What's new in CLZ Movies for Android? (page 2)

Faster CLZ Cloud syncing!

We have made several structural changes to the CLZ Cloud syncing, making it much much faster than before, especially when syncing large amounts of entries up to the CLZ Cloud or down from the CLZ Cloud.

To enjoy the faster syncing, you need to use the actual Sync with CLZ Cloud screen.

(The Auto-Syncing in the background is also slightly faster now, but if you need to sync many entries up or down, please use the Sync with CLZ Cloud screen.)

New design for Sync with CLZ Cloud screen

While we were at it, we decided to do a quick make-over for the Sync screen, with a new look and layout and a direct link to your CLZ Cloud page online.

Fixed:

• Made the touch area for scrollbars a bit bigger (useful for quick scrolling)
• Added a “Clear” button in the search box in the Add Screen
• Added HDR field in the details view
• Purchase date was shown as release date in the details view

In this update we introduce a new quick-search for your folders, sorting your folders by the counters, and more stable cloud syncing through our brand-new dedicated Sync-server.

Quick-search your folders

Grouping in folders is a powerful way to browse and filter your collection. Just group by Format, or Director, etc… tap a folder and the list will give you all movies for the selected Format or Director.

However, if your collection spans thousands of movies, that “tap a folder” part is sometimes easier said than done. It may require lots of scrolling in the folder list.

But not anymore! This version introduces a new search box right above the folder list, that lets you instantly search/filter the folder list as you type! Just typing a few letters is often enough to bring the folder you are looking for into view:

Sort folders by count

By default, the folders are sorted alphabetically. But as of today, there is another option: sort your folders by the counter, that is by the number of movies contained.

Sorting by the counters is a nice way to find the most popular Formats, Studios, Directors, etc..

Switch between the Alphabetical and By Count sorting using the sort toggle at the top:

Improved barcode scanning

We have improved the scan engine and gave it a larger “scan area”. This should help scan barcodes faster and easier.

Now uses our brand-new CLZ Cloud Sync-server

Previously one big server was handling the Connect website, the CLZ Cloud website AND the CLZ Cloud syncing from the desktop programs and the mobile apps.
But this week we have set up a brand-new dedicated Sync-server to handle just the CLZ Cloud syncing.

In today’s update, CLZ Movies has been updated to sync through this new server, which should result in faster syncing and a more stable syncing experience during high load times (weekends).

Fixed:

• Rare incident where timeouts occurred during CLZ Cloud sync.

A big update for the CLZ Movies app again, introducing a new Statistics screen, a cool “infographic” style screen, showing totals and statistics about your movie collection.
To open it, just choose “Statistics” from the menu.

In this new screen, you can find:

• Your total number of movies and TV Series and how many different formats you have.
• A nice pie chart showing the distribution of your movies over formats (DVD, Blu-ray, etc..).
• A top 5 list of your most recent additions.
• A bar chart of your movies by genre.
• A bar chart of your movies by director.
• A bar chart of your movies by IMDb rating.
• A pie chart showing your Seen and Unseen movies.

Another big update for your CLZ Movies app today. In version 5.1, we added many new fields for DVD/Blu-ray/4K specific information. These fields are now editable on the new Edition tab of the Edit Movie screen and also available as folder options:

• Subtitles
• Audiotracks
• Screen ratios
• Layers
• HDR (HDR10 / HDR10+ / Dolby Vision)
• Color vs Black and White
• Edition Release Date
• Extras

Of course, all the new fields sync to/from the CLZ Cloud too.

Read more

Fixed:

• Custom images were uploaded too often
• The amount of items for each pick list could be wrong

Instead of working on new features, we decided to take a few weeks to look at existing screens and functionality and see where things could be improved, of course all based on your feedback.

Today’s update brings you the first user interface improvements we implemented (more coming up!):

New “Update IMDb ratings/votes” menu option to update all movies in 1 go

Easier to find Edit and Remove buttons on movie details screen (phone only)

Easier editing of pick list fields, especially multi-value fields

• Selected/checked values are now always at the top
• For multi-value fields (like Genre, Studio), check/uncheck multiple values in one go!
• Easier to find big button at the top for adding NEW values..

Complete Re-design of Manage Pick List screen

• Easier to find big button at the top for adding NEW values.
• Remove Unused and Merge action have now been moved to action (…) button top right.
• Easier to use Merge mode.

