The CATVids database

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The information about your collection is stored in a database. A database is a file on your hard disk, with the extension .MDB, that contains all the information you have entered into the database.

A database consists of several tables. Each table contains related information. For example, there is one table with information about each video, one with information about each segment (a movie, TV series episode, etc - a video can contain multiple segments), one with information about each person (actors, directors, producers, etc.), one with information about each studio and so on. Each table contains a various number of fields. For example, the person table has a field for the name of the person, one field for the date of birth, one field for the  biography and so on.

CATVids lets you rename all tables and all fields.  You can specify a default value for most fields. For example, if most of your collection consists of Blu-Rays, you can specify "Blu-Ray" as the default value for the Format field. You can hide the fields you don't want to use. They will then disappear from all windows, menus, lists etc. You only use the fields you want.

CATVids lets you work with an unlimited number of databases. This means that you can split your collection into different catalogs and organize it to meet your needs. You can later merge existing databases.

CATVids uses a relational database model. This means that you register most information only once. For example, you only need to type the name of a director the first time you add a movie directed by this person. Later, you simply choose the name from a list. CATVids automatically creates a link between the video and the person. When you modify an entry in a lookup table, for example, to fix a typing error, the change will be reflected in all fields that are linked to the lookup table.

The use of lookup tables to store information has two significant advantages: it saves time and conserves valuable disk space on your computer. It also makes it easier to search for exactly the information you are looking for, or create a group based report. And finally, it allows you to store useful information about each entry in a lookup table. For example, you can store an actor's biography or a studio's home page URL.




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