Adding DVD's to Database

[Jyroflux]

So, I finally started to add my DVD's to my blu-ray.com collection. So far a couple dozen don't appear in the database at all. Some don't show up when I scan the barcodes, of these I've found that the UPC for the entry is wrong in a few cases. I have no idea how the UPC was arrived at because I'm not able to confirm it anywhere. In those cases I just update the UPC. Sometimes it's because the UPC is missing one digit, and I update those as well.

In other cases, the entire DVD entry is just a shambles. Wrong cover art (in some cases they seem like homemade covers), wrong UPC's, very incomplete entries, etc. I'm just trying to be as accurate as possible and I don't want to hijack someone else's submission (even if it seems like a half-hearted attempt), so I create a new entry but run into trouble when the Amazon ASIN has already been wrongly attributed to another version.

Case in point, It's a Wonderful Life (Silver Screen Classics). The Amazon ASIN was used for a version that seems to have a homemade cover as I can't find a DVD release anywhere that uses that cover. And the proper cover is used in the Amazon entry.

I'm wondering:

What is the right way to add a correct entry?

and

Is it possible to add cover art at the same time as making a new entry?

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by Jyroflux

So, I finally started to add my DVD's to my blu-ray.com collection. So far a couple dozen don't appear in the database at all. Some don't show up when I scan the barcodes, of these I've found that the UPC for the entry is wrong in a few cases. I have no idea how the UPC was arrived at because I'm not able to confirm it anywhere. In those cases I just update the UPC. Sometimes it's because the UPC is missing one digit, and I update those as well.

In other cases, the entire DVD entry is just a shambles. Wrong cover art (in some cases they seem like homemade covers), wrong UPC's, very incomplete entries, etc. I'm just trying to be as accurate as possible and I don't want to hijack someone else's submission (even if it seems like a half-hearted attempt), so I create a new entry but run into trouble when the Amazon ASIN has already been wrongly attributed to another version.

Case in point, It's a Wonderful Life (Silver Screen Classics). The Amazon ASIN was used for a version that seems to have a homemade cover as I can't find a DVD release anywhere that uses that cover. And the proper cover is used in the Amazon entry.

I'm wondering:

What is the right way to add a correct entry?

and

Is it possible to add cover art at the same time as making a new entry?

They might not be wrong UPCs as many DVD releases have received multiple releases over the course of the past 18 years. Sometimes the studios reuse the same UPC and/or drop the MSRP. It's possible the versions you have just haven't been added to the database yet.

Also, Amazon has a habit of reusing the same ASIN for rereleases with the same UPC. For example, if the original release came out in say 2000 and the studio rereleased it in 2005 with new cover art but the same UPC then Amazon will update the cover art. In such a case, a new database entry should be added to this site's database to account for the different release.

You can add a new DVD by going to the theatrical (movie) listing on this site and clicking on the Add DVD link. Or you can click on one of the existing DVD releases and click on the Add new/country edition link.

Cover art can't be added at the same time. You have to wait for the profile to be approved first and then the cover art can be added.

EDIT: I found the It's a Wonderful Life (Silver Screen Classics) release you were talking about. The current cover art on this site is custom cover art and thus it should be replaced with the cover art from the official release.

[Jyroflux]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

They might not be wrong UPCs as many DVD releases have received multiple releases over the course of the past 18 years. Sometimes the studios reuse the same UPC and/or drop the MSRP. It's possible the versions you have just haven't been added to the database yet.

Also, Amazon has a habit of reusing the same ASIN for rereleases with the same UPC. For example, if the original release came out in say 2000 and the studio rereleased it in 2005 with new cover art but the same UPC then Amazon will update the cover art. In such a case, a new database entry should be added to this site's database to account for the different release.

You can add a new DVD by going to the theatrical (movie) listing on this site and clicking on the Add DVD link. Or you can click on one of the existing DVD releases and click on the Add new/country edition link.

