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Quoting Marcccc:
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Certainly there must be someone out there who wishes to keep this software going? I don’t understand the plan here.
FYI, a couple of years ago I emailed Ken and proposed the idea of pursuing a collaboration of users that wanted to invest and own the company. Never got an answer to the email, but I always did in the past. | Posted: Topic Replies: 4, Topic Views: 166 |
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Quoting TheMadMartian:
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Quoting Marcccc:
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Certainly there must be someone out there who wishes to keep this software going? I don’t understand the plan here.
I honestly don't see the upside for someone to buy and maintain the software. As far as I can tell, without a huge overhaul to the business model, it's a money pit. I don't maintain my own servers but maintenance and bandwidth have to be costing Ken something and, without new revenue streams, it's a money pit.
Or am I wrong? 
I think you are absolutely correct. That is the reason I get so annoyed with people who are constantly complaining about things - even that they "paid" and "how much could it cost to run a website anyway".
It is enormously expensive for whomever is supporting the ongoing availability of the website, the database and the contributions process. Whatever is preventing the involvement of Ken Cole and program updates must be super serious. I for one am so grateful and terribly sad that an industry genius and pioneer is for whatever reason, no longer able to participate on this stage. | Posted: Topic Replies: 4, Topic Views: 166 |
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Quoting scotthm:
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Quoting mediadogg:
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If that is meant to be some sort of retort, your point escapes me. You could quote the entire forum as reminders. The only thing that embodies our legal entitlement is the license agreement.
It was meant as an addendum to this thread.
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Ah, sorry I misunderstood. You are wise and patient with the old man. | Posted: Topic Replies: 62, Topic Views: 21277 |
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Quoting scotthm:
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Quoting mediadogg:
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As a reminder, this is the license agreement we agree to when installing DVD Profiler on the PC:
As a reminder, here is the last message I remember seeing from Ken, on February 25, 2024
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One additional note: We're aware of the Android app absence, and will be working to resolve soon.
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If that is meant to be some sort of retort, your point escapes me. You could quote the entire forum as reminders. The only thing that embodies our legal entitlement is the license agreement. | Posted: Topic Replies: 62, Topic Views: 21277 |
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As a reminder, this is the license agreement we agree to when installing DVD Profiler on the PC:
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The software is licensed to you for use only under the terms of this agreement, on a single computer. The software may be installed on more than one computer, if there is no possibility that it will be used on more than one computer at a time.
This license is non-transferable.
You acknowledge that the software contains trade secrets and other proprietary information of Invelos Software, Inc and its licensors. Except to the extent expressly permitted by this Agreement or by the laws of the jurisdiction where you are located, you may not decompile, disassemble or otherwise reverse engineer the software, or engage in any other activities to obtain underlying information that is not visible to the user in connection with normal use of the software.
The license granted to you is effective until terminated. You may terminate it at any time by uninstalling the software and destroying any copies of the software. Upon termination, Invelos Software, Inc. may also enforce any rights provided by law. The provisions of this agreement that protect the proprietary rights of Invelos Software, Inc. will continue in force after termination.
This software accesses information from the DVD Profiler Online Database. You agree to restrict your use of this information to personal use as it relates to the DVD Profiler program. Under no circumstances will you reverse engineer the data formats, or use this information in a commercial or public manner, with the exception of abilities designed and incorporated into DVD Profiler.
Warranty
There is no warranty express or implied from Invelos Software, Inc. You acknowledge that this software may not perform as desired, and may interfere with other installed software. You further agree to hold harmless Invelos Software, Inc. in the event of damage to applications or data caused by this software.
This warranty gives you specific legal rights, and you may also have other rights which vary from country/state to country/state. Some countries/states do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, so the above exclusion may not apply to you.
