft.com, and FileMaker Pro goes for $299 at filemaker.com.

Before you shell out big money, consider a database designed specifically for books, such as Book Collector ($39.95 from collectorz.com)(...). With this program, you simply enter a book's ISBN code, and the software goes out on the Internet to find and download all relevant information, including the author, title, publisher, genre -- even an image of the original book cover. The program let you search, sort and print your database. I think you also can enter comments about individual books. And you can try it for free.

DVD database program makes cataloging discs easy

Packrats like me tend to collect a number of things. My personal favorites are DVDs (natch), music CDs and books. I can usually keep it in my head what I have, but as the collection gets larger (and I get older), it does become difficult.

During a Google search the other day, I discovered a site called Collectorz.com. They had a number of database programs that looked interesting, so I downloaded their trial versions to check them out. An hour later, I was buying the programs.
Read the complete story on Harry's Blog.

Product Review: Movie Collector

Being a DVD reviewer, you can probably imagine that I have a ton of discs in my collection. The biggest problem I run into (other than finding the time to watch everything) is organizing my collection.

Generally, I have a pretty decent memory. If someone asks me if I have a particular movie, I can usually answer “yes” or “no” without too much difficulty. A bigger problem is when someone asks, “what movies do you have?” Even if my memory was perfect, trying to list the contents of a collection that literally spans 2 full walls of my theater room would be impossible – if not ridiculously time consuming.

It eventually became clear to me that I was going to need some kind of solution for cataloging all of my titles.

Initially I thought about doing something myself. A spreadsheet seemed the most straightforward way to go. I tend to be a pretty picky person about how my things are organized, so something I created had the appeal of being exactly what I wanted. The trouble was that I very quickly realized that creating exactly what I wanted was simply going to be too time consuming – and very likely beyond the scope of my database skills.

So I began looking for existing options.

What I discovered were essentially two different solutions: Option 1 was an online database, where I could enter my collection and edit it online. Option 2 was a local program.

I quickly ruled out Option 1. While I'm not opposed to storing the contents of my collection online (after all, I run a review site for the specific purpose of people learning about the movies I own and have watched), what I didn't want was to be tied to an online application. Because of the scope of my collection, I wanted to be able to take my database to my movies, not the other way around.

That's about the time that I stumbled upon Movie Collector from Collectorz.com.

The first thing I noticed when I went to their site is that these guys seemed to be serious. They had Movie Collector, Book Collector, Comic Collector, MP3 Collector, etc. Now this was something I could get into. You wouldn't know it from looking at my desk, but I like my things to be organized. I want to know what I have, where it is, and what order it's in. If you have 5 CD's and you alphabetize them, that's anal. If you have 500 CD's and you don't alphabetize them, that's stupid. How can you find anything?

So I downloaded the free trial and began to play with it.

The first thing I noticed was that the interface was fairly intuitive. At its heart, Movie Collector is a database of your collection, so it has the appearance of a database, but with added bells and whistles. The main window shows columns divided into categories such as Title, Release Year, Director, Genre, etc., and these columns are customizable to show the information you want to see.

To the right of the main window is a preview window of whichever movie you've selected. It's within this preview window that Movie Collector really shines – and this is what sold me. But first I need to back up a step…

Movie Collector is designed to work in tandem with several online DVD sources, including the Internet Movie Database, Amazon.com, DVDEmpire.com and so on. When you enter a new movie into the system you can input a title, or a barcode. Movie Collector will then connect to the internet and scour movie and DVD sources for information about the title. It will then download an image of the box art, plot summaries, director, actors, and just about every other possible detail you could ever want to know about the film.

Now, going back to that preview window, all of this information is displayed for you. Furthermore, if there are details that can't be downloaded for some reason, Movie Collector gives you the option of manually inputting whatever information you want.

A lot of the features contained in Movie Collector are powerful and nice, but also expected for software such as this. What really sets the program apart for me are the other little details. For instance, you can select whether or not you've actually seen the film. This might seem pointless for some people, who obviously have seen all of the movies they own, but for me, this is a great little touch. I get new movies all the time and there is no way I have time to watch them all right when they come in. So this feature is great way for me to quickly note what I've seen and what I haven't.

In fact, there are a ton of things you can do with this software. When viewing the details of the film, there is a “personal” section where you can even go so far as to input the date you purchased it, where you purchased it from and what condition it was in. I could easily see something like this being used by someone running a small used DVD store. The software even has the capacity to handle loaning or renting out your discs. You can track who has which movies and even set due dates for their return.

Movie Collector also works with barcode scanners, which make entering your new DVDs lightning fast – no typing in titles or product numbers. This is another useful functionality that would make this program a viable solution for a small business looking to see or rent discs.

The best part about this software, however, has to be the people behind it. After downloading the free trial, I very quickly made the decision to purchase the pro version and it was 100% worth the $39.95 price tag. I've been running it for a couple of years now, and although I have never once had any major problems with the software, I have had a few technical questions and feature requests. I've always gotten a quick and helpful reply, and more than that, these guys really listen. Some of the feature requests I've made have since been included in updates.

Speaking of updates, these guys are literally constantly tweaking the program to add features or fix bugs (that are inevitable in any piece of software). Also, I've never once had any issues whatsoever with upgrades – every one of them has gone smooth as silk, and all of my data was instantly updated to the new version. Furthermore, I can honestly say that every one of their updates has made the software better than it was before.

I know that I'm gushing here, so I do want to stress that this is a completely unsolicited review of the Movie Collector product. Normally I'm fairly jaded and extremely critical of software, seeing most of it as a necessary evil at best. So it would be fair to say that it takes a lot to impress me and Movie Collector has definitely done that.

For anyone with a large DVD collection, I just can't recommend Movie Collector enough. Not only is it useful, but it's also tons of fun to play around with. Head on over to Collectorz.com and download a trial – and if Movie Collector is any indication, I'm willing to bet their other products are just as good.

Tienkamp voor fotobewerkers

(in Dutch)
Van foto's roteren tot een fotoshow op DVD branden
Photo Collector
Het Engelstalige Photo Collector is een buitenbeentje in deze test; als zuivere organisatietool voor het beheren van een grote collectie foto's. Het is daar wel een kei in en werkt uiterst gebruiksvriendelijk. Foto's worden in een of meerdere interne databases opgeslagen.

