Putting order in our multimedia collections
Makradar Technologies / / December 29, 2020
Books. Music. Movie. Photos. All this has long been a part of our life. We have preferences, and according to different criteria, we collect our collections of discs, books, media files. When the collection is small, then the required search item is easy and simple to find. And if you have been collecting a collection for a long time? If you are very diverse in genre preferences? Then the need for cataloging arises: by types of media, by genres, by types of information carriers.
And therefore, today we are going to talk about catalogers for media content. I deliberately removed the catalogers of documents (there are some) and office files, as well as others, designed to account for something "not multimedia".
Consider this topic, I want to use the example of several, the most striking, in my opinion, programs: DiskLibrary, CDFinder, Librarian Pro and "quartet" from Bruji: CDpedia, DVDpedia, Bookpedia and Gamepedia.
The choice of cataloguers on Mac OS is certainly not limited to these programs, but I found them to be the most functional and striking. Therefore, I took the liberty of recommending to dear readers.
So, let's begin:
Four programs from Bruji. An interesting idea is to divide cataloguers by type and purpose, which made a single cataloguer more flexible in its direction. After all, most of these programs strive to bring everything together: music, films, audiobooks and e-books, software, etc. And what a sin to be honest, most often such “average” cataloguers suffer from a lack of fields for data entry and subsequent search / sorting by him. But books and, say, music have completely different data parameters. So you have to “get out” and “be smart” by adjusting the “common” fields to fit your needs.
Bruji chose a different path: each type has its own catalog. This gave us a targeted program on the one hand, and on the other quadrupled Bruji's revenue. For example, I have bought 3 programs out of four. And even taking into account the wholesale discount, the price of the film-audio-book catalog came out to me at $ 42. Whether it is a lot or a little is up to you. I don’t regret buying, because the convenience of work that I get is worth this amount.
And what do we actually have? Let's consider one of the four programs as an example. Let it be DVDpedia.
- Flexible interface customization, where all necessary data fields are taken into account, as well as the ability to create your own. The last very important addition that a small number of cataloguers have.
- Sorting, not only by displayed fields, but also by tags. And also the ability to create folders and subfolders (collections) and smart folders based on one of the specified parameters.
- Searching for information about the movie in the databases of Internet services (the list contains almost all imaginable databases, including IMDb, as well as the ability to add search servers manually), and autocomplete forms by fields if successful search.
- Data search by barcode (from the disc box) filmed with the built-in camera (iSight & scanner integration)
- View collections in Cover Flow and Full Screen.
- Ability to set hyperlinks to images and other multimedia files, Video_TS folders, URL links to various sites.
- Integration with Front Row, AppleTV, Quick Look, Address book, Spotlight
- Export information of collections or the entire catalog in HTML (several ready-made, nice forms are offered. Even the iPhone browser format is), text, CSV. and its own format. Direct export of directories to Mobile Me, FTP, and even iPod.
- Large selection of add-ons and plugins.
- Interaction with the Wishlist collection
- Works with Apple Remote and Bluetooth devices.
- The design is entirely in the MAK style.
As you can see, in terms of the listed features, this is a fairly powerful application, and with regular updates. In my opinion, one of the best, which fully pays for its price in 18$ for 1 program, rich in functionality.
What I have cited as an example on DVDpedia is present in exactly the same amount and variety on three other Bruji catalogers. Accordingly, CDpedia is for Audio CDs and MP3s, Bookpedia is for Paper and E-books (I also use it for audiobooks) and Gamepedia is a catalog of games.
When I made a choice at one time, in addition to the ability to flexibly configure data fields, I paid special attention to the search in Internet databases and convenient export to HTML and CSV, which makes it possible to always export data from Bruji catalogs to some others, including on Windows and Linux platforms.
Now let's move on to the next interesting program.
Librarian Pro Is a multifunctional all-in-one cataloger. Allows you to organize data by books, music, movies, games, as well as computer applications and devices.
