1. Registration and Installation

2. Adding Information to Your Database

3. Using Medianizer

4. Information Backup and Recovery

5. Illustrated Catalogs for Dune HD Media Players

Registration and Installation

1.1 How do I buy a license?

Please visit our registration page by clicking this link, select your preferred license type and click the "Buy now!" button. This will bring you to a secure page. Please fill out the required fields, verify your order's total and submit the order. You will receive your registration data to the email address you specify while ordering.

1.2 What are the differences between 1 Year, Unlimited and Platinum licenses?

1-Year licenses are valid for 1 year, all upgrades within this validity year are included. Each license can be used on up to 2 computers. 500 image search requests are included. 1-year licenses can be renewed automatically.

Unlimited licenses include all upgrades, never expire, can be used on up to 2 computers, and include 1000 image search requests.

Platinum licenses include all upgrades, never expire, can be used on up to 5 computers, and include 5000 image search requests.

1.3 What are image search requests, why are they limited?

Medianizer downloads various sorts of pictures (covers, photos, shots from movies, etc.) together with information about movies, books, albums, actors, etc. These pictures are NOT counted as image search requests.

Additionally Medianizer is capable of searching for and downloading all sorts of pictures separately. This feature uses the commercial Google API. Each license includes a fixed number of such paid searches, but you can buy additional packages, if needed.

1.4 How many computers can I use my license with?

1-year and Unlimited licenses can be used on up to 2 computers, Platinum licenses unlock up to 5 computers.

1.5 I ordered a license, but did not receive my license key, what should I do?

Most orders are processed almost instantly. There are several possible reasons for delays:

  • Many email providers use so called greylisting, which may significantly delay some emails. However, if you haven't received your registration data within 24 hours, please contact us. Normally such delayed emails arrive within a few hours.
  • You haven't provided enough information, or some information is wrong. In this situation, additional checks may be required.
  • Sometimes customers mistype their email address. In this case, their registration email cannot be delivered at all. Please contact us, if you haven't received your registration data within 24 hours.

1.6 How do I install my licensed version?

Download and install the free trial version from our site. Start the installed program. The unregistered version shows a registration reminder window. Click the "Enter code" button in this window and enter your registration data very carefully. We recommend to copy and paste both your registration name and your code to avoid mistyping. When selecting, please be careful to select no additional characters on either side. After entering your data, close the program and start it again. It should be registered.

1.7 What is the correct way to upgrade to the latest version?

You do not need to uninstall your previous version. Just install the latest one over it. Before installation, please start your old version and create a backup copy of your database. This is not strictly necessary, but it is always a good idea to create backup copies before any significant changes.

1.8 I would like to re-install / upgrade Windows, what happens to my Medianizer license?

After re-installation or upgrade you can download the free trial version of the program from our site and unlock it using your registration data. If you have lost your data, you can fill out the lost key form to recover it.

1.9 I'm moving to a new computer, how do I use my Medianizer license there?

If you haven't used up the number of activations specified by your license, you can simply install the program on your computer and unlock it using your registration data. If there are no further unused activations, you may need to buy an additional license. Please contact us to claim your discount.

1.10 I lost my registration key, can I recover it?

Please fill out the lost key form.

1.11 I enter my registration key, then restart the program, but Medianizer prompts for a key again. What should I do?

Please note that your registration data is a combination of your name provided when you ordered the license and a registration key. This combination must be used exactly as provided. You will not be able to unlock the software using a different name.

Both your registration name and code are case sensitive. The code must include dashes. The best way to enter the data is via copy & paste.

1.12 Is it possible to get a free license?

Yes, you can help us in one way or another and get a license for free. If you have any suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

2. Adding Information to Your Database

2.1 Can I add movies / music / books from files?

The fastest way to add your movies, music and books from files is by using the "Add media" menu item ("Manage" - "Add media...") or button. You can also add movies, music and book files separately, in the "Add movie", "Add album" and "Add book" dialogs. If doing so, select the "From files and folders" option.

Please note that all items can be added by title or barcode, if you do not have the media at the moment or do not want to insert discs.

2.2 I add a movie / music album / book, but the program does not find any information. What should I do?

As first, check what exactly the program is looking for. It shows the title it is looking for in the search results window. When you add movies from files, the program extracts titles from filenames. If there is a "wrong guess", you may need to correct the title manually.

Another possible reason is using a wrong download source. For example, most "normal" titles cannot be found on anime-focused sites, and the other way around. The name of the currently used source is shown in the title of the search window.

If everything is correct, but no information is downloaded, please try a different source. If nothing works, most probably the program is blocked by your firewall.

If the title is correct, you can find it on the corresponding site in your web browser, but Medianizer cannot find it while having no problems with other sources, please contact us.

2.3 My edition includes 2 discs. How do I add them into the program?

2 or more discs of a movie edition can be added on the "Editions" tab of the "Edit info" window for the movie. Just create an 'edition' for every disc you have and link your discs / files to the editions.

