DVDCorral Blog

Organize your DVD Catalog, Share with Friends, Enhance your Collection!

Scanning Movies Quickly into Your Database

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!

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Custom Genres, Numbers and unique fields

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!

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DVDCorral: The Online DVD Catalog

So, what is DVDCorral? Well, in short, it’s an Online DVD Catalog system for organizing your DVD collection. Some call it a Personal DVD Library, My DVD Collection, or DVD/Blu-ray Organizer. Whatever you call it, we’re here to help you catalog and organize your DVD collection.

You may want to check out the FAQ and AboutUs pages for more details, but here’s a short list of our features. Of course you can catalog your DVDs, but now what? Well, you can track who may have borrowed a particular DVD so you can be sure to get it back. Or, perhaps you need a way to pick a movie off the shelf when you’re sitting at home. Sort your list by Genre, filter only ‘G’ movies for the kiddies to watch, or list them according to your personal rating and pick one of your favorite movies tonight.

In addition to all the ways you can organize your movies, you also have some cool options for watching movies. DVDCorral is now integrated with Amazon Digital Downloads, so now you can watch movies instantly instead of waiting for them to ship. Digital Downloads are a great way to watch a flick you may have found in someone else’s collection or while browsing movies on our site. For any movie, just click on it to see if we have a Digital rental or purchase available. Rentals typically range from $0.99 to $3.99 for a 24-hour viwing period and purchases can range from $6.99 (or less) to about $14.99. Check some of our other articles to see how to watch from your TV using Tivo, Xbox, or a PC.

If that’s not enough, how about creating a wishlist for a birthday or Christmas. As you browse our site, just add movies to your collection and then mark them as “Wish”. You can then give friends a link to your “wishlist” so they know what DVDs to buy you. Even without using the wishlist, DVDCorral is a great way to make sure you don’t keep buying the same DVD!

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The Reader Review – On Xbox via Amazon

May 4, 2009

The Reader

With all the great reviews I had been hearing about The Reader, I thought it was time to watch for myself. I try to keep Sunday nights chill and so I decided to buy a digital copy of the movie from Amazon. Re-heating some Chinese food combined with a near-frozen bottle of IBC Rootbeer put me in the perfect place to watch The Reader, or so I thought.

It turns out, the best part of the whole night was watching an Amazon Digital Download from my Xbox360. My primary PC is nowhere near my home theatre and I very much prefer to watch my movies in a room with over 1000 watts of Subwoofer and a 100″ screen. That’s just me. Thankfully after some simple instructions on the Amazon page, I was able to download it to my PC and stream it to my Xbox in the theatre.

Windows Media Player reports the file uses a resolution of 704×396, which seems a little odd since DVD quality is generally 720×480 (NTSC). However, I watched the film without knowing this and judged it to be roughly DVD quality. Given the resolution, it seems that was an accurate assessment. For reference, Star Trek VII: Generations which I also bought from Amazon, uses a resolution of 720×408.

As for the movie itself, it was somewhat of a deep movie, but with fewer twists and turns than I was expecting. The timeline is what gives the movie intrigue. It’s the first movie I know of that depicts Germany — from a simple citizen’s perspective — beginning pre-WWII and ending back in present time.

The character development was phenomenal and helped by the writing as well as the acting. It is rare that a movie does such a good job of developing a character before revealing the intricacies of their role. Developing the characters here was essential for the rest of the plot to unfold and to take the intended emotional grasp. Unfortunately, the first 30 or 40 minutes of character development involved a lot of nudity.

That was probably the most disappointing part of the movie for me. The movie was rated R by the MPAA “for some scenes of sexuality and nudity.” It should have read “since everyone is naked for the first 45 minutes.” Really, was that necessary?

It’s unfortunate, because it’s not every day that a movie has such solid character development with acting to go with it. On top of that, it was set pre and post WWII and even tackled literacy as an issue. Tackling big issues without being an after-school special is enough of a feat on its own these days. The story did revolve around some bizarre character traits (I’ll use that to avoid any spoilers) and coupled with the nudity it really just detracted from the movie for me.

Overall, I’d have to give the movie a C-. It’s too bad there were too many bits detracting from what otherwise could have been a great story. If you’re looking for a family night flick, this is definitely not the one.

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Has Chuck been Canceled?

April 22, 2009

Update: Chuck has been renewed for a 3rd season.

Has Chuck been Canceled?

Alright, so it’s moved to the point of addiction. Admission is the first step right? Admit one.

I watched the final episode today on hulu.com. Between this episode and the previous (it was a two-parter), the writers really hit one out of the park. Hopefully it won’t be a walk-off home run.