Indy Components Terms and License
Portions of this software are Copyright (c) 1993 - 2001, Chad Z. Hower (Kudzu) and the Indy Pit Crew - http://www.nevrona.com/Indy/
License
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation, about box and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
No personal names or organizations names associated with the Indy project may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission of the specific individual or organization.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY Chad Z. Hower (Kudzu) and the Indy Pit Crew "AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. | Posted: Topic Replies: 62, Topic Views: 21277 |
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| Oops, I replied to an old post. Sorry. | Posted: Topic Replies: 37, Topic Views: 28635 |
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Wow! Above my pay grade, but I can appreciate the impressive achievement.  | Posted: Topic Replies: 18, Topic Views: 2611 |
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Quoting AlunH:
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Quoting dobrzpe:
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yea, but you are failing to realize: i bet people (MYSELF INCLUDED) would rather have info in the profile than NO INFO WHATSOEVER. i, too, have been using it since it was Invocative. i've submitted several profiles back in the day and they were rejected. so i said to myself, fine - i won't help out. now, for the last 18+ years, if it's not in the database, i have to go through the pain of putting in BASIC info and cover image myself. (no cast info, which REALLY sucks...)
i'd just be nice to have the info there, THEN if someone sees a mistake, and wants to fix it - GO FOR IT!
pulling from IMDB or even TMDB would be better than NOTHING.
But pulling IMDb info is illegal - that material is protected by copyright. Pulling their data (which is easily checked because of the mistakes) will get this site shut down.
I think it all depends on what you mean by "pulling". If I am reading from multiple sources, including IMDB, the list of cast and roles and I own the DVD and looking at the credits on the cover or from the screen and putting that information into DVD Profiler, IMHO that could not be construed as illegal. All the information is public knowledge. I agree that using an automated process, such as a computer to collect and extract from the proprietary presentation or database representation of the information might be construed as illegal. That's why Invelos rules do not allow contributing information gathered that way. To contribute, one is supposed to promise that all information has been verified by watching the movie credits directly or extracting directly from the DVD covers. Once this verification has been done, there is no way to tell what process the user employed to gather the information. | Posted: Topic Replies: 18, Topic Views: 2611 |
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| Whoa, forgot all about TMDb. I signed up for the API 11 years ago!!! I don't remember why I didn't incorporate it into Contribution Assistant. | Posted: Topic Replies: 14, Topic Views: 1569 |
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Quoting hydr0x:
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Quoting sneaks66:
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There should be a way to remove the "Wish List" from the "All" group of movies, as to me, the "All" are ones that I have and should not include ones that I don't have...
Patrick
That makes no sense. The very purpose of the "All" tab is to have a way to show ALL profiles in your database. It's the only way to search across all of them.
If it annoys you, just remove it from your display. Right click the category/tab list > Other > Edit Collection Categories > Hide built-in categories: "All"
There is no need for such drastic measures. As I explained, "Owned" is what he needs. Maybe he didn't realize. | Posted: Topic Replies: 4, Topic Views: 742 |
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Quoting sneaks66:
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There should be a way to remove the "Wish List" from the "All" group of movies, as to me, the "All" are ones that I have and should not include ones that I don't have...
Patrick
That is the purpose of "Owned". Owned = All - WishList - Ordered - Custom Categories not included in owned (user choice) | Posted: Topic Replies: 4, Topic Views: 742 |
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| Good that you removed the email address. But you might continue to wait for solutions to your issue, longer than if you go ahead and post in the Desktop Technical Support forum as I suggested. That's where experienced people usually look for ways to help out. | Posted: Topic Replies: 3, Topic Views: 786 |
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| I highly recommend that you delete your post and repost in the Desktop Technical Support Forum. And do not expose your email. There are a lot of spammers watching this forum. | Posted: Topic Replies: 3, Topic Views: 786 |
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Quoting AlunH:
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It wouldn't be free to pull information from IMDb. Quite the reverse, in fact, and I've long suspected that some of the silence here has been caused by users pulling info from the IMDb in the first place.
I submit a lot of full casts to the database. Sometimes I check the listings on the IMDb in case I've misread a credit. I have yet to find a single IMDb entry that doesn't contain a mistake.
You are correct. In fact there are plugins which allow automatic review of IMDB information. However, the Invelos rules make it clear that submitted data must be verified and validated by actually watching the movie and credits or extracting the information from the DVD packaging in specific ways.
That being said, assuming the result of a submission is absolutely accurate, and if the corresponding IMDB entry is also accurate, then how can one tell how the entries were generated? IMDB cannot "own" the raw data, only the its digital encapsulation and presentation. That's my opinion, so as long as the process of transferring the data from all sources comes from diligent study and interpretation of publicly presented information, it seems to me to be perfectly legal.