Add by barcode: New Clear Queue button and new “Scanning tips” popup

Fixed:

• Edit screen: the “Seen it” checkbox wouldn’t always work
• Re-introduced a “sync changes pending” icon to the “Sync with CLZ Cloud” menu item

Fixed:

• Preferred data language setting was not working meaning plots, titles, genres etc. would always be downloaded in English instead of your preferred language.

Fixed:

• Issue where users could not sign up for a new CLZ account.
• Improved error handling in the Add-screen.

What’s new:

• Several small fixes and text changes.

It’s finally here: CLZ Movies 5.0, for both iOS and Android!

New in v5:

• Now supports and syncs multiple collections
• Automatic cloud-syncing of your own “custom” images
• Get IMDb Number of Votes from Core (Premium)
• Batch Update IMDb Ratings & Votes from Core (Premium)
• Add Movies by IMDb Number/URL (Premium)
• Re-designed top-bar and main menu

On top of that:

CLZ Movies is now a subscription app

To allow us to keep delivering our CLZ online services (CLZ Cloud and CLZ Core) and our continuous updates to the app, the app has now become a subscription app. For new users, this subscription is necessary for access to the CLZ online services:

• CLZ Core: for adding movies by title or barcode
• CLZ Cloud: for online backups and syncing between devices
• Adding by IMDb Number/URL
• Getting and updating IMDb Ratings and Votes from Core

What if you already purchased the app earlier?

Of course, since you have purchased the app earlier, you have automatically received a “Basic”-level app unlock. Which means:

• You keep ALL functionality that you had before. In particular, you keep full access to your existing Core and Cloud functionality. You do not lose anything.
• You can still update your app to v5 and enjoy the new “non-premium” improvements.
• You can keep updating your app and keep geting our app improvements.
• You do not need to pay for a subscription.

If, for any reason, the app does not unlock to the Basic level for you, please CONTACT US here and we’ll get it resolved ASAP.

Optional “Premium” Services that do require a subscription

So… you will get everything you had before (and more), without paying again.

However, with v5 we are offering several new, optional Premium online services, that do require a subscription:

• Get IMDb Number of Votes from Core
• Batch Update IMDb Ratings & Votes from Core
• Add Movies by IMDb Number/URL

What’s new in CLZ Movies 5.0 ?

Now supports and syncs multiple collections !

It is now possible to manage multiple “collections” within your app. The collections you create will be listed in the main menu, so you can easily switch between them.
Use the menu to add new collections, edit their names, change the order, etc…

Multiple collections now also sync through the CLZ Cloud, e.g. to/from the Movie Connect cloud-based software or the Movie Collector desktop software. So if you have created multiple collections on the desktop side, these will now finally be separated on the mobile app too!

Already have multiple collections in the CLZ Cloud?

If you already have multiple collections in the CLZ Cloud, here’s what to do to get your existing entries split up into multiple collections on your mobile app too:

1. Tap the menu top left
2. Tap “Sync with CLZ Cloud” and make sure you’re in sync.
3. Tap the menu top left again and tap “Maintenance”
4. Tap “Update all from CLZ Cloud”
5. Now use “Sync with CLZ Cloud” from the menu again.

Automatic cloud-syncing of your own “custom” images

Before v5, if you replaced the automatic Core front cover with your own image (e.g. from Camera Roll), it would not automatically sync to the CLZ Cloud. You had to “force” the upload by using Upload to CLZ Cloud in the Edit screen.

For version 5 we made this more automatic. We introduced a new toggle “Custom Image” in the Edit screen. This toggle will be automatically set when you replace the Core image. Once the Custom Image toggle is set, that cover will automatically sync to and from the CLZ Cloud.

IMDb Votes (requires subscription)

Adding new movies will now give you the amount of votes from IMDb, refreshed every day.
You can also sort by number of IMDb votes to see which movie has the most votes on IMDb.

Update your IMDb Ratings and Votes in one go (requires subscription)

The new IMDb content license gives us fresh daily updates of the IMDb Ratings and Votes, so let’s make use of that daily fresh data now!

– Tap and hold on a movie, then tap Select All
– Tap the blue button bottom right
– Tap Update IMDb ratings/votes from CLZ Core

This will connect to our Core and retrieve fresh IMDb Ratings and Votes for all selected movies. Don’t worry, this won’t take long. We have implemented a super efficient system that can update ratings/votes in chunks of 100 movies in one go.

When done, it will report the number of movies it has updated the Ratings and Votes for.

Add Movies by IMDb Number or URL (requires subscription)

Can’t find a movie in our Core? But it is on IMDb?

