DVD Shelf X - 1.2

for a small to mid size collection like mine. For a huge collection of DVDs, Internet database look-up should be enabled. Great interface.

listings from CDDB is a walk in the park compared with populating the database with info from imdb.com (the obvious choice). CDDB has clearly defined protocols for exhange of info. The Internet Movie Database presents all its output purely in HTML. You'd probably have to write a FileMaker plugin to parse the IMDB html pages (tricky in itself if you have a look at their HTML code), then pass the info back to DVD Shelf. If the IMDB changes its page layout, the thing would likely cease working. I suspect the developers would have to enter into some kind of agreement with IMDB to get it done (perhaps by exchanging info via XML?) and I'd be pretty confident it wouldn't be a shareware product any more if that were the case. There's a couple of open source projects up and running for this kind of thing (DVDDB a la CDDB), but they don't seem to have got much speed up yet. PS: I'm in no way associated with the developers of this product, though I am a FileMaker developer and casual programmer.

rating is based entirely on the fact I couldn't figure out how to make the app work: clicking on popup menus had no effect (no menu appeared) and things like that. Probably should have given it 1 star but was feeling generous.

right now I would not pay any money for this software. It does do what it says, but all fields must be manually entered. CD Cataloging software has the ability to contact the CDDB and automatically download information. This software needs to have something similar in order for it to be worth paying for. GUI looks nice but doesnt act accordingly. Because it doesnt work exactly right, lacks features and costs $20 for right now, 1 star. But if the online database support is added and GUI interaction fixed than 4 stars.

Software should be rated as a package, and this includes obvious missing features. If users find the program useless without internet database features (and I do), then that's more than enough reason for a bad rating. Why would you rate something you find to be useless with a good rating? It's illogical. Lack of features is factored into every good software review--go pick up a computer magazine and read it.