It will not be long before a clever AI coder could make a script that says "Build an Invelos profile for UPC xxxxx released in Denmark in 1947", and a few seconds later the profile will be saved in your download folder. The AI would have as its database, the entire internet, so that its code would resolve discrepancies and perform the equivalent of a common name definition, birth year assignment and correlation among aliases. | Posted: Topic Replies: 18, Topic Views: 2611 |
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I just ran DVDPca for a random disc I picked out of my collection. It is the DVD disc A4E7E60D384E5317 from a multi disc collection that includes the BD also.
Here is a screen shot of the captured information. I use DVDFab these days, not AnyDVD.
Captain America DVD | Posted: Topic Replies: 18, Topic Views: 2611 |
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If there are any adventuresome programmers out there, I have an idea: I have noticed over the years, a gradual improvement in software that scans images for text. A clever programmer could write a nice app to allow quick text extraction of profile information from sections of the scanned covers.
There are also some new web page parsing packages out there, that allow for fast retrieval and aggregation of internet data ("screen scraping"). I would be happy to share tips and tricks I have used to deduce locality and country of origin and normalization of language specific characters in order to correlate information from multiple searches.
Send me a PM if you have any questions. | Posted: Topic Replies: 18, Topic Views: 2611 |
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In case people wonder about getting information off the disc programmatically, I can tell you that for the most part "it is not there." I have (had? - not sure if it still works) a plugin called DVDPCa ("Contribution Assistant").
Its original purpose was to automatically pull profile information off a DVD and build an Invelos profile. I even had dreams of scanning the credit images and convert to text.
Needless it to say, I was not able to reach that lofty goal, even after many hundreds of hours of in-depth study of the DVD internal format and coding.
But I was able to:
- Get DiscID for DVDs (I don't remember if I got it for BDs)
- Find a very small amount of cast / crew info, when it was there
- Sometimes could get title and a some genre info
- Audio and video tracks
- Region info
- Subtitles info
- Some special features info
- Some guesses about extra video bonus features
Complications arose due to lack of standards for what data is available, and enforcing its availability. And sometimes there are even errors compared with what is on the DVD cover.
I borrowed code from the old open source versions of DVDInfo and BDInfo, and added a lot of my own code and research. And then there is the problem of encryption, so AnyDVD or something like it, must be installed for me to get to the internal data.
Feel free to mess with the plugin. See if it even still works, or whether it provides any value to you. If it crashes, I will fix it to the point where at least it runs - but I'm not sure I can do much more than I did originally in terms of getting profile info. | Posted: Topic Replies: 18, Topic Views: 2611 |
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| Oops, already posted by rdodolak. | Posted: Topic Replies: 4, Topic Views: 1074 |
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The "4K" DVDs are not only high resolution. They also adhere to the "HD" standards, which improves and stabilizes colors, brightness and provides superior audio. I agree that upscaled materials don't always effectively exploit the new standards, but material that was designed for it, or that was remasterd from material that had the resolution, video depth and audio quality to allow conversion to 4K HD, definitely is markedly superior to regular DVDs and BDs.
If you have the correct equipment, you will see and hear the difference. People who don't have the proper equipment are not motivated to buy BD / 4K because they cannot experience the difference. | Posted: Topic Replies: 241, Topic Views: 53515 |
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| So grateful for your efforts. | Posted: Topic Replies: 3, Topic Views: 2171 |
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I agree with Gunnar's comments. Nice work!
(says deleted ...) | Posted: Topic Replies: 4, Topic Views: 2345 |
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| Was using TurboCLT today. Man what a masterpiece that is. | Posted: Topic Replies: 12, Topic Views: 12555 |
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| Thanks. I copied the link, pasted, fixed the typo and it worked. | Posted: Topic Replies: 69, Topic Views: 18517 |
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| I can't reach the site. | Posted: Topic Replies: 69, Topic Views: 18517 |
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| Wow, I love it when the communications architecture we crafted together supports diagnosis and recovery. Apparently, at least so far, we anticipated the things you would need to know. | Posted: Topic Replies: 50, Topic Views: 32929 |