New Users Online Library

[Hap]

Looks like this some of this might be because I have separate copies (DVD and Blu-ray) of some movies and when I try to contribute the Blu-ray, it assigns it the Doghouse DogTag of the DVD.

Examples:

214 - Blade
712 - Grosse Point Blank
6498 - Cradle to the Grave
6321 - The One
45520 - Resident Evil
5660 - Romeo Must Die
9066 - Serendipity
7822 - Stargate (but this really is a duplicate - I have two copies on Blu-ray, this one shouldn't count)
2788 - Sweet Home Alabama
27419 - Varsity Blues

[Alex]

Is there some easy way to tell which titles in my library have not been synched to the online library?

I'm working on something that will show you what we're calling stale dog tags, that is dog tags that you might have in your pedia Library but which might not exist anymore in our database.

In your case though, there are 718 distinct entries in the Online Library so only 1 is not showing.

[Alex]

Looks like this some of this might be because I have separate copies (DVD and Blu-ray) of some movies and when I try to contribute the Blu-ray, it assigns it the Doghouse DogTag of the DVD.

Examples:

214 - Blade
712 - Grosse Point Blank

This usually happens because you have an IMdb of ASIN or UPC number that matches so our system will send back the first match it finds after making sure it's the same title. The system also sends the first media match if there is one.

With Grosse Point Blank for example, we don't have the Blu-ray version in our database and while we do treat DVD and Blu-ray as 2 different entries, when the user supplies the IMdb number we send back a match.

This is a topic that is still in discussion because IMdb, unlike ASIN or UPC is not bound to a format, so we're looking at making this better.

[Alex]

Suggestion: can you place the Doghouse Number against each On Line Library Listings and make it sortable numerically so we can easily check the accuracy of our entries against our pedia libraries?

I've just made this change to make it easier to troubleshoot the Online Library.

Eventually we'll hide this column since it won't be necessary for most users and might cause confusion, I'm thinking of hiding it and a preference somewhere to show it or not for the duration of your session. But I wanted to put it up there quickly for those users who are experiencing some discrepancies with their Online Libraries.

[FineWine]

Suggestion: can you place the Doghouse Number against each On Line Library Listings and make it sortable numerically so we can easily check the accuracy of our entries against our pedia libraries?

I've just made this change to make it easier to troubleshoot the Online Library.

Eventually we'll hide this column since it won't be necessary for most users and might cause confusion, I'm thinking of hiding it and a preference somewhere to show it or not for the duration of your session. But I wanted to put it up there quickly for those users who are experiencing some discrepancies with their Online Libraries.

Thanks Alex I will try it all out when I am next off work. Yes a preference setting would be best.

[Alex]

I've added a way to check for what we're calling stale dog tags: dog tags that might be in your Online Library (because they are in your pedia) but no longer exist in our Doghouse database.

This is due to old entries that have been deleted for some reason or were merged due to duplicates.

In your edit User page you'll find a new heading called Check for discrepancies in the Online Library Settings section.

Under this heading you'll see buttons for any pedia library you might have contributed. If you don't see any buttons it means you have not contributed anything for that pedia. For example, in the following screenshot, this user has only contributed DVD data.



Click on any of the buttons and it will show you the dog tags that are in your Online Library (and your pedia) that no longer exist in our Doghouse database.

Hopefully this will make it easier to find out which entries need refreshing.

To fix these entries:

• 1. Select the entries with the stale dog tags
  2. From the Doghouse menu choose Remove Dog Tag
  3. With those entries still selected, just contribute them again to Doghouse with Doghouse-> Contribute Selection

This should fix all those stale dog tags.

Note: This situtation should only affect a handful of users who have been using the Doghouse for a while.

[Hap]

Looks like this some of this might be because I have separate copies (DVD and Blu-ray) of some movies and when I try to contribute the Blu-ray, it assigns it the Doghouse DogTag of the DVD.

Examples:

214 - Blade
712 - Grosse Point Blank

This usually happens because you have an IMdb of ASIN or UPC number that matches so our system will send back the first match it finds after making sure it's the same title. The system also sends the first media match if there is one.

With Grosse Point Blank for example, we don't have the Blu-ray version in our database and while we do treat DVD and Blu-ray as 2 different entries, when the user supplies the IMdb number we send back a match.

This is a topic that is still in discussion because IMdb, unlike ASIN or UPC is not bound to a format, so we're looking at making this better.

Added four new movies for a total of 735 in my Library and 722 showing online. Two of the new ones I added - I deliberately left off the IMDB and yet they still show as DVD despite the fact they are Bluray (actually they are all combo packs DVD+Bluray). I would really like to be able to differentiate if I have Bluray vs DVD with the online database.

