I find it both interesting and discouraging that so many people here feel a need to defend an obsolete and unsupported operating system (even if "security updates" continue, XP's security is weak compared to Vista and Win7).

#36, william, quote me where I called anyone a name. I didn't.

The issue with individuals and businesses hanging on to ancient hardware and software is nothing new. It happens with every new release of Windows. One always needs to compare the costs of lost productivity with the costs of upgrading. Considering the number of years (and security issues) involved, certainly for businesses it makes more economic sense to upgrade from XP.

The differences between Vista or Win7 and XP are not minor. They encompass numerous changes, some of which are obvious and some which aren't. Security is greatly improved, multi-user support is greatly improved, improvements to disk handling and NTFS, improvements to network support, performance improvements, and on and on. Better installation protection, System Restore Points which work, etc. The UI is greatly improved in numerous places, including Windows Explorer, Windows Search, and Windows Media Player. Win7 dropped included support for a number of things which were improved in Vista, instead relying on Windows Live downloads. That saves duplication of effort at Microsoft.

The issue with businesses using obsolete and unsecure Internet-connected tools is a major one. For those using IE, there's no excuse not to be using at least IE8. XP is no longer supported, you have to be using at least Vista to use IE9, which is a new and different IE. You can install both the IE9 Beta and the Platform Preview, the Beta is an actual browser, the Platform Preview currently has the best rendering code.

There are many, many improvements in Vista and Win7 over XP, but the documentation is scattered. You can look at version comparisons at Microsoft, but those only mention a very small number of obvious differences.

Windows 7 has been more stable than XP. My Vista installation was stable until it got damaged, but that may well have been due to a hardware problem which I've since fixed. I don't have a resource consumption problem at all on Windows 7, it's using hardly any CPU and disk access when idle. Background processes, probably DRM-related, do scan all of my disks occasionally, but those are just preventing sleep, not interfering with performance.

People get upset with me because I speak the truth. XP is seriously obsolete, and there are costs associated with using it rather than upgrading. Vista and Win7 do include features that would require additional software on XP. The whining of people who are stuck in the past is nothing new at all. New OSes requiring new drivers is nothing new. I'm not stopping any of you from choosing to lose out in numerous ways from using obsolete software.

#42, Scozzie, I did install and give my opinion of Home Multimedia Library. I read through the Help file. The developer has spent a great deal of time coding stuff which is already in Windows. Players for various types of files already come with Windows, already handle resizing/maximizing, already handle tagging and searching, already handle numerous fields of data, already allow organized and filtered views, etc. Windows 7 Media Player has an option to display lyrics which I haven't tested. In any case, there are free lyrics plug-ins for WMP (I've used one). WMP will already find and download pictures and lots of information associated with audio tracks, etc. The developer of Home Multimedia Library wants you to use a proprietary database, but doesn't note until the end of the Help that there are serious limits. I'm sure that there's something which Home Multimedia Library does that isn't conveniently built into Windows or freely available, but as far as I'm concerned, the limitations and issues with using it outweigh any advantages. You're free to form your own opinion.

ONE MORE vote for Media Monkey.

/Terrrific Program

I read every comment on this page, and almost didn't install this application, mostly because of all of the bad experiences people reported. I am glad I tried anyway. The compatibility wizard went off without a hitch. It updated the SQL Server 3.5 Compact Edition SP 1 I had, to SQL Server 3.5 Compact Edition SP 2, both x86 and x64 versions of the SQL Server, since I use 64-bit Windows 7. The Microsoft licensed upgrades downloaded quickly via the Home Multimedia Library installation engine, and that was all for that part of the installation, as all of the other prerequisites I exceeded. I have DirectX 11, and did not experience the before mentioned issue of having DirectX 9 installed in addition, I am beginning to wonder if maybe a few people just randomly check-marked boxes without understanding what they were committing to? I didn't have any issues with Activation, maybe since it was so late in the evening, 11pm RockyMountain Time, all of the kinks with software prerequisites, downloading from the hosts server, and proper activation, have all been ironed out by Sprintbit Corporation by this time? To verify activation, I clicked the software tab, then the license status text, and I got a popup window with the message, "Status:Licensed". The license key field was empty, but that doesn't seem to matter, this version doesn't require that since the activation was verified over the web.