Organise your digital Photo Collection

If you take your digital photography seriously, you will wish to be able to keep a detailed catalogue of you pictures, catagorising them with details of the photos so that they can be recalled (found) quickly when you want them.
Photo Collector is by no means the only photo management software available but it must qualify as one of the most powerful and versatile. The program will automatically scan a hard drive, CD etc to retrieve individual collections of pictures for which you set up categories with the details of each shot. Thumbnails of your images are created for easy identification and to this you can add all the details you wish to have for speedy reference. It is all too easy to plonk all one’s pictures into a folder and lose track of which ones are where. With a little attention to sorting and categorising, you will always be able to find the pix you want... preview, edit or print them... and stay on top of a collection, however large it becomes.
You can read all about the power of Photo Collector and try it out free by going to the program’s home page at www.collectorz.com/photo.

Overblik over alle dine film

(in Danish)
Jeg har over 200 dvd-film og et utal af VHS-film. Men jeg mangler overblik – det er sket mere end én gang, at jeg har købt en film, jeg allerede havde stående på hylden. For at undgå flere fejltagelser har jeg anskaffet mig Movie Collector. Det er en database, som holder styr på alle oplysningerne om mine film. Oplysningerne og billede af omslaget kan jeg så hente fra flere kilder, fx Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com), Amazon.com m.fl. Programmet er engelsk, men man kan sagtens rette det til, så handling m.v. er skrevet på dansk. Programmet kan prøves i 30 dage, dog kun med mulighed for at indskrive 50 film. Den fulde pakke koster 40 euro (ca. 300 kr.).

Book Collector Review

Are you a bookworm? Do you own so many books that it's next to impossible to locate a favorite novel? Tired of all the clutter and wish you had an organized method to categorize your books? Introducing: Book Collector -- a library program that helps you catalog your book collection into a meaningful list of organized data!
With Book Collector, you can: catalog books without typing, instantly sort your lists, view book cover thumbnails, search your book library, print book lists, export book lists to HTML (for the web), and track your book loans.

Catalogue your music collection

Micromart's Mark Lee did a group test on music cataloging software. Out of 6 software tools, Music Collector had the best overall, 9 out of 10.

Summary of Music Collector 6.7
It may not boast all the features of its contemporaries, but Music Collector 6.7 gives the avid music collector exactly what they need to catalogue the daunting mass of CDs before them. It's intelligent, it's intuitive, and it performs its duties with simplicty, style and grace, all beneath a very reasonable price tag.
Music Collector is the king of cataloging CDs... powerful, intiutive, and stylish.

The complete text
Music Collector 6.7
Software developers Collectorz.com may have a dodgy moniker but there is absolutely nothing suspect about their entry to the music cataloguing software market. Music Collector 6.7 is a considered and thoughtfully designed application that strikes a confident chord with audiophiles by combining ease of use with a powerful set of imaginative and welcome features.
After installation, it is surprisingly simple to embark upon your music cataloguing mission, thanks to a professional but familiar looking customisable interface that is easy on the eye and intuitive to the brain. The left pane houses a list of the albums in the current collection, the main pane displays a datasheet view of the albums with associated details and the option to sort by column, and the lower section of the main pane presents sytlishly formatted details of the currently selected release.
Adding a new album is virtually instinctive thanks to an intelligent icon design and layout. You can either allow the simple but comprehensive wizard to guide you through this, or more experienced users can complete the task manually. Albums can be searched for by CD scan (utilising any combination of search databases in any order of your choice, including CDDB, CDTEXT, various Amazon sources and CDPLAYER.INI), by barcode, or by manually typing in the artist/album details. A queuing system means that you can build a list of various searches and then run them all in one go, saving you time and hassle.
This is only the tip of the iceberg; Music Collector 6.7’s modest exterior quietly cloaks the other fantastic features until you need them. You can export to text file, html, and xml. You can track the CDs your pals have kidnapped with the loan feature. And there is TWAIN support to directly invoke your scanner interface when grabbing album cover shots.
Collectorz.com haven’t wasted time on unnecessary features. The ‘CD Player’ icon simply launches your default media player, as most enthusiasts would probably prefer. The statistics function provides enough information and no more, and you don’t need to spend large amounts of time setting up various references and keywords as you do in some other packages…
The only criticism I can level at this application is the lack of MP3 support, but only via the purchase of another Collectorz.com product, MP3 Collector. But if you are like me, a fan of owning the original pieces of plastic in your grubby little hands, then Music Collector 6.7, with its favourable price tag, superb interface, and wealth of useful features, is without question the number one choice for the mammoth task in front of you.

Collectorz.com Movie Collector

Designed to help you organize your movie collection, Collectorz.com Movie Collector delivers on that promise, for the most part. The interface, if not exactly slick, is perfectly serviceable. The same is true for the program's search functions. Internet searching has become a standard feature of most media-collection managers, and this program is no exception.
However, it doesn't just connect to the Internet Movie Database; it also consults various search engines and even American and Japanese shopping sites. This can be a double-edged sword. For example, when searching for Terminator, you'll find not only the well-known blockbuster but many Making of... specials as well.
Comprehension to some is just distracting clutter to others, but once you have your movies entered, you can view them by title, year, genre, cast, and other metadata. Overall, Collectorz.com Movie Collector is a solid program for those with a bit of patience and straightforward cataloging needs.

Collectorz.com Music Collector

Whether your music collection is primarily CDs, MP3s, or LPs, this program helps you keep track of all your audio recordings. Collectorz.com Music Collector has every tool you'll need to perfectly organize your music collection. The interface is a bit crowded at first glance, but it's not too hard to learn your way around it fairly quickly.
The program downloads album information from such sites as Amazon.com, All Music Guide, and CDDB. You either insert a CD into your PC's drive or manually enter the artist and album title, and the application will import information, such as track names and times, cover art, and other details. The program also lets you search, sort, and edit entries in a variety of ways to help you quickly find any album or song in your collection. There's even a feature that lets you keep records of who you loaned CDs to and when.
We think anyone with a large and diverse quantity of music will benefit greatly from Collectorz.com Music Collector.