Cover art can't be added at the same time. You have to wait for the profile to be approved first and then the cover art can be added.

EDIT: I found the It's a Wonderful Life (Silver Screen Classics) release you were talking about. The current cover art on this site is custom cover art and thus it should be replaced with the cover art from the official release.

Thanks for replying. Good to know about Amazon's re-use of ASIN's. The only UPC's I changed were ones that I knew were absolutely wrong. I searched diligently for the UPC and nothing was found that matches. In most cases it seems to have been I typo. In others, where the EAN is correct, the UPC is wrong. Who knows why.

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by Jyroflux

Thanks for replying. Good to know about Amazon's re-use of ASIN's. The only UPC's I changed were ones that I knew were absolutely wrong. I searched diligently for the UPC and nothing was found that matches. In most cases it seems to have been I typo. In others, where the EAN is correct, the UPC is wrong. Who knows why.

I submitted the correct cover art for approval for the Silver Screens Classic you mentioned above. A good resource to use also is DVDProfiler as they've been cataloging releases since DVD came to market. Until recently, the entry was always for the original release but now they have a mechanism for rereleases with the same UPC number.

[Jyroflux]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

I submitted the correct cover art for approval for the Silver Screens Classic you mentioned above. A good resource to use also is DVDProfiler as they've been cataloging releases since DVD came to market. Until recently, the entry was always for the original release but now they have a mechanism for rereleases with the same UPC number.

Thanks. I'll look into that.

Also, I ran into a problem with the director's cut of Requiem for a Dream DVD. It appears UPC's 012236115670, 012236118152 are virtually identical. I've looked at upcsearch.info and online libraries, etc. The two versions even have the same release date. The covers are identical as well as the disc attributes. It doesn't seem necessary to add another version, even though the UPC version I have does not have an entry.

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by Jyroflux

Thanks. I'll look into that.

Also, I ran into a problem with the director's cut of Requiem for a Dream DVD. It appears UPC's 012236115670, 012236118152 are virtually identical. I've looked at upcsearch.info and online libraries, etc. The two versions even have the same release date. The covers are identical as well as the disc attributes. It doesn't seem necessary to add another version, even though the UPC version I have does not have an entry.

Both exist so both can be added to the database. Studios sometimes use multiple UPCs for various different reasons. I can say why this happened in this case but members do add titles to their collection by UPC sometimes so it would benefit other members too.

[Strapped4Cash]

Terminator on dvd is an example where many versions were given the same Amazon ASIN over the years.

OTOH, there are movies which have many Amazon ASIN's and I really don't think there were that many versions over the years. There's a movie called "Cruel Game" for example, which has at least 5.

But, Amazon sometimes has tried experiments like "Rental Ready" versions, so that might be the same version, packaged differently, with another ASIN.

Sometimes versions from other regions are put in as U.S. releases here, either mistakenly or on purpose.

And Amazon can handle the same situation differently, like when a dvd switches from professionally pressed to DVD-R then sometimes the ASIN is overwritten and all traces of the original are gone, but other times the DVD-R is just assigned a new ASIN.

I'd say just do the best that you can, but try to imagine why something might be the way that it is before making changes and keep in mind that the problem might be anywhere. A couple times early on I almost added a whole new entry before checking and figuring out only the cover was wrong, for example. Some people seem to like to do strange things with covers (which I don't understand), but other times someone might have searched for hours, and finally put in the best cover they could find, maybe hoping that someone later might do better (I like to hope that most people are doing the best that they can)?

[Jyroflux]

I've come across DVD's where the cover art that is displayed has the correct UPC and doesn't match the submitted UPC. Further, the EAN mirrored the correct UPC (with the added zero in front). So the submitted UPC is wrong and a quick search verifies this. In these cases, this wrong UPC is why scanning the barcode on the DVD fails.