I rather like the GUI. It's got the Microsoft Office 2010 Ribbon thing going on, while also having tabs and file browsing sidebar. It definitely isn't something you install and jump right in to, I will feel more useful after watching the Tutorials and reading the User's Manual someone provided the link for. If it's truly as frustrating as everybody says, it will take me a quick minute to uninstall it and clean up after any junk files it may leave behind. Thank you Sprintbit and GOTD, for the opportunity to try this app.
_AP

Terribly disappointing.
Downloaded ok.
Install tried to install aux files but failed.
Opening screen: click on tutorial takes you to Er 404...i.e. no man's land
I'd love to have this work but it's an epic FAIL.
thanks anyway GOTD

Anybody know of a program that will let you catalog all files on disk & display still frame of files (movies) as a thumbnail?

I know there are programs like that out there, just can't seem to find it & this one doesn't do it plus install too troublesome.

Oh I forgot to also say that when I click on the install link here it also pops up a error message about the site. here is the message below

"Webpage error details

User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/4.0; GTB6.5; GetMiroToolbar 1.2; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; Zune 4.7; .NET CLR 3.0.4506.2152; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET4.0C; OfficeLiveConnector.1.3; OfficeLivePatch.0.0; BRI/1; BO1IE8_v1;ENUS; AskTbBAV5/5.9.1.14019)
Timestamp: Tue, 1 Feb 2011 02:54:59 UTC


Message: Object expected
Line: 371
Char: 1
Code: 0
URI: http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/home-multimedia-library/comment-page-1/#comment-217143 "

anyone else get this error message and than there download start??
thanks for help.

# 35 I am also having problems like yourself. Is anyone else having problems and figured out how to get this software to activated. I did the activation as they said and rebooted but still no change. When you click on the activation link in the software it puts in the url for the activation link for example this url. ..... http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/home-multimedia-library/?activate

and than tells me that is not the correct number for activation. I did not add the url the software did that for me when I clicked to make sure it was activated. The software installed just great. But sure confused on what this activation is doing anyone else having these types problems and if so how did you fix yours?? Thanks so much for your help. have a great day.

to Fubar - You have an obsolete attitude. What type of internet are you using? What ever it is, you get to GOTD like everyone else here. I am using XP Pro 3 and I get here as fast as you do. So who is the fool? You for wasting all of that money to get a very marginal upgrade or me for not wasting money? What type of car do you have? I have been driving a flexfuel car since 2000. I suppose it is obsolete because it does not have the newest computer in it. But with 150K miles and never a spark plug change - I still get 24+ MPG on the highway with 7 people in the vehicle and the windows down. So I have had Win 7 since the year 2000. You do not really understand the concept of obsolete. I bet your Win 7 cannot create word processing documents faster than my Win 95 computer. I still use Lotus SmartSuite and produce better looking documents faster than Word. So I think what is really obsolete is your condescending attitude on this free web site. I am sure with your attitude you would think that GOTD is obsolete because we do not need to pay for it and we can access it with Win 95 running AOL Ver 4 or Netscape Ver 3!. Wow and to think you need Win 7. Have a nice day.

#13 and #31 Fubar - I remember a time when I read your comments and agreed with almost all you said, unfortunately now they have almost become rants. Windows xp is still in use by many people worldwide because it is an easy system to use, and unlike Vista it does not need enormous recources and updated drivers (which often were not available for existing devices). I've tried Vista and I didn't like it so I will stick with XP, even without Microsoft support. If Vista was such a massive improvement, why did Microsoft give the opportunity to "downgrade" from a Vista installation to xp - and WHY did so many people take the opportunity to do just that? SORRY to go off topic.

No activation possible also in second attempt at Vista Home Edition, only the activation confirmation website is called. But inside the program no activation activity is viewable. License symbol remains the same, key is not given. Only resellerclub.com is given in field for removal(?), but does not help for activation.
German language translations in Menue are significant poor. Why are we bothered with such srap, GOTD?
Fully removed, lost time. My trust, GOTD given in advance since January, is consumed by their own poor quality control mostly every day.

Fubar,
I'm poor isn't a viable excuse for having XP still??? I'm sorry is there a magical place where one can get Windows 7 for free? If so please tell us so we can all go there to get it. Otherwise you have no idea what you are talking about.

It may take me awhile to figure out whether or not this is a useful program or not. So far I have tried the media player functions and discovered that I cannot get it to play any .mov files. It plays other video files with no problem and I don't believe it is a codec issue as I am able to play .mov in other media players and also Firefox.