Collectorz.com Book Collector

Collectorz.com Book Collector is a useful tool for hard-core booklovers. Excellent filtering capabilities keep you from losing track of your books. The program lets you store details on your books, retrieving from the Web such information as the cover image, the table of contents, and the rating. The program's orderly interface places all of its numerous functions no further than one or two clicks from you. The drop-down lists let you enter the information quickly.
There's even a feature that lets you keep records of whom you loaned books to and when, although we would like to see an e-mail reminder of overdue materials. Still, it's nice you can export data in text, HTML, and XML formats.
Though its design and large number of features may confuse and overwhelm casual readers, people who own a large book collection could benefit greatly from Collectorz.com Book Collector.

Collectorz.com Comic Collector

This utility offers a number of tools for organizing your collection of comic books. Like most other database-oriented applications, Collectorz.com Comic Collector doesn't boast a fancy, modern design, but the three-paned interface is rather self explanatory. The program comes with a sample collection to get you up and running, but you'll need to create a new database once you want to actually start cataloging your own comics. You can enter such information as series, issue number, title, author, artist, and condition, then sort your database by any of those variables.
If you need to quickly locate a particular entry, the program lets you search by keyword or apply filters. You'll even find a feature for tracking which comics you've loaned out. Although this utility can display cover images, it can't automatically access a Web database to download them, so you'll either need to find them manually or scan them into your PC. Despite our few small gripes, Collectorz.com Comic Collector will be a handy pickup for its target audience.

Collectorz.com Music Collector 6.8

If you have a huge CD library and would like to get some sort of control over it, Collectorz.com Music Collector is a reasonable option. However, don’t confuse this with an meta-tagging, playlist-creating, audio manager…

Collectorz.com Music Collector lets you import all of your CD information onto your computer. You pop your CD in and it downloads all its associated information from various online sources such as Amazon or the CDDB - it also reads CD-TEXT if it exists.
However, Music Collector is more about inventory and less about media management at the individual track level. For example, the Pro edition includes a built-in loan management system that allows you to keep track of CDs you borrow to friends or in your business. You won’t find this feature in many other places, so Music Collector fits that niche very well.

The Bottom Line: If you want to keep track of your entire CD collection - complete with album art support and extensive searching - Collectorz.com Music Collector 6.8 is a pretty good solution.

Book Collector

If you are a book collector, then you surely need this product. If you have a library, then you can save a lot of time with this product. If you are a bookstore owner, then you can serve your customers better with this product. If you are a publisher or an acquisition editor, then you can improve your personal productivity with this product. If you are a student, researcher, author or writer, you can save a lot of time and effort with this product when you are doing the literature research or reading assignments.

The product–Book Collector–is a software product for organizing your collection of books, magazines, etc. It is an excellent utility for storing information about the books that you have, the books that you are interested in, the books that have read, the books that you are planning to read, the book that you planning to buy, and so on.

Book Collector can store almost all the information that you want about a book. Very little is missing here. I say that because there must be something that Book Collector doesn’t provide, but I couldn’t find anything missing. ISBN, title, author(s), publisher, year of publishing, format, edition, number of pages, price, and the list goes on and on–Book Collector has it all. If you want to add something that is not there then Book Collector provides you with fields that you can customize to suit your needs. You can add personal details like date of purchase, purchase price, your notes/comments/reviews and so on. You can even add the front and back cover images to the Book Collector database.

Adding book details to the database is a breeze; thanks to the drop-down menus and list boxes that enables you to choose most of the details from the existing values. Any new value that you add is automatically added to the lookup list.

The highlight of Book Collector is the ‘Add by Online Query’ feature. This feature enables you to collect the book details from the Web; one just has to enter the ISBN and then click on the “Add by Online Query” button. The software looks for the book details from a host of on-line sources including Amazon, Library of Congress, etc. You can select the sources that have to be searched and even define the order in which the search has to be performed. The software even provides you the facility to scan-in the ISBN, thus eliminating manual data entry. When you have a large number of books in your collection, the online query facility is an excellent timesaver.

The Book Collector has comprehensive querying and reporting features that enables you to query the book database for specific information and generate and print reports in the way you want. Book Collector can import data from other Book Collector databases. Data can be exported as delimited ASCII text or HTML tables.

The Book Collector has a pleasing and intuitive user interface and one can view the books in the database by category, author, publisher and so on. You can also create your own view using the ‘Custom’ folder option. The Statistics screen shows a graphical overview of your collection. You can view statistics charts for categories, author, publisher, format, etc.

The built-in Loan Management system allows you to keep track of the books you loan to friends, family, etc. The loan management system is simple and easy to use.
Thus Book Collector is a must have for every bibliophile and for those who needs book details for their research or writing. I have a personal library of more than 7000 books. Over the last 2 decades, I have tried a host of library management packages–both off-the-shelf and custom made. But Book Collector is the best of the lot.

You can get more details of this magnificent product and download an evaluation copy from the Collectorz.com web site.

Personal Comics Database?

Ok we're crossing into SUPER-nerd territory w/ this discussion but I've been wondering lately if there was something quick and easy to replace the excel spreadsheet I've been using to track my collection (I'm an anal list maker I know). Whatever I used need to be fairly dynamic/automatic (w/ as little as possible actual work on my part). It would be a nice plus if I could log cover screen shots too (can't get that easily in my excel SS).

I did some research and stumbled across a few recommended alternatives, the champions of which seem to be conceives and Comic Collectorz. ComicBase def seems phat (it has a built in database of some 250,000 comics, movie clips from comic movies, etc.) but it's 149 beans for the "standard" edition and a whopping $299 for the "archive" or premium ed. Wowsers. Ok that one's out. Let's look at Comic Collectorz (more attractively priced at $39.99).

Comic Collectorz is def a sweet piece of software kit - even though 50% of it is way overkill for my needs. It allows you to store just about everything you ever wanted to about your comics (even who you lent it to) and add cover screen shots etc. Cool but a bit too manual. You have to add each comic in (you can quickly enter runs tho) and if you want a cover screen shot you have to go find it, save it, and link it manually, etc. Way too time consuming for me. But Collectorz makes a suite of tools (for cataloguing Comics, Books, Movies, Music, etc.), and the demo I installed had them all so...

