What's new?

Fixed:

• Fix for a crash that some iPhone users experienced after adding/editing entries

Several small tweaks for your CLZ Movies app today:

• iPhone: details page now has clearer Edit and Remove buttons at the bottom
• New “Update All IMDb Rating & Votes” option in menu.
• “Sync with CLZ Cloud” menu now indicates whether there are sync changes pending.

Fixed:

• Fixed a display issue with shelf-view background
• Fixed an issue with importing an XML file

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.

Fixed

• ‘Add manually’ button was missing in the add screen
• ‘Move to other collection’-option was missing from the pop-up menu
• When adding a movie by barcode that was “already in collection”, the barcode wasn’t cleared from the barcode queue

This post is about CLZ Books iOS v5.0.5, CLZ Music iOS v5.0.5 and CLZ Movies iOS v5.0.2.

Improved:

• When trying to send a support e-mail, instead of showing an error message, redirect to a web based contact form if there is no e-mail address set in the E-mail app.

Fixed:

• Re-added the ability to save a cover to the photo’s app in the edit screen. (Long-press the cover)
• Small text fixes

Today, a subtle addition to your Movie Connect software, but one that can save you a lot of time if you’re always adding your DVDs and Blu-ray, etc… by barcode:

A new “Add [..] to Collection” button under the add queue, that lets you add all scanned movies in one go. No more need to click the little “+” buttons for each entry.

Some other improvements:

At the same time, some other tweaks went live in your software:

• In the “fixed” area at the bottom of the Edit Movie screen, we replaced the Owner field with the Location field.
  
  Through user feedback we found that the Location field is used by many more users, compared to Owner. Also many new users were not finding the field. So we figured the Location field deserved a more prominent spot in the Edit Movie screen.
  BTW: the Owner field can now be found on the Personal tab.

• The User Rating field has received a make-over and can now be set using a nice sliding star thingie.

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.

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 App Store app.
• On the bottom, switch to the Updates tab.
• Find the CLZ Movies entry and tap “UPDATE” on the right.
  
  TIP: if you don’t see the CLZ Movies update yet, pull down to refresh!

We are seeing more and more users switching to our software, leaving a competitor product or their own Excel solution behind. So our import tools are getting more and more important.
Therefore, we have spent some time making our Import from CSV/TXT screen a bit more easier to use.

The most important part of importing a CSV file is of course the mapping of your fields to our fields. Sadly we cannot make this part fully automatic, but we DID make it a lot easier!

After uploading your file, the contents is shown in the Preview. Now to map your fields to ours, just click the column headers in the Preview and from the popup select which of our fields you want to import that column to. Super easy, super quick.

Enjoy!

Based on user feedback we found out users were looking for and expecting a tool to find duplicate entries in their collection. Some way to find out if you’ve accidentally added multiple versions of the same movie, but perhaps with a different format or barcode.

After quite a few requests and discussions with users about this, to find out how they got duplicates and what they would expect from such a Duplicate Finder tool, it’s here today: Find Duplicate entries in your collection!

New: Find Duplicate Movies

Open the menu top left and select Find Duplicates to begin.

Then select which field to find duplicates on. You can find duplicates based on:

• Title
• Title & Release Year
• Title & Format
• Barcode
• Core MovieID
• Index

Click “Find Duplicates” and see what it comes up with. Use the blue “Keep” button to keep a group of duplicates, or use the red “Remove” button to remove a duplicate!

If you click “Remove all duplicates automatically”, it will remove all duplicate entries and will only keep 1 single entry (the oldest one) in your collection.

Tip: use the columns button, top right, to set up the columns you’d like to see!

We changed the Add Movies screen so you now see the movie poster if we don’t have a front cover available for you. We also got rid of some bugs today, check it out:

New:

• Drag & drop of images from a webbrowser was broken

Fixed:

• Drag & drop of images from a webbrowser was broken
• Grouping on “My Rating” didn’t work sometimes
• Some year entries weren’t set correctly
• Removing entries from the Link screen was not possible with keyboard
• Edit in List behaviour modified for dropdown field types
• Add Episode: When you click “Next”, the episode title is now selected so you can quickly enter a title.
• Add Box Set by barcode: when searching for 1 single barcode, you can now add it correctly as multiple movies, or one single entry using the two add buttons.

Another big step forward for our cloud-based Connect software, making it even more customizable:

The columns in List View are now resizable. That is, you can now change the width of the columns by simply dragging the dividers between the column headers. Hover your mouse over the divider and it will turn blue, then drag it make the column wider or narrower.

TIP: double click the divider to make the column auto-size to its’ current content!

See it in action:

Do you prefer the automatic column widths, the way it was before? No problem, just go to the Settings screen and enable the “Size columns automatically” settings.

