For Movie Collectors, Sort-It Apps is Indispensible

While people are choosing their content digitally in droves, there's still an enormous market out there of people who like to have something tangible in their hands when it comes to books, comics, and movies. I know my own DVD collection was getting to be something unweildy, taking up a whole wall of shelving in my house. It really became a hassle when we'd be out and see a Blu-ray or a DVD of a movie we loved, and couldn't remember if we already owned it. I've bought some accidental duplicates on more than one occasion.

Sort-It Apps has the solution for this problem with their various apps for collectors. Their Movie Manager app is, far and away, the best movie organizer I've seen out there for the money (and yes, it's an app that does cost a one-time purchase, but after you've tried the free version you aren't going to mind buying the full blown one, and the price is very nice).

Their inventory catalog has two presentations, depending on which way you hold your smartphone. I'm showing the horizontal view to the upper left, and the vertical view to the right. Both have scrolling capabilities, and you simply tap your image to get to the information screen on the film.

Adding a movie to your collection couldn't be easier. I almost always opt for the Camers Scan, which reads the bar code of the film and looks it up. However, when you're first starting out, you'll probably want to do the Bulk Scan, which operates the same way but doesn't bring up the edit screen for a film after scanning as it immediately prepares to scan the next one.

Sometimes the bar code isn't in the system, or is for some reason unreadable by the scanner. In those instances, you can type in the bar code and, in a real pinch, you can use the Database Search and type in the name of your movie.

Once the movie has been found, a screen pulls up full of information, including the image of the case. All this information comes from other users in the system, so if you do manage to pull up a title that has no information, you can always add that info easily, up to and including taking photos of the front and back covers. You can also rate your films on a 5-star system, although the application also pulls in the Rotton Tomatoes rating when available.

All the relevant information you want to use to categorize your films is here, from media type to genre.

Now when I see a film I like, but don't recall owning, I just scan the bar code in the store and instantly get a message if the film is already in my collection. If I choose to buy it, I can add it right then, or as an alternative I can scan the title into my Wish List for later.

Sort-It Apps also has very similar applications for tracking your collection of books, CDs and LPs, toys, LEGO--and comic books! I think I may have just consigned myself to a lengthy stay in the basement with all my longboxes, scanning...and scanning...and scanning.

Look for the various Sort-It apps in your phone's App Store. (By the way, you can also access your collection via PC just by logging into your account at www.sortitapps.com!)