Fubar :- Thanks for your comments -- now can you perhaps would you give us some comments about the programme Home Multimedia Library ? Please.

#31, Fubar, Microsoft is providing Extended Support for Windows XP until April 8, 2014. Extended Support covers just security updates, but that's all most people need.

Also, Windows XP is different from DOS because it's only 2 generations behind. It's still running on over half of overall number of Windows PCs in existence:
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/11/windows-xp-falls-under-60-ie8-loses-share-for-the-first-time.ars

Installed on Win7 x64.

I wanted to like this, but the interface is not intuitive or attractive. I am not a newbie, so, I undoubtedly could have figured it out, but when I simply double clicked a video file, the program hopelessly froze.

For me, this program will not be worth the frustration or the necessary learning.

Uninstalled.

#14: "I get Error:Access Denied when I try to down load the prerequisites."

All are available from the Microsoft.com site -- go to downloads center & search. And if/when you install .NET, make sure to check for Windows' updates.

* * *

#19: "... point out that there are other reasons for staying on XP... 1) Devices need apps and drivers that were never updated from XP... yes, I could take a risk that Win 7 Professional and its XP support would work..."

FWIW, in my experience it's really a case by case sort of thing... Getting drivers to work well in an XP VM is iffy *when possible*, & when you're talking about audio, some hardware *only* works with the kernel mode drivers 7 disallows. I have a Minolta slide scanner, & since there is no Minolta to update drivers for 7, I use a 3rd party app that comes with its own drivers. I also have a rather large graphics tablet, & while I can get it working in 7, it's frankly a kludge -- OTOH new 7-compatible models don't come that big, & since it does work well, I can't justify the hefty pricetag for a comparable Wacom.

At the same time, running XP Pro & 7 ult 64, there are some things that go faster in 7, others that are faster in XP Pro, & the majority that performs the same regardless the version of Windows I'm in. Same can be said for Vista -- as far as my wife can tell the only advantage she has with 7 is getting to re-download & re-install her very considerable collection of games [DRM keys them to the Windows install]... needless to say she rarely if ever boots into 7.

If/when you want to find out for yourself, win7 will install as a trial to another partition on your drive or, just to check 7 out, in a VM [use portable Virtualbox for little/no impact -- delete the folder & it's completely gone]. With 7's popularity there's more than enough instructions & info on that stuff on-line.

"...I have a completely useful 2004 UMPC... that would stall on Vista or further..."

Now with *that* it *Might* be worth looking at 7, &/or definitely 8 when it comes out. 8's supposed to have a light weight install that will run on a cell -- 7 will run on some pretty limited hardware right now -- Google/Bing for real-world examples where folks have successfully installed 7 on all sorts of low powered, low RAM hardware.

* * *

#21: "... However, I was confused by the developer’s statement that the package includes FOUR multimedia players!!!"

I *think* the dev is talking about different views -- e.g. you can run the player in a separate Window, full-screen etc...

* * *

#28: "... Videos ran without sound, pics were difficult to open, and tutorial was not available..."

In the Options dialog you can set Home Multimedia Library to use Direct Show, Windows Media Player, or MCI to play files -- you set it for each of several individual file types. That *might* be enough to fix playback/display problems -- today's GOTD has some support built in for different media file formats, but it can also use, & be incompatible with what's installed in Windows. If or while you're in Options, also check the boxes for the types of video files you want the app to handle.

It's complicated. Home Multimedia Library seems like a nice app, but the depth of features coupled with a less intuitive interface IMHO means you'll spend a bit of time figuring it out before you can tell if it meets or suits your wants/needs. I get the impression that it was not designed/built by music or video enthusiasts, so the feature set doesn't match many competing apps. It doesn't have bar code scanning for CD collectors, there are no DVD or Blu-Ray centric features for collectors of those discs, & you can't add DS filters for playback like MPC Homecinema [playback of some video formats, particularly HD, often to something like an HDTV as a 2nd monitor, you can have software &/or hardware issues that you can often (& sometimes only) get around using additional DS filters in MPC Homecinema]. But, not everyone is a heavy duty music or video enthusiast, and Home Multimedia Library does seem to be a decent database program with a more traditional interface that some people may prefer. Unfortunately after visiting the app's site IMHO it's hard to tell if you'd like Home Multimedia Library without installation [I'd suggest the dev make the help file available as a separate download -- I know there's something similar already up on the site, but to me the included help file is both better & [much] easier reading to get a good sense of the software & how it works].