Changed:

• Bigger buttons for the find cover screen and options screen,
• You can now also find duplicates based on CLZ Movie ID, IMDb URL and “Title & Format”

Fixed:

• Filter Screen: Drag/Drop of pre-set filters could give an Access Violation error
• Duplicate Finder:
  • Updated the standard set of columns (you can also pick your own using the column button top right)
  • After searching for duplicates twice, the screen could show “0 found” even if it found duplicates
• When running the program on 2 or more screens with different DPI settings, you could get a “List Index out of Bounds” error
• You can now bypass the “Lock File” warning if it appears on start up
• Add buttons in the Add Screen are now disabled while data is being downloaded to prevent an Access Violation
• Filtering on number of IMDb Votes “less or greater than” didn’t work correctly.

We’re on a roll! Here’s yet another BIG update of your Movie Collector for Windows software, bringing two more huge improvements, again made possible by our new content licensing agreement with IMDB:

1. Add Movies straight from IMDb, using the IMDb Number or URL
2. Now get “official” IMDb Cast and Crew lists for ALL movies in our Core

1. Add Movies by IMDb Number or URL

In this version, there is new “IMDb” tab in the Add Movies screen, for finding and adding movies straight from their IMDb Nr or URL.

Can’t find a movie in our Core? But it is on IMDb?
Then just find the movie on IMDb and copy either the IMDb Nr or the entire UMDb URL. Then go to the new IMDb tab and paste the Nr or URL into the search box, and click Search.

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!

(Don’t worry, if it turns out the movie WAS already in our Core, it will automatically just return the existing entry, it will never cause duplicate entries in our Core.)

IMPORTANT: this new Add by IMDb feature always requires an active Service Plan!

Search by IMDb Nr:

Or just paste in the complete IMDB URL of the movie:

2. Official IMDb Cast and Crew list for all movies

Starting with this version, the Movie Collector software now downloads the “official” cast and crew from IMDb, that is the top 25 actors and the full list of Producers, Directors, Writers, Photography and Musicians.

Also, the cast list now comes with IMDb links for ALL cast members!

TIP 1: set the Max Actors / Crew members to 25

1. Go to menu “Tools > Options”.
2. Click on “Data and Images” and select “Download settings for data and images”
3. Change both the amount of Actors and Crew members to 25

TIP 2: Set Update from Core settings for Cast and Crew to “REPLACE”

If you wish to update your existing movie entries with the maximum amount of cast/crew entries:

1. First, go to the same screen as above and under “Update from CLZ Core”, next to “Cast” and “Crew” set the dropdown to “REPLACE” and click OK to save your changes.
2. Back in your main screen: select the movies you want to update, right click, then choose Update from Core.

( After updating, make sure to set setting back to “Update empty fields only”. )

A couple of fixes for Movie Collector Mac today with squashed bugs that you reported to us:

Fixed:

• Add Screen: Searching an IMDb URL or Title gave invalid XML if they contained “&” in them
• Add Screen: Barcode scanning with CLZ Barry or CueCat didn’t work
• Link with CLZ Core screen didn’t find any results
• Editing the personal rating in the template and edit screens missed the star images
• Templates stopped working if an “&” was in some of the fields

We’re on a roll! Here’s yet another BIG update of your Movie Collector for Mac software, with 3 important additions!

1. Add Movies straight from IMDb, using the IMDb Number or URL
2. Now get “official” IMDb Cast and Crew lists for ALL movies in our Core
3. Also, new support for 12 digital movie formats, complete with icons and logos

1. Add Movies by IMDb Number or URL

More goodies made possible by our agreement with IMDb! Introduced today, a new “IMDb” tab in the Add Movies screen for finding and adding movies straight from their IMDb Nr or URL.

Can’t find a movie in our Core? But it is on IMDb?
Then just find the movie on IMDb and copy either the IMDb Nr or the entire UMDb URL. Then go to the new IMDb tab and paste the Nr or URL into the search box, and click Search.

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!

(Don’t worry, if it turns out the movie WAS already in our Core, it will automatically just return the existing entry, it will never cause duplicate entries in our Core.)

IMPORTANT: this new Add by IMDb feature always requires an active Service Plan!

Search by IMDb Nr:

Or just paste in the complete IMDB URL of the movie:

2. Official IMDb Cast and Crew list for all movies

Starting with this version, the Movie Collector software now downloads the “official” cast and crew from IMDb, that is the top 25 actors and the full list of Producers, Directors, Writers, Photography and Musicians.

Also, the cast list now comes with IMDb links for ALL cast members!

