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Do you use Excel spreadsheets to organize your DVD collection?

 
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Old 06-01-04 | 09:16 PM
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Do you use Excel spreadsheets to organize your DVD collection?

If so what are the advantages over DVDAficionado, DVD Profiler or Guzzlefish? Do you use them to keep track of how much you've spent on DVDs or what else do you use them for?
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Old 06-01-04 | 10:20 PM
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i used to use excel to catalogue all of my collections. i had a very complex database with just about every concievable piece of information. then my computer crashed. now i use a program called dvdattache that was free and very easy to use. all i do i enter the ISBN number and it searches the net to find all of the details.
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Old 06-01-04 | 10:39 PM
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I used to Excel, but I was just typing in all the data, I'm not good at programming. Now I've got Aficionado and I'm perfectly satisfied.
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Old 06-01-04 | 10:44 PM
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Re: Do you use Excel spreadsheets to organize your DVD collection?

Originally posted by OREOSpeedwagon
If so what are the advantages over DVDAficionado, DVD Profiler or Guzzlefish? Do you use them to keep track of how much you've spent on DVDs or what else do you use them for?
It's tough for friends and family to check out my collection with an Excel spreadsheet locally on my PC.

I used to keep track of all the DVD info on a spreadsheet but the online collection sites make it so much easier. Plus, for Profiler, you can download reports to print out hardcopies, if needed.
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Old 06-01-04 | 10:55 PM
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I'm considering using Access to do it, but it will take a while.
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Old 06-01-04 | 10:56 PM
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I use an Excel spreadsheet for my collection of ~500. The only reason I really even use it is to keep track of how much I've spent on my collection, but I also have other information in it, such as where the DVD was purchased, how many discs it has, and other goofy information.

For 2004, I've also been tracking the purchase dates of my DVDs so at the end of the year, I'll be able to wonder how I was able to afford rent in certain months.

Really, the only advantage of doing a spreadsheet is that you can use it to hone your skills with Excel, or whatever program you may use. I know it's been pretty beneficial for me. I've actually been looking into using DVDProfiler recently, but I'm dreading having to go through and enter my entire collection one by one.
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Old 06-01-04 | 10:57 PM
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I use Excel to track my orders (order info and such), but after they arrive, I use an online catalog.
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Old 06-01-04 | 11:08 PM
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I do a little bit of everything

Excel to track what I own, what I have on order, what I've donated and Netflix rentals (started awhile ago when trying to figure out just what exactly my rentals/month were and I've just kept it updated). As far as what I own I just track MSRP and disk count for insurance purposes.

I also have a simple list of DVDs for the PDA/personal web site so I make sure I don't accidentally repurchase anything and it gives friends/co-workers a place to go for the complete list if they want to borrow anything (something else tracked in excel).

I use both DVDaf and Guzzlefish mainly out of habit. If it weren't for the "stats" I'd probably dump Guzzlefish as it seems the slower of the two. I like DVDaf for the fact I can create my own folders/categories. Neither of them has all the titles I own that's why I don't use either exclusively.

Edit: I also use DVDpricesearch to track my "want list"

Last edited by nemein; 06-01-04 at 11:26 PM.
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Old 06-01-04 | 11:14 PM
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i use excel to keep track of my want list...organize by want level (ie. 1 to 5), their columbia house status (enrollment, fullfillment, not available, etc) and their status (ordered, shipped, etc).
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Old 06-01-04 | 11:14 PM
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I use excel as well.
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Old 06-02-04 | 04:43 AM
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After setting up collection in DVDprofiler I exported it into an excel spreadsheet. It has the advantage of being highly customizeable- I use it mainly to keep a total number of physical DVDs in addition to the standard DVD method of counting boxsets and 2-disc sets as one DVD.

Also, I keep a running tally of:
which DVDs I've yet to watch, (14 discs currently unwatched, mostly made of the most recent Buffy/Angel/Gilmore Girls season sets)
which DVDs were "blind buys" (484 of 825 bought without seeing the feature before hand)
my personal rankings from 1 to 10 for each title I own (current overall average - 7.3).

