Movie Collector 6.4.1 Customization

Over the years, my family has purchased hundreds of movies, both new and used. We use Movie Collector™ from Collectorz.com to catalog the movies we own, since we have so many. It allows us to track DVDs we've loaned to other family members, track when we've watched movies and give our own rating to a movie. Movies can be categorized by genre, so that if you want to watch a particular type of movie some night, say an action or comedy movie, you can search by genre among those you own. We like anime, so own lots of anime series. If we're going out shopping, we can use the Movie Collector database to easily determine what DVDs we have yet to purchase for a particular series we've been watching. If it's been awhile since we watched a particular one, it's often hard to remember what the next number is in the series that we don't have yet.

My wife and I have laptops and desktop computer and we like to be able to access the database from any computer. The Movie Collector license allows you to install the software on multiple computers, as long as you aren't using it on more than one system at a time. But, in it's default configuration, it assumes its movie database is stored on the system from which you are running the software. But it is relatively easy to configure it to use a network location, instead, and configure the software on each system to use that location.

Inside the program, click on File, then select Open Database. Then select the network location for the database.

That will change a registry at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Collectorz.com\Movie\Databases. E.g., suppose the movie database is stored on a system named MyServer under a directory named Movie Collector within a shared folder named Home. The following registry modification would occur within that registry key:

NameTypeData
DataREG_SZ \\MyServer\Home\Movie Collector\

Another regisry key under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Collectorz.com\Movie\Databases also gets updated to point to the exact movie database you are using. E.g., if your movie database was named smiths_movies.mvc, it would hold the following:

NameTypeData
CurrentDatabaseREG_SZ \\MyServer\Home\Movie Collector\smiths_movies.mvc\

You would likely want to save images for the covers and backs of the DVDs plus the thumbnail versions of those images at the same location. When you install Movie Collector on a system, it creates an Images and a Thumbnails directory within the default directory where it expects to place databases. But, since we want those to be accessible from the central location on the server, I change the Default Folder for Image Files and Default Folder for Thumbnail Files as well. Those can be changed by clicking on Tools and selecting Options and then changing the directories for those two options.

Before

Images original location

After

Images original location

That change would alter registry values under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Collectorz.com\Movie\Settings.

NameTypeData
ImageBaseFolderREG_SZ \\MyServer\Home\Databases\Movie Collector\Images\
ThumbnailBaseFolderREG_SZ \\MyServer\Home\Databases\Movie Collector\Thumbnails\

If you don't see some of the thumbnails, as in the case for Aeon Flux below, you may need to regenerate a particular thumbnail image.

Movie Collector thumbnail image missing

You can do so by right-clicking on the gears image that appears where you would expect the thumbnail image to appear and then choosing Regenerate Thumbnail.

Movie Collector thumbnail image regenerated

You will probably also want to change the User Templates Folder and User Files Folder settings under the General tab within the Options settings. Movie Collector creates a Templates folder when you install it, so I use a Templates folder under the network location as well.

Before

Movie Collector User Files and Templates folders

After

Movie Collector User Files and Templates folders

Movie Collector changes registry settings when you close it, so after you've made the changes for the User Templates Folder and the User Files Folder, the following registry changes would be made for the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Collectorz.com\Movie\Folders.

NameTypeData
UserFilesREG_SZ \\MyServer\Home\Databases\Movie Collector\
UserTemplatesREG_SZ \\Dark-Crystal\Home\Databases\Movie Collector\Templates\

Valid HTML 4.01 Transitional