Unlike the aforementioned Bruji, all this data is stored under one roof, but the developers have divided it into sections themselves. It's comfortable. From the heading icons, it is immediately clear to which category the catalog belongs. Moreover, just like in Bruji, each section has its own fields that are characteristic of this particular type of information. (books, movies, music, software, games), but at the same time the interface is not so flexible, and does not give the opportunity to create their fields.
I also consider it a disadvantage to collect so much information in one database. If you have a decent collection of books, movies, audio CDs, etc., you can imagine how much this database will weigh and how long it will take to run.
But to each his own. For many, I think this option will suit Bruji more, and the price in $29.95 much less if you need the functionality of all types of media data. What does this cataloguer offer us?
- Search for information on Amazon (Canada, USA, United Kingdom, Japan, Germany and France) and auto-complete forms by fields upon successful search.
- Search for data by barcode (from the disc box) filmed with the built-in camera or USB Barcode Scanner
- Creation of collection folders and “smart collections” (smart folders) according to the specified criteria.
- Ability to keep track of the "list of debtors" with personalization of contacts through the Address book and direct e-mail to the "debtor".
- Search for duplicate data.
- Import of data from catalogs Bruji, Delicious Library, iTunes. From text and CSV files.
- Automatic creation of a directory of installed programs by scanning the "Programs" folder, with the ability to add a large amount of additional information about the program: from the rating, to links to the manufacturer's website and terms licenses.
- Import contacts from Address Book. In principle, it can be useful only except for the list of "debtors".
- Export to HTML (not as beautiful and versatile as Bruji's, but quite functional, and suitable for posting on a personal site or importing into another program), Test and own format files.
- Also direct export to iPod
- The design is quite MAC-style, but without Cover Flow and Full Screen. Display only in the form of a table and icons, and it somehow smacks of "Windows"
As you can see, the functionality is smaller than Bruji, but quite sufficient for a complete base of your collection.
And finally, the most interesting thing for switchers: Librarian Pro is a multi-platform program that works with one type of database for both Mac OS and Windows. This makes life much easier for users who have large databases executed in cataloguers of this type on Windows (for example, Collmate). It is enough to easily export your data to Librarian Pro on Windows, and then simply open this database in a program for Mac OS.
Having considered a couple of multifunctional type cataloging programs, let's move on to a couple of simpler, but very popular ones.
Those who actively used programs like "Where Is It?" On Windows they are actively looking for an analogue on Mac OS, and there is such a program, and more than one. The brightest and best representative of cataloging scanners is CDFinder.
CDFinder Is one of my favorite programs. Its operation is simple and straightforward: it scans data on a CD, DVD or HDD and makes a "cast" of the contents. Folders, subfolders, the contents of these folders, everything leaves a trace in the form of a kind of shortcuts. One scan - one image. For example, you store your archives of movies or music or photos on DVD-R. Having scanned the disk with the program, you will receive an exact image of the data, but only in the form of shortcuts.
You can create collections by type and theme, and then put these images into the appropriate folders.
You can do the same with the data on the HDD by selecting the entire screw, which, in my opinion, is inconvenient, as well as individual folders.
The process is almost instantaneous and completely simple. For those who do not want to mess around and fill in a bunch of fields in a database like the cataloguers above, or for for those who simply do not need this, this program will be enough to quickly bring their collections to order. The main thing is that the content of your CD-DVD-HDD media is adequate, and not a collection of scattered content.
But in any case, you can always find the file you need with a correct and quick search in the program itself.
And do not forget that the images created by the program are shortcuts. Therefore, if the DVD is in the drive, and the HDD is connected to your Mac, then you can run the found file directly from the program.
Of the minuses, it is worth noting the complete unsuitability of this program for maintaining a catalog of DVD and Auduo CD disks, so how, having scanned, we will teach the Video_TS + Audio_TS folders on the DVD and the list of files such as Track 1, Track 2 on the Audio CD. But this is already the cost of technology.
