Glossary for the Collectorz.com Movie Database

Aspect ratios
4:3 Fullscreen is an older ratio, but still used for TV and DVDs sometime. Actually most DVDs come out in a 4:3 ratio edition, because not everyone has a widescreen television.
In widescreen we have 16:9: Widescreen and 2.35:1: Widescreen and both are very common in cinemas and home theatres. If you have a widescreen TV, you probably have a TV that is used for 16:9 movies. When a movie is Anamorphic it can stretch a 16:9 film vertically to 4:3, or if the TV can handle an anamorphic image the movie will be de-anamorphosed to 16:9. Ever bought a DVD which showed black lines on top and below on your widescreen? You have the 2.35:1 widescreen version.

Audience Ratings
Ratings are different in each country. Let's describe the Motion Picture Association of America rating system here.
In the United States there exists three Unrestricted ratings. These are advised ratings where parents should decide weather or not their child can see the movie.
G: General Audiences which basically means anyone can view this movie.
PG: Parental Guidance Suggested and it means that it may not be suitable for young children. It can have some mild language and/or violence.
PG-13: Parents Strongly Cautioned means that this movie can contain scenes not appropriate for children under the age of 13. It could be with sexuality, violence and/or language.
Then there are 2 more ratings which fall under Restricted ratings.
R: Restricted which is a movie with even more sexuality, violence, language, drug-use etc. everyone with the age of 17 or younger needs to be accompanied by an adult of 21 or older (who holds a photo I.D. to prove this). If you are 17 or younger, you are not allowed to decide for yourself if you want to see this movie.
NC-17: No One 17 And Under Admitted or in short: 18 years and older are allowed to go to this movie. It can be a normal movie with just too much gore, violence, nudity, explicit language etc. Maybe some movies on your shelf still carry the X rating. This is just the precursor to the NC-17 rating. Due to copyright issues it was changed.
Some movies may be NR: Not Rated which means they don't have an MPAA-rating. Independent and foreign movies carry this rating, and it's also used for movies that haven't been submitted to the MPAA for a rating.

Audiotracks
A DVD can have more than one Audio Stream and it can have it in different languages too. Again, this is different on each version of a film that comes out. Most of what you get these days is 5.1 surround sound where 5 means the number of normal speakers (2 on each front side, 1 in the front center and 2 at both left and right back sides) and 1 is the number of LFE channels. An LFE channel is better known as a subwoofer that only does the low-frequency sounds. It can be analog matrixed, which is called Dolby Prologic II, or digitally: Dolby Digital / DTS. Digital Theater System (DTS) is better than any of the two previously named because data can be sent quicker without a lot of compression (high fidelity). Many films are re-released on DVD with remastered audio, and go from stereo or even mono to 5.1 surround. They edit in new audio streams with new sound effects for these DVDs.
6.1 and 7.1 surround sound DVDs are coming out these days as well. Looking at 5.1, the installation simply uses more audiostreams for more speakers. In 7.1 you have the same setting of speakers as 5.1, with two extra speakers sitting at both your left and right side. In 6.1 you only have one speaker behind you, two on both your left and right side, and three speakers in front of you similar to a 5.1 setting's front.
The rear center speaker(s) in either 6.1 or 7.1 can be used for movies that support DTS-ES (Extended Surround) or Dolby's competing EX (Matrix). DTS-ES 6.1 can send one extra audiostream to the rear center speaker. It can send it to 7.1 as well, but the extra stream will be mono in both rear speakers. There are not a lot of ES movies out there, but if you have one and have a 5.1 surround system, it will fall back on that as if it were a normal DTS movie. EX on the other hand isn't always considered a true 6.1 or 7.1 stream. It does boast an extra center rear channel, but it can only handle matrixed data, instead of one real independent extra audiostream.
For High Definition television, DTS-HD Master Audio has been developed. It can put out 2 streams of audio (stereo), 5.1 surround, but also supports a virtually unlimited amount of soundchannels placed in a surround setup (so no, not unlimited audiostreams, because they can't record a film with 200 microphones hanging around the characters). This technology means that if you have more speakers, the transition from for instance an airplane in the WWI movie 'Flyboys' would fly past you very smooth, as it whizzes past all your side speakers from front to rear, instead of from 1 front speaker to 1 back speaker. Again, the amount of movies supporting this is still pretty limited.
In conclusion DTS-ES and especially DTS-HD Master Audio is very cool to get, but not a lot of (HD-)DVDs have it. So maybe stick to 5.1 DTS when buying a DVD and you should be fine. Everything is backwards compatible too, so not to worry if you buy a 7.1 (HD-)DVD and haven't upgraded your soundsystem yet.