[Alex]

Two of the new ones I added - I deliberately left off the IMDB and yet they still show as DVD despite the fact they are Bluray (actually they are all combo packs DVD+Bluray). I would really like to be able to differentiate if I have Bluray vs DVD with the online database.

Can you send me their dog tags so I can take a look at them please?

[Alex]

The dog tags are now hidden by default in the Libraries (this is best for most people) and there is an icon to turn them on or off:



This works just like the Library Setting icon, it shows you the current state of Show Dog Tags. The image above shows that Show Dogtags is turned off.

It's a binary setting anyway, so on or off.

The setting will be controlled by a permanent cookie so if you have cookies disabled you might want to enable them if you want to use this feature.

[Waldbaer]

Hi Alex, the online library and the one the pedias contact are not really the same, are they? How long does syncing take normally?
I ask because I had a DVD which already had an entry, but only with a different UPC, so I added my UPC via the online library, but searching via UPC still did not work. Thanks for the info!

[Alex]

Yes, they are the same. UPC matching will return the first match so if an entry already has that UPC you will get that first match. As always, it's important to make sure the data is correct, often UPCs might be repeated when, theoretically, they should only exist for a single entry.

[Waldbaer]

The problem in this case is a little different, because my DVD's UPC is not found at all, neither in Doghouse nor in the other databases. Of course I checked for misreadings several times, it's just written that way on my DVD of "Looper". My barcode says 4009750212288. I searched for it via Google and found only one match, but it was another DVD of Looper, same edition as it looks to me.
On the other hand Looper is already in the database, I instantly found it via title search and it looks completely the same, so I just added my UPC to the entry by editing it online. I reloaded the page to make sure it was really saved (I did not add UPCs until now).

I tried to check the functionality directly by again searching for the UPC from DVDpedia, but it still was not found (and I rechecked a while later again). Now, some hours later, it works though. I just want to understand why it takes so long, is there some kind of database internal regular process that needs to somehow connect new data, but it's only executed e.g. once every two hours maybe? Or is it again an external search service that the pedias use which needs some time to get the updates? So when can I be sure that something went wrong if something similar still does not work?

Thanks in advance for teaching me a little database knowledge.

[Alex]

It should be pretty fast. However, sometimes there's a queue for processing the entries. We run uploads and updates in the background so as not to impact the speed of the searches which is the most important part.

So, let's say a user uploads their entire collection to CDpedia, and we get 300 new entries, the image processing (we need to not only upload the images to our cloud but also create thumbnails out of them) is queued in the background, so is the database refresh. So it's going along in the queue and you'll have to wait a bit for these new entries to show.

Then you come along and add a UPC to an entry and upload it. Normally that would be almost instantaneous, but now your update has to wait in the queue for all the other entries to finish processing. They go by pretty fast, less than 2 seconds for each entry, but when it's a couple hundred of them they do add up and we have to wait a bit.

It's also usually not a problem because people are not uploading their entire collection continually.

[Waldbaer]

...when I try to contribute the Blu-ray, it assigns it the Doghouse DogTag of the DVD...

This usually happens because you have an IMdb of ASIN or UPC number that matches so our system will send back the first match it finds after making sure it's the same title. The system also sends the first media match if there is one.

With Grosse Point Blank for example, we don't have the Blu-ray version in our database and while we do treat DVD and Blu-ray as 2 different entries, when the user supplies the IMdb number we send back a match.

This is a topic that is still in discussion because IMdb, unlike ASIN or UPC is not bound to a format, so we're looking at making this better.

I just had the same problem with the German DVD of Iron Man 3 (dog tag 192671). I can't contribute it as a new entry, I always get the mentioned dog tag (from a 3D BluRay). I made sure ASIN and UPC don't match (I removed my UPC from the list) and even deleted the IMDB number of my entry to prevent that match (by the way, why do you think it makes sense to use IMDB as match, since you said it's not even bound to a format, not to say the edition?). The only effect until now was, that it adds my UPC back to the list as soon as I contribute it.
Any tips?
Thanks for you help as always.

[Alex]

by the way, why do you think it makes sense to use IMDB as match, since you said it's not even bound to a format, not to say the edition?

We think it's a good idea because you are supplying a piece of information that is specific to that entry. Imagine if we didn't match IMDb numbers, not only would we get a large number of duplicates but it would also be impossible for people who rely on IMDb numbers (and there are quite a few) to find anything.

You're right that it's not associated to a specific format or version but it is associated to a movie so, as usual, we'd rather give you a match than nothing and let you decide if you want to use it or not.