Question: Common or seperate Database?

[grauschaf]

I manage my pics (about 20.000) in an IMatch Database. It works extremely fine  and I want to manage my collection of mp3 files with IMatch as well.
My question: Do you recommend a single database for pics and Music or seperate databases?

Thank you for your answers,
Gerd

[monochrome]

I would tend to go for one database. But that's because I think of MP3s and pics as "my media". For example, I can see myself wanting to group an MP3 and a photo in the same category. For example, if I did a slideshow set to music I would create a category for it and then dump MP3s and the photos into that category to organize them. It sort of depends on how you think of those things. If you think of them as "never shall the two meet", would love to not have to bother with one when you organize the other, and you are fine with only being able to have one DB at a time open - go for two, I guess.

[sinus]

I would tend to go for one database.  ...

Me too. I would go that way.

[grauschaf]

Thank you for your reply. The use case with the slide Show is a good example. The only aspect that lets me hesitate to use one database for all media is the size of the database. But there a a lot of IMatch users who manage much more files than I do. So I will do it with one database.

[Mario]

You wrote you have 20,000 images in your database right now. That's not much.

A typical IMatch user has between 50,000 and 200,000 files in a database. The largest database I know of has about 450,000 files...

[Photon]

The number of files and the size of the database might be secondary compared to your primary workflow requirements. My workflow for AV multimedia productions requires, that I have parallel access to multiple independant search GUIs with photo, audio, video and clipart+office files. I am using a four monitors graphics card for this. This results in a high speed workflow, because I benefit from fast drag&drop of files and do not need to switch too much between applications for this purpose. The requirements for the different file types and GUIs can be quite different. In my case I therefor can use Imatch only for photos (what a pitty!). If Imatch does fit to your workflow needs I would recommend it strongly for all file types, because you have to learn and use only one interface.

Separate databases do not look promising for me, as long as you cannot open them at the same time.

Regards, Martin