I remember reading some threads complaining about the lack of a feature for Profiler that would allow it to track multiple copies (loan history / status) of the same title.

The basic answer I saw was: This is a video rental store feature that is irrelevant for a home user, and you would expect to pay thousands of dollars for this sort of thing.

People recommended entering the 2nd (nth) copy by way of DiscID, etc.

Well I have three copies of "Kinky Boots" (786936294668), and have had all three loaned out at once, and was trying figure out a neater solution.

Since Profiler knows about EAN/GTIN-13 as well as standard UPC-A, I asked myself:

What if you dropped the UPC-A check digit, added another unique digit, computed a check digit for the longer code, and then used THAT as the title identifier?

It starts off with adding the title per usual, and then changing the UPC-A number to the one you want. Just for safety I locked the entire title.

So now it looks like this:

UPC-A
786936294668

Less check digit:
78693629466

Then the three copies:

7869362946608
7869362946615
7869362946622

And I appear to have three copies, each of which can have its own loan status or history, notes, etc.

Of course you lose the auto-updating feature, but for many stable titles this might not be a big deal.

So what's wrong with this picture?

Quoting scotthm:

Quote:
So what's wrong with this picture?

Too complicated.  Just enter the letter "m" as the new UPC.
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Certainly "M" is less complicated, but:

I'm entering valid UPC/ check digits as far as Profiler is concerned, so it doesn't complain.

Since I'm using all the significant bits of the old UPC number, I don't have to keep track of A,B,C ...

This system gives you up to 10 copies (0-9) per original UPC, so you don't have to worry about re-using your "M".

They all sort together by UPC.

And it's not that complicated, since there are any number of free UPC check digit calculators on the web.

But it is certainly more complicated than "M".

Quoting scotthm:
When you enter "m" as a UPC the program automatically assigns a unique number.  There is no "re-using" of anything, but sorting by UPC would be a problem.  Sorting by title still works though.

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Assigns a unique UPC number? A unique DiscID? Or just the collection number?

Where would you go to see this unique number?

Quoting Addicted2DVD:

Quote:
I use them all the time. Not only for a situation like you said... but to break up box sets where more then one movie is on a single side of a disc.

Thanks for the look. Of course, if you have two movies on one side of a disc, or two movies with one on opposite sides of the disc, it's hard to loan out one without loaning out the other ...

Going back to my example for Kinky Boots:

786936294668
7869362946608
7869362946615
7869362946622
7869362946639
7869362946646
7869362946653
7869362946660
7869362946677
7869362946684
7869362946691

You actually get the original UPC plus 10 extra copies.

The advantage of keeping the original UPC is that at least THAT copy gets updates.

The advantage of using these generated but valid UPC codes might be that it offers a way of transferring info between co-conspirators even when the bigger database does not for certain situations.

Right now we're forced into using DiscIDs for listing extra titles when a studio reuses UPC codes for re-releases that are actually different.

I've often wondered: What does a DiscID actually tell you?

Perhaps discs that are identical in every way can have different DiscIDs just because they were pressed in different plants.

I don't think it guarantees you that two different discs (different DiscIDs) have different content.

Sometimes you're just getting an identical transfer from a different releasing company that has added it's own logo splash before the opening credits.

The different ways that studios can re-use a UPC is seemingly endless, even beyond the usual anamorphic vs letterbox vs P&S vs ...

We can't use manual IDs to transfer info entered by one user to another, or via localities, or any number of other methods easily.

A UPC/GTIN trick might be a semi-elegant way around this.

The usual method for converting UPC to GTIN is to pre-pend one or more zeros. What I've done is simply clip the original check digit and replace it with 0-9, and then calculate the new check digit.

What I don't know is the probability that the fake UPCs would ever end up being used in real life ...

I can see no advantage to this over manual profiles.

Quoting lasitter:

Quote:
Perhaps discs that are identical in every way can have different DiscIDs just because they were pressed in different plants.

I don't think it guarantees you that two different discs (different DiscIDs) have different content.

There's no chance two different DiscIDs can bring up the same disc. But there's a small chance that two different discs can result in the same DiscID.

Quoting lasitter:

Quote:
Sometimes you're just getting an identical transfer from a different releasing company that has added it's own logo splash before the opening credits.

Adding or changing some stuff will get you a different disc.

And by the way: how would I know which of your fake-upc's I had to use for my release.

Quoting CalebAndCo:

Quote:
I can see no advantage to this over manual profiles.

Having the UPCs sort together is one advantage. Being able to exchange information based on a transportable (with some effort) number is another.