Enter "Book" Collectorz. Book Collectorz is almost identical to Comic Collectorz, but allows you to automatically search numerous online book shops/libraries like Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble (hell even the Library of Congress) for your titles, and when found, check a box and add them to your collection - complete w/ all available data AND cover shots. Nice. I catalogued my entire TP collection (about 25 books -- hey I've only been back 4 months!) in about 15 minutes w/ ZERO data entry by me (except typing the names of things I wanted to search for).

Now I've got everything I ever wanted to know about all the TPs/HCs I own, all searchable and sortable - even exportable to text file, HTML, excel, or my work-provided PPC. Extra nice. You can even keep track of who you lent books to, where you bought them, how much you paid for them, and tons of other stuff I'll probably never use - if it suits your fancy.

What's the catch though if you choose Book Collectorz over Comic Collectorz? Amazon and these online databases don't have floppies (at least any that I have found) in their databases (since they don't sell them typically) so you're only going to be cataloguing your TP's and HC's w/ this.

Luckily that's enough for me because I only "collect" my TPB's and HC's, and just kind of read and give away/throw away my flops. Not to mention how far I am from having the time and/or discipline to go through my collection and type everything in... Not by a longshot - I'm not THAT dedicated. I definitely needed something automatic and I think I may have found it. Cool.

Collectorz.com Photo Collector

(in Spanish)
Completo álbum fotográfico con opciones profesionales
Collectorz.com Photo Collector es un completo catalogador de imágenes fotográficas, aunque con algunas opciones más profesionales.
Además de poder organizar nuestras fotografias mediante filtros tan habituales como ubicación, categoría o palabra clave, Collectorz.com Photo Collector permite utilizar otros más profesionales como el modelo de cámara fotográfica utilizada, el tipo de enfoque, el objetivo o incluso la exposición que has empleado.
El programa incluye una opción de catalogar tus fotografías de manera automática mediante el escaneo de tu disco duro, aunque casi siempre tendrás que corregir los datos introducidos de esta forma. También podremos importar las fotografías directamente desde nuestra cámara o tarjeta de memoria, siempre que tengas acceso a ella desde el ordenador.

Finalmente, Collectorz.com Photo Collector permite crear álbumes en formato HTML para publicarlos en Internet.

Get your collections organized

When our hobbies involve collecting, it’s easy for things to quickly escalate to the point where keeping track of what you have and how it’s organized can become a challenge. Computers are once again a perfect tool for calming chaos.
A site called Collectorz (ww.collectorz.com) offers specialized collecting databases for various things. It has versions for DVD movies, video games, books, MP3s, music, comics and photos. What’s really great and innovative about this software is that the amount of typing and entering you have to do is limited. For example, if you key in (or scan in if you have a barcode reader) the UPC number from the back of a movie or a video game for example, the software will connect to the Internet and download all of the specifics about the item. This includes the title, a photograph, and more. You can also include your specific information like where you obtained the item, how much you paid for it and what it is currently worth.
Once you have all of your items cataloged, you can then sort your collection, you can then sort your collection, print lists, and search to look for things you have and things you are missing. In the case of the Collectorz programs, you can even export your list to your PocketPC or Palm Pilot and take it with you on the road.

I really should be sleeping right now

Much of the last three days I've spent at my PC with Database programs specifically designed for books, music, movies and games. What I've used of these programs from Collectorz.com has me yet again wishing I had surplus income beyond what I've ever had. Unfortunately the limits for the free samples of the Book and Movie databases are below what I have to add to such databases, however the game and CD limits aren't likely to be passed for quite some time so I can use those with impunity.
Adding the information in has also led to me updating the makeshift databases I've been using for the past 10 years or so; now I know what is possible I regret settling for what I have been using. The completely free book database from SpaceJock would have been fine if I hadn't also decided to try out the collectorz program. Now it will have to do until I'm rich.
I did end up motivated to tidy up a few things though so even though I'm annoyed that I won't be able to use what I want to I have still achieved something that was a long time coming.

Music Collector Review

Are you a music collector? Do you find it difficult to organize your collection or often have a hard time finding "just the right song"? In that case, you need Music Collector -- the amazing super-music organizer on steroids!
With Music Collector, you can: download track lists of your music CDs directly to your computer (without typing!), organize your MP3s, LPs, cassettes and mini-discs, download CD covers, search your music database, print CD and track lists, sort your lists, and much, much more!

Movie Collector Review

Are you a self-proclaimed film fanatic? Do you own so many movies that it sometimes takes 30 minutes just to find 'the right' selection? In that case, you need Movie Collector! Movie Collector is an organized, automated movie database system that is designed to help you catalog your collection of DVDs, DivX files, VHS tapes, and more! Adding movies to the database is quick and easy -- with virtually no typing necessary! Just enter in the movie title and Movie Collector will automatically download all information from various sources on the Internet (like IMDb and DVD Empire), including the cover image.
Movie Collector is not only a fantastic time saver -- it's a must have for any film buff!

Zo houdt u overzicht; beheer uw boeken, films en muziek

(in Dutch)
Boeken
Book Collector
Met dit programma maakt u snel een overzichtelijke lijst van uw collectie. Ook Nederlandse boeken kunt u in de meeste gevallen gemakkelijk invoeren door middel van het ISBN of met behulp van een barcodescanner. Op dit vlak laat Book Collector de overige verzamelsoftware voor boeken ver achter zich. Book Collector biedt namelijk de meest complete lijst van downloadservers; Nu hoeft kwantiteit niet per definitie op kwaliteit te wijzen, maar in die lijst bevindt zich weldegelijk een aantal pareltjes die de concurrentie moet missen. Zo staan er zeer gerenommeerde bibliotheeksites bij, waaronder die van de Nationale Bibliotheek van Nederland. U scant dus bijvoorbeeld eerst tientallen streepjescodes, om aansluitend per reeks het internet af te zoeken. Dat geeft u net de tijd om de boeken weer terug te zetten in de kast en een nieuwe stapel erbij te pakken.

