The software is commercially sold for $ 39.95 through the company FNProgramvare . CATVids can be tried in a fully functional trial version with a 25 film / series-title limit. The software can Windows XP, 2000, Vista and Windows 7 might be used, but unfortunately only in English language.
The test for the blog article for the version with 8:15:02.
CATVids - film management software with the sample database
views
provides the main view of six different perspectives on the movie database. The start is always in the video view, the film may actually be sought and found boxes. Each box consists of one or more media, where content is stored. An overview of all video content from the database, see the "View Contents"
Besides these two main views there:
- "Explorer View" - browse database
- "Loan View" - Overview of all those friends. movies that borrowed
- Lookup View "- Provides insight into various lists (people, media formats, etc.)
- " Want List View - All movies have been marked as required
In addition, there are a whole range of " Additional Views "and it can also define your own views.
layout
is the first start of CATVids equal open the help. It is also recommended to study this important detail in order to master the program quickly.
The layout of the main window consists of the main menu, various toolbars, the view selector and the contents of the currently selected view.
With the "Explorer View" you can easily sift through the entire database. It begins with an initial view of the database. In addition to a summary can be found here also various search functions. By searching or clicking on one of the options you can work your earnings over lists of the boxes to the content.
CATVids on the home page of the Explorer view
The contents of the other views is similar. The top of the other views, there are four drop-down boxes. The first, the layout is determined by the view that the sorting and the second with the third filter can be enabled for the view. By the fourth drop-down box is set up is determined by which attributes of the classification tree below.
setting options of the views
The found elements of the view are listed in a table. The selected item is then presented in a concise form in the last element.
be for all data entry usually open fully customizable dialogs, which also may well stacked.
database
CATVids is based on a Microsoft Access database. There are available for almost all movie information, appropriate data fields and tables. There are also some placeholder to adjust for additional data. Who is killed by the large tables and data fields of the software has the ability an-/auszuschalten each data field. This allows the film properties reduce to a minimum. More clarity in the Dialogues
database setup - for example, to show or hide fields
input has already been mentioned that the software series and movies support. Unlike other tools, such as "All My Movies" CATVids the developers have created a hierarchical data model with the single "discs" in "boxes" can be accommodated. In each "disc" can again be saved "segments". If for example a TV series on DVD Season based results in a box with the title of the series and Sub-disc with the sub-segments of each episode.
hierarchy of content on the example of "Alienbox" (4 CDs, each with a film segment)
segments also contribute information on how Viewed as a state, an assessment and game time information on the media. For example, for video cassettes, the time span of a segment can be stored.
Any avid movie collectors can prevent data loss in which he is using the backup feature of CATVids. In addition, a database can be protected by a password before others.
Another useful Function is to transfer a CATVids database into another. This title can be imported from an external database into another. In this case, all or transferred by the user selected title subset.
transfer dialog for Datemabgleich between different databases
film create
New titles in two different CATVids species are created. First, complete manually and the other via the Internet update. The Internet update CATVids the developer, the title of the data refer IMDb and Amazon . The IMDb is used for general content data of a title, and Amazon for concrete data format of a medium. In contrast to "eXtreme Movie Manager the software is not able to extract data from an existing format movie file.
To create a title using Internet update will open a dialog in which the movie title or UPC (English Universal Product Code) of the medium can be entered. In addition, a drive can be located DVD will automatically scan for a title.
After Title or enter UPC was start the online update. In the same Dialogue at the top of results for video and put in the lower range results for track information ready. take in both lists, the user has the correct choice. Was searched by UPC, explicit results will be. Then starts the data import, which invests the film and stored in the database.
dialogue to title search on the Internet with the results for "The Termiantor"
Manual creation of a title begins with an empty Movie Properties dialog. At this point, the developers were consistent, in that the film collector must manually enter all the film properties. There is no Internet updating. In paragraph database was already mentioned that CATVids managed Movies / Series hierarchy. Accordingly, the user must create not only the title but also the individual "discs" and "segments". "Segments" in turn, once created, can be updated to the Internet.
Blank Film begonenner title input dialog with a movie
Reports
The report function can be of CATVids very quickly create charts and cover for the CD / DVD collection. In addition to the extensive range of supplied templates can own report templates with the integrated report designer to create. The resulting document can be viewed as a preview on the screen or printed out in various file formats like PDF, Excel, HTML, images, rich text or plain text to be exported.
report designer with a template for all movie details
Each report is generated from one of the different views. The data can be further customized by filtering, sorting and grouping. Depending on the view in various report designer, customizable report elements.
preview with the above shown a design template
additional components
CATVids has an architecture for additional components with which the software can be expanded to include the missing features. For example, there is the additional component CATVids importer. By CATVids Importer allows an existing movie collections from the programs: DVD Profiler v2.4 and v3, eXtreme Movie Manager v5 , Movie Collector v5 and Movie Library import v1.4.
Conclusion
CATVids is the first of our tested software, the series exactly the same treatment as films. This is it possible to evaluate a single episode of Season series or seen as a highlight. The software is flexible enough to operate that almost all the video stores or libraries. The flexibility provides for Heimanweder however, a major hurdle is dar. Despite extensive documentation of the users of the endless adaptability of the software slain.
For data fetishist is CATVids the right caliber for the occasional administrator CATVids is, in our opinion a Number too large. Looking at the films in CATVids secondary.
