This has already been suggested by MHoefler (and perhaps others) elsewhere on the Forums, but I'd like to make a case for it here on the Feature Requests forum:

Create two separate on-line databases: one for Crew and Cast, one for DVD info, and have DVD Profilere downloading from both.

Explanation: following the Contribution Rules, there should be only one correct Crew and Cast list per movie, because they should always be "as credited in the movie". However, the way the central database works now impllies that for each DVD profile, the crew and cast info has to be entered and submitted again. This creates an enormous amount of (tedious) work where in fact in the vast majority of cases it is (or should be) just a duplication of info that's already in the database. (The only exceptions I can think of would be dubbed movies with voice credits for those who do the dubbing, and some anime and cartoon movies with localized voice credits. For these, the DVD Info database should have the option to add localized Crew and Cast info to the original movie credits from the Crew and Cast database.)

Wouldn't it be lovely if we would have to enter crew and cast information only once, for whichever release comes first or whichever region any movie is first released in? That way, if you're creating a new profile for either the on-line or just your local database, you could just import the info from the info in the central Invelos database on an existing release. It would save the user community massive amounts of work and creating a new profile would in many cases (especially when a movie is released in a region other than where it was produced or first released) become a breeze. Additionally, consistency of crew and cast information in the Invelos database across various releases/regions would be enhanced very significantly.

Now I'm no expert in database architecture, but I would presume it should be possible to do this, possibly through two separate databases.

Note: the realization of this feature request would make the feature requests that have already been made for the possibility to copy/paste crew and cast information from one profile to the other superfluous.

Yup, I agree - this would be a great idea.

I had suggested this in a long posting at the old Intervocative site two years ago.

Quoting TigiHof:

Quote:
Yup, I agree - this would be a great idea.

I had suggested this in a long posting at the old Intervocative site two years ago.

I've asked for it too, though it would have to be for original cast only, and cause of that there should be a way to separate the original cast. Also would like to have the movie reviews go to every release.

It's obvious that everyone who has done some database design in their life, clearly sees the limitations of DVD Profiler. Nice to see that some even have gone that far as to draw out a new database design .

However, I would like to hear Ken's point on this. Maybe he has no experience with relational databases and db design ? Maybe he thinks it is so much work that it he considers it not feasible ? Or maybe he even thinks it's not a good idea for some reason or another ?

Quoting Repter:

Quote:
See my post here .

As not everyone has access to that forum, I will duplicate that post here (the original thread was about the fact that you cannot get an accurate count of the number of dvd's you have, only the number of profiles which is a little bit different).

Quote:

In fact, I think the reason is that the data model behind DVD profiler is too flat/simple. It almost looks as if it is a database with one huge table. Some examples :
1. Every movie's details are duplicated in every release/DVD. Surely, if actor X plays in movie Y in the US DVD, he will also be in the DVD I buy in Belgium. Conversely, I added a DVD that is a free promotional issue and will therefore obviously never get updates, even though the movie is just available in plenty of other releases.
2. Every DVD which was released in multiple countries, will have its data duplicated in all those localities. E.g. most DVDs in my collection are the same ones as are released on the Dutch market. Yet, many of them are available twice in DVD Profiler, once with locality Belgium, once with locality Netherlands. I always choose the Netherlands version simply for the reason that they are updated more often because the Netherlands is quite a bit bigger than the dutch speaking part of Belgium.

It would be awesome if the following would be in separate tables :
1. people
2. movies, with foreign keys to 1 for cast, crew, etc...
3. tv-series
4. tv-series episodes, with foreign keys to 1 for cast, crew, and to 3.
5. misc contents, e.g. bonus materials, etc...
6. disks, with foreign keys to 2, 4 or 5 for specifying contents
7. packages, with foreign keys to 6. This would basically be what profiles are today. Also, the UPC should not be the primary key, as this gives issues with re-releases or different movies released with same UPC.
8. releases based on locality, with foreign keys to 7, adding just some local details: SRP, release date,...

Note that this would also solve a lot of things that are difficult today :
* having a count of all the distinct movies you have in your collection
* having a count of all disks in your collection
* having a disk with 2 movies on it (the current solution with the dividers is a bit of a hack IMHO)
* having the same disk twice, once as a stand-alone release, and once in a box set.
* having an unpopular edition of a popular movie and yet get all the movie's updates,...

BTW1: I do like DVD Profiler a lot .
BTW2: This thread should indeed not be in this Rules Committee forum...

Basically I'm just suggesting what a dozen of others have also already done. Except maybe that I would go quite far with this even separating disks from the packages they come in...

Thanks for the update, Ken !

You made me very curious, though. 

Thank's a lot for your reply.


Quoting Ken Cole:

Quote:
A small step towards reducing duplicate entry is the integrated copy/paste of cast and crew.

Can I porpose a small but important change to your statement?

Instead of allowing copy&paste I would allow the user to choose to use the exactly same cast&crew settings from an other movie. (link to an other set of cast/crew instead of copy&paste)

That means if somebody corrects the original cast/crew, the change is reflected.

Like this we would be almost there... (fundamental DB change could follow later)

Cheers, NEWT0N