It's not unusual for software to require things like .NET &/or Direct X, & Home Multimedia Library has a less common way of handling that -- you get a Prerequisites Wizard that pops up rather than the main install if/when setup doesn't find: Windows Installer 3, .NET 3.51 (or later), SQL Server Compact **3.5**, & Direct X 9. All are available from Microsoft.com separately, & you can cancel the wizard & download/install them on your own. I don't know if Windows Installer or .NET setup files are included, but the Direct X web setup is [That web setup file checks your system, downloading/installing whatever's required]. If it's not installed already & if you let it, the wizard will download SSCERuntime_x86-ENU.msi [SQL Svr Comp. setup] from the dev's servers, storing it in a Spintbit Software folder under Windows' Common Files -- you can also get it from Microsoft here: http://goo.gl/hEU8I . Note that version 4 is out [in both 32 & 64 bit versions] & if/when v.4's already installed the wizard still wants to install version 3.5... I monitored the downgrade & it didn't *seem* to damage the v. 4 install, but if you've already got & need v. 4 you might want to take some sort of extra precautions (e.g. backing up) before installing 3.5 over the top of it.

Installation of the app itself isn't *terribly* bad, but it could IMHO be *Much* better. Home Multimedia Library needs mainly 2 registry keys -- 1 for uninstall & 1 for the app's settings... using a setup app from Caphyon [ http://goo.gl/NzfJG ] coupled with Windows installer means a recorded 1208 new registry entries in win7 32 [1378 XP Pro] plus extra [IMHO unneeded] files on your hard drive. Today's GOTD is technically less complicated than many of the video converters we've been offered, & most of those have zero or near zero impact on Windows. [BTW those 1.2k entries Do Not include installing anything but the core app itself]. Besides the SQL Svr setup file noted, the app's main folder includes 154 files, 15 folders, taking up ~44 MB. Windows\ Installer\ got 7 files, 1 folder, & under [My] Documents you get the folder w/files: Sprintbit Software Databases. In XP Pro [not 7] a partial set of install files is placed in a folder under User\ Application Data\. Home Multimedia Library takes a fair amount of RAM [112 MB in XP Pro] but not a lot of CPU just sitting there. It wasn't nearly the fastest starting or most responsive app I've seen, but I don't know if that's the .NET, VB [Visual Basic], &/or SQL Svr that it uses -- Devexpress [ http://goo.gl/t2tSM ] code is also used, so maybe it's that? Regardless, it's something you might notice on slower machines.

All in all with the extra hassle of adding SQL Svr I probably won't recommend Home Multimedia Library to friends/family -- not because SQL Svr is that bad, but because they wouldn't appreciate the extra hassle... there are database alternatives that are lighter weight & can be built right into the app, so unlike Direct X it's not likely they'll have or otherwise need SQL Svr Compact installed. The SQL Svr Compact edition doesn't have the same capacity for problems as it's full-fledged sibling, but it also has reduced features & imposes that 4 GB limit [per Wikipedia]. If it wasn't for the SQL Svr thing I could see several of them [friends/family] using & liking it.

Personally, I have been turned off to Vista and W7 for the simple reason of how MUCH CPU and GPU power is wasted on eye candy. I tend to run CPU and GPU intensive programs and am appalled at the processor loads that I see when I am not doing anything.

In addition, XP is the standard where I work. I can leave an XP machine running without a manadatory reboot far longer than I can W7. Of course, I was a big fan of SCO UNIX and even Linux has kept close to that level of uptime -- can ANY Windows system keep running, Database, graphics, etc. with over a year between reboots? In my W7 system, EXPLORER crashes almost daily. That's intolerable. Just because the MS GODS at MS have decreed something obsolete does not mean that we must be dutiful CONSUMERS and buy what we are told. Instead we should be pragmatic PRODUCERS and use the tools that work.


