What's new in Movie Collector for Windows? (page 6)

NEW: Movies vs TV Series

While talking to our loyal users, we often hear that, on their shelves, they are separating their movies and TV series. Hey, I do the same myself 🙂

However, in Movie Collector, the two are always all mixed together in the same list. So we figured, why not allow users to separate their TV Series in Movie Collector too?

So here’s what we created for v16.3:

• Use the new “Is TV Series?” field in the Edit Movie screen to make a distinction between your TV Series and other entries.
• Then use folders (or the new Quick Filter panel!) to show TV Series only, other entries only (or all together).

Please note:

• The “Is TV Series” field will be automatically set for new entries that you add from Core using the Add Movies Automatically screen.
• For existing entries in your database, the “Is TV Series” field will be automatically set based on the presence of either an episode list or a thetvdb.com link. You may want to check your entries though, to see if the automatic system missed some TV Series.

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Fixed:

• Main Screen:
  • Card View wasn’t available in French
  • Scrolling the Details View with the mouse wheel would scroll the list when the scroll bar reached the top
• Sync with Cloud: cancelling sync didn’t always work

Fixed:

• Main Screen: “All/Collection/Wish List” tabs were missing.
• Add Movie: searching for a movie would always preselect and tick first movie.
• Translation file still contained some wrong French translations.
• Cast/Crew Grids: font didn’t change when using non standard DPI settings on Windows 7.

Fixed:

• Main Screen Cards View: selection wasn’t always restored properly
• Quick search:
  • Pasting text into quick search box didn’t show the clear button
  • Escape button will now clear quick search
• Translation file contained wrong French translation

Next to List View, Images View and Cover Flow, we have added a Card View, a multi-column view with little info cards for each movie, showing the main movie details and a small cover thumbnail.

Fixed:

• Export to CLZ Movies: when decimal separator was set to ‘,’ the IMDB rating didn’t export properly
• Edit Movie: F6 to auto capitalize the movie title wasn’t working
• Update File Links: Episode image links are now also included
• Add Automatically: right click menu didn’t popup when there were no results showing

New view for the main screen: Card View

Next to List View, Images View and Cover Flow, we have added a Card View, a multi-column view with little info cards for each movie, showing the main movie details and a small cover thumbnail.

Fixed:

• Export to CLZ Movies: when decimal separator was set to ‘,’ the IMDB rating didn’t export properly
• Edit Movie: F6 to auto capitalize the movie title wasn’t working
• Update File Links: Episode image links are now also included
• Add Automatically: right click menu didn’t popup when there were no results showing

Fixed:

• Loading of backup.xml is now more robust

Fixed:

• Improved Webcam functionality for Webcam Barcode scanning:
  • Sometimes starting the webcam feature would hang the program
  • Some webcams didn’t show any video
  • A JPEG error could be thrown for some webcams
• Add Automatically: when you didn’t want to move a movie from your wish list into your collection, it wasn’t possible.

Find Image Online tool now uses Bing Image Search

The Find Image Online tool previously used Google Images to find images.

However, it turns out that on December 1, Google terminated the free Google Image Search API
that we were using, causing our Find Image Online functionality to stop working.

Google provides a new paid version of the Search API, but it is limited to max 10K searches per day.
With the amount of customers we have, we need at least 20K daily searches (600K per month!) 🙁

The solution: Switch to BING!

Microsoft also offers a paid Bing Image Search API and this one has no limits.
Or, to be more precise, they let us pay more for higher limits.

We immediately went to work and updated all our Windows and Mac programs
to use Bing Images for the Find Image Online tool instead.
Obviously, this generates considerable extra monthly costs (well over US $1,000),
but we have decided that we will NOT pass on these extra costs to our customers.

So here it is: the new Find Image Online, powered by Bing. Enjoy!

Fixed:

• Freezes at start up for some users, caused by the webcam detection.

Fixed:

• Access Violation when starting the program after a fresh installation.
• Access Violation when closing the program.

Fixed:

• Delete Orphan Images tools didn’t account for images linked in the Links / Local Files tab.

Webcam barcode scanning

Use your webcam as a barcode scanner, to add or find movies by barcode.

• Scan barcodes with your webcam
  Just use the live camera view to point your webcam at a barcode
  and let our software detect the barcode that is in view.
• Use the webcam scanner to add movies by barcode
  Pop-up the scan window and scan DVDs or Blu-rays,
  either using Direct Search or scanning into the Queue.
• Or use it in the main screen to find movies by barcode
  Scan a DVD or Blu-ray while in the main screen,
  to quickly search your local database by barcode.
• Works best with auto-focus or manual-focus webcams
  Fixed focus cameras will not work well (or at all).

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