This is not a pressured sales
pitch!
I like writing sales pitches as much as I like
reading them... So I am going to tell you a few things about why VideoList 2 is
the way that it is, then it is up to you to decide.
I want you to enjoy using VideoList 2, and I feel that by
introducing you to it and letting you get acquainted with it, you will feel that it serves
your needs. No glossy shrink-wrapped boxes with empty promises on the container ... what
you see is what it is like. It is that simple.
Several years ago I decided it was
time to get my video collection in order
I have hundreds of videos, many of
which were unlabelled. Can you imagine trying to find anything? Can you imagine trying to
remember what is on each video?
There were a number of programs available for RISC OS, but none of them offered
the ability to view your video collection "at a glance".
This is important to me, as important as seeing what is on each video. It is so important
that it has inspired the name of the software - video list.
Then along came DVDs
DVDs are interesting because they contain a
number of additional facilities not found on video (aspect ratios, multiple soundtracks,
and so on). So I decided it was time to bring VideoList up to date.
There are many, many options that I could have gone for. Let's look at the back of American
Pie 2 - featurettes, outtakes, four commentaries, favourite bits, music
video, DVD-ROM stuff... In creating VideoList I have kept to the
important things, namely picture format and audio options. The other stuff,
while good, is not really necessary information.
Searching
Another major revision
is the "presentation". The original VideoList showed you the list of
videos. From one to whatever: blam, blam, blam.
VideoList 2 offers you numerous ways to 'view' your videos. To aid in this, the
old search system is still available (for people that like the old method) but it has been
superceded by the "Filter".
Fancy looking at only your DVDs? Blam!
Want a drama starring Kellie Martin, on a VHS tape? Blam!
Would you like to look at only horror movies on Betamax*?
Blam!
Want a VHS tape with episodes of Buffy and between 45 minutes and 90 minutes of free
space? Blam!
Oh, and did I mention that you can display your videos by ID number (the default),
alphabetically, or according to how much space is free?
Such things are not only possible, they're simple.
* Though I'll admit that
I'm probably one of very few people that still has Beta tapes!
It's what makes the difference
There is other software to manage your
video collection. The number of things you can do with Bolide's "All My Movies" is quite
staggering; however you will find a lot of other software has serious
limitations if you tape stuff (terrestrially, satellite, or otherwise). Many
software packages are set up for prerecorded tapes, so they offer no concept of multiple
things on one tape. No concept of short play and long play. VideoList 2 was
designed for exactly this purpose.
But wait? Who uses RISC OS?
A fair few people still, but... actually, you
don't need to. VideoList 2 runs on Windows 95, 98(SE), ME, XP
and all the other compatible versions.
Try it for yourself
I can write all sorts of things for you to
read, but nothing can give you the 'feel' for the software other than by using it
yourself. For this reason, a demonstration version is available.
It will allow you to manage up to twenty videos. In this way, you can see what
VideoList 2 is capable of and make your decision.
Isn't there another VideoList?
Yes there is. It is "VideoList Lite" or "VideoList
Plus" written by Wakefieldsoft LLC. It is, perhaps, unique in that it allows
synchronisation between a PC (or a Mac) and two types of PDA.
Note - it requires MDAC so you may need a Windows update to try out this software, more
details on their website.
There is no relationship between their VideoList and my VideoList 2 other than
the name.
How old is VideoList?
The original RISC OS version was designed as a
BBC BASIC V program in 1997. Because it wasn't terribly quick, and because BASIC's memory
handling is less concise than it could be, it was reinvented from 1998 to 2003 as a C
program (that actually worked properly!). My friends and testers appreciated the extra
speed and stability.
Along the way, VideoList was registered with the RISC OS resources repository in February
1999, and the first bits of information about this was posted to my website and also to
Argonet-specific newsgroups. WayBack captured it in October '99 but I'm not going to
provide a link as everything is so embarrassingly HTML 2.0ish!
In 2004 I moved over to using a PC and one of my first projects was to take VideoList with
me, but this time to redesign it and include numerous features missing from the original
designed eight years ago (i.e. before everybody had DVDs and before anybody knew what a
DivX was). This brings us to the present day, with VideoList 2...
Read more about the life and times of VideoList.