Post-Bankruptcy Viability Poll #1: MovieGuide subscription service

[josh]

When voting above, please assume that if Kaleidescape shuts down, we will no longer receive any updates for new movies/music loaded to our systems. All new movies loaded would just have the "unrecognized disc" shown, and the only option is "play disc". (no "play movie" that skips trailers and warnings.)

Given that alternative, answer what is the most you would pay per year to have the MovieGuide service continue to supply metadata and bookmarking of all newly released movies?

 

[Drhemi]

For me, I believe $50 a month would be about the most depending on how it is handled and what is covered.

Wayne

 

[appliedautomation]

What about giving us the tools to update our own movie data?

 

[josh]

What about giving us the tools to update our own movie data?

I agree with this and actually suggested it to them years ago. This could easily be crowdsourced if they'd open up the tool. But it could create problems with who is the ultimate authority on a synopsis, cover, or other data. Definitely solvable, but who is left in engineering at Kaleidescape to do the work to enable this?

If a paid service to run this helps motivate a buyer to take this on, then that might be the best path. But i'm with you... and if there's really no buyer and no rescue plan, then I hope they'll release the specs or a tool on how we can update movieguide data ourselves.

 

[appliedautomation]

We can already do most of it via the web interface, the option to add the play movie scene is the main missing item.

 

[josh]

We can already do most of it via the web interface, the option to add the play movie scene is the main missing item.

i don't really agree on this. While the "Play Movie" bookmark is definitely the most visible/valuable part of MovieGuide, it's a real pain to use that web interface to enter all the details you want on a movie. Imagine the (likely) situation now: every new movie you enter is just "unrecognized". You can use that wonky web UI to enter data, painstakingly, yourself for the title. But you'll still not have "play movie", masking info, scenes, credits-bookmark (signifying end of main movie - used by many to raise lights, etc.), good synopses, all the other data like rotten tomatoes numbers, common-sense media ratings, etc.

I'd happily pay $500 per year to have all this data loaded for me and ready for when i import a new movie.

But in absence of that, yes, i hope they release the movieguide specs/tools so we can try to do it ourselves.

 

[Transepoch]

As I was running through these possibilities this morning, the other thought occurring was "I wonder how large the existing database is?" as it would need to be housed locally if the service were to close. My guess would be under 1T (based on extrapolating from my DVDP database,) but still something that would probably be best conveyed with a new disk purchase and likely how most would need to get it (unless it could be done through service dongle.)

The other-other thought being I wonder if they couldn't give us the ability to bookmark our own files, because then we could unlock extras from the store downloads (or something equally horrifying to mankind.)

Much pondering to be done on my answer. I think part of the answer would depend on whether it included being able to send-in a straggler disc every so often and how efficient the coverage of titles turned out to be, so tiers might be the best. EDIT: As an example, I would think the basic 2-day scraper results should be fairly nominal to maintain (and maybe take more than two business days.)

 

[HiFiGuy1]

At this point, I can only copy DVDs anyway, so the service wouldn't have as much value as it might to others. If the store shuts down, I only have a K-MUSIC 4000 for imports, and since I agreed to the Disney thing, I guess I won't be copying any more of those, anyway.

 

[Noah Winter]

$500 for just the metadata. $1,000 if there was tech support to group titles into series like we have now. Otherwise without some form of the current K staff support needed for grouping titles and identifying different versions of discs, the Movie Guide will as one person commented "become feral".

 

[rbienstock]

If we're talking about traditional metadata (titles, directors, stars, etc.), I don't care. Indeed, many of my disks are already unknown if I don't input the UPC and even these never get bookmarked. But the bookmarking that makes the Play Movie feature work is worth something, I suppose.

 

[josh]

If we're talking about traditional metadata (titles, directors, stars, etc.), I don't care. Indeed, many of my disks are already unknown if I don't input the UPC and even these never get bookmarked. But the bookmarking that makes the Play Movie feature work is worth something, I suppose.

yes, my supposition includes everything that makes the MovieGuide data work well today - metadata, bookmarking, etc.

 

[MikeG]

Facing the possibility of no support, I'd easily pay $500/yr. and probably accept higher.

 

[Jerry D]

As would I

 

[josh]

Facing the possibility of no support, I'd easily pay $500/yr. and probably accept higher.

As would I

Great - i hope you voted in the poll as well as posting your answers here as replies.

 

[MikeG]

Already done Josh