Database software to manage my movie clips

[budwzr]

Just so people know, the "Sony Media Manager" has to be downloaded and installed. It's Free! and it's a visual database too. By that I mean a full blown SQL structure. It's built for speed, not looks.

It's basically a "roll-yer-own" custom solution. The people using these things want a layout to their preferences. So gussying the GUI might be counterproductive.

When I look for a vacuum cleaner, I want motor on a stick, horsepower. I could care less the bling. Same for my index system.

I did look at your product. I think it's a great idea. Maybe you can corner this niche market? Cha-ching! But Microsoft dropped their product before it even came to be known, that's how the market is, or was.

[VideophileII]

When I look for a vacuum cleaner, I want motor on a stick, horsepower. I could care less the bling. Same for my index system.

What makes this indexing system so powerful? I went to download Media Manager to find out for myself but you need Vegas do you not(?), which costs a few hundred dollars. Not my definition of free!

[budwzr]

No, but get the 30 day trial. Then install the media manager. It's a separate download. Just play with the database part. I'll see if I can find some screenshots.

Here we go:



This built in media manager docks right into your main window, the tabbed one. It integrates with the preview window.

So if you select a file, it starts playing. Audio, Video, Stills, whatever Vegas can playback. So if you're a Vegas Pro user, it's made just for you, and free.

There's not much to see in this view because the saved queries should be in the left panel. Those queries are saved SQL Server presets, so once it scans the tree you give it, and indexes it, you can add or subtract whatever you want and really filter precisely.

And the beauty is that it probably uses very fast algorithms, like how Vegas can shift to a lower gear and still run acceptably on a slower machine. Because it's Windows Enterprise Server Class Database.

[VideophileII]

Thanks but it is 64-bit only so I can't use it on my machine. However, if it doesn't directly allow the user to generate SQL then I would be very surprised if it has the searching power of my program, Vee-Hive. It may, however, be faster at fetching results but I don't imagine this is even noticeable unless the underlying library is in the hundreds of thousands, volume-wise - and that is quite rare.

Vee-Hive supports filtering using AND/NOT/OR and allows tags themselves to be tagged and linked via synonyms as well as being grouped hierarchically. From what I can gather through reading posts at other fora, Media Manager's use of tags is comparatively simplistic.

[budwzr]

From what I can gather through reading posts at other fora, Media Manager's use of tags is comparatively simplistic.

Well, you haven't dug in enough yet. The Sony Media Manager also tracks your media usage via the main editing database. It does this automatically, no setup required.

[VideophileII]

Yes, it's true to say that I have not dug-in; like I say, I cannot install it. However, the features that you highlighted in the 'related items' options above relate to functionality that is not relevant to Vee-Hive. They look useful in the context of the Vegas app, though...

Nothing in the above screenshot appears to counter the 'simplistic tags' assertion that you quoted me on, though, or have I missed something?

[budwzr]

Well, tags ARE simplistic by nature.

But note they have a many-to-many schema. Here's where the attributes chosen, determine everything. I will use my own brain to make the tags, and put them where my brain usually wants to look. Not someone elses brain, mind you.

In the "Advanced" box you can make saved SQL Queries in plain language. So you can quickly reduce 1000's of items on a NAS, like BAM!, into a realistic fishing hole.

Notice the nesting of tags in a tree. Subtags allow me to select a recordset in the "Z-Axis", hahaha. I can go down any branch, or branches, or any combinations. So that's equivalent to For, Next, Else, or whatever basic logic.

[VideophileII]

The ability to create SQL is very powerful and I did toy with the idea of implementing that in Vee-Hive but, in the end, I decided it was overkill given the tiny percentage of users who would understand the underlying database schema. I assume from what you are saying that Vegas allows access to the underlying database design through some other interface?

Could you perhaps, please, attach a screenshot of where users can enter this SQL and have it parsed, etc? I'd be interested to see how it was implemented.
In Vee-Hive I have the concept of 'Views' which are, in essence, saved queries and represent a combination of objects in the tag hierarchy; e.g. 'Spanish footballers playing for German clubs in Champions League matches but not when it's raining'. But the user is not exposed to the SQL that builds theses views.

Oh, and the point I was making is that, whilst I agree that tags are simplistic by nature, the way that they can be employed in a user-interface, in terms of interactivity and their effect on what is returned as a 'result set' is not necessarily simplistic; they can be used in very specific ways to create powerful filtering. The simple checkboxes beside the tags in your screenshot suggest that this isn't the case in Vegas.

[budwzr]

The Vegas Media Manager is a GUI into an existing database, you can't change the structure.

You can't enter SQL directly, you can swap out parameters in pre built queries.

Same for the tags. You roll your own attributes.

It's a motor on a stick. Here's a partial list of prebuilt queries. You just add and save them, or use them on the fly.

[budwzr]

The tag layout is still new but just a start, to totally mix and match between what ever and whatever. My tag trees are long and flowing, like wisps in the wind. Hahaha, I can think of a dozen branches in all which ways.

And you have to think that way because we're in a new "Pepsi Generation", and the lingo of the last 50 years still lingers. The "New Black" keeps changing, so the tags have to change too. There's no more Bossa Nova.

[VideophileII]

Ah, OK. I think we are describing essentially the same functionality implemented differently in two different programs. But, regardless, thanks for taking the time to illustrate the Media Manager approach...

[budwzr]

Yeah, thanks for letting me expose it to people.

[VideophileII]

Spoken like a true shill

[budwzr]

Hahaha, you nailed it. Man, I've been shilling for years, you can tell? I'm also the guy inside the panda at Panda Express. In the winter I travel with the carnival running the Balloon Bust Midway game.

It's a small world.

[andrewkucz]

@VideophileII

gonna sound like a total toolbag here....

but what are the odds of a mac implementation in the future?

otherwise, anyone know any mac alternatives similar to vee-hive? Cause I think that is exactly what I'm looking for, guess I'll have to try out datacrow for now


cheers,

Andrew

[VideophileII]

The odds are pretty slim, I'm afraid. If it were commercial software it would be worth my while but, since it ain't, it ain't!