Barcodes / Product Codes
This is one of the most important things when making a digital database. Not only will it help you to find just about all the information on the movie, it will help you find the specific data that belongs to the DVD you're searching for. Everything that is discussed in this text can be found by simply typing in the product code into the search field of Movie Collector and hitting 'Search'.
There is much information on product codes. A code can tell you what company the product came from, it has a check number, and an unique identification number. A code from Europe usually has 13 digits (EAN: European Article Number) where the code from the States has one less: 12 digits (the UPC: Universal Product Code). The EAN has country information stored in the code as well. All codes are depicted in bars which a barcode scanner can read. The bars represent the numbers that you find under them.

Cast and Crew
If you search the Collectorz.com Movie Database for a movie, it will give you the most important cast and crew you could need: the famous actors and actresses who actually have a roll plus the director, producers and writers. It will also store these in the correct fields. You need to decide if you like sorting them in order of who you think is most popular, or alphabetically.
When you've added cast and crew to all of your movies, you can do nice searches. You can search for Jack Nicholson and it will show you all your movies starring Jack Nicholson.

Country and Language
In our online database we try to make sure we have the first country and first language that is used in the movie. Even if the first scene is in Mexico and people are speaking Spanish while the rest of the movie plays in the United States with English speaking people, our country and language settings are set to Mexico and Spanish respectively.

Editions
For some movies new and/or special editions come out. 'Lord of the Rings' is quite good at this. There are many versions of each one of the three films from the trilogy, and on top of that there are the packed versions that include the first two, or all three of the films.
First you get the basic editions. Most of the time this is split into a fullscreen and widescreen release. These releases usually don't have a lot of extras (but usually still some) and are meant for people who didn't already see the movie and really want to see it (or just want it very badly). It's called a Standard Edition.
A Director's Cut is a new cut of the movie which has extra scenes, longer scenes and could have an alternative ending. The way the director wanted it. A director's cut can be combined with an Unrated Edition which has all the gore, sexual and explicit language scenes in them which were left out because otherwise the rating would've been too high.
A Special Edition can have behind the scenes material where you get to see how the movie is made, interviews with casts and more live comment on the movie itself. You should check the back cover yourself when you buy a Special Edition of a movie since this varies a lot. The name for this edition can vary too: it is sometimes called a Collectors Edition and some movies like to give it their own special name, this could be anything really. These editions can come with goodies too (toys, hats, small statues etc.).
A DVD can come out again after x years. This is sometimes called an Anniversary Edition.
Lastly a movie can belong to a Classic Collection series which is usually paired with the name of the studio the movie is from. It usually doesn't have anything new packed with it. It's just a way to make you buy the movie if you haven't already.

Formats
Most collectors are collecting DVDs. It's the standard right now and it's a great format. If you've been collecting movies for quite some time, you probable have some VHS tapes as well. VHS was the standard format before DVD. VHS stands for Video Home System and it plays on analog video cassette recorders (VCR). Some find it strange that the standard used to be VHS, since Sony's Betamax (which was quite similar to VCR) actually had better image quality, and the cassette was smaller too. On the other hand it did have less recording time than a VHS-tape.
A DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) looks a lot like a normal compact disc. It can contain a maximum of 8.5 Giga Byte per disc-side, depending if it has multiple layers. Yes, a DVD can have a second layer, the laser looks through the first layer at the second one, and so a double amount of data can be stored on a DVD. If it's burned on both sides (Dual-Side) it can of course contain the double amount again. Because a DVD can store this much data a superb image and audio quality can be stored. You may remember how stunned you were going from VHS to DVD, I know I was. A DVD can contain a lot of extras next to the movie, you can skip scenes, have different subtitles, audio streams etc. all on one disc.