Kaftafbeelding
Met Book Collector maakt u eenvoudig subcategorieen in uw collectielijst. Ook kunt u met gemak allerlei extra weetjes over uw boeken invoeren, en bijhouden welke titels u hebt uitgeleend. Standaardgegevens worden automatisch gedownload, zoals titel, auteur, druk, uitgever, kaftafbeelding, enzovoorts. Maar wie wil, kan ook zaken invoeren als de plaats en het tijdstip van aanschaf, de aankoopprijs, de huidige waarde en kaftwaarde, een samenvatting en ga zo maar door. Voor het scannen van kaften heeft Book Collector een twain-interface. Kaften zijn namelijk lang niet altijd online te vinden. Zo zult u het leeuwendeel van Nederlandse uitgaven weliswaar makkelijk kunnen invoeren met de natioanel bibliotheekserver, maar kaftafbeeldingen haalt u daar niet vandaan. Daarvoor kunt u beter terecht bij winkels, zoals Amazon.com, die ook in de serverlijst zijn opgenomen. Helaas vindt u hier weinig Nederlandse boeken; en een Hollandse boekwinkel is niet opgenomen. Bent u tevreden over uw collectie, dan kunt u ervoor kiezen de collectie te printen of te exporteren als html, zodat u haar online kunt zetten. Collectorz.com biedt helaas geen webruimte; de website zult u zelf moeten regelen.
(tevens vermelding van Comic Collector en Game Collector)

Dealing with free time

Man do I ever need to learn to manage my free time better. Lately, Monday has been the only day of the week I seem to have any free time.
I ended up spending the evening 3:30-9:30pm cataloguing my DVD collection. I stopped buying them a few months ago, and stopped cataloguing them 4-5 months before that. What a mess.

I downloaded Collectorz.com's Movie Collector, and added everything to it. I like the way it puts all the details and images together for you, but it takes one hell of a long time to download all the info.

Now to fix all the glitches my list has...

going all ocd on y'all

ok. so i'm probably one of the most disorganized people out there but i've been looking and looking for a decent set of tools that will help me control my COMPLETELY CHAOTIC collections of games, books, cds, dvds...etc. i wanted something that looked nice, downloaded screenshots and book covers to pretty up each entry.

one day i found exactly what i was looking for...

it was at collectorz.com the whole time! i went insane, downloaded and bought them all. this had to be the solution to figuring out that i already own the book that i'm about to buy (ok i'm serious about the chaos bit, guys). this had to be the way for me to pick out a game to play on all the game consoles that i own WITHOUT having to dig through all my game/cd/dvd *organizers* -- could the database help me remember that the game is in organizer 5?

ah, sweet success. it was the solution. for me at least. now i can happily consult my collectorz software without me having to ransack my apartment to get to it. ok, i know more than anyone that these sorts of utilities definitely take some getting used to and one utility does not necessarily fit all. but i'm happy. and my boyfriend is happy. and my cats are happy.

thanks collectorz!

Connected: Book Catalogue

I have always planned to catalogue my library of some 500 books when I retired. So I am retired and it doesn't seem such a good idea! I wondered if anybody had worked up a solution by inputting the scanned front page(s), where most of the information can be found, into some software that could sort titles from authors and from publishers, etc? Gerry Tickner, via e-mail

I suggest Gerry Tickner looks at 'Book Collector' at www.collectorz.com where he will find a free version, which should be suitable for his requirements. Ron R., via e-mail.

I'm Now Among the Organized Collectorz

For a long time, I've thought about organizing my compact discs--not just to have a meticulous list of titles and tracks, but out of necessity. Or at least to keep myself from buying the same CD twice as I have done on at least two occasions. How in the world could I have done that? Well, particularly with classical music, the clever music companies sometimes republish the same recording years later with a new picture on the front so that it looks fresh and up-to-date.

But now all that has changed. My CDs are classified, organized, arranged, sorted, put in their place, or however else you want to say it thanks to Collectorz.com, a series of programs for cataloging one's collections of CDs, DVDs, books, comics, video games, and/or MP3 files in a database. There's a separate program for each one which you download onto your computer.

If you buy more than one program at Collectorz.com, there's a price break. Just make sure that you buy the various programs at the same time so that you get the discount. I bought the standard edition which seems to work fine for my purposes.

Compact discs are the easiest to catalog since they can be put in the CD-rom drive and scanned for the ID number. Then press "search" and the program scans a number of sites --including Amazon.com-- to match the information on the recording. It works for any type of music and you can try out a demo before you purchase it. (If you decide to buy, then the demo is simply unlocked so that you can make an unlimited number of entries.) Information can also be searched by typing in the title of the book or movie or music you are cataloging.

Anyway, it's just a suggestion. And if you don't like it, remember you've got 30 days to get your money back.

Musik verwalten

(in German)
Das Programm Music Collector hilft Ihnen dabei, den Überblick über die eigene CD-Sammlung zu behalten. Die einzelnen Silberscheiben lassen sich scannen, mit Songtiteln und Plattencovern versehen – und anschließend in einer Datenbank verwalten.
Früher war es kein besonders einfaches Unterfangen, die eigenen Platten am Rechner zu verwalten. Da die Namen der Songs nicht mit auf der Audio-CD gespeichert werden, mussten sie alle von Hand in eine Datenbank eingetragen werden.
Bei den Programm Music Collector ist dieser Schritt in der Regel nicht mehr vonnöten. Die Datenbank scannt eine im Laufwerk vorliegende CD, um die Anzahl der Tracks und ihre jeweiligen Spiellängen in Erfahrung zu bringen. Anschließend kontaktiert das Programm die CDDB am Internet. Dabei handelt es sich um eine Online-Datenbank, die passend zu mehreren huderttausend CDs die passenden Titel bereithält. Sie lassen sich aus dem Internet direkt in den Music Collector übernehmen.
Das Programm speichert außerdem das Herstellungsjahr, bindet den Scan des Covers und des Backcovers mit in seine Datenbank ein und merkt sich das Genre und einde Katalognummer.
In der Datenbank lassen sich die CDs auf einfache Weise sichten, weil die Titel auf der linken Fensterseite stets in einer Art Baumansicht aufgeführt sind. Per Doppelklick lässt sich sofort die Trackliste des Datenträgers öffnen. Natürlich steht auch eine Suche bereit.
Gelungen ist, dass der Anwender jederzeit notieren kann, dass eine CD gerade an einem Freund verborgt wurde. Endlich kann man einmal nachvollziehen, wo die einzelnen Scheiben geblieben sind. So lassen sie sich wieder einfordern, wenn der Kumpel sie nicht von selbst wieder zurückbringt. Gut ist auch, dass es möglich ist, die kompletten CD-Datenbanken der Software mit den Freunden auszutauschen. So kann jeder Benutzer sehen, welche Scheiben die Kumpels besitzen – und so genau planen, welche CDs man sich demnächst einmal ausborgen müsste.
Wichtig: Wer sich bei der Installation der Software für den Bezug des Newsletters anmeldet, kann die neue Pro-Version des Music Collector zum Sonderpreis von 15 anstelle von 40 Euro beziehen.

