Since different companies' searches work differently, dvdsearch.org.uk searches...
If you don't believe that the search has worked, try clicking the ![[Button to try the retailer's search again]](images/open.gif)
button to try the same search again in a new window. If the search still doesn't work, try clicking the ![[Button to check retailer directly]](images/check.gif)
button; this will open the retailer's website in a new window and perform the search so you can check for yourself whether what you're looking for is there. If the search produced an error or failed to spot what you looked for, please report the problem by clicking the ![[Button to report retailer search broken]](images/broken.gif)
button.
For some searches (like Harry Potter or Greatest Hits) you might well find that the first page of results for a particular retailer doesn't contain what you're looking for. But don't dispair!
For some retailers, it is now possible to request a more extensive search; this is achieved by requesting, where possible, subsequent pages of search results. To find out whether a particular retailer supports this kind of 'deep search', hover the mouse pointer over the retailer's name in the search form and look for the 
icon.
To perform a multi-page search, choose More Options (next to the Go button), click the maximum number of pages you want to search and click the OK button. Since most products are likely to be found on the first page of results, you will have to set this option every time you want to perform a 'deep' search. In order to identify results that don't appear on the first, page, the icon will appear after the title, and moving the mouse over the icon will reveal which results page that result came from.
NOTES: Obviously, the more pages searched, the longer it will take, so be absolutely sure before selecting anything over 5 (especially unlimited!). Also note that dvdsearch.org.uk can only search some retailers to a depth of one page.
All retailers tend to display images of products alongside search results, so to help you choose from similar-sounding titles in the list of dvdsearch.org.uk results, if you see the 
icon next to a product link, hovering the mouse pointer over the product link will display a picture of the product. Pictures are available from all retailers, but if the icon isn't shown, no image was found for that product.
Another new feature is live stock information, which is available for most retailers. For some retailers, stock information is provided in the search results and so will be displayed immediately alongside the product link. For other retailers, stock information is not displayed until you look at the product page; to prevent you from having to do that manually, instead of the stock level alongside the product link, you'll find a link that says click for stock. If you click that link, dvdsearch.org.uk will have a look at the page for you and the link will change to the stock status.
Internet Explorer problems. If you have problems with 'click for stock' links when using Internet Explorer, it's probably because your browser's security settings are too tight. The best way to fix this problem is to add dvdsearch.org.uk to your list of Trusted sites: go to Tools → Internet Options → Security (tab) → Trusted sites (zone) → Sites... (button) → enter http://dvdsearch.org.uk into the top box, make sure the tick box is not ticked, and click the Add button. Note that in some builds, Internet Explorer seems simply to ignore the list of trusted sites, so following the procedure described here won't actually help! If this is the case, the (potentially insecure) solution is to enable Active Scripting in the Internet zone (Tools → Internet Options → Security (tab) → Internet (zone) → Custom Level (button) → scroll down to Scripting → set Active scripting to Enable). A better solution, IMHO, is to use a different browser.
Retailers whose information shows the 
icon have stock information available. (Retailer information is displayed when you hover the mouse pointer over the retailer name in the search form or click the retailer name in the search form or results.)
Ever since dvdsearch.org.uk became XHTML 1.0 compliant, for technical reasons AJAX has been used to retrieve each set of search results. All the major browsers support AJAX, but if you have any trouble you can always disable it on a search-by-search basis via the extra search options: click More Options next to the Go button on the main search page.
(In case you're interested, the 'technical reasons' mentioned above are that traditional HTML pages can be displayed as the HTML loads whereas in some browsers (notably gecko-powered ones like Firefox) XHTML must load completely before being displayed. In the pre-AJAX dvdsearch.org.uk, each retailer's results were included in the main (X)HTML page as they arrived and 'flushed' to the browser. With HTML, the browser could display each set of results immediately; with XHTML, it had to wait for the complete set of results, which could take some time.)
Page last updated: 4 January 2009
