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[CLZ News] March movie madness and other news

Mar 29, 2019

CLZ Alwin here, with a particularly “movie heavy” edition of the CLZ Newsletter.
But don’t worry, we also have some interesting comic, game and book related Core projects going on behind the scenes, which will all result in cool updates in the next few months!

The topics for today:

  • All movie tools: 2 formats renamed, new 4K UHD icon, IMDb Cast/Crew
  • Movie Collector v19.1 for Mac: Update your IMDb Ratings / Votes in one go
  • Movie Connect: live IMDb Ratings and Votes (so always up-to-date!)
  • Movie Collector 19.1.3 for Windows: Icons for digital movie formats
  • All Windows programs: Three cool tweaks requested by our users
  • New in the CLZ Shop: Pay Monthly by PayPal
  • Reminder: Switch to Connect with my Trade-In offer

All movie products: renamed Blu-ray and 4K UHD formats, new 4K icon

A change that was long overdue. We finally renamed the “Blu-ray Disc” format to the more commonly used and shorted “Blu-ray”. At the same time, we renamed the long “Ultra HD Blu-ray” to just “4K UHD”.

Also we updated the icon and logo for the popular 4K UHD format to something more recognizable.

These changes went live last week, for all our movie-related products, for Windows, macOS, Connect, iOS and Android.

Movie Collector v19.1 for macOS: Update your IMDb Ratings / Votes in one go

The new IMDb features have now made it to the Mac edition too:

  • New: IMDb Votes field
    Automatically delivered from our Core now, the number of votes on which the IMDb Rating is based. Check the IMDb Votes in the yellow IMDb box in the details panel, or add it as a column to your list.
  • New: Update your IMDb Ratings and Votes in one go
    The new IMDb content license gives us fresh daily updates of the IMDb Ratings and Votes, so a new “Update IMDb Ratings/Votes” command is now available, that lets you retrieve fresh Ratings and Votes from our Core, super fast.

Click here for full details and screen shots.

Movie Connect: live IMDb Ratings and Votes (so always up-to-date!)

Of course, the new IMDb Votes field was added to Movie Connect too. However, since Movie Connect is always connected straight to our Core, there is no need for actual edit boxes in the Edit screen and no need for manual updating of IMDb Ratings and Votes.

Instead, Movie Connect now always shows the IMDb Ratings and Votes live from our Core, in the movie lists, in the movie details panel, everywhere. You always automatically have the most recent, daily-updated values!

Check out some screen shots here.

Movie Collector 19.1.3 for Windows: Icons for digital movie formats

With digital movie formats becoming more popular, we have decided to add the most popular ones as default choices in the Format list, all with nice new list icons and logos for the details panel.
The new format choices have now also been added to the Format picker in the Add Movies from Core screen. Just click the blue Format button and pick from the format choices, nicely separated in “Physical” and “Digital” sections.

Now available as new format choices: Amazon Prime Video, Apple iTunes. Google Play, Vudu, Roku, Microsoft Movies & TV, Playstation Video, Netflix, Youtube, Hulu and Disney+.

Check out some screen shots here.

All Windows programs: Three cool tweaks requested by our users

As you know, we always listen to our customers and act upon their feedback. Sometimes this means implementing requested features, but more often it means resolving complaints, removing annoyances, or even reading between the lines to learn what our users are missing or looking for.

This month, your feedback resulted in 3 cool tweaks to our Windows programs:

  • More compact toolbar layout, to save screen space
    In version 18.2 we introduced extra Selection Action Toolbar above the list view. A big improvement by itself, but some users complained that now a lot of screen space was taken up by various toolbars. So we redesigned the toolbar to reduce the toolbar height, and at the same time made it more logical.

  • No more annoying Add to Collection / Wish List popup in Add from Core screen.
    For the Add from Core screen, a common annoyance was the little “Add to Collection vs Add to Wish List” popup that appeared every time you used the Add button. No more, since you can now switch between the two using a small extra arrow button to the right of the Add button. And: you can now select from all status value, including “On Order”.

  • New “Transparent” styles for the Flex template, to show off your backdrops.
    In our daily conversations with users, we encountered many users who were still using the 8 year old “Vee Eight Backdrop” template. When we started asking why, most of them replied something like “because I like how it clearly shows the backdrop between the data areas”. So we figured, why not make some extra versions of the Flex template that do exactly the same? Now available: “Flex / Light Transparent” and “Flex / Dark Transparent”.

Full details and screen shots here

New in the CLZ Shop: Pay Monthly by PayPal

This has been on our wish list for a long time: being able to offer automatically recurring subscription payments through PayPal. Sadly, we needed to switch to a completely new checkout system before we could, so it took a little longer than expected.
But our web-developer Sven has just completed the changes and PayPal is now available as a payment method when you opt for “Pay Monthly” in our CLZ Shop.

Reminder: Switch to Connect with my trade-in offer

Are you currently using the Collector desktop software? Then we have an alternative, cloud-based collection database solution that will probably work better for you, called Connect.

Many new Collectorz.com customers are choosing the Connect edition as their main cataloging solution. Also, thousands of existing desktop users have already switched over to Connect and are loving the advantages of the cloud-based software.

4 benefits of Connect

These are the 4 main advantages of Connect (compared to the desktop software):

  1. Modern look and super-easy to use
  2. Use on multiple computers, no need to sync
  3. Fast and smooth, even with very large databases
  4. Easy to manage: no need to deal with updates, files, folders, backups, etc..

Try Connect free for 7 days

Here’s how:

Do you like Connect? Here’s my “trade-in” offer

If you like the Connect edition and want to switch from the desktop software to the Connect edition, then you can do so free of charge. I will “trade-in” your existing Collector license and will transfer your remaining Service Plan days to Connect subscription days.

  • Just contact me here and I will make it happen.
    (make sure your CLZ Cloud is up-to-date first!)