Connected: Book Cafes

It looks as though our local library will close in the next few months. We may have to run our own (one of the so-called 'Book Cafes'). Does anyone know of a suitable software package to help us do this?
Mike Brazier, via email

Your correspondent might care to look at 'Book Collector', shareware downloadable from www.collectorz.com. The program comprises a detailed database, with online access to Amazon, US Library of Congress Catalogue etc to minimise tedious keying in, and the full version includes a book loan management module.
Bill Hardman, via e-mail.

Meet Music Collector 5.3 a unique program for organising your album collection

From train timetables and Championship Manager games, to Wisden, or indeed anything to do with cricket, we are a nation preoccupied with lists and statistics. And there’s nowt wrong with that, as Geoffrey Boycott must have once said. As GK Chesterton put it in his 1908 novella ‘The man who was Thursday’: ‘Chaos is dull; because in chaos a train might go anywhere, to Baker Street or to Baghdad. Take your books of mere poetry and prose; let me read a timetable, with tears of delight’.
Ahem. The desire to catalogue and quantify information extends to many things, and with Music Collector 5.3 Standard, the opportunity to apply the rigours of logic against the chaos of your record collection rears its head. Music Collector is a powerful database tool that pretty much covers any angle you care to mention, and the most obscure piece of minutiae concerning every record you own is at your colloused, librarianesque fingertips. Need a list of albums produced by Nigel Godrich? Or a matrix of songs with the word ‘funkadelic’ in the title? Music Collector can, and will, provide for almost all your whims, and you can bring up a list based on any field pretty much instantly.
If you’re the kind of fan who has so many records that you’re starting to store the less important ones in the spare khazi, Music Collector is for you. It’ll take forever and a day to actually enter all the details, but once you’ve done that, you’ll never wake up in a cold sweat wondering whether you lent your mint first pressing of Exile On Main Street to your brother-in-law 15 years ago. And if you’ve embraced the technological revolution that is the compact disc, it’s even easier. Shove all your CDs in your tray and Music Collector automatically logs on to the CDDB and downloads all the track and artist information stored therein for you. Nifty, yes? What are you waiting for – get organising!

A place for everything, and everything's in its place, with Collectorz.com's other database

Movie, MP3, Book & Comic Collector
More or less organised along the same lines as Music Collector see opposite, Movie, MP3, Book and Comic Collector enable you to organise your sprawiling collections of highbrow popular culture (of whatever it is you collect) into a far more a manageable format, and add some degree to your otherwise futile, vapid existence.
Movie Collector owes much, if not all, of its entire reason for existence to the internet Movie Database (IMDB.com), as well as a clutch of online DVD retailers such as Empire and Blackstar. That’s where it cheekily steals all its information from, you see. Nonetheless, it works very well.
Type in the name of the latest movie you’ve added to your burgeoning DVD collection, and Movie Collector will automatically download most of the info you’re ever likely want to know on the title, as well as a thumbnail box-shot if one’s available, and organises it all for you like a terribly efficient robot online secretary, and all at a fraction of the price. It’s a good service.
Fancy unleashing some more organisational brutality on your MP3 collection? MP3 Collector automatically scans your hard drive for any ripped tracks that might be lurking, and collates all the relevant info into a similar database-based format. If that weren’t fantastic enough, it also enables you to edit ID3 tags, track listing info, and everything else you care to mention.
To save us form repeating ourselves ad nauseam, as you might have already imagined, Comic and Book Collector do exactly the same things as their database chums, except with comics. And, you guessed it, books. We’re living the future here, people. We are building a religion here people. Get excited about getting organised – today!

Share the Wares

Some of the best apples in the online orchard are the free (or free to try) programs available for download. Each month we feature highlights from our pickings. This month, we keep your bookshelves organized.

Book Collector
http://collectorz.com/book
Is your book collection so big that you are having trouble finding books, or even worse, beginning to forget plots of books you’ve read? Book Collector lets you keep track of detailed information about each book you read. Each profile includes fields for Title, Author, Puclication Year, Publisher, Format and ISBN number. You can search your collection by using information in any field. You can also indicate whether the book is rare and whether you have read it. If you have rare books, you can list their conditions and prices. If you have a digital camera, you can add pictures of your books to their profiles. To add a picture, double-click the book profile and click te Cover tab. Click browse and then navigate to the digital pictures. Once you add the pictures, they appear in profile above the Plot section. Collectorz.com sells Book Collector for $25. You can enter up to 100 books in the trial version.

