What's new in Movie Collector for Windows? (page 3)

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

IMDb features are back!

• 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 details panel, the IMDb Ratings are shown in “IMDb yellow” again 🙂

The new IMDb content license is more comprehensive, so 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.

HOWEVER: Because the new license is also very expensive, we have decided to only deliver IMDb Ratings and Links to users who are on a valid, non-expired Update Plan.

Fixed for 64-bit version: Image scanning and web-cam scanning

Right after the release of v19, we started receiving reports from users that their image scanners would not be found when using the 64-bit version. Other users reported that the web-cam scanning would not work anymore.

A temporary work-around has been to use the 32-bit version of version 19.

In the meantime, our Windows developer Joe has been working hard to get both of these problems resolved and I am happy to report that both have been fixed in today’s version 19.0.8:

• 64-bit version now uses WIA to connect with image scanners. When acquiring, make sure to select the WIA driver for your scanner, not TWAIN.
• Scanning barcodes with your webcam scanner is working again.

If you have been using the 32-bit version as a workaround, please switch to the 64-bit version again (this is a choice during installation).

Then, please let us know your findings, is everything working again?

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

We fixed an issue with index numbers automatically incrementing when they shouldn’t.

Fixed:

• Custom Image checkbox wasn’t always checked in certain situations (e.g. unrecognized barcode screen and drag/drop image on the details panel)
• Images for items that don’t have a cover in Core didn’t upload automatically
• Images for items that don’t have a cover in your CLZ Cloud didn’t upload automatically
• Got rid of a couple of access violations in the main, filter and find cover screens
• Edit Screen: Covers tab: tabs weren’t high enough
• Import from Other Database:
  • Added 2 progress bars to keep track of the import
  • In rare cases you could get an empty extra collection tab after an import
• Fixed a rare “Range Check Error” happening for big databases
• Box Sets: After editing a movie that is part of a box set, the navigation of finding the different movies in the box set could get lost.
• Field Default setting for “Region” was resetting to “nothing” on each new start up.

Pending our discussion with IMDb, it was necessary to update Movie Collector for Windows with the following changes:

• The program 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.

Stability

We have fixed various stability issues in the program to get rid of some more access violation errors that were happening for a couple of users. We also fixed a problem where “File > Open Database” didn’t refresh the main screen to show the opened file.

• Got rid of some Access Violation errors
• “File / Open database” could show an empty screen

32-bit and 64-bit option

We’ve found that when running our program in 64-bit mode, some 3rd party external devices will not work or talk to the program such as:

• TWAIN image scanners
• Some barcode scanners
• Webcams (for barcode scanning)

If you run into issues where you your TWAIN image scanner, or your barcode scanner won’t connect or work, this is usually caused by the drivers of these devices which are not 64-bit compatible, and thus can’t talk to your Collectorz program.

We’re trying to look for a way to make them talk to the 64-bit version, but for now, to work around this, redownload the software from your CLZ Account page and during installation choose to install the 32-bit version!

DPI fix for Add Movies screen

The new “Add as Single Movie” or “Add [x] Movies” buttons for box sets weren’t scaling correctly on screens with high DPI settings. Fixed now!

We noticed a small issue in the new Flex detail templates where plot descriptions could be cut off wrong. Fixed in this latest build.

We also fixed a rare problem that could throw a “List index out of bounds” error on certain popups.

Fixed:

• “Clean” templates were missing
• Adding movies from files didn’t refresh the movie list correctly

Movie Collector version 19 has arrived! Here’s what’s new:

• Manage multiple “collections” within one database file
• Automatic Cloud-syncing of your own “custom” images
• A new super-adaptive “Flex” template for the Details Panel
• 64-bit version for 64-bit Windows versions
• Add Box Sets as a single database entry
• Image Viewer window now automatically resizes while browsing images

Read on for the full details:

Read more

We still had a couple of persistent Access Violation and List Index Out of Bounds errors happening in the Add Movies screen. We managed to capture them and the Add Screen should be more stable now.

We also fixed a problem with the quick search in the main screen that could throw an error.

Should you still get such errors, please contact us and let us know!

We’ve changed some code in various screens to make the program more stable and even less prone to random Access Violations.