I also have simple anime and Criterion pages with rankings just because it's sometimes nice to keep track of those subsets. And last I've got a badly out of date "Not on DVD" wishlist that I need to update. (The Accidental Tourist and The Thing (1951) ) are both still listed on that page to name a couple).
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Old 06-02-04 | 05:24 AM
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I am using Access to organize my DVD at my PC and at the internet with Aficionado.
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Old 06-02-04 | 06:37 AM
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I use MySQL.
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Old 06-02-04 | 06:53 AM
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I use it.
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Old 06-02-04 | 07:03 AM
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I toss my new purchases onto DVDAF (yakes maybe 5 minutes a week total).

Then I actually watch my DVDs.
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Old 06-02-04 | 07:26 AM
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There is a great program from http://www.collectorz.com called Movie Collector also. I highly recommend it.
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Old 06-02-04 | 08:24 AM
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Originally posted by FatTony
Really, the only advantage of doing a spreadsheet is that you can use it to hone your skills with Excel, or whatever program you may use.
Not entirely true. I use DVDProfiler for my collection, but I also keep an Excel SS of the titles. I sort them by type of case since that is how I have my collection sorted on my shelves. It comes in handy when things get moved around and also if we have a number of guests over to make sure nothing has disappeared.
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Old 06-02-04 | 08:33 AM
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I used to use this program and then export to excel and then tweak it and create a website from it. You can check out an old version of my spreadsheet / website hybrid here. As you can see, I stopped updating that and now I use the "big 3" DVD collection sites as I like them much better.
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Old 06-02-04 | 08:36 AM
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Originally posted by Qui Gon Jim
Not entirely true. I use DVDProfiler for my collection, but I also keep an Excel SS of the titles. I sort them by type of case since that is how I have my collection sorted on my shelves. It comes in handy when things get moved around and also if we have a number of guests over to make sure nothing has disappeared.
I think it would be pretty easy to accomplish this with DVD Profiler by specifying a location.
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Old 06-02-04 | 10:14 AM
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I export from DVD Profiler to a spreadsheet; I added a few extra columns to the spreadsheet where I keep track of how many times I've watched something, last time I watched, and what I thought of it. The spreadsheet is also handy for sorting by different things (for example if I have 90 minutes to watch a movie, I can sort by movie length)
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Old 06-02-04 | 10:32 AM
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I use excel. If you guys want to take a look here it is DVD Tracker
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Old 06-02-04 | 10:58 AM
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I use DVDAF for my friends to see and for PDA use.

I use Excel for me because I can be more detailed. Here is a link to look at my Excel sheet.

Man, Get Me Coffee, I LOVE your charts and graphs! Is there an easy way to set those up? I have columns very similar to yours, but can't figure out how to break them down so it counts (for instance) how many PG movies I have.

Last edited by JuryDuty; 06-02-04 at 11:19 AM.
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Old 06-02-04 | 11:27 AM
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excel. that way I have it set up for what I have spent and what my cost per disc is. $6.45.

Upload it to my web page server on occasion in case the house burns down.
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Old 06-02-04 | 11:35 AM
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I use excel as well, I port html to my website every once in awhile (although not to much recently) for others to look at and to my PDA for portability. I pretty much keep mine to that downloadable list (forgot the link) so when i add a title, I just copy the infor from there into my collection. Makes it simple. I've got some customization in there, but not much really....no charts and graphs yet...lol, but i do organize it by what I have up for trade, my wants, etc.
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Old 06-02-04 | 12:02 PM
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Originally posted by FatTony
I use an Excel spreadsheet for my collection of ~500. The only reason I really even use it is to keep track of how much I've spent on my collection, but I also have other information in it, such as where the DVD was purchased, how many discs it has, and other goofy information.
DVD Profiler does everything you described above. You can enter the price you paid, the date you bought it, and where you bought it. Those are some of the more important things to me that you can't do with Guzzlefish, and is annoying to do with DVDaf.

Plus, with DVD Profiler you can export your collection to Excel with minimal modification to the spreadsheet.
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