I am using DVD Profiler 3.1.1-1171 on both my work laptop and my home PC.

The current online sync works like this:
1. Sign in,
2. Choose upload or download,
3. Get feedback on what will happen and confirm,
4. Transfer happens.

The first issue I have is that I have to choose download or upload before being told how many titles there are on my PC and online. I believe it would be an easy change to tell me that first, at least it would help me make sure that up/down-load is what I really want.

I'm always scared that I may have forgotten to upload my collection from one PC, then I add a DVD on the other one and end up losing some titles...

Another help from DVDP could be to remind me that I should always download before adding DVDs and then upload after that -- ideally, it should just ask me if I want to do it, and do it right now. There could be a setting to disable that, so that it doesn't annoy people who only work on one PC.

Or yet another option: Synchronize in real time. Whenever DVDP is open, it should check the online collection for changes, and automatically send updates when I change something on my PC.


Now, the bigger issue is that I have to pick up/down-load in the first place! The dream software should just synchronize intelligently: up/down-loading whatever has changed and ask me to resolve conflicts if there's any. I imagine it might need some major software rework, but I would think a modern database software should be able to do this...


Finally, how about an online DVDP, a la Web 2.0? Sometimes, I'd just like to go to any web browser, log in and add some titles to my collection, or browse my collection with the same capabilities as on the PC... (but I'm sure other topics already deal with that)

What do you think?

Maybe that could be considered as one of the upgrades, that we're allowed to upload personal info as well and use the online collection as a form of backup.
I'd also like to have the ability to select which titles are uploaded, like the backup flagged DVDs option.

Quoting northbloke:

Quote:
Maybe that could be considered as one of the upgrades, that we're allowed to upload personal info as well and use the online collection as a form of backup.

This is already the case, see my article in the DVD Knowledgebase
Addition: The whole tag-business seems to be more severe than I thought, upcoming updates see (here)

The only things that are not uploaded are covers and headshots. (for traffic and space reasons, I presume)
There are slight problems with manual entered DVDs inside boxsets(here),
and a possible problem with nested tags(here) which a will try to recreate this afternoon.

cya, Mithi

PS although I too would recommend to use the Backup-Function for real backups.

Restoring a backup doesn't necessarily overwrite an existing database.
If I remember rightly, if you untick "restore all", but then make sure all DVDs are ticked when you restore, it only overwrites those DVDs already found. Others are left alone.

Quoting northbloke:

Quote:
Just curious - why use two versions of Profiler when you have it on your mobile device?
As far as I'm aware, there is a sync capability between Profiler and Profiler Mobile.

Good question and suggestion!... But...

Since I rarely plug my pda to my PC (almost never at home), and sync'ing the pda is a manual operation, and both computers almost always have internet connection, it would be much more convenient for me if DVDP would just automagically sync over the internet.

My ideal software: I start it, it automatically connects and syncs itself, I can add titles and they will be immediately sync'd as well, ready for next time I start DVDP on the same or another PC; If there's no internet, it won't complain; If there are conflicts, it lists them somewhere and I can handle them if and when I want to. When I plug my pda, it automatically syncs the DVD list the same way.

Since I want to have my collection on my work computer, too, I bought myself another USB stick (1 GB) solely for the purpose of keeping my DVD Profiler database. I always have it with me.

Both profilers at work as well as at home are configured to open the database from the stick drive.

I'll do regular backups to my hard drive nonetheless.

Quoting DJ Doena:

Quote:
Since I want to have my collection on my work computer, too, I bought myself another USB stick (1 GB) solely for the purpose of keeping my DVD Profiler database. I always have it with me.

Both profilers at work as well as at home are configured to open the database from the stick drive.

That's an interesting idea.  I too have it on my work computer, but I write to the hard drive.  I use the USB stick to copy my backup files and transfer them to the other computer that way.  One advantage of doing it this way is if the USB stick dies or gets lost, I still have my collection installed on two computers.  The backups help of course, but I like having two completely separate database up to date (and I do keep them up to date).

what about a compramise on the syncing, insted of constantly syncing, or the use manualy starting it, the database syncs with online 3 or 4 random times a day so that the server is not overloaded with everyone syncing at the same time?