Question kind of storage

[andyvl]

I'm writing a program to archive my dvd collection (over 500 original DVD's)
It's no beginning to put all data in manually, so I started writing an application that retrieves all info from imdb (that part is almost created)

I know, you can find numerous programs on the web that do this, but none of them offer all the functionalities what I want.

But I was wondering where I should best store my data.

My first pick would be an access db, but I'm sure there are numerous alternatives (and maybe even better)

Functionalities that can be important for the choice

The main purpose is to store the data. (a few 'edits' of the info will happen)
Reports will be created from the data.

The data will be combined. (So not only the movie with all it's actors, but also a list of all the actors with the movies they play in (and I have)
(so I will create queries)
(they will be displayed as in the application as in an export to html



So what is the best way of storage I should use?
So all sugestions are welcome

 

[JohnH]

I recommend you get started with VB 2008, the Express is free. As basic standalone file-based database there is SQL CE, which is fully integrated in the 2008 development studios, so is the entry level Sql Express by the way, so you would get to try them both. If the amount of data is not very large other options can be Xml or custom binary files if you're up to it, both can also be serialized from custom classes. But for standarized data storage with integrated development support you can't beat the SQL pairing.