Quoting GSyren:

Quote:
I wouldn't say that Profiler has info for every release, or that every piece of info is confirmed, but I guess that depends on what kind of titles you're looking for. Layer info, on the other hand, is probably something that's not all that easily available elsewhere. Some review site may have it, but not for every release, so I get why that is something that may be useful - if layer info is really important to you.

Yes, DVD Profiler doesn't have info for every release but it sometimes has info for releases that I haven't been able to find on other sites.  With all the resources combined the user can get a good amount of the info necessary.  I also review the contribution notes to see what the contributors have to say about the info they contributed and the source of the info.  There was a time when DVD Profiler always had information on the titles I was interested in and it was rare for the info not to be in the database prior to me receiving new releases.  However, this has changed over time and more and more releases go uncontributed ... sometimes for months or longer.

>>How do you use DVD Profiler?<<
To track my movie collection.

>>why does case type matter?<<
Why does any of the fields matter?  It's information about the individual releases.

>>deciding what to watch?<<
Sometimes.  It's a useful to browse by genre, runtime, rating, cast, etc

>>Do you use it for purchase decisions?<<
Only in the aspect to know what I already own.  I don't use the wishlist tab.

>>Would you select what to view based on case type?<<
No, I usually select what movies I watch based on the release date.

>>Do you use it for statistical purposes?<<
Yes, I use the DVDP to Access plugin, and run queries against it.  Also useful in finding issues with my collection.

>>Do you use it as a movie information database<<
Not really.  I'd love to, but it is awkward to try and track movies not in my collection.  Like theatrical, rentals, TV watches etc.  I use Letterboxd to track what I watch.  I wish there was an easy way to import what I've watch from my collection.  I do tag my Letterboxd collection with owned tags, so I can easily see what I've watched from my own collection.

Quoting surfeur51:

Quote:
If you want to contribute fields of a profile that contains typos (or any other nonsense as T4xi or overview concerning another movie...), rules oblige us to contribute those typos

Which makes perfect sense, since the rules intend that the database reflects the product rather than our imaginations.

---------------

I am and always have been on surfeur51's side on this issue, even though he can be annoying with his repitition.

Here's how I use DVDP.

I profile all the items I've purchased by their UPC/EAN if available, otherwise I use the DiscID.

If I happen to come accross a duplicate (accidental double dip) I'll make a manual profile, noting the actual UPC in the notes.

I'll add the DiscID(s) of the main features in the Discs section. That is always done by myself, no matter what the online DB says. I profile what I have, not what someone else added at some point in the past.

For TV series, I go down to disc level because that's a manageable compromise between seeing what I've actually watched and profile creating effort. I have ~3,000 disc profiles, to create ~12,000 manual episode profiles would be too much effort for me, especially since DVDP doesn't allow "linking" of cover images (i.e. an option to use the covers of the parent profile without actually copying the JPEG files).

I've written myself a tool that is not advertised here for obvious reasons where I use the cast and crew from IMDb because I feel that gives me a much more accurate linkability of cast and crew than the DVDP database will. I just voted yes on a buttload of Star Trek profiles where Michael Dorn suddenly needed a birth year. Michael Dorn has been having a birth year in my database for ages because in lack of a proper person ID I feel that all four fields used (last, first, middle name, birth year) gives me the best chance not to have two different people being mistaken for the same person.
IMDb is not perfect, I know that. But I don't care if it says "Captain Kirk" or just "Kirk" in the actual credits. What I want is being able to click on one young and unknown actor by the name of Mario Girotti and see that he played in most of his movies as Terence Hill.
Just last week I voted on a common name change of a guy called Montara or something (I don't really pay attention to these kinds of contribs; if the contrib notes contain a link to the name thread I am fine and vote yes) and one of my fellow voters voted no. He was outside his rights to do so but I could understand his frustration, because he said (something in the vein of) that this guys common name was only changed a few months ago and now we're changing it again because he had one more movie under name variant two and if in six months (he is a crew guy IIRC) we're going to change it all over again.
With changes like these you will always have a broken link database and I don't want that.
Some of you will ask why I don't use IMDb and be done with it. Because IMDb is a full database. I want to see which movies I have with any one person.

So in essence, all my profiles are cleared from any online DB cast and crew and then locked in these sections.

