MyMovies Tutorial
Adding a TV Season or Box Set
The existing tutorials are not quite enough to get the somewhat complicated procedure down if you are dealing with a (newer) TV Series from a DVD Title Box set. Hence, the need for this tutorial. Key to understand from the start is that
MyMovies4 now has
TV Series editing that is distinct from
Title editing. Once this distinction is clear, and the understanding that information of each is only obtained from the Web Servers (versus your local collection and database), then the intricate steps needed to edit, contribute, download and continue editing will be better understood.
One should consult the existing ))
MyMovies((
tutorials and
videos in conjunction with this documentation. Specifically:
Here are some scenarios of adding information in the
Collection Manager that are handled in increasingly difficult and different ways.
- Movie Title with one or more disc or double-sided discs
- Box Sets of movie release collections where each movie release has one or more discs
- TV Series (one or more seasons) that you wish to reference locally as individual episodes (common for portable devices)
- TV Series (one or more seasons) that you wish to reference locally as discs from your box set where the information is complete and previously entered
- TV Series (one or more seasons) that you wish to reference locally as discs where the information is non-existent, partial or incorrect
It is this last one that is more complicated and involves aspects of both a
TV Series and multi-disc
Title editing to complete. Each is covered in more detail below. But before covering each, lets introduce a few more important terms. Note you can click on each title below to expand or collapse its information.
Terminology and Conventions
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- Countries, Languages, and more
- Data is stored separately for each country or language of release. Hence the importance to get this correct when entering the data. The differences in the disc information can be large beside just the cover language.
- Title
- Often a single Movie, a box-set collection of related movies, or maybe a TV Series season or box-set of multiple seasons. The title is historically more tied to the product sold as one or more discs — whether it be DVD, BluRay, HD DVD or similar format. Often a barcode is associated with a Title and uniquely identifies it (
- Series
- A television series consisting of multiple episodes and possibly multiple seasons. Most often a season is a year but sometimes a weather season in addition to a year. Episodes are often the same length in time and periodically aired (e.g. a weekly basis) but not always.
- Disc ID
- A usually unique code or number stored on the optical disk that can be read at startup. The Disc ID is written in the inner rim area that is not writeable with writeable media and so is a unique feature of manufactured discs. Each disc in a Title will have a unique Disc ID and can usually be used to help determine the Title in the database.
'UPC or EAN Barcode: A commonly used and understood label on every product that helps uniquely identify the product. It is either 12 (UPC) or 13 (EAN) digits and often unique in a country if put on by a registered manufacturer.
Because the same disc (i.e. Disc ID) may be included in multiple different packages, it does not uniquely identify a
Title. Only that disc. Similarly, the barcode is not always unique in a country as some retailers add their own unregistered barcodes local to their enterprise. Or a manufacturer may use the same barcode for slightly different editions of a product. So things are not absolute and doubt is a useful attribute.
Adding a Movie Title
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Disc Location and Content editing
This is one of the most important aspects of title editing; especially in terms of adding useful local data. It is here you can attach the physical location of the disc image if you have loaded it into a DVD JukeBox or maybe copied the disc onto a magnetic storage device or server.
Adding a Box Set
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Adding a TV Series (individual episode files)
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Adding a TV Series (discs with multiple episodes per disc) already complete
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If the TV Series has been fully added by someone else already, then this is simpler and can be understood as an extension to adding a Movie Title. But if you get part way into this and discover the TV Series has not been fully entered (partially or not at all), then you end up having to perform two edits simultaneously and work to edit, save, contribute, then download to get your information passed appropriately.
Adding a TV Series (discs with multiple episodes per disc) partially complete or non-existent
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This is the complicated procedure as you have to perform two edits in two different modes of the Collection Manager. And confusingly at first, you have to edit, save, then contribute the information from the TV Series before you can then download and use it in the Title editing for that same series. But being familiar with the above helps you understand the steps needed below.
Note that this procedure is required even if other seasons are fully entered for a TV Series. Or if someone entered all the episodes but neglected to complete adding the special features. Of course, this complication is only needed and necessary IF the Title is on DVD (not BluRay or HD DVD), not just on a disc. This because BluRay and HD DVD software players on your computer cannot jump directly to a title in the middle of the disc like can be done with DVD Players. Hence, this complication and benefit is only for DVD's where you want to jump directly to an episode or special feature and start playing there; avoiding the disc menu to select your episode or feature.