What was the name of that book/DVD scanner again?

[Izulde]

Was going to put one or both on my Christmas list, but I wanted to know what's out there as far as options go because I know my family's going to be asking me to point them out to something specific. :D

Basically I'm looking for something I can scan books and/or DVDs in and be able to keep a running catalogue of what I have.

[FrogMan]

last I remember it being talked about was in the Caesar IV thread, and yep, there it is toward the end:
http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=52772&highlight=caesar

FM

[FrogMan]

dola, the cuecat, as per wade moore
http://www.amazon.com/USB-Modified-Cue-Barcode-Reader/dp/B0006SJTOY/sr=8-1/qid=1158935955/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-0792493-2434524?ie=UTF8&s=electronics

FM

[Izulde]

Thanks. :)

I wound up putting the collectorz.com Christmas special deal on my list instead after some searching, but it's good to know!

FWIW: the collectorz.com Christmas special is the following:

Scanner
Any 3 of their database software packages (I asked for Music/Movie/Book)
Backup CD
Shipping
1 year premium customer support

for $180, $95 off the regual price

[dervack]

DVD profiler is free for DVD's from Intervoactive. FYI.

[Izulde]

DVD profiler is free for DVD's from Intervoactive. FYI.

Thanks. :)

As it turns out, I ended up getting the software early from the collectorz.com deal and will receive the scanner at Christmas.

So far, I really, really like it. Yeah, there's a lot of nice things about DVD profiler too, but overall I find the interface from Movie Collector to be much cleaner and easier on the eyes (though I would like to see the spiffer charts and filter search results in Movie Collector that DVD Profiler has!)

And this way, I get the Music Collector for CDs and the Book Collector for books as well. Music Collector's okay. Book Collector I won't try until I get the scanner.

Here's a couple sample shots from when I was mucking around a bit on it earlier:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Izulde/cooltimes.jpg
Music Collector

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Izulde/kickass.jpg
Movie Collector

[Izulde]

dola,

I'll probably try DVD Profiler out as well, though, since Movie Collector supports importing databases from there (shrewd move on their part I say)

Does DVD Profiler support database import from Movie Collector in turn?

[wade moore]

I'll have to take a look at this. I got Readerware essentially for the book portion and even though I bought the Music/DVD portion it's gone completely unused.

If nothing else, this collectorz does seem to have a bit of a nicer interface.

[KWhit]

So what does this software/scanner do? I don't get it.

[FrogMan]

So what does this software/scanner do? I don't get it.

don't know how it would work with movies or CDs but for books, you would scan the barcode to read the ISBN code, then hook up with an ISBN database somewhere (www.isbndb.com (http://www.isbndb.com) is one) to get the book's information and store the whole thing in a database to track what book you own. I'd assume it would work the same way with DVDs and CDs although I have no knowledge.

I do my book tracking by hand in an excel spreadsheet. Yeah, I'm a geek. :D

FM

[KWhit]

So what does this software/scanner do? I don't get it.

Just read the Caesar thread where you guys talk about it. So I understand what it does now, but I still don't get why somebody would spend $180 on something like that.

No offense intended.

[KWhit]

I do my book tracking by hand in an excel spreadsheet. Yeah, I'm a geek. :D

FM

Dola -

Why does one need to track one's books?

I've got an assload of socks too, but I don't need a running catalogue of them.

[FrogMan]

Dola -

Why does one need to track one's books?

I've got an assload of socks too, but I don't need a running catalogue of them.

I buy lots of bargain books (lots from bookcloseouts.com) and I've read an average of one a month for the last 5 years, sometimes more than that. In all, 100+ books read since 1998. Might not be all that much for others, it is for me. I have maybe another bunch of 40 or so books to read, sitting on a shelf. Tracking them that way is my geeky way or keeping track of what I've read and what I've still to read.

I don't track my socks in excel either. They are either clean or dirty, that's much easier to do by smell than by writing it in excel :p

FM

[FrogMan]

dola, and I wouldn't spend that much money on a scanner either. I write the info down as a passtime whenever I buy some books...

FM

[dervack]

Sounds silly but in another thread when people were asking how many DVD's I own, I'm now up to 280. The reason why I log my DVD's is in case someone I know wants to see rent a movie, I send them my link of DVD's online and they can just ask me to borrow them instead. Seems silly to some, but I find it useful.

[Izulde]

well, for me personally I own several hundred books, DVDs, and CDs each and I can never remember what I have and what I don't have.

So this allows me to organize all of that and see what I have and what I don't have.

Also, one thing that's *really* nice about the collectorz.com software at least is that I can download the lists of stuff to my iPod, so when I'm in the store and I'm mulling over a book, CD, or DVD that I don't know if I have or not, I can just check my iPod and see if I own it or not.

[wade moore]

Dola -

Why does one need to track one's books?

I've got an assload of socks too, but I don't need a running catalogue of them.

Well, first of all, the software I bought didn't cost $180 ;)... It costs like $35 for the book version then I got a free scanner at the time..

Second, we have over 1,000 books in our "library". It has a lot of benefits - but one of them is so that when you buy books you're sure you don't have it already. This is particularly key because I have a very good used bookstore near me that we frequent quite a bit. Plus, as said earlier, if someone wants to borrow a book from me they can easily see what I have (and it has things for marking whether it's being borrowed, etc)..

An added feature for me, with 1,000 books, is it makes organizing them SO much easier.

[Izulde]

I should also add that the costly part isn't the software, but the scanner itself.

it's possible to use the software without the scanner, but that would entail countless hours typing in barcodes (looking up titles gets to be a pain in the arse with how many different versions there are of things).

Having the scanner, especially with collections as large as mine, cuts down the time needed drastically.

[FrogMan]

I'm thinking, in his assload of socks, maybe KWhit has many identical paires of the exact same color. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to catalog them, if only to make sure he never buys the same color twice... ;)

FM

[wade moore]

I should also add that the costly part isn't the software, but the scanner itself.

it's possible to use the software without the scanner, but that would entail countless hours typing in barcodes (looking up titles gets to be a pain in the arse with how many different versions there are of things).

Having the scanner, especially with collections as large as mine, cuts down the time needed drastically.

Umm. Scanner costs $10 unless you're buying something way above and beyond what you need.

Edit: This is what I have - http://www.amazon.com/USB-Modified-Cue-Barcode-Reader/dp/B0006SJTOY/sr=8-1/qid=1166207830/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-5086276-6301465?ie=UTF8&s=electronics