3. Install and Configure MovieManager 2.02

MovieManager 2.02’s advanced capabilities and integration with Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) make it a great app for organizing your commercial videos. If Java isn’t already installed on your rig, click the Java link on the MovieManager download page (http://moviemanager.ca/) and install it first. If you are installing MovieManager on Windows Vista, right-click the install program and select Run as Administrator.

First, open MovieManager’s configuration options by clicking the Tools menu and selecting Preferences. To specify which movie players MovieManager can use, click Movie Player, then browse to your movie player of choice, such as Windows Media Player 11 or any other media player with DVD support. Make your selection and then press Apply.

By default, MovieManager supports avi, mov, mpeg, mpg, qt, wmv, and iso file extensions. If you want to add or delete file extensions, or make other changes in movie database handling, open the Load Database submenu. The program uses Internet Movie Database information to fill in (or replace) your movies’ details. To prevent certain types of information from being changed, select options in the IMDb Lookup menu.

MovieManager can output an HTML list of your movie collection, but this comes out sorted by title. If you want to alter your sorting options, fire up the HTML Output submenu. You can also use this menu to change the file name and location of the list.

4. Modify Listings in the MovieManager Database

If your DVD collection is full of big-name films produced in the last five years or so, save time by loading sample data for more than 120 recent films and modifying this information as needed. To load the database with sample data, click Tools, then Load Sample Data.

MovieManager stores a treasure trove of information, including title, episode, genre, movie file location, and classification (film rating). To modify a movie listing, select the film from the Movies tab and change information as needed. We recommend that you at least input the location of the movie’s VIDEO_TS.IFO file into the location field. Then change the date in the Added On field to the current date and assign the movie a personal rating. Click Save to save your changes.

Once you update a sample record or add your own movie and save the record (see step 5), you can use the Genre pulldown menu above the Movies listing to select movies by genre. To add genre information to a listing, type the new information into the genre field, preferably after the existing genre categories. Each genre category is separated by a comma.

You can search for listings using a number of qualifiers—such as episode, genre, year, or duration—click the Search icon (binoculars), select a single qualifier, type in your the search terms, and click the Search button. Click Close to return to the Movies listing, which now displays the films that match your search parameters. To view all films again, choose Select All Movies in the Genre menu.

5. Load Your Own Movies Into The MovieManager Database

To load your own movies into MovieManager, click Tools and then Load Movies; next, specify the locations of your movie files. Note that you can browse to local or network locations. By default, movies you load are appended to the database: The program uses the name of the folder where they reside to scour IMDb for the film’s information.

Be wary of two potentially dangerous options when importing. The first is “Replace Database Contents.” Use this only if you do not want to use any of the sample data that you’ve downloaded in MovieManager. The “Remove Movies from Database When the Movie Files are Missing” option is useful only when the movies exist on your hard drive. Otherwise, you’ll be nuking all the information you enter whenever you lose a network connection or don’t have the DVD in the drive.

Finish the import by clicking Save to preserve your changes, then click Load db to locate your movies. To update a movie listing with IMDb information, double-click the movie to load it into the movie information window at the program’s right. Make sure the movie location information is displayed. Click Save to save the listing, then click Goto IMDb. Your default web browser opens on the best match in IMDb.

Because of title duplication, you might need to navigate through IMDb to find the right movie. Once you find it, highlight the ttnumber portion of the URL and copy it (e.g., the “tt0091203” in www.imdb.com/title/tt0091203). Return to the MovieManager program window, paste (or type) the ttnumber into the IMDb Key window and click IMDb Lookup to fill in missing data. Click Save again. Repeat as needed for each of your new movies.