The program uses a lot of memory when loading the cover art for all the movies (For 1000 movies with covert art it takes 600MB).  However you can disable the cover art on the main dialog by using the Advanced menu and selecting Toggle Cover Art. For the same 1000 movies the memory went down to 18MB!

The setting is remembered between sessions so the next time you restart it will not try to load the cover art images. This will speed up the program considerably.

If you have problems on startup just press escape as soon as the program loads and it should stop loading the movies. Then you can use the Advanced->Toggle Cover Art and restart.

0.7.0.14 has one small bug that if the cover art is not shown in the movie list (main dialog) then it will NOTshow the covert even when selecting the DVD Details.  There is a new version which fixes this.

I have uploaded a new version with the following changes:
0.7.0.16
- If you select Toggle images not to show the Cover Art on the main dialog (movie list) then it would not show the covert art in the DVD details. Now the DVD Details sub-dialog will show the cover art even if the main dialog doesn't show the images.
- Closing DVD Details will not ask you if you want to save the data if no changes have been made

The new version (actually the one before that) also allows you to search for a movie name (only searches the titles, not the disk name).

Hi Taranu. Thanks very much for the reply it seems to have done the trick - application loads really quickly now. You're doing a wonderful job. I don't for a minute attempt to understand the 'workings', but really enjoy working with the application and find it so much more user friendly, than other similar programmes.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

Thanks again

Great tip on not loading the images.... RAM resources were running quite low.

Great Program.

 

Any question/comment/concern:

I am using HQ images for the coverart from cdcovers.cc which are typically 1500 pixels.  This seems to cause MCE to suck up RAM and run sluggishly.  Apparently it does not create/use a thumbnail of the original image.....  Any comments?

I'm probably going to copy and resize the folder.jpg manually.  Any tips? Programs to help?

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PC (HTPC): Vista x64 • AMD X2 4800+ • 2GB DDR400 • eVGA 7800 GT • 250GB HDD
SERVER: WHS • CM Stacker 810 • 3.4TB Storage • 300+DVDs • 19,000+ MP3s

Hi Sh1ft

Yep I found the exact same problem and you beat me to the punch and have answered your own problem.

My previous issue has been resolved by reducing the quality of the cover art to a reasonable size - 351x500 pixels at 300dpi (I previously left them at their native resolution, not realising that MCE actually re-sizes to not mre than 200x200, which looks crap on my 42" LCD). I think that the re-sizing from their native resolution to MCE default resolution was hogging resource, therefore causing both Taranu's application and subsequently MCE to run very slugglishly.

Not only has this resolved the issue of RAM hogging, but allows me to operate the application, without the need to resort to Taranu's tip of toggling the 'cover art. I'm no expert in this, however I used the batch process in Paint Shop Pro 9 to resize all my covers - obviously only of use to you if you have that program - but by setting up a script - I had re-sized all my covers within seconds. If you've got it Google 'Batch re-size Paint Shop Pro' and instructions are there to carry this out very simple process. Sorry don't know any other stand alone applictions that would do this job for you - possibly Photoshop.

By the way cdcovers.cc is OK, but have you tried some of the other coversites - Customaniacs, R1DB, Replace the Cover - they all provide real high quality cover art, though their not free. I used them a lot when looking for high resolution quality art, for printing purposes. The cover art and quality is fantastic, however on the basis that MCE re-sizes them to a very low 200x200 by default, I think they are a bit overkill for this purpose. I would stick to Amazon - they display in 500x500 and when re-sized don't look too bad.

The re-sizing to default has been discussed on various forums, including this one and although there does appear to be a workaround for thumbnail CD cover art, I don't think this extends to DVD cover art in the DVD Library - no doubt somebody will correct me if I am wrong. It would appear that it is hoped that Microsoft might address this issue to allow higher quality cover art, but for over 12 months, they have been ominous by their silence.

Hope this helps.

Hi and help please  :D

I get an error when trying to install the app

Anyone know what to do?

 

PLATFORM VERSION INFO
 Windows    : 6.0.6000.0 (Win32NT)
 Common Language Runtime  : 2.0.50727.312
 System.Deployment.dll   : 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
 mscorwks.dll    : 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
 dfdll.dll    : 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
 dfshim.dll    : 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)

SOURCES
 Deployment url   : file///C:/Users/wmstenv/Desktop/libman/DVDLibraryManager.application

ERROR SUMMARY
 Below is a summary of the errors, details of these errors are listed later in the log.
 * Activation of C:\Users\wmstenv\Desktop\libman\DVDLibraryManager.application resulted in exception. Following failure messages were detected:
  + Exception reading manifest from file:///C:/Users/wmstenv/Desktop/libman/DVDLibraryManager.application: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened.
  + Manifest XML signature is not valid.
  + Access is denied.

