Delicious Library Information

November 12, 2004 5:05 PM

So: Delicious Library works pretty well, but out of my ~150 movies, it failed to grab disc information for a dozen of them.

Some of them I know to be out of print (for instance, the Wallace & Gromit collection with the green cover), while others surprise me (In America? Punch-Drunk Love?). Question 1 is, How can I tell where the information failure is? Amazon doesn't display the UPC code, which is where DL gets its info from, so I can't figure out why, say, UPC 04339600171 doesn't bring up Spider-Man.

Question 2 is, not all of the Amazon images are good. For instance, the Minority Report image from Amazon looks like this, which is a little uncool because DL reformats it to a standard image ratio, squishing everything. Is there another site from which to get such large (~326x475) cover scans of stuff, including some that's OOP?

I have a question 3, but I'll let it sit for now.

posted by blueshammer to Technology (6 answers total)

Um
posted by Mwongozi at 5:21 PM on November 12, 2004

Response by poster: Well, these aren't necessarily product failures: DL talks to Amazon, and that's that. I think the "problems," such as they are, are Amazon's. How and where Amazon stores UPCs, and where besides Amazon you might find cover art.
posted by blueshammer at 5:26 PM on November 12, 2004

Walmart.com has good sized images too, but their copy of the Minority Report one is exactly the same, with the red circle and all. So it looks like the studio sent out a non-standard one, and the only way to get a normal one is to find someone who actually scanned it.
posted by smackfu at 7:41 PM on November 12, 2004

I am still figuring things out myself, but when I wasn't having luck typing UPC codes, I just typed in the ASIN number from Amazon instead. That seems to work and it will be listed as "amazon®#" on the details panel and will download all the bits, including the UPC (presumably from Amazon as well).

My only observation is that whenever the product is from a 3rd party Amazon store (ASIN: B0000ET9D8) or an import (ASIN: B000083MFB), it doesn't seem to be able to download the photo into the library. It is weird, because there is a thumb nail available, but the "see larger picture" link is missing on Amazon.

So, did you find a way to change the photos on your own? It seems like if Amazon is a no go, then it wouldn't matter if another site had it or even if you scanned it yourself. I sent them a question myself, because it would be useful to override this function.

Also, are you using iSight? Just curious on what entry method you use.
posted by boost ventilator at 7:25 PM on November 13, 2004

Response by poster: You can change photos on your own by just dragging & dropping them. Once the record itself is created, select it so that the details populate on the righthand side, and then, as I say, drag & drop. Unfortunately, it has to be a pretty high-quality image, which are hard to come by. I don't think I'm obsessive enough to scan my own art or anything, but you never know.

I'm using my Sony camcorder -- I think any digital camera that you can connect with Firewire will work.
posted by blueshammer at 5:17 PM on November 14, 2004

d'uh, i guess that is pretty obvious. i think i tried everything but dragging and dropping! now i can fill in some of my gaps. as for getting images, might want to try some review sites like rotton tomatoes or even the imdb.

what was your question #3?
posted by boost ventilator at 6:53 PM on November 14, 2004