But W7 does include many UI improvements that should have been there a long, long time ago. That's why I call it "Windows 7 -- the most Mac-like Windows EVER!"

fubar, it seems like you have no concept of reality. Many major corporations are still running outlook 2000 and ie6. THATS THE REALITY. Calling someone names just because they don't agree with you is unprofessional and ruins your credability.
Yes developers can choose to ignore XP but the reality is that there is still a large XP base and there will continue to be one for some time. Corporate purchases happen when accounting says so. The big migration will be from XP to 7. Due to all the bad press Vista got, many stayed with XP even on new purchases. For a small biz to upgrade you are looking at 5k to 20k. The economy might not warrant that expense till end of year. So play nice with all of us who still rely and depend on old faithful - Windows XP - with all its shortcommings its still like family :)

installed - downloaded SQL installed run and run activate - GOTD said activate - but program just hangs asking for a number to be inserted
Am i missing something - a restart just offers the same scenario

#19, Joe T, yours is a valid point about some types of non-PC hardware. I have an old laser printer which doesn't have a driver available for Win7x64. Using VirtualBox and a virtual image of my Vista-32 system, I can still use it, but it's really too slow to be practical; I already invested in a newer laser printer which does have Win7 drivers available. Terminated driver support is common for obsolete peripherals, generally requiring them to be replaced, but your point is valid for specialized hardware which doesn't fit into the peripheral or standard PC categories.

Actual homepage of the program is http://www.homemultimedialibrary.com

Something similar and freeware PixDiskat 1.08 http://www.softpedia.com/get/Others/File-CD-DVD-Catalog/PixDiskat.shtml
Description: The PixDiskat application was designed to be a free tool that will help you maintain and organize a catalog of your computer media collection, including CD-ROMs, DVDs, removable drives, diskettes, hard drives or network drives.

#26, Me, XP is an obsolete and unsupported OS. Microsoft extended support for it due to public pressure, which they shouldn't have. But even that support ended long ago. There is no difference at all between sticking with XP and sticking with DOS. When software developers support obsolete OSes, they're wasting resources which could be spent on new features, or lower costs (I'll skip fixing bugs, if software developers knew how to develop software, there would be almost no bugs), and enabling people who should move on to stay stuck in the past. The world doesn't owe people who choose to stick with an obsolete OS any new software. Vista was a long time coming. Even if you had waited until some months after it was officially announced, you would have had five years until now to save up for an upgrade. If you had only set aside $2 per week ($0.28 per day) that would be $500, not counting any (compound) interest, to invest in a new Windows 7 computer that would absolutely stomp your old PC in every respect. The extremely rapid progress in computer technology benefits everyone, the price of having to upgrade occasionally is very small in comparison to the benefits.

Those who have stuck with XP have no concept of the improvements in Vista and Windows 7. Apart from all sorts of improvements to all sorts of stuff like security, networking, hardware support, etc., I think that two of the biggest improvements are to Windows Explorer and Windows Search. I won't go into all of the improvements in Explorer, and while sorting and grouping were available before, the combination with (Vista+) filtering can be quite handy, although search is generally faster for large numbers of files. I think that (Vista) stacking has been dropped from Windows 7.

Fubar. I hope you are kidding about XP. XP is still a viable system for at least the next 18 months. Just upgrade your P4 CPU to at least 3 GHz and the computer will run smooth. For those of you needing a fix, AMD 6 core can be built for less than $1000. Black edition with Asus MB and ur oc at 4GHz with little tweaking. I am doing both depending on the clients needs/budget.

Loaded onto Win7, didn't seem to have any problems with installation. The program seemed to run fine, but I couldn't get my audio files that are stored in my computer into the program. I couldn't get anything in the program. There is a video tut from the company. That shows when using the navigation pane the files will show up in the program automatically. I really like programs that give me many choices and features, I don't like dumbed-down interfaces. However, the major features of a program should be intuitive to use. I spent 15 min trying to get this to work to no avail, so I'm uninstalling it.

@Fubar: I'm with you on those loser XP users. Like you, I find living with people who aren't exactly like me to be intolerable. How dare they still own a computer that doesn't have dual processors! I don't care if they don't need to upgrade, they should just because it's cool. Maybe we should petition congress to micro-manage those peons a little more by banning WinXP. Or better yet, just make using an older OS a crime as soon as a new one is available. They obviously aren't smart or cool enough to make any computing decisions on their own.

I am running Win7/64. Upon installation, program required several components. These components were already installed on my system, but they were updated and/or reinstalled. Total installation took 15 minutes. Not sure why. After installation, activated and ran program with several issues immediately. Videos ran without sound, pics were difficult to open, and tutorial was not available. I assumed the program would automatically organize pics, videos, and multimedia. This did not happen. Uninstalled.