What I care to know about in a DVD is that it is not censored (i.e. cut) by any "well meaning" age rating agency, that it has an original audio track and optionally a subtitle track in English if it is an English language movie or German if it is any other kind (French, Japanese, ...). My English hearing is quite good IMHO, but some slang movies are just hard to understand for my foreign ears.

What I don't need and care about is a 1:1 representation of the overview text with bells and whistles like italics and bolds and silly stuff like that. I don't see the usefulness for these kinds of formatting at all. So when someone contributes a change to repair a hyphen - to a dash — I just shake my head, vote yes and forget I ever saw it. The overview is one of the sections I don't lock and let in whatever other contributors think must be the correct way.

As for titles, I have a similar stance as with cast and crew. A database lives from order. Without order a database is not a database but a junkyard - you may eventually find what you're looking for but only after turning every heap upon its head.
My titles follow strict library index card rules without any graphic art nonsense some cover designer may have cooked up to make it look more pretty. There is no T-four-xi in my database nor is there a The Complete First Season or a Final Season Five.
That is a personal choice but that is what this topic is all about. All my titles are well-formatted and then locked, so I'll find what I'm looking for when I'm looking for it.

Genres are locked as well, any non-genre like Television is always in the last spot. I don't like them there at all, but they are needed for certain purposes (e.g. phpDVDProfiler statistics).

I've re-purposed the SRP field for my own needs because until now we didn't really have the ability to add custom fields and the actual SRP is of no interest to me.

Well, that's about it. Anything I've not mentioned here is probably due to lack of interest in that section.

For me, it simple, I love information of any kind...the more the merrier. I like to look up an actor or crew member and see what they were associated with in my collection. I also like disc level profiles especially for TV seasons. This allows me to find the disc that has a particular piece of information I'm looking for.

I get on kicks of sorts based on particular info.

Quoting DoubleDownAgain:

Quote:
Why does any of the fields matter?  It's information about the individual releases

Well, that was kind of why I asked. It's information, but unless you actually use that information in some way, then it's useless information.

Others, like iPatsa, have provided very good reasons. Reasons I would not have thought of myself, because I don't use Profiler in the same way that they do. So I find that very illuminating.

And - with the risk of derailing my own thread - I must say that I sympathize to some degree with surfeur. I want info about the movie, not misinformation from the cover or the credits. But I grind my teeth and lock the info. Not much point in flogging a dead horse... 

To expand on SwissFilm's post:

I also own DVDP Mobile (for classic Windows CE PDAs), DVDP Apple app, DVDP Android app.

I bought them in this order because I bought the devices in that order.

My PDA is still working and is useful to sync my work Outlook appointments so I know on which days I have to be in the office earlier. I have my collection on it so I don't double dip. It still happens when I'm either to lazy to look at the collection or if I'm totally convinced that I don't already have that movie (which then turns out to be wrong. ).

When I got an iPad, I got DVDP Apple app and thought it would replace my Mobile. But I don't take my iPad with me unless I actually travel somewhere. Nowadays I just use it to browse my collection on the sofa and decide what I'm going to watch. So linkability is again an issue for me, because I often decide to watch something by actor or genre.

Last but not least after I got an Android phone I got the app for it. And this actually (mostly) replaced the PDA Mobile version when it comes to shopping.

Simply put, I want all the information I can use about the DVD/Blu-ray and the movie/show/game included on it in my database. I'd rather use my own database to figure out where I know an actor from than using Google or IMDB. I'd rather have all the information about multiple versions, disc defects, weird playback quirks within the program than to have to research it later. Luckily, I have much of this information in my head, but I'm liable to forget at some point.

I'd group the main uses into 3 categories. Here are some uses:

The Disc Itself:
- Special features, covers, case type, release date, audio and video specifications
- Keep track of digital copy management - which ones I've redeemed, traded, sold.
- Keep track of the condition I purchased the title in - new, used, rental versions; tracking missing features (missing slip cover, digital copy or bonus discs)
- Keep track of which discs feature their original trailers and which I need to download or obtain the trailers for
- Keep track of missing extras that were not carried over from previous formats.

The Movie/TV Show:
- Information about the movie/show itself including studio, running time, cast & crew
- Tags help me keep track of movies by keywords, plot details, period setting, location, subgenres, awards, and honors, etc.

Personal Information
- Which movies/TV shows I have watched and the dates I've watched them.
- Information regarding the purchase date, price, and place where I obtained it.

Honestly, I've fallen out of love with the program a bit in the past few months as I realize it's never gonna be the program it can be and there's very little interest in improving it.