Software per collezionisti

(in Italian)
Movie Collector è un programma che permette di archiviare agevolmente le informazioni relative alle propria collezione di film. Per inserire un nuovo film è sufficiente immettere il titolo o, se lo si conosce, il codice IMDB. Il programma interroga poi alcuni tra I principali motori specializzati su Internet (come IMDB, DVD Empire ed altri ancora) e scarica tutte le informazioni relative, inclusa l’immagine della locandina, la lista degli attori, la trama e altro ancora. La scheda del film, particolarmente ricca di informazioni, può comunque essere modificata manualmente. Le ricerche nell’archivio così creato sono agevolate da un filtro che permette di visualizzaro solo i film che soffisfano requisiti specifici; i criteri di ricerca possono essere impostati su qualunque campo della scheda.
Movie Collector permette anche di gestire i prestiti. È possibile visualizzare la lista dei film non ancora restituiti o dei prestiti effetuati. Ad ogni prestito è associata la data di uscita e quella di rientro (previsto ed effettivo nonché il nome delle persona a cui) è stato dato il film. Le schede dei film possono essere salvate in HTML, per essere pubblicate in Internet, o in XML. Sul sito è possibile trovare altri quattro programmi analoghi, dedicati all’archiviazione di CD audio, MP3, libri e fumetti.

Collectorz.com Movie Collector

Movie Collector is Collectorz.com's movie collection manager. Use Movie Collector to organize your DVDs, VHS tapes, video CDs, laserdisks, etc. It's IMDB-enabled, so you can add movies to the database by just typing the movie title, and the rest of the movie information will be automatically retrieved online. Like Music Collector, the main screen is an explorer-type view of your collection. You can group, sort, and filter the data in any number of ways.
The shareware version limits the database to 25 entries, but registration is a mere $25 U.S. If you have a large collection of movies, dvds, etc., Movie Collector will help you track them!

Digital Comics

Whether you want to read your comics on the computer or not, you'll most likely want to catalogue your collection so you know what's what and have access to a full list of your issues. To help with this you can enlist the help of a database program that's able to store details of your collection. Keeping such records is also highly advisable if you lend your comics to others, as it lets you keep track of who you've lent issues to, and how many are still due back.

One such program that enables all this is Comic Collector (www.collectorz.com). Using this archival tool you can catalogue your entire collection of comics into a searchable database complete with thumbnail images of covers for easy reference. You can create customs lists (useful for tracking issues that contain a specific series of stories), and export data to HTML format, so you can easily upload your collection info to the Web for others to see. The program is very easy to use and is available to buy from the website for €39.95. There's also a free trial version available for download, although this is limited to 100 comics.

Collectorz.com Book Collector

The install is intuitive and can serve as an example to other companies of how a good install should be. It allows you to place it's files where you want, plus there are some helpful things in it too.
Now for the program itself. Simply Brilliant! The people at Collectorz.com really know what they are doing. Lets make this simple and sweet. If you want to keep track of your books or magazines there is no better way that this to do it.

The program comes with a demo database file showing you a typical way the program can be used. If you thought that you were getting simply a database that would facilitate you a little bit in keeping track of your book collection, you would be wrong. Collectorz.com Book Collector does of course facilitate your data entry but in ways you wouldn't expect. It is Internet enabled! Yep just put in a couple of facts about your book in the entry form, go online and get lots of info added even in most cases an image of the cover. Couldn't ask for more!
Well there is more! Who did I lend that book to? Yep you can put that in to. Purchase date, number of pages, original purchase price. There is more book data to enter in there than you can shake a stick at.

In conclusion. If you are reading this you are interested in this type of program. Therefore DOWNLOAD it now! You get 30 days to try it out and I'm sure that you will like it.

Collectorz.com MP3 Collector

MP3 Collector is Collectorz.com's MP3 collection manager, tagger, file renamer and playlist manager. It creates a database by scanning your hard disk drives, CDs and network for your MP3 files. MP3 Collector will group, sort and filter your database, even when the actual MP3 files are not available.
MP3 Collector can also batch rename files to any format, using tag or database information.

The shareware version is limited to 250 entries, but the full version can be purchased for $15 U.S. It's well worth the investment ... try it today!

Don't Panic

Nigel Powell's weekly column Don't Panic answered to a question of one of his readers.

Track the tracks
Q: Is there any software that can keep track of my music CD collection?
Richard Brae, via e-mail.
A: I would recommend Music Collector, which costs 17 pound from www.collectorz.com (free trial available).Install it and then insert your discs one at a time into your CD drive. The software scans each disc in a matter of seconds, ad then automatically downloads and catalogues the content information about it via the internet-hey presto, no typing needed. It also has a host of features that make it ideal for those with large music collections.

Collectorz.com Music Collector

Music Collector is a CDDB2 enabled Music Collection Manager which will catalogue your CDs, LPs, DVDs, MP3 files and more.
The installation was completely uneventful. Music Collector's main screen displays your albums in an explorer-like screen, either as a list or grouped into folders (separated by artists, genres, formats, labels, studios, etc.). The main screen's listing is configurable. The "Field Selection" screen allows you to choose which fields are visible on the list. Your list of albums or tracks can be sorted using any field, in either ascending or descending order, by clicking on the header of the list. You can even create your own complex sort order using the "Sort Order" screen.

All lists are fully searchable and capable of being filtered. You can view only your CDs, or only your albums, etc. Or you can view only albums or CDs by a particular artist.
Music Collector is CDDB2 enabled. This means that you don't have to type anything to add your CDs to Music Collector's database, because you can scan the CD in your CD-ROM drive to retrieve artist, title, year, label, genre, notes, etc. from the CDDB servers on the internet.

I totally enjoyed Collectorz.com's Music Collector. As the spouse of a record collector, it would certainly make my life easier! The unregistered version is limited to 25 database entries, but registration is only $25 U.S.: It's well worth the meager price! Download it today!