COMPONENT STORE TRANSACTION FAILURE SUMMARY
 No transaction error was detected.

WARNINGS
 There were no warnings during this operation.

OPERATION PROGRESS STATUS
 * [2008-03-13 10:00:06] : Activation of C:\Users\wmstenv\Desktop\libman\DVDLibraryManager.application has started.

ERROR DETAILS
 Following errors were detected during this operation.
 * [2008-03-13 10:00:06] System.Deployment.Application.InvalidDeploymentException (ManifestParse)
  - Exception reading manifest from file:///C:/Users/wmstenv/Desktop/libman/DVDLibraryManager.application: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened.
  - Source: System.Deployment
  - Stack trace:
   at System.Deployment.Application.ManifestReader.FromDocument(String localPath, ManifestType manifestType, Uri sourceUri)
   at System.Deployment.Application.DownloadManager.DownloadDeploymentManifestDirectBypass(SubscriptionStore subStore, Uri& sourceUri, TempFile& tempFile, SubscriptionState& subState, IDownloadNotification notification, DownloadOptions options, ServerInformation& serverInformation)
   at System.Deployment.Application.DownloadManager.DownloadDeploymentManifestBypass(SubscriptionStore subStore, Uri& sourceUri, TempFile& tempFile, SubscriptionState& subState, IDownloadNotification notification, DownloadOptions options)
   at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.PerformDeploymentActivation(Uri activationUri, Boolean isShortcut)
   at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.ActivateDeploymentWorker(Object state)
  --- Inner Exception ---
  System.Deployment.Application.InvalidDeploymentException (SignatureValidation)
  - Manifest XML signature is not valid.
  - Source: System.Deployment
  - Stack trace:
   at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.ValidateSignature(Stream s)
   at System.Deployment.Application.ManifestReader.FromDocument(String localPath, ManifestType manifestType, Uri sourceUri)
  --- Inner Exception ---
  System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicException
  - Access is denied.

  - Source: System.Deployment
  - Stack trace:
   at System.Deployment.Internal.CodeSigning.SignedCmiManifest.VerifyPublicKeyToken()
   at System.Deployment.Internal.CodeSigning.SignedCmiManifest.Verify(CmiManifestVerifyFlags verifyFlags)
   at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.ValidateSignature(Stream s)

COMPONENT STORE TRANSACTION DETAILS
 No transaction information is available.

It looks like a security problem. That's about all I can see.

Great program, but I am having a problem with script errors using the IMDB search. It throws up an "Unterminated string constant" twice. If if go to the page manual in IE it works fine.

Also, a couple of notes,

When I use the program to read directories off my Windows XP machine that I have MyMovies on, it does not save the data. It makes an xml file in the DVD cache folder that has no name, it just .xml. If I remove the mymovies.xml file from the root directory of the DVD on the XP machine, it works fine. I can then put the mymovies.xml back and both programs work fine.

When I edit the name in the Keyword Search Box, I automatically hit enter to start the search, which bails me out to the main screen. Can you set the default for this box to press the Search button?

Thanks for the extremely useful program.

aburkhard:

Great program, but I am having a problem with script errors using the IMDB search. It throws up an "Unterminated string constant" twice. If if go to the page manual in IE it works fine.

Same here.

aburkhard:

When I edit the name in the Keyword Search Box, I automatically hit enter to start the search, which bails me out to the main screen. Can you set the default for this box to press the Search button?

Agreed.

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PC (HTPC): Vista x64 • AMD X2 4800+ • 2GB DDR400 • eVGA 7800 GT • 250GB HDD
SERVER: WHS • CM Stacker 810 • 3.4TB Storage • 300+DVDs • 19,000+ MP3s

Hi,

I managed to get the program working on my XP machine. I have vista on my media centre which is in a different room, all the movies are on my main pc which is XP. i was adding meta data through the program to my dvd rips and all was fine but sometimes when i click save it does not save any information, other times a click save and everything is saved

Any possibility of making this program work for those of us who rip our DVDs as VOBs and rename them to MPG so they work with extenders?  I'm currently using MyMovies "Movie Collection" app, but would prefer to use something more lightweight (not needing a SQL backend).  Thanks.

OK, new version is up

0.7.0.17
- Don't show script warnings when doing IMDB search
- On Amazon/IMDB Search dialogs, if the cursor is in the search box then the enter key will do another search instead of closing the dialog.

Please let me know if you're still having problems with these 2 issues.

Love your Library manager works great!

 

Quick questions, I have recorded some movies from HBOHD and they show up in my DVD Library w/out cover art.  How can I save them in my DVD Library w/ cover art? 

I was thinking about burning them to disk and then rip through dvd shrink.  Will that work?

I'm wondering how this handles 2-disc DVD's?  Do I have to have separate entries for each disc in the DVD Library?

Absolutely love this program. Exactly what I needed, works very smoothly.