Going to copy over my thoughts from the other thread for reference.  Voted for 'Other'.

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I deal with these a lot.  I probably put a good chunk of the original ones in; it's never been a setup that I particularly liked, but was sort of cobbled up as we went along.  Giving it some thought as a more formal structure, I think I'd like to set it up like this:

Enter volume 1 normally

Enter artbox as itself (it has its own UPC)
Name appropriate to the series, by what's on the box (treat according to normal boxset rules)
Edition: see below
Add extras relative to the boxset (eg: shirt, CD, etc)
Do not add info that would be disc-only in a normal boxset entry (eg: cast/crew/disc extras/etc)
Add volume 1 as box set contents
Lock box set contents at the database level (we can lock that on the database independantly of other stuff, right?)

The user is then free to locally add the other volumes of the series to the boxset grouping without causing it to overwrite the database record.  This entire proposal is based on that assumption.  Unfortunately I don't have experience with the database locks, so if that's not possible, other issues would need to be dealt with.


There are several various ways boxes are sold with anime:

1) Empty box
2) Box with first volume of season (sometimes comes with last volume)
3) Box with full season (or partial season for very long series; whatever the box is designed to hold)
4) Smaller box for thinpacked versions of the DVDs.
5) Same as one of 1-4, but with additional extras, and possibly variants on the DVDs included.

Usually each has its own UPC code, and thus can have its own entry.  The Edition field would then need to be filled out as appropriate, such as: Empty Artbox, Special/Limited Edition (as advertised), Artbox. Some thought will need to go into which names are appropriate.

You mean, there is one UPC for the first serie, and a second UPC for the box surrounding the first serie, and then a third UPC for the box with all series?

In that case I would create one profile for the empty box and use the UPC of the separate available 1st serie as a child. Later available series can be added as children when available.

But If you say that the box of the limited 1st serie has the same UPC than the 1st serie without box, you can't use that UPC for the box. Then you could use the disc id of the 1st DVD as key for the empty paren box profile until a UPC for the full parent box profile is available. Yes, it sounds strange.

Just thought I'd let you non-native speakers know that English uses 'series' for both singular and plural - that is: a series/many series, not a serie/many series. It's a funny word like that.

(Note: I continue to be amazed by the quality of non-native English used around here, and just wish I had foreign language skills like that!)

The way I handle those Box + Vol.1 is exactly how Rifter described it. Create a box profile with the box UPC, then the child for the Vol.1 with it's own UPC (if it has a different one) or the Disc ID, add that as a child to the box and add subsequent volumes to the box as I buy them.

Seems like the most sensible way to do it in my opinion.


Quoting dvdoug:

Quote:
(Note: I continue to be amazed by the quality of non-native English used around here, and just wish I had foreign language skills like that!)

Thing is, most user of non-native english almost have no choice but to learn english at one point or another. The internet being mostly in english, international commerce is in english too, most travelling is also in english.

On the other hand, the other languages aren't so internationally used, so there's not much incentive for a native english speaker to actually learn and master a language as there is for most other people.

For the record, I am native french (you know that).

It's just as Rifter said: it's a regular Box Set, just not released in one pass (probably so you can save a little longer for the series or simply pay a little more...).

Apply standard Box set rules to these

Quoting Rifter:

Quote:
In my opinion, this is no different than any other boxset.  You're just not doing all at the same time.

Master profile for the box with UPC, just as any other boxset.
Child profile for the first disc that comes with the box.
Add new child profile for each subsequent disc as you obtain them.
Add each child to the master via the Box Set Button in Edit mode on the Master.

How much simpler can it be?

Pretty much, with one exception: locking the box set contents in the database after the first disc is added.  This seems to be a bone of contention as to whether it's valid to add the other discs in the series to the box set since they aren't all purchased at the same time, and purchasing vol 1 + box does not give you vol 2-6.  On the other hand, there are separate purchases available later on after the full series has been released that may in fact be box + vol 1-6, and these get a separate entry with their own UPC code.

Quoting Kinematics:

Quote:
Quoting Rifter:

Quote:
In my opinion, this is no different than any other boxset.  You're just not doing all at the same time.

Master profile for the box with UPC, just as any other boxset.
Child profile for the first disc that comes with the box.
Add new child profile for each subsequent disc as you obtain them.
Add each child to the master via the Box Set Button in Edit mode on the Master.

How much simpler can it be?

Pretty much, with one exception: locking the box set contents in the database after the first disc is added.  This seems to be a bone of contention as to whether it's valid to add the other discs in the series to the box set since they aren't all purchased at the same time, and purchasing vol 1 + box does not give you vol 2-6.  On the other hand, there are separate purchases available later on after the full series has been released that may in fact be box + vol 1-6, and these get a separate entry with their own UPC code.

If this was something new that nobody had ever seen before, I might be inclined to agree with you.  But, this sort of thing has apparently been fairly common for quite some time, so at some point you have to take that (the intention of the marketers) into account when creating the profile.  It's sort of like the coin sets you can buy.  For $19.95 you get the fancy presentation folder and the first coin, and then you have to buy each individual coin for the rest of the thing as they are issued.  You certainly wouldn't put the additional coins in some other folder just because you didn't buy them right up front.

Quoting Kinematics:

Quote:
All right, then I guess the last question to clear up would be, what labels do you use on the Edition field to distinguish between the boxes:  box w/single volume (usually vol 1), box with entire series, box with thinpacks (discs added by disc ID) and empty box?

As the box+1 is usually sold as Limited/Special Edition, I'm inclined to leave that as is.  Perhaps something along the lines of Full Collection for the full series and Empty Artbox for the empty one.  Not sure on the thinpack version, maybe just Thinpack Edition.

Oh, one other last question: Put the fact that volume 1 comes with the box in the "other features" field?

You don't have to do any of the monkeying around with "other" etc.  Do it as a normal boxset and just stop after doing the child profile for the disc it comes with initially.  Next disc comes out, do another child, add that disc id into the box set button of the master.

Any Disc Trait entry would be just what would be entered if it came as a complete set:  Limited Edition or whatever.