multiple air dates (TV on DVD), ALSO, "duration" d

[cornellflip]

I'm currently using DVDpedia 3.6.0.

1) When entering dates for movies in DVDpedia, the "Theatrical Release" and "DVD Release" fields are usually sufficient. When I'm cataloging DVD releases of television shows, however, these fields are often inadequate. I still use the "DVD Release" field to represent the date of a DVD's release; however, I don't see any other option but to use the "Theatrical Release" field to contain the original television air date or dates.

This system works fine except when there are multiple original air dates involved, as there often are with these TV compilation DVDs.

For example, I'm entering information now for "Best of the Muppet Show, featuring [...]." The episodes involved were originally broadcast in 1977, 1978, and 1980.

I tried adjusting the format in Preferences with poor results. If I type "%Y,%Y,%Y," then type "1977,1978,1980" in the "Theatrical Release" field, the dates change to "1980,1980,1980." Not only that, but all the dates of all my DVDs change to "x,x,x."

I tried having no formula in Preferences for the "Theatrical Release" field. Result: no date in any "Theatrical Release" field for this or any DVD.

Please help!

2) Some people may enjoy the "m" that automatically displays in Full Screen Mode after the contents of the "Duration" field, but I do not. Would you make it so that this can be altered in Preferences?

This is partly because there is no explanation of time measurement when looking at the "Info View." So I've either got:

Info View > Duration: 110
Full Screen Mode > 110m

or I've got:

Info View > Duration: 110 min.
Full Screen Mode > 110 min.m

The other reason this "m" bugs me is that, personally, I like to include durations as they appear on the item itself, even if that means using hours instead of minutes.

Thank you very much for your time and assistance.

[Conor]

I know Nora answered via email. But I want to leave a quick explanation here for anybody else. The date fields will only take a single date. The format only affects how you want that field displayed, say Jan 2007 or 01/01/07, so on and so on.... To add more than one year use a custom field. I would still use the theatrical release date for the first year the series was aired, as this is the date that will appear in the fullscreen view at the moment.

We will also remove the "m" from the full screen display for the next version as you are absolutely correct about that.

[cornellflip]

Thanks to you and Nora for your startlingly swift responses!

Regarding formatting of the date fields.... I understand that setting up a consistent display format is desirable into in order to promote, well, consistency, and thereby facilitate searches.

I'd like to lobby for a user's option to turn off the automatic formatting of the date fields. This is not only because of the reason I already mentioned (multiple dates), but also for the following reason.

I like to include as much detail as can be easily ascertained. So if I know a date/month/year of release, I prefer to include all three pieces of information. And if I can easily discover only the month/year or only the year of release, obviously I cannot use a date/month/year format for these items.

Therefore, in DVDpedia's current iteration I have to restrict myself to the lowest common denominator, so to speak. Since only the year is available for some items, the year is the only release information I can include for all items.

It would be nice to have the option to catalog my collection as detailed-ly as possible, and let searching facility go hang itself!

(BTW, before you remind me to exploit my custom fields to solve my problem, I've already used up all the custom fields. Unless...is there a way to create more than the original four custom fields?)

[Conor]

As you mentioned it's all about consistency; especially for sorting chronologically. I personally set the date to the first day of year for dates where I only have the year; that way when I see 01/01/1984 I know it means only 1984. I have yet to catalog a movie with an actual release date on the first.

We are also adding 6 more custom fields to the next version.

[cornellflip]

Hmm...I think I like that 01/01/XXXX idea of yours. Thank you.

6 more custom fields??!!! I'll be like a kid in a candy store!