With so many alternatives for this type of program, I would have thought that an import function would have been a necessity, if you want others to convert to your program. I have an extensive CD database created in another program, from which I can export in XML, at least. I have neither the time nor inclination to rebuild the database from scratch just to use a different program.

If I could import a database from another program, this one might be worth investigating.

@16, if you can type a URL and have it work, but it doesn't work when you click on it, your computer is likely infected with spyware.

@Isa no.8: it's not unsafe to have multiple versions of M$ .net framework. Different software require different versions of the frameworks depending in wich version the application was written.
I have 4 versions of .net framework (v2sp2, v3sp2, v3.5,v4client,v4extended), 6 versions of m$ visual c+, and 3 msxml parsers ... all needed for all the software i'm using and i know it's kinda stupid, but they are needed.

Far too complicated to do such a simple task??
as said before A pain to install!! when you uninstall your sent to their home page to give a reason fill it out & you get
FrontPage Error.
User: please report details to this site's webmaster.
Webmaster: please see the server's application event log for more details.
As already said!
This to me is a company not ready to go to market with its products

For those of you passing this offer because of the Prerequisite Wizard, just uncheck everything and continue. I knew I had the requirements even thought the wizard said I didn't, so I just unchecked them and it installs fine.

There are ways to check e.g. Start/Run dxdiag then click on dxdiag.exe will tell you what version of Direct X you have.

To determine if you have Microsoft .NET Framework is installed, it will be listed in your add/remove programs list.

For SQL just search for this: How to identify your SQL Server version and edition.

Odds are you have them all except maybe .NET.

@15 - Their website has changed at some point over the last few hours. The original page, as #12 said, had one thumbnail screenshot with "click here for larger image" which brought up a window with an identical sized image.

That alone was enough to put me off even considering downloading this!

Thanks to GAoTD for all that you povide for us.
The entire Concept (all these functions and keeping all that data in a searchable DataBase) sounds GREAT !!! However, I was confused by the developer's statement that the package includes FOUR multimedia players!!! For THAT reason and the other (objective) negative comments, I am still debating whether or not I will download today's offering.

Media Monkey uses the SQLite database, but is limited to 100,000 tracks in version 3. Has 3 versions: Free, paid, lifetime paid.

See more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaMonkey

@Fubar,
Thanks for all your comments, they are always appreciated, including today's.

Granted, your point is valid that we shouldn't complain about lack of XP support by modern apps. But I'd just like to point out that there are other reasons for staying on XP, like these two:

1) Devices need apps and drivers that were never updated from XP.
For example, I have a 2004 Sony Clie TH55 PDA that can fully sync only to XP. And a couple of other similar gadgets that I'm attached to.

2) PC's that can't handle Vista and further.
For example, I have a completely useful 2004 UMPC (Sony U750P, 5" screen) that has 512MB of non-expandable memory (no one has ever been able to find an upgrade) that would stall on Vista or further.

For category 1 above, yes, I could take a risk that Win 7 Professional and its XP support would work. Or throw away the device (yikes, PDAs became smartphones with mandatory data plan!), or dual boot (why pay up for another OS license for marginal extra utility?), but that's expensive for the honest home user who pays full price for OSs.

Does this categorize Data CDs and DVDs also? Is there a way to print the contents of a CD/DVD? Or make an HTML file containing the contents?

There is a on line manual for this software go to page:

http://www.homemultimedialibrary.com/help/html/index.html?lyrics_editor___database.htm

Finally got the program in and working. The work around is to type the URL that failed and it loads that way. Next, what a complex and comprehensive program. There is nothing intuitive about this program. I feel I need to go back to school as I did when Excel and Word first came out. What was that 20 years ago. Good luck all... I think you are going to need it.

With all due respect to @12 , I just came from their website and there was 3 clickable to full screen screen shots on the first page. True, only one on the second page but was full screen (and how many shots do you really need for a picture viewer?), in fact at least one on every page. All clickable to full screen.

Anyway, If you are going to write a less than flattering review I think you ought to at least have your facts straight.

I'm not thrilled with this product either but one should be fair and accurate when writing reviews for others. This is not Fox News you know.

I get Error:Access Denied when I try to down load the prerequisites. I guess I will just trash this program. Too bad it looked good.

This is one of many giveaways which seems like a newbie programming project run amok. It's fine to write programs to learn how to do things, but it makes no sense to try to commercialize programs when the OS already has better ways of doing the same thing.