Chuck has always impressed me with their ability to combine super-sleuth with action-packed and still effectively mix it with ultra-nerd. Josh Schwartz, the creator and executive producer of Chuck did a nice job of creating the show with such a mix of otherwise incompatible genres. Unfortunately, he’s not even sure where Chuck sits right now. When asked by the New York Times, “As of this moment, do you know where ‘Chuck’ stands?”, Josh responded “Sitting here today, I do not know. Which is a tricky place to be, emotionally. The last two episodes are certainly the best that we’ve done, and I feel like the whole season has been building. To feel this coalescing of the inter-Web forces, in support of the show, has been really remarkable.”

So, Chuck or no Chuck? Looks like NBC has yet to make that decision. In the meanwhile, it looks like I’ve got some time to get off of TV and back to movies. Anyone seen any good movies lately? I’ll be taking that ticket now.

Admit one.

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Watch On Demand Movies with Digital Downloads

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!

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Would it be a Quantum Leap to connect Star Trek to Chuck again?

April 14, 2009

Someone recently added a couple of seasons of Quantum Leap to their DVD Catalog. Watching the DVDs rotate through the “Recent Adds” section reminded me of last week’s Chuck Episode. In a previous post, I mentioned that several actors of Star Trek fame had wondered into Chuck. Well, the list continues…

None other than Scott Bakula appears as Chuck’s father in Chuck Versus the Dream Job. Of course, if you’re a Star Trek fan, you know Scott appeared as Captain Jonathan Archer in the Star Trek Enterprise series. Scott appears as an important character on Chuck, but one that could easily go away as well. I’d love to see him stick around, but we’ll have to see how the series plays out.

For what it’s worth, Chevy Chase also appeared in this episode of Chuck. I was surprised to see that his role wasn’t entirely goofy; he did a good job too.

Well, the first two articles here have been about Chuck, so hopefully we’ll get some variety in the future. They rotate a lot of interesting actors through the show though, so don’t be surprised if it does show up in another post in the upcoming weeks. That’s our actor tidbits for the day — hope you enjoyed!

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DVDCorral Nominated for oDesk Site of the Month!

April 11, 2009

Vote for DVDCorral as Site of the Month

We’re very excited to annouce that with our new layout, DVDCorral has been nominated for Site of the Month at oDesk.com. Our users here are awesome, and we appreciate all of the messages we receive from users who offer suggestions, file bugs, or write just to tell us how much they love DVDCorral.com. We have no doubt that we can win this contest with such an exceptional group of users. Now, we need you to get out and vote! Please take the time to click the link in this post to let everyone else know how you feel about DVDCorral. Thanks for being such a great bunch of users and thanks in advance for supporting us in the Site of the Month Contest!

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Chuck vs. the… StarTrek?

April 3, 2009

To begin our Actor Tidbits blog segment, I thought Chuck would be a good place to start. You see, I have a fondness for lesser-known actors and their successes, so I decided to start blogging about them. The TV Series, Chuck, is especially interesting to me because they’ve had quite a few actors cycle through. Specifically, actors who we all know and love from Star Trek. Alright, who “we” SciFi fans know and love.

The first Star Trek sighting for me was when Bob Picardo appeared as Perseus (a government scientist) in Chuck vs. the Lethal Weapon. You may know Bob as “The Doctor” on Star Trek Voyager, or as Richard Woolsey from StarGate: Atlantis. Now, at first, this is no great coincidence. Bob Picardo is a fairly popular actor and not so “under the radar” as folks who tend to catch my eye. Nonetheless, as a Star Trek fan … I noticed.

What made this standout, however, was when I noticed another familiar name arise in the Chuck series. Robert Duncan McNeill ran across the bottom of my screen. Mr. McNeill graced our screens in Star Trek Voyager as well, playing the part of Lt. Tom Paris. As it turns out, Robert Duncan McNeill has directed, produced or been the supervising producer for most (if not all) episodes of Chuck. Go Robbie!

I tend to be a movie watcher and don’t watch a lot of TV. The fact that I can watch Chuck online coupled with the interesting palette of actors has caused me to pay more attention. Keep your eyes open for more behind the scenes actor info on Chuck and elsewhere!

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DVDCorral Adds a New Blog

DVDCorral proudly announces our new blog! Two distinct sections will be used to keep users updated on website news and DVD news. Now you’ll always be kept in the loop with all the happenings around the site.

Speaking of additions to DVDCorral, several new additions are on their way in the upcoming weeks. Our developers and designers have been “igniting the midnight petroleum” ^[1] in an effort to bring a new design and several new features to our users. We’ll be using this blog to detail specifics in the upcoming days.

NOTE: Currently, we have not integrated the user systems of this blog with the DVD catalog system. For the time being, you’ll need to create a separate blog account to post comments.

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