TITAM - Technical issues that affected me

I recently had to return an older DVD player to the USA for repairs. Yes, call me silly, but I bought a new player and it had some quirks I did not like.  My OPPO Digital DV-981HD had always been flawless until a power outage caused it to give up the ghost, and OPPO offers a $49 flat-rate repair service - if you can get the player to them. Note (partly for readers, partly for search engines):  This post details some of the process of shipping electronics from Canada to the United States for repair or warranty repair purposes, then returning the items back to the owner in Canada.  I expect the process would be similar for those living in other countries, but I can't be sure.  If you are looking for some other information, you may want to move on now. First problem was brokerage fees.  Oppo had dire warnings regarding these, as any brokerage fees would result in the package being rejected.  Why they don't just call for a credit card number is unknown,...

Having invested in Movie Collector Pro (from Collectorz.com), here's my impressions so far. The software seems reasonably fast and well written.  It's quite usable.  There are tons of fields, which can be an advantage or a disadvantage depending on how much time you want to spend. I invested in the wired laser-based barcode scanner, the C37.  The Cuecat looked too goofy, having to swipe across each barcode, and the Intelliscanner didn't seem to justify it's high price.  I have a spare laptop currently sitting in my movie room to do the job of mass importing my collection so wireless scanning is nothing to me.  So I have no idea how the Intelliscanner is supposed to work with the software. Importing barcoded movies is really pretty fast.  Hitting "Ins" brings up the import screen, and if you have a barcode scanner then the cursor is pre-set to the barcode input field.  You scan, and the software will download the details and cover automatically fo...