It's no strange thing that the next better format is also in compact disc-size. The future is High Definition (in short: HD) and it comes in the same size box as a DVD. Although it may look like a DVD, it won't play on your DVD-Player for sure. You need a player for it, and you need to choose what kind of player you're getting since again (much like VHS and Betamax) companies argued for years and didn't come to a final conclusion on what format should be the next standard. Not very handy for studios (deciding on what format they're releasing their movies), and even worse for you and me, the consumer. Since there is no clear winner as we speak, I will discuss both formats.
High Definition is at least 720 lines that appear on your screen. Full HD means you get 1080 lines to your screen. To get all those lines on your television, you need a HD Television, this can be either a plasma or LCD screen. Your local shop-expert can advise you on this. Besides all those lines you have progressive and interlaced scan. Progressive scan means that every single pixel on the screen is refreshed simultaneously. Interlaced scan refreshes the even scanline first, and the odd scanline second, which can sometimes cause weird stripes in fast images. You can be sure that any HD-DVD or Blu-ray Disc has a resolution of 1080p, and that you will be stunned again when you decide to switch from DVD to any HD format: it's amazing.
Let's start with Blu-ray Disc, it has a whopping capacity of 25GB on a single layer, but as with DVD it can contain multiple layers and also on both sides. The Blu-ray Disc can store 100GB if burned on both side, in dual layer. It's easier when explained in hours (calculating it for a 50GB disc): it can contain 9 hours of full HD quality video, or 23 hours of standard definition video (DVD quality). It uses a blue-violet laser which uses a wavelength of 405nm. To compare, DVD uses a red laser at 650nm, and CD an infrared laser at 780nm.
And then we have HD-DVD which is the proclaimed successor to the current popular DVD. Like Blu-ray Disc it uses a blue-violet laser at a wavelength of 405nm, so no difference there. It has a capacity of 15GB on a single layer, and can do dual layer. In hours, a single sided dual layer HD-DVD can hold up to 5.4 hours of High Definition content, or 13.8 hours of standard definition content.

Another format you may have is UMD which is played on a Sony Playstation Portable (PSP). Since this never really got of the ground I'm not going to say much about this. You can rip your own DVD to your PC and store it on your 2GB memory-stick for the PSP if you'd like to watch it on that small screen. And that's all legal as long as you own the original movie on DVD.

Packaging
DVDs come in different cases, but most common is the Keep Case. This case is 190x135x13mm which is just about as high as a VHS Box (so they stand as tall as your VHS cases) and fits nicely on your shelf that you made for your VHS collection. The DVD keep cases are twice as small though, and they can fit up to 4 discs in 1 case. They're made of a softer plastic than a CD Jewel Case so that it doesn't break that fast. These can also come in mini format, which sizes up to just about 190x135x6.5mm.
The Slip Case is a cardboard cover around the original keep case and is often made for a Special Edition. It's nothing more than a housing for the keep case. Looks a lot like a VHS box, only thinner.
Next up is the Snap Case. Commonly found with cheaper movies, early editions etc. it's usually a cardboard cover that folds open to reveal a plastic tray with the DVD. When closed the open side can be snapped close, hence the name.
Some movies (especially movies in the action/horror genre) do a Metal Case release. As the name suggests this is a metal case which is just about as big as a regular keep case – but, looks cooler. It can contain up to 4 discs, and usually contains at least 2. One disc for the movie, and one for the extras.
Then there is the Digipak (sometimes called Digipack or even DVD box sets). This one is fatter than any of the previously discussed DVD-packaging because it houses more than a few DVDs. The cover is made from cardboard and folds open. The inside can be different for any Digipak: it can be bookstyle (with pages of DVDs if you will) or it folds out very wide, with a lot of DVDs spanning every bit.
Last, most annoying to put in your rack, most fun to have, so certainly not least, the Custom Case. For very special releases a custom case can sometimes be bought for movies and TV-shows. The comedy cartoon 'The Simpsons' for instance has released several 'Head Cases' which just fall under the category of custom cases. They use the head of Homer, Marge, Bart etc. for each season that comes out in these custom cases.

Plot
The most important thing about a plot (although the definition of a plot is different) is that it contains no major spoilers. It can't be an opinion either. We are implementing plots in our database as we speak so you can get them while downloading all the information.

Region
Another thing mentioned on most DVD keepcases is regions. DVDs have regions attached to them, so that they will only play in the country you buy them. Regions were installed to prevent piracy within countries. Nevertheless many of todays DVD players can play just about any region out there, and in Australia there's even a law against making players that can't because it would violate the WTO free trade agreements. The region is depicted in a square logo on the back cover of the DVD, with a globe and a number.