Of the functions, it is also worth noting:
- Ability to assign tags and labels
- Ability to create groups of collections
- Write a comment (which is not easy to reach later)
- Indexing the contents of ZIP, TAR, StuffIt, RAR archives (over 4GB in size)
- Preview for video files
- Reads MP3, AAC, AIFF and WAVE metadata and MP3 and AAC embedded iTunes Lyrics
- Support for iPhoto Libraries and Locr Service
- Accessing the CDFinder database over the network
- Search drives and directories with Spotlight
- AppleScript support
Not so little. At the same time, do not forget that this type of program implies simple data storage in the form of scan images. The price of the program is not small: $ 39.99. So there is something to think about.
Well, at the end of this small review, the last of the cataloging programs I recommend.
DiskLibrary - is considered a direct competitor to CDFinder. The program is also built on the ideology of scanning and creating an image of folders / disks. The main functions are the same as in CDFinder: maintaining catalogs of media collections stored on CD, DVD and HDD. For each scanned object, the entire directory structure is saved. Therefore, if, for example, you store large collections on a USB-HDD, you can either scan the entire disk, and then scroll through the folders when searching (you can use built-in search) or, scan separate folders of the external screw and create one thematic from folders with media content stored on different HDDs smart collection. For example, if these are movies, create a smart folder by genre, and summarize there all your movies of this genre stored on different external HDDs, DVD-Rs, etc.
In order to add a folder or disk to a directory, just drag the icon of the desired object (Drag and Drop) to the sidebar of the open DiskLibrary program. But I want to warn you right away that if you add a disk / folder with a large number of files, then this process will take a long time. And by the way, much more than in CDFinder. Perhaps this is due to more detailed processing of the content of the added object. So adding a folder with a large number of jpg files took me over half an hour.
Unfortunately, the program does not know how to group collections (unlike CDFinder), so if the collection is voluminous, all hope is for samart folders, which, in my opinion, is not very convenient.
Now about a couple of exceptional features, thanks to which, DiskLibrary, may seem especially interesting to some users
a) Importing data from "Where Is It?" in the XML file. For switches switching from Windows, perhaps it will be decisive in choosing a program of this type, if they used exactly "Where Is It?" However, I would like to note that export as a collection did not work out correctly for me, but transferring "by disk"... it's easier to scan the collection again. It will come out a little slower, but an order of magnitude more informative. For DiskLibrary puts on blades "Where Is It?" "One left" in terms of functionality.
b) In version 1.9 we added support for Quick Look.
What, the program can, in addition to the above:
- Indexing the contents of ZIP and RAR archives
- Readable metadata: AAC / MP3 tags, as well as XMP / EXIF / IPTC in photo data, PDF info, Word / RTF information data and video file metadata
- Preview for video, audio, PDF and text files. I'll preview the archives.
- Search drives and directories with Spotlight + import comments.
- Search by keywords, date, category, status, genre, size.
- Creation of smart folders according to established criteria and search results.
- Import of catalogs besides the mentioned "Where Is It?" also from applications CDFinder, FileFinder, DiskTracker and others in XML format and TXT (taking into account that import in these formats will not give us all the delights of DiskLibrary, in the form of previews and metadata files)
As you can see, DiskLibrary is very similar to CDFinder, but it has a lot of distinctive features. CDFinder is strong in some ways, DiskLibrary in others. They are so similar and so different. And even their price is similar. DiskLibrary license cost $39
There is one more similar feature in all programs like CDFinder and DiskLibrary: since they are "sharpened" for creation images, then adding new items to the collection occurs by re-scanning (updating) the existing folder / disk. And of course the main data is taken from the files themselves. If you want to have a full-fledged database with your own fields, criteria, links, etc., then you should pay attention to programs like Bruji-pedia and Librarian Pro.
In today's roundup, I looked at only 4 narrowly focused catalogers. But if you turn around, you can count several dozen of different degrees of complexity, and with different capabilities. But there are also catalogers, documents, programs and licenses, offline items (furniture, wine, coins, stamps, etc.) The main thing is to think in time so that then many months would not be spent on filling out the forms of catalogs already collected collections. After all, adding a new disc, or a few new collection items - it takes a few minutes, and "clogging" the accumulated over the years... it will take a long time. I know from myself.
If you want to know something in more detail, or if you are in doubt. Write.
Yours sincerely, Andrey B. Barkhatov