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by Jyroflux

I've come across DVD's where the cover art that is displayed has the correct UPC and doesn't match the submitted UPC. Further, the EAN mirrored the correct UPC (with the added zero in front). So the submitted UPC is wrong and a quick search verifies this. In these cases, this wrong UPC is why scanning the barcode on the DVD fails.

Some people just submit the wrong cover art too. I've seen two separate listings for the same title with different UPCs (one was a re-release) but the same person submitted the same back cover art for both listings. Obviously, the back cover art was not correct in this case.

Also, another tip, you can hover your cursor over the icon found to the right of each field to see when the data for each field was contributed/approved. Those fields with data but no username/icon were automatically imported by the system.

Which title were you referring to above?

EDIT: Oh, and here is a good post by Pro-B about how to add DVDs to the database.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=183549

[Jyroflux]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

Some people just submit the wrong cover art too. I've seen two separate listings for the same title with different UPCs (one was a re-release) but the same person submitted the same back cover art for both listings. Obviously, the back cover art was not correct in this case.

Also, another tip, you can hover your cursor over the icon found to the right of each field to see when the data for each field was contributed/approved. Those fields with data but no username/icon were automatically imported by the system.

Which title were you referring to above?

I've seen instances of wrong cover art. I wouldn't base a decision only on cover art; the data would have to be cumulative with the cover art playing a supporting role. I've found submitted UPC's that don't show up at all when searching online. In every case the submission also had an EAN. I figure if the EAN (minus the added zero) and the cover art confirm that the DVD I hold in my hand is the right UPC, the submitted UPC is erroneous.

The scenario I was referring to above occurred a few times. But since I've added close to 400 DVD's in the past few days and submitted several missing ones, I'll have to try to recall the exact ones.

EDIT: I just saw your edit. I've had no trouble locating DVD's. Most of the ones that aren't in the DVD database already are either obscure, foreign or much older versions than the ones submitted. For example, the Edko version of Oldboy, the 2001 version of Empire of the Sun or 1998 version of Fallen Angels. But the info about Studios helped. Thanks for that.

[rdodolak]

I forget when the database feature was added to this site, maybe it was in 2010. But given DVD was released long before this site even existed and that it was primarily Blu-ray focused the DVD catalogue never got as much attention as Blu-ray thus there are more holes for the DVD catalogue.

I agree that a cumulative approach is good to determine incorrect entries. I've seen a couple of other things that have resulted in a wrong UPC.

1) Someone adds a DVD listing but then another member adds an ASIN from Amazon. The system may automatically change the UPC (but not EAN for US listings) based on the UPC attached to the ASIN from Amazon's database. Either the wrong ASIN was added to this site's listing or Amazon updated an existing ASIN with the rerelease UPC. You can tell if it's an automatic system change because there will be no username and date/time stamp to the right of the field in question. (I've had this happen to listings I've added to the database)

2) Someone adds a DVD listing but then another member changes the UPC. I've seen this happen before too as there are some listings I personally added, due to missing entries, based on the copy I own. Then a year or so later someone comes around and changes the data to reflect their rerelease instead of adding a new listing.

3) People change the existing cover art to reflect the cover art for their rerelease version instead of adding a new listing. This happens more when the studios reuse the same UPC.

Another area that I look at too is up in the upper right corner of the edit page. There are usually two usernames with the information icon shown. The first is the user who originally created the listing with the date/time stamp. The second is the user that last updated the listing with the date/time stamp. I look at who contributed the original listing and who, if anyone different,v contributed the other fields in question.

Just some things I've noticed and/or found useful over the years from contributing.

[Jyroflux]

Thanks. All very useful information.

Flight of the Phoenix was one of the UPC's I changed. Those are my scans for that DVD. I spent a couple of hours on them as I'm quite picky about cover art. I have several other submissions pending (I think everyone took the weekend off).

[rdodolak]

DVD submissions typically take longer to be approved based on my contribution experience. However, yes, weekends typically are slower due to the weekend.

But this thread did remind me that I need to go back through my DVD collection and find the missing entries so that I can complete that part of my collection.