To those asking about installation, yes it checks a number of things, including Windows Installer version, MS SQL version, DirectX version, .NET version, etc. Yes, it fails to download some files, MS files should always be downloaded from MS. To the person who said that they couldn't find the MS SQL files, you didn't pay attention to what MS wrote, it's there.

If you're running XP, I have no sympathy for you at all. You're no different from those running DOS or Windows 3.1, the world has passed you by. The usual "I'm poor", "I'm a student", "I'm disabled" excuses don't cut it. If you're happy with your abacus, don't complain about not being able to do the things that people with real computers can do.

That only leaves Vista and Win7 as supported platforms, and they already do a much better job. For one thing, the database files this creates have 4GB limits. NTFS busted the 4GB limit many years ago. 2TB drives are available for $70.

Categorizing things is the DOS way of doing things. Tags have been in use for a long time, and Windows Search provides all the power you need (albeit poorly documented, buggy, and crippled in places). Windows Search is far too powerful and complex for me to document here.

About the only thing I noticed this can do that Windows may not already be able to do is generate playlists in multiple formats.

With the popularity and amount of multimedia growing on my and most every Internet media junkie (young and old alike), the concept of a Home Multimedia Library cataloging, organizing, and playing application (as an alternative to Windows Media Center is a fresh new and welcomed genre of application. I was exited to check out this apps homepage to get an idea of it's features (hopefully common sense and practical) and view some of the screen captures of its various interfaces.
But what I found was one single example screen capture the size of a postage stamp and indiscernible as to what it was of.

Being very disappointed that there was only one screen capture of an interface example and instead of the standard of showing example images of an application's interfaces with a list of features, there was instead a big block of unformatted poorly translated text which left me feeling as uninformed of the product as when I started. I had to research on my own to get an understanding of what Playback Statistic was and still have no idea where its sources of Internet Radio are coming from let alone how many genres, or stations there are to choose from etc... I wasn't even going to attempt to fathom why it has 'built-in four multimedia players'.
Once I clicked on the interface screen capture link to view the larger image example and discovered it was the same size as the tiny indiscernible thumbnail making it virtually worthless, I decided there's no way I'm installing this software from a software company that doesn't appear to understand how to take screen caps of their product or how to make the example image display large enough to actually recognize anything in it.
After reading through the description a few times and also reading the descriptions of their other products (and considering the four multimedia players), it seems to me more like they're clustering together a bunch of simple commonly found public domain programing routines and are calling these clusters new applications.
That's just my opinion for whatever its worth (or not worth :).

Unable to download SQL Server compact 3.5 via the auto program and could only find service packs 1 and 2 but not the actual program over at Microsoft, so at the moment, unless someone else can post download links for this the program is useless. I'm running a 64 bit system with Win 7.

Thanks GOTD, this seems a good program, but too much faffing to get it to work. 'Sighs' :(

@Baxter Tocher - Right-click any file in iTunes and select "Get info"
Lyrics tab, Artwork tab, Info tab... etc
That's where you can access (add to, edit & delete) the metadata contained within the media files.
(It's not the multimedia software that keeps the information, but the multimedia FILE itself...as long as the file type supports metadata.)

But yeah, iTunes doesn't do picture albums beyond the crappy little you can do with organizing your iOS device.
But that's not really a good reason to hate on iTunes.
A good reason is that it's media catalog is file based rather than SQL database based, which means that it SUCKS for LARGE media libraries.

I'm not sure if Home Multimedia Library is any better... though.
I do know there are LOTS of free opensource multimedia cataloging software alternatives available... but I'm not sure if any of them use MSSQL, MYSQL, etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_audio_player_software

+ ...also, when I tried to leave comment on their website form I got this message:

"FrontPage Error.

User: please report details to this site's webmaster.

Webmaster: please see the server's application event log for more details."

When installed, prog. asked for Microsoft Net "V2.something something", and when I have already installed Microsoft Net V 4. It seemed stupid/unsafe to go on.

Uninstalled/aborted installation.

Pity, would like to have tried the giveaway at least.

Well, the first requirement for such a system concerning DVD's is that I can access it when I'm in a store, and can't remember if I have this or that DVD, so imo VideoDB is a much better free alternative, that runs on a webserver, uses mysql and is free.

@Victor Healry - , where does iTunes keep allow you to keep artist pictures, biography, discography and lyrics, please? And where does it let you create albums of your digital pictures?

Free alternative

Apple iTunes, does all of the above and much, much more.