Then use the new “IMDb” tab in the Add Movies screen, for finding and adding movies straight from their IMDb Nr or URL.

The movie entry will then be retrieved from IMDb automatically AND added to our Core, so that you can then immediately Add it to your database!

Re-designed top-bar and main menu

• The menu icon now includes the “CLZ Movies” mark (bigger tap area)
• The “Collection Status” filter button has been moved to the right
• The menu now clearly shows your Account and App Status at the top. Tap either of those to manage them.
• New “Maintenance” screen that now contains:
  • the “Clear Database” option
  • the “old Import from Movie Collector” option
  • the new “Update from CLZ Cloud” option (only use when instructed by support staff)

How to update your CLZ Movies app to version 5:

• On your device, open the Play Store app.
• Tap the menu button on the top left, then tap “My apps & games”.
• Find the CLZ Movies entry and tap “UPDATE” on the right.

We’ve updated 2 formats with new names, and we’ve changed the icon for 4K Ultra HD:

• Renamed format “Blu-ray Disc” to “Blu-ray”
• Renamed format “Ultra HD Blu-ray” to “4K UHD”
• Updated the format icon for 4K UHD

Great news! We now have a new and more comprehensive content licensing agreement with IMDb, which means the IMDb features are back in your CLZ Movies app!

• When adding new movies, it automatically downloads IMDb Ratings and Links again.
• The IMDb Number field has been replaced with an IMDb URL field. Of course, your existing IMDb numbers have automagically been turned into IMDb URLs.
• In your movie list, the IMDb Ratings are shown in “IMDb yellow” again 🙂

Because the new IMDb content license is more comprehensive, more IMDb related data and features are coming soon, including:

• Official cast and crew listings, straight from IMDb.
• A tool for updating all your IMDb Ratings with fresh ratings from IMDb.

Also new in this version:

• On some devices, Youtube trailers would not open full-screen, now they do!
• Fixed: Field Defaults were not properly set for the Country field.

IMDb, IMDb.COM, and the IMDb logo are trademarks of IMDb.com, Inc. or its affiliates.

Pending our discussion with IMDb, it was necessary to update the CLZ Movies app with the following changes:

• The app does not download/update IMDb Ratings or IMDb links anymore.
• All occurrences of the “IMDb” name and logo have been removed.

We hope to reach an agreement with IMDb soon, so that we can re-enable the above features.
Our apologies for the inconvenience.

Fixed:

• Add Screen: previews of results could sometimes not be loaded.

• All panels in the main screen (folders, list and details) are now resizable using draggable separators between the panels, so that you can customize the layout to your own liking.
• The resizable panels in the Add screen have been updated to use the nicer look of the draggable separators.

Fixed:

• The subtitles could make the details screen scroll horizontally.

Fixed a crash when picking a cover image from the camera.

New: Redesigned app icon

We designed new icons that give new users a better indication of what the app actually does (as opposed to just a different color CLZ logo), but still obviously belong together, when shown together.

And if you have Android 8.0 or higher, we’re also including an “adaptive app icon” as of today which are in line with all your other app icons!

New: Redesigned app icon

We designed new icons that give new users a better indication of what the app actually does (as opposed to just a different color CLZ logo), but still obviously belong together, when shown together.

And if you have Android 8.0 or higher, we’re also including an “adaptive app icon” as of today which are in line with all your other app icons!

New: Add box sets as single entries instead of multiple movies

In July this year, we introduced the new Box Set adding feature in the Add Movies screen, where it automatically “knows” which movies are in the box, then creates separate entries in your database for all the movies contained, then “links” them using the Box Set field:

Most users love this new way of adding Box Sets. However, since the introduction we have learned that some users would like to add box sets as single entries.

So as of today, the “multiple movie entries” behaviour is now optional.

When adding a box set, found by title or barcode, you can now choose between:

• Add box as 1 entry
• Add box as [x] movies

Change your preferred way using the box set option button in the add screen:

Add box as 1 entry:

Add box as 3 movies:

Some changes in CLZ Movies for you:

• The buttons to switch folders, sorting and view options have been moved to more logical places to make them more accessible.
• The skins and templates options are now only available from the settings screen.
• The selection mode button has been removed, just tap and hold on an item to start selecting items.

Fixed:

• Update from Core could (in some cases) overwrite manually entered information for the Studio, Runtime, Imdb Number, Audience rating, Region, Distributor fields.
• Box set image was not deleted on device if a box set is removed.

Barcode searches on single movies weren’t working in the build we did yesterday. Fixed in this build!