TIP 1: set the Max Actors / Crew members to 25

1. Go to menu “Movie Collector > Preferences”.
2. Click on “Data and Images” and select “Download settings for data and images”
3. Change both the amount of Actors and Crew members to 25

TIP 2: Set Update from Core settings for Cast and Crew to “REPLACE”

If you wish to update your existing movie entries with the maximum amount of cast/crew entries:

1. First, go to the same screen as above and under “Update from CLZ Core”, next to “Cast” and “Crew” set the dropdown to “REPLACE”.
2. Then select the movies you want to update, right click, then choose Update from Core.

( After updating, make sure to set setting back to “Update empty fields only”. )

3. New options and icons for digital movie formats

With digital movie formats becoming more popular, we have decided to add the most popular ones to the Format list, all with nice new icons and logos.

Now available as new Format choices:

• Amazon Prime Video
• Apple iTunes
• Google Play
• Vudu
• Roku
• Microsoft Movies & TV
• Playstation Video
• Netflix
• Youtube
• Hulu
• Disney+
• Movies Anywhere

With digital movie formats becoming more popular, we have decided to add the most popular ones to the “format picker” drop down in the Add Movies screen, all with nice new icons, separated in “Physical” and “Digital” sections.

Now available as new Format choices:

• Amazon Prime Video
• Apple iTunes
• Google Play
• Vudu
• Roku
• Microsoft Movies & TV
• Playstation Video
• Netflix
• Youtube
• Hulu
• Disney+
• Movies Anywhere

Some fixes today for the Find Duplicates screen:

Fixed

• Keep and Remove buttons weren’t sizing correctly on high DPI screens
• Renamed “Exact Duplicate” option to “All Fields” to make its purpose more clear

Based on user feedback we found out users were looking for and expecting a tool to find duplicate entries in their database. Some way to find out if you’ve accidentally added multiple versions of the same movie, but perhaps with a different format or barcode.

After quite a few requests and discussions with users about this, to find out how they got duplicates and what they would expect from such a Duplicate Finder tool, it’s here today: Find Duplicate entries in your database!

New: Find Duplicate Movies

Click menu Tools > Maintenance > Find Duplicates to begin.

Then select which field to find duplicates on. You can find duplicates based on:

• Title
• Title & Release Year
• Barcode
• Index
• Exact Duplicate

Click “Find Duplicates” and see what it comes up with. Use the blue “Keep” button to keep a group of duplicates, or use the red “Remove” button to remove a duplicate!

If you click “Remove all duplicates automatically” the program will remove all duplicate entries and will only keep 1 single entry (the oldest one) in your database.

Tip: use the columns button, top right, to set up the columns you’d like to see!

More goodies made possible by our agreement with IMDb! Introduced today, a new “IMDb” tab in the Add Movies screen for finding and adding movies straight from their IMDb Nr or URL.

Can’t find a movie in our Core? But it is on IMDb?
Then just find the movie on IMDb and copy either the IMDb Nr or the entire UMDb URL. Then go to the new IMDb tab and paste the Nr or URL into the search box, and click Search.

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!

(Don’t worry, if it turns out the movie WAS already in our Core, it will automatically just return the existing entry, it will never cause duplicate entries in our Core.)

Search by IMDb Nr:

Or just paste in the complete IMDB URL of the movie:

Because the version we released yesterday was built with a new Xcode, the program automatically supported Mojave’s “Dark Mode”. Unfortunately, we all run “Light Mode” here, and we didn’t see that the program looked completely wrong in Dark Mode!

We do plan to support Dark Mode on Mojave, but this is a different project and will be addressed later this year.

Fixed:

• Mojave’s Dark Mode made the program look bad so we switched the program to light mode for now.
• Export to XML, Text, and other export functions were broken
• Images Shelves styles were broken.

Trial Mode improvements:

• Bigger “+” button on the default toolbar.
• Improved “My CLZ Account” messaging when logging in with a CLZ Account.
• New hints to Sync with CLZ Cloud after adding some items.
• Removed the ugly blue “hint box” that appeared when starting with an empty database.

Only supports macOS 10.9 or higher

This is the first version to not support macOS 10.8 Mountain Lion anymore.

To stay current with Apple we’ve just updated to Xcode (the software used to create Movie Collector for macOS). In order to do this we had to drop support for macOS 10.8 (Mountain Lion) from 2012 as Apple doesn’t support it anymore in Xcode.

If you still use macOS 10.8, make sure to not upgrade Movie Collector to this version.

Fixed:

• Auto-mark custom images didn’t flag items as “dirty” for the sync.
• Drag and drop image on Details Panel to change the front cover was broken.
• Index number sometimes didn’t increment correctly.
• Changing order of movies in a box set could crash the program.