After many support conversations with helpful users, we finally found out what the problem was: a dodgy 3rd party HTTPS component.
So we have now completely replaced that component with a better, more modern one, which seems to have resolved all Access Violation problems.

Fixed:

• Stability: Took care of Access Violation errors that could pop up because of the old HTTPS component
• Add screen: “Change Cover” could break the preview panel

There was a bug in the latest version of Movie Collector that caused a problem in uploading custom covers. All fixed now!

Fixed:

• “Upload Cover” functionality didn’t work
• More stability in the Add and Find Cover screens

We received reports that the Find Cover screen was giving quite a few “image could not be loaded” errors lately, and we’ve found an issue in the program that caused this. We’ve fixed this and you should be able to load almost any image you find now.

We also changed some background code in the Add Screen to make the program more stable.

Fixed:

• Find Cover screen: now allows more images to be shown and downloaded
• Add screen: Fixed a couple of Access Violation errors
• Add screen: Fixed a false “Barcode already in queue” error

Box Set covers now also sync down to your Windows computer should you have added them with Movie Connect or your mobile device. Update from Core will also download a box set cover if the box set was originally added from our online database.

Fixes:

• Edit Screen: Year dropdown for dates would scroll all the way to the top, now uses current year.
• Edit Screen: Date Pickers would sometimes not be able to pick today’s date if next/previous was used.
• Edit Screen: User Defined Fields: Date Picker button was in the wrong place
• Some cosmetic improvements in various screens.

We got a couple of reports about an error happening with the new security build which has been addressed in 18.4.2.

A BIG update for your Movie Collector software today, with an important change:

Secure HTTPS connections, for your security and privacy

As indicated in our GDPR email from a couple of weeks ago, we are updating our software and services, to be more secure and to better protect your privacy.

Starting with version 18.4, Movie Collector 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 Movie Collector software only communicates with those secure entry points.

For your privacy and security, we strongly recommend updating to version 18.4.

We fixed an issue in two panel mode where, on start-up, the items in your database sometimes wouldn’t show up correctly.

Fixed:

• Main Screen: The width of the columns wasn’t remembered correctly sometimes.

Fixes:

• Several Access Violation errors in the main screen.
• List View: Double clicking on checks would make list unresponsive.
• Edit Screen: Using Next/Prev would cause strange effects with checkboxes in main screen.
• Main Screen: The “keep filter active” checkbox and “Reset Filter” button were hidden.

A couple of weeks ago, our CLZ Cloud (and Movie Connect) has been updated with 9 more fields and loan information. Today’s version 18.3 now supports the syncing of all these new fields and your loan information to and from the CLZ Cloud!

Added for syncing:

• Full Release Date (previously, only the year was synced)
• Runtime
• IMDb Number
• IMDb Rating
• Audience Rating
• Region
• Studio
• Distributor
• Box Set
• Loans

Heads up: after updating to version 18.3, the software will automatically mark most of your movies as “changed”, to force the upload of your data for the new fields to the CLZ Cloud.

These fields also all sync to the latest iOS and Android versions!

Fixed:

• Behaviour: The setting for ‘Let selection “Follow” the Edited Movie’ didn’t work.
• An access violation could occur when double clicking on the checkboxes.
• The details panel could not be resized correctly sometimes.
• Edit Multiple movies would sometimes not activate due to an issue with counting the selected movies.
  

Fixed:

• The Unrecognized Barcode popup gave an error
• Added movies weren’t correctly cleared from the barcode queue after adding them sometimes

Movie Collector offers powerful batch commands, for performing actions on multiple movies in one go, e.g. editing, removing or updating from Core.
However, we are finding that many users have never use these these batch actions, either because they are not aware of their existence or because they don’t know how to actually select multiple movies (by Shift or Ctrl-clicking).

In today’s update we addressed these issues:

New Selection Checkboxes in the List View, for easy selection of multiple movies

The List View now features checkboxes on the left. Use the checkboxes to easily select multiple movies, no Shift or Ctrl-clicking needed. Of course the classic Shift/Ctrl-clicking still works too, this is just an extra method.

Don’t need the checkboxes? You can hide them using Tools / Options / Customization.