In 2017, our content managers worked for months to enhance our Core online movie database with movie list information for thousands of multi-movie box sets.

As of today, CLZ Movies can use this new Core data: Just use the enhanced Add Movies screen to find a box set, either by title or by barcode, and our Core “knows” which movies are in the box.

See it in action:

Find and add box sets by barcode

Scan a box-set barcode and Core will show you which movies it contains. Click Add to Collection at the bottom right and all contained movies will be added to your database, automatically linked by a box set entry.

Find and add box sets by title

Alternatively, use the Title tab and enable the new Box Set search to find box sets by their title.

Note: the new Movies, TV Series and Box Sets switches now let you search each of these three Core section separately OR combined.
AND: The switches also operate on the Search-As-You-Type suggestions, for even quicker searching and adding!

New box set panel on movie details page, with movie list!

A nice new box set panel at the top of the movie details for each of the contained movies. Now showing the list of the contained movies, in the correct order, AND with clickable links to go straight to the other movies in the set!

Change the order of movies in a box set

At the bottom of the list of movies you will find a link to “change order of movies…” to modify the order in which the movies are displayed in the details page.

By popular demand, we have added 10 more editable fields to CLZ Movies. Two completely new fields (Is TV Series and Box Set) and 8 fields that were already available as automatic Core fields but are now fully editable:

Completely New Fields:

• Is TV Series (Yes/No). For your entries, indicate whether these are movies or TV series. Use Is TV Series folders to split them in the main list. This is a new field. Default values for your entries have been set using our Core central database, but you may want to run though your list to check and correct as needed.
• Box Set. Enter a box set title in your movies to make them part of a box set. You can see the box set information at the top of the details panel for each of the movies inside that box set. Also available as a folder option.

Fields that are now fully editable:

• Release Date. Previous only available as Release Year, this is now a full date field.
• Runtime. Previously set automatically, now fully editable.
• IMDb Number. Previously set automatically, now fully editable.
• IMDb Rating. Previously set automatically, now fully editable.
• Audience Rating. Previously set automatically, now fully editable. Also available as a folder option.
• Region. Previously set automatically, now fully editable. Allows multiple values. Also available as a folder option.
• Studio. Previously set automatically, now fully editable. Allows multiple values. Also available as a folder option.
• Distributor. Previously set automatically, now fully editable. Also available as a folder option.

But wait, that’s not all: All the above fields now also sync to and from the CLZ Cloud!

Secure HTTPS connections, for your security and privacy

As indicated in our recent GDPR email, we are updating our software and services, to be more secure and to better protect your privacy.

Starting with version 4.11 CLZ Movies now uses secure HTTPS connections for all communications with our servers:

• for logging in with your username and password
• for syncing your data with CLZ Cloud
• for sending your searches to Core.

To make this possible, we have created new secure “entry points” on our servers, that are only allowing secure HTTPS connections. The new CLZ Movies app only communicates with those secure entry points.

For your privacy and security, we strongly recommend updating your app to v4.11.

New for the Add Movies screen:

• Add button is now bigger and easier to spot (some new users missed the little round “+”).
• Add button now “remembers” your collection vs. wish list selection. No need to pick from the Collection/Wish List popup menu every time you add anymore.
• Remove from queue button is now bigger and easier to spot. Tap and hold on a barcode in the queue to select barcodes you want to remove.

Fixed:

• Accented characters in sortnames/titles were sorted incorrectly.
• Main screen: the over-sensitive quickscroll bar in the thumbnail view has been fixed.
• Edit: ‘Done’- button doest not scroll from screen on manual scroll.
• Edit: New ‘Unsaved changes’ dialog.
• Cloud sync: Sync reporting ‘invalid xml’ in rare cases.

We’ve added new fields to sort on to change the order in which your movies are displayed in your list. Your movie list will adapt to sort and show the field you’re sorting on. On top of that we’ve redesigned the Select Sort Order screen to make it more clear what you’re choosing.

Open the Select Sort Order screen by tapping the menu top right, then tap “Sort order”.

All available sort fields:

• Title
• Release Date
• Format, then Title (New!)
• Runtime
• IMDb Rating
• Order of Entry (New!)
• Viewing Date (New!)
• My Rating (New!)
• Purchase Date (New!)
• Purchase Price (New!)
• Current Value (New!)
• Quantity (New!)
• Index
• Storage Device (New!)

All fields can be sorted either ascending or descending. Tap the field you wish to sort on, then tap “Apply” to confirm.