The number indicates where this DVD can be played:
Region 1: Bermuda, Canada, United States and United States territories
Region 2: The Middle East, Western Europe, Central Europe, Egypt, French overseas territories, Greenland, Japan, Lesotho, South Africa and Swaziland
Region 3: Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea and Taiwan
Region 4: Australia, Central America, the Caribbean, Mexico, Oceania and South America
Region 5: Rest of Africa, Former Soviet Union, Indian subcontinent, Mongolia, North Korea
Region 6: China
Region 7: This one may be used in the future. Right now it's sometimes used for screener copies of DVDs or illegal copies in Asia.
Region 8: Used in aircrafts, cruise ships and other international venues.
There is also such a thing as Region-Free, which is sometimes referred to as Region 0 meaning it can play on any DVD-player in any country.

Release Dates
There can be many Release Dates for movies. You can have a date for the first screening of the movie, the release in different countries or continents, or for the first DVD-release or even the Special Edition release dates (also in different countries). A re-release of a movie (edited new version) isn't unheard of either (like a re-cut and enhanced 'Star Wars IV: A New Hope' which hits cinemas for the second time after many years for a limited time).
Our database only uses a Release Year for the movies because not all first screening dates are accurately kept somewhere. It uses the Release Year of the year the movie was first released. It does however give a specific day, month and year for any DVD release.

Runtime
Our database uses the runtime of the initial release of the movie (or complete season, so not per episode) provided by the studios. This means, that if you own an extended edition of a movie, or a director's cut, your runtime could be longer than any of your search results tell you! If that's the case, just check the back cover, it should be there.

Special Features
A lot of DVDs think it's cool to say that Interactive Menus and Scene Selection are special features, but since even being able to click 'Start Movie' counts as an interactive menu, and every and all movie is divided into scenes which you can skip, almost all DVDs feature this.
Real features start with stuff like Director's Commentary which is a stream of audio of the movie, but sometimes fades out for the director to comment on certain parts of the film, explaining what was so fun about filming stuff, or maybe what was difficult. It reveals all sorts of fun trivia you didn't know about the movie. Sometimes actors are asked to do a commentary stream as well, which ofcourse also counts as a special feature.
Another feature could be Cast Interviews where a reporter sits down with the cast and, you've guessed it, interviews them. Cinematographies is a short bio on castmembers and maybe the director. Deleted Scenes are a fun feature as well, you can sometimes choose to play the film with deleted scenes, and see the film from a different point of view. Alternative Endings also fall under this category.
When a lot of special features are added, there's also usually a Making Off documentary included and/or a Behind the Scenes feature. Trailers of the actual movie and trailers from other movies are also common features. Same with a Photo Gallery. Rarely included is a Multiple Angles special feature. This enables you to view a scene from different angles over and over again. The Storyboard Gallery enables you to check out drawings that were made for certain scenes. Many DVDs also have the always funny Bloopers. Last but not least: most DVDs feature Easter Eggs. Most are unlocked by invisible buttons in the menu that you can select (but don't see you select them). They bring you to special documentaries or other secret stuff. A lot of fun to find out yourself, but if you can't, there are websites for it.

Studio and Distributor
This seems to be confusing for a lot of people too. That's okay, maybe it's not that obvious, and sometimes, the studio is from the same company as the distributor. A studio is the same for each version of a DVD movie that comes out. The studio is the company that recorded and released the film and since the film doesn't get changed by any other company, the studio always stays the same with every edition.
The distributor is different for most editions of a film. Especially for the DVDs that get released in different countries. Since they distribute the DVDs just to their area, and not to the whole world. It can also be a department of the studio the film has been recorded in. If the latter is the case, then studio and distributer can be one and the same company (but both are just departments of it).

Subtitles
There isn't much to say about subtitles except for the CC add-on you see with different languages. CC is an abbreviation of Closed Captioned and means it's a subtitle for the Hearing Impaired. It will not only subtitle everything that's said, it usually also subtitle lyrics to songs, the sounds people make (i.e. 'Breaths heavily' or 'Door slams' and 'Phone rings') and the title of certain songs.

Title
A movie of course has a title. But a title can take on different forms. You need to decide how you're going to index them. For instance, it's important to decide whether or not to use the word 'The' in front of every title. Movie Collector from Collectorz.com has a field for that, so that you can just put 'The' in there. This will speed things up when searching for a movie alphabetically.
You also need to decide if you're going to use the original or localized title. A lot of films come out in different countries under different names. We all know of the 1965 movie 'For a Few Dollars More'. This however is not the original title, it is the English localized title. Originally this movie is called 'Per Qualche Dollaro in Più'. If you live in Germany, it's called 'Für ein paar Dollar mehr'. Of course the program offers you an option for that too.