2.4 Can I add many items at once?

You can add any number of movies, music albums and / or books at once. This works for almost all options (by title, by barcode, from files and folders, etc.).

If you download information for a batch of items, you can allow the program to select the very first search result for every item automatically. This can be enabled on the "Download options" tab in the settings window (F10).

2.5 How can I download information about all actors, directors, and other people at once?

Please consider that saving loads of information to your database will slow down the program. If you decide that you still need all those details, you can simply switch "Quick filter" - "Information output" to "Show all data", then go to the "Persons" tab, select all items and hit the "Download" button.

Alternatively, there is an option to download information about all people from a certain movie. When you are on the movie page, click the "Info about persons" button, select people and hit "Next" to download information.

2.6 How do I update information about items in my database?

Select the items in Group Operations and hit "Download". This will download the latest details about the items.

3. Using Medianizer

3.1 Can I print or export information from my database?

Sure, just press F6 or select "Reports" - "Reports".

Reports can be filtered and sorted in many ways, depending on your current mode (all filters and sorting modes that are working in the main window are also applied to reports).

3.2 Which options to sort items in my collection are there?

Check the "Manage" - "Sort ... list by" menu for sorting options.

Additionally, you can switch to the tree mode at the bottom of the list to apply various sorting and filtering methods or create your own ones.

Furthermore, at the top of the list, there is a list of extended filters (by default, it is empty, but you can create as many as you need). They provide their own filtering and sorting capabilities.

Search results can also be sorted in different ways.

3.3 How do I use my favorite video player instead of the built-in one?

In Medianizer, press F10 to open the settings window. Switch to "Play" options and choose your favorite video player.

4. Information Backup and Recovery

4.1 How do I back up my database?

After any significant changes to your database and before updating the program, it is recommended to create a backup. Choose "File" - "Create a backup copy", select a location for your backups and whether pictures should be saved, then create a backup.

It is a good idea to keep several previous backups and to store backups on a different physical device (USB stick is a pretty good option).

If you want to copy your backup with pictures, please do not forget to copy the "Covers" folder from your backup location.

4.2 I'm moving to a new computer. How do I transfer my database?

On your old computer, insert a USB stick and create a backup WITH pictures directly to the stick. On your new computer, install the program, insert the USB stick with the backup, then choose "File" - "Restore database" and point to the backup location on the stick.

Alternatively, you can copy the .dmb file and the "Covers" folder from your database location to your new computer and double-click the .dmb file to open it in Medianizer.

5. Illustrated Catalogs for Dune HD Media Players

5.1 How is Medianizer related to Dune HD media players?

Medianizer is a media organizer. With its help you can organize your home collection of movies, music and / or books. Among other things, it can work with media files (videos, audio).

Dune HD is a very popular hardware media player, typically used with a TV set and with a sound system.

Among other things, Medianizer can use information from your database to create a nice-looking catalog for your Dune HD player. So, instead of looking at a list of filenames on your TV, you will enjoy browsing movie / album covers. A click on a cover will open a page containing further information about the movie (description, shots, cast & crew, rating, etc.) or the music album.

5.2 How can I create an illustrated catalog for my Dune HD?

After adding your movie / music files into Medianizer, select "Tools" - "Create a Dune movie / music catalog" and follow instructions of the wizard.

5.3 What should I choose as the connection type?

This depends on where your movie / music files are stored. If they are on a local Dune drive (or on an external drive that you connect directly to Dune), choose the "Disk is connected to Dune" option. Do not choose any network connections in this situation! Doing so will significantly slow down playback, as Dune will need to communicate with itself via network.

If your files are on your network, choose a network connection type. NFS is preferable (it is faster), but it will work only if your server supports this protocol. Otherwise, use SMB.

5.4 How do I adjust resolution of my Dune catalog pages?

In the last step of the Dune catalog wizard, click on the "Pattern settings" link and adjust resolution and overscaling on the "General" tab.

5.5 How do I add only new movies / music album instead of re-creating the complete catalog?

When you create a Dune catalog, click the "Add movies to the list of the created ones" button in the 4th step of the Dune wizard. This will make the program remember the movies. Next time, in the same step, click the "Unselect movies from the list" button to unselect the movies that were previously added. After this, click "Add movies to the list of the create ones" (this will add your new movies to the list) and proceed with creating your catalog.

This works in the same way for music albums.

5.6 How do I get individual covers for TV series episodes?

This works only in the "Use a shot from the movie as the background image" mode (selected in the last step of the Dune catalog wizard).

5.7 My Dune HD catalog is okay, but when I try to play a movie, an error comes up. How can I fix this?

Typically this means that something is wrong with the path to your video file.

  • Can you play the movie directly from Medianizer?
  • Is the correct network mode selected?
  • For NFS connections, check the path generated by your server. If necessary, use the "Renaming media_url" option in the 3rd step of the Dune catalog wizard.

Sometimes Dune has problems opening two or more connections to the same network share (using SMB). So, if you save your catalog to the same share where your movie / music files are located, and it does not work, try saving your catalog to a USB stick and plugging it directly into your Dune.