You need DVD Hunter (for Mac OS X) if you have large collection of motion pictures on DVD and need a way to organize them. I have used several commercial movie databases, and even created my own in Access, but they all left me wanting for more. I found and installed DVD Hunter over a year ago, and it meets my needs 100%. DVD Hunter has a well designed user interface, and a very robust database. DVD Hunter does not require you to be a power user. This is what the DVD Hunter graphical user interface looks like on the Mac OS X:
In the upper left hand corner of the graphic user interface, you have three folders. The first folder is for your Library. This is your entire movie database. The next folder is a database section for movies that have been Borrowed. Now you can keep track of which friend has what movie of yours. Finally, your movie Wishlist. This is a list of movies you want to add to your database.
The next section to the immediate right displays information from your movie database section. You can add up to 26 columns, for example: Title, Director, Starring, Producer, Genre, Duration, and so on. Then you can sort the data by column header (clicking the header title initiates the sort). You can also use the dialog box in the upper right hand corner (barely visible in my screen shot, – sorry) to create search sorts as well. For example, you might want to find a movie you know Gerard Butler was in, but you just can’t remember its name. Type his name in the search box, and the database section displays all movies you have that Gerard Butler is in. Pretty cool!!!
Directly below the database information, is the movie summary. In Preferences, you can control what is displayed here. Again, there are numerous options to configure the summary window.
Finally, in the lower left hand corner is the DVD box cover art for the selected movie.
To add a movie to your database you will first need to push the “+” button on the lower left hand corner of the user interface. When this task is accomplished, you get this window:
Right off, you are probably thinking this looks like a lot of work. Not an accurate thought. To begin, simply type in the name of the movie you want to add in the Title dialog box. Next, assuming you are connected to the internet, click on the Autocomplete button in the lower right hand corner of the window. Now the software is searching one of several configurable databases on the internet, and it retrieves the available information necessary to complete most, if not all of the information in the tabs and boxes on this form. Then you either close the window, or push the New Movie button, and add, what else, another new movie. To review or edit this information, you can double click anywhere on the movie line in the database section of the user interface.
Also, the databases can be synched between Macs on your network using DVD Hunter. By installing Hunter Touch on your iPhone or iPad, you can add and synch your movie databases with these devices as well.
Finally, DVD Hunter and Hunter Touch are both Freeware!!! The author does ask for donations, and he deserves some financial assistance, as these are quality products. You can find DVD Hunter at: http://software.joelares.net/blog/dvd-hunter. Hunter Touch is available from the App Store.
–Larry