Daar zit muziek in: breng uw CD-collectie op orde

(in Dutch)
Music Collector 4.3
De interface van Music Collector is overzichtelijk. De hierarchische strcutuur begint bij de collectie, dan de categorie, de cd-box, de cd en tenslotte de track. Net als bij de Windows verkenner kunt u een selectie uitklappen. Ook hier kunt u in ongeveer 60 velden een grote hoeveelheid gegevens invoeren over uw muziekcollectie. U kunt Windows Media Player starten, maar jammer is dat u niet direct een nummer kunt afspelen. Het zoeken is even wennen. Telkens moet u handmatig het fliter weer uitzetten en gevonde track worden niet ‘uitgeklapt’ gepresenteerd. Bovendien kunt u geen tracks vinden als u niet in de ‘track view’ bent.
De evaluatieversie kan maximaal 25 albums opslaan, licentie kost E 22,69.
www.collectorz.com

Orde in uw MP3 chaos

(in Dutch)
Ondanks de forse juridische klappen die mp3-uitwisselservice Napster moest incasseren, lijkt mp3 als digitaal muziekbestand een blijvertje. Nu het aantal consumenten dat via kabel en adsl internet op gaat, wordt er fors gedownload. Met die uitdijende mp3-collecties groeit de behoefte aan orde. MP3 Collector van Collectorz.com zegt daarin te voorzien.
Conclusie
MP3 Collector is een bijzonder compleet programma en zeker niet duur. De niet-geregistreerde versie-die u op de cd-rom kunt vinden- heeft ene limiet van 250 items per collectie, een aantal waar een beetje serieuze verzamelaar al snel overheen gaat. Registeren is dus zeker de moeite waard.
Collectorz.com heeft met MP3 Collector een interessant pakket op de markt gezet voor de ware mp3-freak. En hoevel de bediening door het ontbreken van wizards en dergelijke voor de beginner misschien even wennen is, hoeft dat zeker geen onneembaar obstakel te zijn. Kortom, een programma waar vrijwel iedereen mee uit de voeten kan.

Kort voorgesteld: ordedienst met netaansluiting

(in Dutch)
Programma’s voor het beheer van cd’s gelden als typische oefeningsobjecten voor beginnende programmeurs. Het niet echt goedkope Music Collector is uit ander hout gesneden.
Music Collector stelt de CDDB-conforme ID van een in de CD-romdrive liggende audio-cd vast. Het programma vraagt na een druk op de knop de internet-cd-database CDDB (www.cddb.com) welke cd dit zou zijn en integreert de gevonden informatie in zijn lokale bestand. Dat kan ook in de vorm van een batch-aanvraag gebeuren- op die manier heb je geen constante online verbinding nodig. Met name bij muziekstukken op samplers geeft CDDB de namen van de artiesten en de titels vaak samengevat in een veld weer, waardoor de gegevens achteraf bewerkt moeten worden. Ook de informatie voor klassieke cd’s moet meestal achteraf bijgewerkt worden. Music Collector ondersteunt de gebruiker hierbij echter met een handige editor, die desgewenst ook het invoegen van gescande cd-coverplaatjes in de gegevenssets toestaat. Ook directories met mp3-files kunnen worden toegevoegd en worden als cd’s beheerd.
De zoekfunctie die intuitief kan worden gebruikt werkt snel en de op de gegevensvelden gerichte filters die op vele manieren gecombineerd kunnen worden leveren duidelijke deellijsten op. Music Collector im- en exporteert gegevens in formaten van het Windows CDPLAYER.INI bestand en in het formaat van het afspeelprogramma Cdvalet. Bovendien kan het programma in de vorm van HTML- en tekstbestanden verantwoording afleggen over zijn cd-bestand.
De testversie beheert maximaal 25 cd’s.

Keep Track of Your DVDs with Movie Collector 1.3

(...) I've considered writing an application to keep track of video tapes, but I wasn't much of a video-tape collector. However, as I've accumulated DVDs, the video equivalent of CDs (don't talk to me about CD-Interactive—CD-I), I've become more interested in keeping track of my movies. But I wasn't really interested in all the movie details that serious film aficionados seem to enjoy, mainly because entering that information can be quite a chore. Most of that information isn't even included on the DVD case. I knew that online sources for film information exist, but I wasn't looking to make myself a lot of work trying to keep track of DVD information.

I knew that DVD cataloging tools must exist so I searched the Web and found Movie Collector 1.3 from Collectorz.com. The program is not DVD-specific, although DVD is the default format for your data entry; you can select from many other formats, including tape and the aforementioned CD-I. Most importantly, Movie Collector can link to the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) and pull information such as cast and crew to populate your database.

Follow the link to read the complete article.

Netzgestützter Scheibenordner

(in German)
CD-Verwaltungen gelten als typsiche Übungsobjekte fur Programmieranfänger. Der nicht ganz billige Music Collector ist aus anderem Holz geschnitzt. Music Collector ermittelt die CDDB-konforme ID einer im CD-ROM-Laufwerk liegenden Audio-CD. Auf Knopfdruck fragt das Programm die Internet-CD-Datenbank CDDB danach ab und integriert die gefundenen Informationen in seinen lokalen Bestand. Das kann auch in Form einer Sammelabfrage erfolgen – so ist keune ständige Online-Verbinding erforderlich.
Inbesondere bei Musikstücken auf Samplern liefert CDDB oft Interpreten- und Titelname in einem Feld zusammengefasst, was ein nachträgliches Editieren der Datensätze erfordert. Auch Einträge für Klassik-CDs verlangen meistens Nacharbeit. Dabei unterstützt Music Collector den Nutzer allerdings mit einem bequemen Editor, der auf Wunsch auch das Einfügen gescannter CD-Coverbilder in die Datensätze erlaubt. Auch Verzeichnisse mit MP3-Files lassen sich als Alben dem Musikbestand hinzufügen und werden wie CDs verwaltet.
Die intuitiv zu handhabende Suchfunktion arbeitet schnell und die vielfältig zu kombinierenden Filter führen zu aussagekräftigen Auszugslisten. Music Collector im- und exportiert Daten in den Formaten der Windows-CDPLAYER.INI-Datei sowie des Abspielprogramms ‘CDValet’. Darüber hinaus kann das Programm über seinen CD-Bestand in Form von HTML- und Textdateien Rechenschaft ablegen.
Die Testversion erfasst maximal 25 CDs.

Collectorz.com MP3 Collector

Well golly! Collectorz.com Music Collector is a pretty good music collection manager. It lets you do all sorts of magic stuff with your list of tracks, CDs, MP3s and whatevers. Such magic features include the ability to lookup CDDB data for many CDs using the Batch Scan function and the ability to export your database to ASCII or HTML format. Its excellent interface makes compiling and browsing your database easy - album cover-art can even be included in the records. Finally - a unique feature that I haven't seen in other CDDB database utilities is the ability to browse the contents of the CDDB for information on music that you don't have access to. Nice all around - does the job of managing your music collection with flair.