is this like the Delicious Library for Mac OS X?

200 Bucks? Maybe 40 bucks I would pick one up, but 200 bucks is a bit too much for this toy. Hopefully someone will build a cheap knockoff and we will see Tiger Direct offering it for 20 after a $180 rebate.

Exactly like Delicious Library for Mac. Except or the need for a dedicated scanner and for $150 less!

I have done something like this myself, except without using scanning software. I've found that typing in the 12 digit upc doesn't take an incredible amount of time (even with 200+ dvds), and can be done in about the time of a TV show or two.

No, my problem was not with the initial entry of the movies, but with entering new movies as I purchased them.

I'm not sure how much your time is worth, but for much less than $200 you could pay a friend to manually type everything in for you.

hrm... Or you could accomplish the same thing for under $5 using a Cuecat from Ebay and software from Sourceforge. And to be sure that you're doing it properly, you should also travel back in time about 5 years to when this was still a novel idea.

Congratulations Flic on reinventing the wheel.

*

Sounds a lot like Delicious Library. Except for needing a scanner.

Boring! Delicious library from delicious-monster.com has only done this for about (what?) two years or something + you don't have to buy a scanner, you just use your web cam - only for MAC of course!!! ;-)

Delicious Lib (and DVD Pedia) can use you iSight or regular DV cam to scan barcodes, so this toy already looks obsolete.

Use a Cut-Cat (about $10 or less) and any of a number of softwares for both Windows and OS X. Save yourself at least $150.

jcase757, what software do you use or do you just type in the dvd/cd name on a spreadhseet?

Friend 1: "Can I borrow your Matrix DVD"
Friend 2: "Sure. I just need to see your membership card."
Friend 1: "What?"
Friend 2: "Ok, let me set you up in the system. What's your zip code?"
Friend 1: [backs away slowly, mouth agape, sprints out the front door]

what about us people who... ummm... don't actually have the box & barcode?

dvd profiler has been doing this for at least 5 years now.

As people are keen to point out, this *is* very much like Delicious Library for Macintosh.

Those of us who are still kicking around with their Windows boxes can enjoy a similar experience with the excellent MediaMan media organizer.

Simply enter the UPC with a barcode scanner (or type it) and it downloads cover artwork from Amazon.com for books, DVDs, CDs and software.

Those of you without the packaging can still search and find items via keywords.

Best of all, it's considerably cheaper than Flic Scanner at only $40. I've been using it for about 6 months now. Runs like a champ.

I do this same thing with Collectorz.com Movie Collector and a USB CueCAT from eBay...

Movie Collector lets me do quite a bit with exporting my movie lists, etc. too.

I think I spent a total of $55 and that includes $49.95 to the full-up Movie Collector software package.

DVD Profiler does this same thing with any USB powered barcode scanner (like the CueCat).

Been there, done that.

I'd really like to see something like this for books, only for free or at maybe 1/10 the price. Of course, a goodly chunk of my personal library comes from the days before bar codes and ISBN codes were invented, alas. (Yes, I am old.) Still, I suppose I could make my own bar codes for the really old readables.

$200 for a barcode reader? What exactly is inside there -- dilithium crystals?! It's not wireless, but it takes batteries? And Windows only? Gee thanks... I'll pass.

What some of you fail to get is that using your cell phone or digital camera to capture a large number of bar codes is slow. Using a bar code reader I can scan thousands of bar codes in the same time I can take hundreds of pictures and get them imported and scanned by Delicious Library. The people that this sort of hardware/software combo is aimed at are those that have very large libraries so obviously they are looking at the time investment of entering all the data.

I recently needed to scan a very large number of books and time was tight enough that I didn't even want to fiddle with taking apart and "neutering" a CueCat so I ordered a $90 bar code scanner online, plugged it in the following morning, and scanned the books in one full day of scanning. That would have taken a lot longer with the other solutions that have been discussed here.

If time is not an issue and you're willing to take individual pictures and then have them scanned, great. If you need something speedier, a turnkey solution like this is useful (especially if you aren't technically savvy and just want something that works).

I see these kinds of comments on Gizmodo a lot - people say "been there done that" when there is another procedure or product available but depending on one's needs, even a modest improvement in the time or complexity is for some well worth the additional expense.

To summarize: not everyone is exactly like you. You shouldn't assume that your personal situation and preferences are universal.

I have one and I love it! It works great with Delicious Library, and it's a lot easier to use than the iSight. Please stop badmouthing this worthy product.

I need to add that this software is for your ENTIRE MEDIA COLLECTION, not just your DVD's. For the money you are spending you get to track your DVD's, CD's, and books as well as get the barcode scanner. In regards to the person who said he uses Collectorz.com that is the company that is supplying this software. It's the same stuff you just get all of it instead of just one piece. Also, for the Mac users if you look at the DL website you see that they also sell the Flic scanner to go with their software.

I also forgot to add that the Flic with the free wedge software that comes with it also allows you to scan into any application that accepts text entry. I used it the other day to look up UPC's at www.upcdatabase.com as well as do some barcode tracking in Excel.

I think the real problem here, and why there are so many comments crying "old!" and "too expensive!" is that this post doesn't make the big advantage of this gadget clear, and actually hides it by having a picture with the laptop visible in the background. The Big Deal about this gadget is that it's a standalone device with memory in it that you sync later after you're done with all your scanning. You can scan the day away without being tethered to a computer, which may not be a big deal to those of us who are in an almost-beyond-platonic love with our laptops, but maybe a huge advantage to desktop-exclusive folks.

So they can drag all their stuff over next to the computer, which may be upstairs or in the basement or *ahem* in an already-crowded and cluttered office with little space to put things down, or they can use this thing. Which, at $140 for just the device without the software, may be more than you or I would want to pay but is a lot cheaper than a laptop and barcode wand.

As far as the picture option, as others have pointed out, laser scanning a barcode is notably quicker and less issue-prone than taking pictures and uploading them. You also know immediately if a code scan has failed, whereas a picture that can't be used only becomes obvious when the app tries to parse it. Meaning you have the same must-be-tethered requirement of the scanner if you want to know about failures in time to re-do the shot.