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Mawu
Senior Member
Germany
1028 Posts |
 Posted - 26 Nov 2012 : 13:57:05
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why I don't update at the moment
I have to admit that I didn' t tested the last versions as there are only small bugfixes and no fundamental changes. Now it is the first time that my nickname appears in the changelog of a software.  Time to re-review the new version. The conclusion I've already posted in the headline: I don't plan to switch to xMM 8 for the near future and stick with xMM7. At the moment for me this version is by far the best movie manager available. Therefore I'm irritated a little bit that some people want to say goodbye and plan to switch to other software. I know them all - the DVD Profilers, Movie Collectors and My Movies managers. If you skim the surface they are missing fundamental features that are standard in xMM for ages. Therefore it's better to use xMM7 and to see xMM8 still as a beta version.
There three simple reasons to stay with xMM7:
1. missing of essential features in xMM8
2. features that do not work
3. lack of time and patience: adjusting the old database from xMM7 is damn hard work as I have to update 1200 movies online and manually, which means for example reading of almost 1500 discs. Point 1+2 complicate this procedure
Now I will point out this a little bit. First: the changes in the edit window:
- There were some useful re-arrangement and for the layout I've only two suggestions left: for cast&crew the add/edit/delete bar is a little bit too dominant and should be reduced in size; for the studio and distributor field you didn't follow my suggestions which is ok, but the fields are too short because of the useless awards number field
- more comboxes are necessary: codec, screen ratio, video mode, video standard, resolution, region, aquired from
- in video tab there are fields for media language, media label and discs. Do you've just forgotten to delete them? This fields are available already in audio and diks tab. When you import the old database from xMM7 media language info is imported into audio tab and media language field in video tab isn't used.
- in audio tab there is no way to add an audio stream manually. When importing my old database audio info is merged always in one audio stream. As all data a already available now it would be easier to manually edit the multi-audio streams than to read all my dvd/blu-ray again (which doesn't work anyway)
- in DVD/VHS tab between VideoDVD and UPC field an "Extras" field is missing as described in the other thread. At the moment it's not possible to import the extended features info from xMM7 database because the features field only contains checkboxes. This info for more than 1000 movies is lost! The only possible workflow: we get the extras field, import the features info from xMM7 into that field and edit the feature checkboxes manually. I see the Features Checkboxes more as a kind of tags to be able to filter the features in treeview or to put some small "feature" icons on the movie card. It's not so much for extended infos. This two fields should complement each other.
Missing Features:
- Most important: Quickedit!!!!! People want it back, please satisfy their wishes. With Quickedit I can just scroll through my collection and edit directly without bothersome double-clicks; extended editing is possible with integrated editor (in normal edit window with the small data fields it's a pain); I can define a custom layout and I can just use it instead of the movie cards for viewing my collection. I have to admit that I only use the moviecards to show other people some eye-candy stuff in order to convince them to use xMM as movie manager. For myself I prefer the quickedit view.
- cover print is also gone and have to be replaced by external solutions (which is cumbersome)
- plugins: most of all are not integrated, e.g. JDommi's stuff and most of the export plugins
- report generator: ok, we also don't have such a feature in xMM but there were some additional export features in old export manager to create some useful lists
- boxsets: ok, this option is also not perfect in xMM7 but there it's almost hidden and doesn't disturb my workflow. First problem is MovieID. When importing the whole collection from xMM7 boxets now get an MovieID but are not sorted together with the associated movies. Result: chaotic sorting. And there is no easy way to rearrange this. As posted before the boxsets are just a container for movies and shouldn't be sorted together with movies (other organisation level!). Result: MovieID is now only useful as primary key in the database. For useful sorting there must be a replacement. This can be the catalo nr.. But therefore some features available for MovieID are missing (e.g. the re-numbering features, btw.: some of these renumbering features for MovieID from xMM7 are missing even in the newest xMM8 version). Then one can label the movies with catalog nr., boxsets don't get one and both can be sorted in grid in that way:
In xMM7/8 boxset feature does not work for tv series. For this the episodes tab should be activated (when checkbox for boxset and TV-series is activated; btw: at the moment this is not possible, also transfering a movie into a boxset by activating the boxset checkbox). There the user should be able to select the episodes/seasons of the serie associated with this boxset. For movies this tab also can be used as associated movie list (with possibility to add/delete movies associated with the boxset)
Bugs:
Reading of full DVD doesn't work at all. Most of the data is not imported or just crap. I expect: xMM should recognize media label, total disk size, single layer or dual layer, disc id, recognition of main movie and correct reading of audio and video data. You only can grab the audio/video data by reading a single vob-file of the main movie at the moment. An option to read a blu-ray is missing at all.
Here I'mm stopping for now. My test only covers import of old data, edit, media reading at the moment. There are so many annoyance that I've given up to go further with the program. The new Magicscript import features and the device scanner are - maybe - fantastic, but they are useless when my imported database is pure chaos and the required tools are missing or do not work as they should or as they worked in xMM7.
Bye Byte & Happy Coding
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www.schlemmerkino.de - Die Nr.1 für filmische Leckereien |
Edited by - Mawu on 26 Nov 2012 14:06:50 |
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kirill2785
Junior Member
Israel
332 Posts |
Posted - 26 Nov 2012 : 15:40:35
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| I agree with you on most of your points bad too bad you open so many topics on the same problems, this is your third (at the least), i opened one myself long ago, this should be concentrated in one. |
kirill2785 |
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Mawu
Senior Member
Germany
1028 Posts |
Posted - 26 Nov 2012 : 17:23:43
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@kirill2785
You are right. 
Opening a new thread is always a way to reduce the level of frustration. Take it as my final statement and summary for this year.
Bye Byte
Mawu |
www.schlemmerkino.de - Die Nr.1 für filmische Leckereien |
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yan00s
Moderator
405 Posts |
Posted - 26 Nov 2012 : 23:38:04
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quote:
Originally posted by Mawu
why I don't update at the moment
- Most important: Quickedit!!!!! People want it back, please satisfy their wishes. With Quickedit I can just scroll through my collection and edit directly without bothersome double-clicks; extended editing is possible with integrated editor (in normal edit window with the small data fields it's a pain); I can define a custom layout and I can just use it instead of the movie cards for viewing my collection. I have to admit that I only use the moviecards to show other people some eye-candy stuff in order to convince them to use xMM as movie manager. For myself I prefer the quickedit view.
Maybe inline / "in grid" editing will one day be as good as it looks in the documentation and nobody would ask for an QuickEdit window anymore. 
http://documentation.devexpress.com/#GeneralInformation/CustomDocument11882/Grid |
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Alessio Viti
Forum Admin
Italy
9171 Posts |
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Masonic
Starting Member
16 Posts |
Posted - 27 Nov 2012 : 11:07:38
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| This is by far the best manager out there in terms of fields that are downloaded and the look. I use Movienizer as well but they have a horrible TV show set up, XMM is way better. So i am not giving up on XMM. |
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Alessio Viti
Forum Admin
Italy
9171 Posts |
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xMM 8.0.2.8 - The Good, the Bad and the weird or
