Digital movies and database software




I've been spending a lot of time and energy on digital movies lately. I've acquired a collection and installed database software specialized for movies and or media in general.
   There are many such programs available and I decided to find the better ones and put them to the test.
   You would be surprised at the problems that can arise when the user context does not overlap the software use plan exactly. Anbother way of saying personal habits can result in problems if the program designer thinks differently than you, and narrowly. 
   Human factors engineering is important in software. Easy to learn and use software becomes popular if the program does what's expected well. People will pick an easy to use software over a difficult, obtuse, piece of software given all other thing are equal.
   I used a DBM (Database Manager) that is popular and free. My problem was, the programmer wrote the program from the botom up, and not top down. This means that when I stepped outside the programmers experienc, I had problems with the softwate. In one instance, I lost seven hundred entries in the database. I could have avoided the event, but a little thoughfulness on the part of the programmer owuld have made the loss difficult or impossible. There could have been a warning that the software was ablout to delete a large amount of data. Most professional software for a professional environment will issue such warnings. This is referred to as software that is 'forgiving', meaning that users can make mistakes without doing too much damage that is not recoverable. Not so this particular software. I think the software is not scalable. The software is suitable for small collections of films, but not for large, or even massive collections, spanning several hard drives.
   I completed my rebuild and exported the database in proprietary and more general formats. The software did allow the user to create a CSV data file containing all the data. Unfortunatle, the movie poster images are not included. That can be a major problem in and of itself. I migrated the data to a new software. I ended up having to 'update' each poster in the database. That's a lot of updates for a thousand plus movie database.
   Another software had a feature I had expected in the previous programs, but did not get. Unfortunatley, that program deposits the accessory files, including poster images, in the same folder as the movie. That was unacceptable. The program was written for a popular accessory program (PLEX) for an even more popular home entertainment management program (Kodi, derived from XBMC). I posted a question in the forum for that product and was informed by a team member, there were no plans to alter the program, in fact, the software had been relegated to the archive section of the PLEX website.
   I 've settled on one unassuming little program (human metaphors and computer science, a match made in hell) that includes the expected feature and more. I may test others, but I have found the software I'll use until I know of a better one.

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