EMDB - Eric's Movie Database

[MarkCo]

http://www.emdb.tk/

EMDB is a small utility to keep track of your DVD collection. With an automatic import from the database of IMDB, export to csv, text or complete website, thumbnail cover preview, a loan tracker, search function and multi-language user interface. EMDB is written in C++ using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 and doesn't need a .NET framework or any other external libraries. And best of all... it's free!

EMDB is available in several languages: English, Dutch, Danish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Slovak, Spanish, Hungarian Croatian, Swedish, Greek, Catalan, Czech, Norwegian, Japanese, French, Finnish and Polish translations are included in the setup.


This recently became portable from v0.52 and up:
Application: EMDB is now fully portable: all settings are stored in a local configuration file (emdb.cfg) instead of the Windows registry. Your current settings are read from the registry and stored in the configuration file.
http://home.versatel.nl/eric.heesakkers ... istory.htm

[Ennovy]

The latest version is 0.72 and is portable.
No more settings in the registry, but in a file emdb.cfg

Extract with universal extractor

[Millenium]

I want to say though EMDB is freeware it has many disadvantages, for example, it doesn't allow downloading information about a film from different databases, it has no built-in player for watching movies...I use Movienizer. This program automatically downloads information about movies and artists from databases like IMDb.com., Amazon.com and others. Movienizer is great for organizing, keeping track of and having a short summary for every movie.

[Andrew Lee]

Application name: EMDB

Website: http://www.emdb.tk/

Date tested: 2007-03-02

Status: Not portable

Reason: write settings to the registry

[Ennovy]

Tested version 2.41
Installed in a sandbox and copied the folder outside the sandbox

According to the online help: http://www.emdb.eu/online-help.html

PORTABILITY:
EMDB is fully portable. All settings and data are stored in the folder you installed EMDB in. For this you MUST install outside of the Program Files folder. You can copy or move the folder to another location on your hard drive or e.g. a memory stick. All data will be kept and all settings will be remembered. EMDB will run directly from the memory stick on any compliant PC (see requirements).

I did not find any entries in the registry.
Found some files (.JPG) in the users TEMP folder, so it is not stealth.
All settings are stored in the application folder.

I like this software and the developer is updating it on a regular basis.

[smaragdus]

I also tested EMDB version 2.41 but I didn't install it- I just extracted the installer. It seems that EMDB is fully portable- it saves data and settings in emdb.cfg, emdb.dat and lastknowngood.dat files. The covers are stored in Covers sub-folder inside program folder.

[smaragdus]

The more I use EMDB the more I like it- a fairly mature program, fully portable, very customizable and light. I haven't tested Add Movies from Hard Disk batch-import feature (I have reasons to add films manually) but everything else is working very well. For me there is little to be desired- for example only Plot Outline text can be copied from the program's main window while it would be very handy for me to be able to copy text from other items- Director(s):, Cast:, etc.

A screen-shot of EMDB version 2.41 below:

[Ennovy]

I added EMDB to the database: http://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=2758
Please vote

[webfork]

I added EMDB to the database: http://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=2758
Please vote

Thanks for adding. I just did an edit, hopefully that helps. I took out the steps:

• All settings and data are stored in the folder you installed EMDB in.
• You can copy or move the folder to another location on your hard drive or e.g. a memory stick.
• All data will be kept and all settings will be remembered. EMDB will run directly from the memory stick on any compliant PC.

... as those aren't necessary for extraction and already covered by either its presence in the database or other entries ("writes settings to...").

[smaragdus]

@Ennovy
Thanks for adding EMDB, it fully deserves its place in the database since it is a very good and useful program. I voted.

[Ennovy]

@webfork Thanks for making the changes, I understand
@smaragdus Thanks for voting

[Mike.S.G.]

I like this app alot, it's fun and works pretty good.

I discovered by accident that since the last few program updates, maybe around 337 or so, when starting up the app after an update it creates a backup.dat file in C:\Windows - a dialog does popup to alert you but I thought it was the file that used to get put in the app's root folder. The file is hidden, and Windows File Explorer can't see it (not on my system), XYplorer can't either despite changing the settings in both file managers to show everything.

I stumbled across the backups by accident while using Irfanview, searching for an image on my system. Irfanview's open dialog was set to "all files", and there it was. Actually, there they were. EMDB had created 3 backups, 3 different version numbers. I don't use EMDB's backup feature, I zip the whole install when I add new movies or update posters and such, and maybe every 4th program update. Btw, the backup.dat files seem to be the same file in EMDB's root, emdb.dat, lastknowngood.dat, and the file in C:\Windows - update_backup_v3xx.dat (all caps). My files are small (140KB), my DB has 40 movies.

EMDB has tweaked the Backup settings in recent updates. I have automatic backups off, and the backup folder pointing to EMDB's root folder... this used to be enough. The only way I could see to delete any unwanted backups was to point the backup dialog to C:\Windows, then the dialog listed them to either Restore or Delete. This is bothersome to have to change back and forth simply to delete unwanted backups. I'm hoping I'm doing something wrong, really. I like this app.

I've needed to reach out to the dev for advice about other problems I've had when starting EMDB from a second display (in extended mode). EMDB won't recognize the second display's differing resolution, and opens crammed up above the toolbar (mine is on top), hiding the upper 3rd of EMDB off screen. I have to pull EMDB down untill it snaps back into place. My laptop resolution is 1366x768, the second display is 1920x1080 (both @60Hz). I've edited the cfg, adjusted EMDB's size to smaller than 1366x768, as well, centering EMDB on screen - works as expected. The problem seems to be EMDB if "Y" is greater than 768, whatever the pixels beyond 768 will be off screen by said pixels. If I stretch EMDB to say 950 pixels in the Y direction, at least most if not all of the 182 pixels will be off screen. I can snap the app back in place and it will be the size I set.

EMDB has issues on a second display when viewing posters in full screen - you have to kill the process to close the app, nothing else works. I'm hoping the dev will have some advice or maybe can duplicate the problem so it can be fixed. I use a number of apps from my second display, and only a few have issues, mostly with popups popping up on the primary display.

[Llewelyn]

1. Download and extract the ZIP file
2. Extract setup.exe with nightly build of Universal Extractor (delete Additional files) to a folder of your choice
3. In that folder create a text file with the followng content

Code: Select all

[Paths]
Backups = \Backups

4. Rename the text file to emdb.cfg
5. Run EMDB.exe

It's a bug probably, but the Backups folder is created at %MyDocuments% by default

[Andrew Lee]

@Llewelyn: Thanks for the updated instructions. I have updated the extraction info for the database entry.