May 12, 2009
We’re very excited about this feature — DVDCorral can now integrate with your Netflix account. That means you can now Add movies to your Netflix queue while you browse the site. It also means you can use Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” to watch any movie in the Netflix “Watch Instantly” catalog. As you click-through to see titles on the viewmovies page, you can now see if they are available from Netflix.
To add support for this to your existing account, just go to the Settings page. At the bottom of the page there is a link to integrate your account with your Netflix account. It’s a simple, 3-click process that will have your accounts integrated in no time.
Don’t have a Netflix account? No problem, clicking on the link and signing up for one helps support DVDCorral. They have plans as cheap as $4.99 / month and they offer a free 2-week trial period. Most (but not all) plans, come with unlimited online viewing — so now you can browse DVDCorral and watch movies instantly (based on Netflix “Watch Instantly” availability).
Currently, you can Add movies to your queue and Play movies that are on the “Watch Instantly” list. In the future, we plan on adding many additions to this great new feature of DVDCorral. If you have any suggestions on how we can make your DVDCorral + Netflix integration work even better, don’t hesitate to comment on this post or e-mail webmaster@dvdcorral.com. We always listen to your suggestions!
Now, what to watch… what to watch…
May 6, 2009
Cuecat Barcode Scanner
There are two very fast ways to scan DVDs into your catalog. For users who are importing their collection directly from another online database (such as DVDSpot) or a software program, you can use our import function. The method this article will concentrate on is for users making a new database of their movies. In order to do this quickly, DVDCorral supports an ultra-fast barcode scanning option.
Obviously, you’ll want to start with a barcode scanner. We recommend the Cuecat because they’re cheap, easy to find, and work fairly effectively. You can usually find them on ebay for under $10 from trustworthy sellers. You’re welcome to use any barcode scanner you may have access to. The main perk of the Cuecat is that they’re rather inexpensive. Click on this link to Buy a CueCat today from our recommended sellers.
NOTE: You may see some sites talk about “neutering” your Cuecat. If you’re going to use it with DVDCorral.com it doesn’t matter. Cuecats use a special encryption for their barcodes, but we’re able to decrypt it with software. Any Cuecat you buy that works, is a Cuecat that will work with DVDCorral.com.
Sign up for a free account and then go to “Add” where you’ll be prompted to enter your UPC. Now just start scanning. You’ll notice our ultra-fast scanner doesn’t require clicking, typing, or anything else. Just scan your movies one after another until you have populated your collection.
That’s it. Once you’re done scanning your collection, you can start customizing your catalog. Check out some of the other articles on what features and functionality you’ll find here to help organize and share your new DVD Catalog!
You asked. We answered. DVDCorral now supports 4 new custom fields. The first two are completely arbitrary — you name them what you want and use them for what you want. This is DVDs your way baby! The 3rd field is a genre field. We’ve heard a lot of requests for this, so we’ve added it. We have made it separate from the first two fields because we may do something in the future like use the DVDs genre unless you’ve specified a custom genre. Then you’d have the option of overriding in the case where you’ve specified a genre.
Finally, we added a number field. At first glance, this might seem a little odd, but we think it will be very useful for some users. The first three fields are always treated as text, which means if you sort them 100 comes before 11. Number field to the rescue! In the case that you need to assign each of your DVDs a unique number, you can now use this field and sort them as numbers. Why? Well, for example, if you have a 500-disc DVD player, you might want to track which slot number each DVD was stored in. Now, no more plunking through pages of notebook paper, just pick the DVD you want to watch from DVDCorral and whala! Now you know what slot # it’s in.
To enable these new fields, simply go to the “Settings” page once you’re logged in. At the very bottom of the page you can choose which custom fields you’d like to enable and what you would like to label them (yes, you can even re-label the custom genre or number fields). To enable them in your “Detail” view, just select the appropriate option directly above the custom field settings in the display list.
That should have you up and running with custom fields. As always, if you’ve got questions, comments, or suggestions we’d love to hear them!
Thanks!
April 20, 2009
Digital downloads are now working in various places across DVDCorral. This is exciting for us because it’s the first expansion past organizing a catalog of physical DVDs. Now when you’re viewing friends movies, or just browsing titles you can instantly watch any that are available for digital download.
You may have noticed that you can Buy or Rent downloadable movies. Rental prices tend to be between $1.99 and $3.99 and can be watched for the next 24 hours after your purchase (multiple times if you so choose). Purchases are kept indefiniately on the Amazon servers, so you can even download them if you delete the file or wipe your hard drive. That was my personal favorite; I hate it when I “buy” music, only to find that I no longer own it since my drive crashed. When you click “Buy” or “Rent” it will take you to the preview, so you’ll still have the option to purchase after you watch the trailer or preview.
You can also view titles as we find them under stats and we’ll probably be adding a section to browse movies soon. Let us know if you have suggestions to make the digital content more accessible or easier to use. I’m finding it a quick way to watch a movie I didn’t get around to buying yet — hopefully you’ll find it at least as useful!