A new Action Bar with batch actions

As soon as multiple movies are selected (that is, more than 1), a new Action Bar appears above the list. It shows how many are selected, plus offers buttons for the most popular batch actions.

Also new: Action Bar above Details Panel

At the same time, we also added a new Action Bar above the details panel, for quick access to commands operating on the selected movie.

TIP: The commands in this new Action Bar have been removed from the main toolbar, to make that one a bit cleaner. However, if you are upgrading from an older version, it will remember your toolbar. To get the new clean main toolbar, choose View / Toolbars / Reset.

Don’t need or want this new bar? You can hide it using Tools / Options / Customization.

Based on your comments we fixed some scaling problems and added a “Today” button in the new date pickers as it was missing from the new one. Full list of changes below:

New(ish)

• Datepickers: (Re)Added a today button

Fixed:

• Edit Screen: Edit Episode: font was to small
• Filters: boolean fields would flip (yes -> no) when upgrading from 18.0.x to 18.1.x
• Add Screen: Format icons the cells are now scaled correctly
• Image popups now scale according to your DPI settings
• Fixed some display issues in the Quick Search popup top right on screens with higher DPI settings
• More small DPI scaling fixes for other screens and popups

New: Changed timing of “Report missing barcode” popup:

The missing barcode popup now pops up when you click on a “not found” result instead of interfering while you’re still scanning barcodes.

Fixed:

• Edit Screen: the Location field wasn’t displayed correctly.

With super hi-res 4K (or even 5K) screens becoming quite common, more and more people are running Windows with the Font Size (DPI scaling) set to 125% or 150%, to keep text readable. So earlier this year, we released maintenance builds for all Windows editions to fix various layout problems when running Windows with “large fonts”.

Today, with version 18.1 we’re taking the next step: Movie Collector is now fully “DPI Aware”. Starting with this version, if you have increased your font size in Windows, all screen texts will look sharper, less fuzzy, making full use of your hi-res screen.

Old version:

New version:

New collection status icons

We added new collection status icons to the main screen’s list view and card view to make the screen less clogged up and easier on the eye.

Fixed:

• Edit Movie:
  • Index field had a typo
  • Clicking next or previous could create a second + button in the User Defined Fields tab
• Templates:
  • Fixed an issue where the template could become “white” if arrow keys were used on the keyboard.
  • Clicking an image would show a drag/drop menu. The image now opens properly.
  • Metro template didn’t show the movie info of a box set.
• Quick Search: Fixed normalization for quick searches so words with umlauts/accents etc. are now easier to be found.
• Fixed a problem with folder paths for users that have their Documents folder rooted to an external drive (program wouldn’t install properly).
• Link Screen could show “Link Selected” button even if there were no matches.
• Manage Column presets:
  • Clicking in certain parts of the screen could cause Access Violations.
  • Clicking the Edit menu could break the focus in the screen.
• Light Skin: Better visibility for selected items in your lists.
• User Defined Fields: It was possible to create invisible User Defined Fields which would then never show up in the edit screen.
• Add Screen: Scrollbar position wouldn’t update sometimes.

Fixed:

• Export/Import of a movie that is part of a box set didn’t work properly
• Edit Movie:
  • assigning a box set will now always add this movie as the last movie in that box set
  • clicking OK while uploading cover would cause a crash. Buttons are disabled now during upload.
• Main Screen:
  • using CTRL to deselect items would not update the selected counter at the left bottom
  • showing/hiding the quick filter panel would expose the details view when it was closed
  • when the details view image popup was scrolled down, opening it again would scroll down again
  • quick search suggestions: selecting a suggestion would not clear the previous quick search
  • selecting the window’s “restore” option when running full screen could hang the program in some cases
  • refresh of the statistics view could fall back to the currently active folder instead of selected statistics field
• User Defined Fields: fields with an ampersand (‘&’) in their name weren’t always displayed correctly throughout the program
• Clicking OK/Next/Previous in an edit pick list item screen without editing its details would trigger unnecessary cloud changes
• Using “search” in some file open dialogs for images wouldn’t find .png files
• Syncing with CLZ Cloud: locally inserted items would update empty fields with Core fields after syncing