Managing your movie collection?

Fantom

Fantom

Fantom

Associate
Joined
13 Feb 2006
Posts
2,445
Location
Cornwall
Hi,

Im guessing a lot of the people on here have extensive movie collections, and probably a lot have NAS boxes of some description.

Well I do too, and I'm getting the nagging feeling that there is a better way to organise the movies so that I can easily find/watch/preview etc them.

What do you guys do?

I have a nas box which stores my movies (ripped from my dvds/blurays etc) and I play them on a media pc connected to my tv.

Ideally Id like a way to see each movie title, perhaps cover picture and an IMDB rating would be ace, also the ability to see recently added movies would be cool.
 
What software are you using to view them? XBMC will do what you want and more. It will let you browse by recently added, unwatched, director, actor, year, shows imdb rating, has coverart/thumbs/fanart etc. For previewing it can also be set up to show the trailers.

I imagine plex has similar setups too.
 
Presently I just have an HP microserver with windows 7 folder sharing using vlc player to play the movies.
 
Try Data Crow.

http://www.datacrow.net/

It's made for Linux but there are Windows builds available. And it's open source. Your alternatives would be proprietary software like imediaman and collectorz. When I was using Mac, I used Delicious Library for cataloging my movies, music and books.
 
I use Media Browser 3, you run server software which manages the collection you then have various options of software to playback on different devices.

Plex is another option that offers similar functionality
 
I forgot to add that things like Data Crow, Delicious and Collectorz are strictly catalogue software. If you're looking for more functionality beyond that, as others have mentioned things like Video Station (on Synology) Media Browser and Plex are the most commonly used.
 
All my movies are ripped onto my hp microserver which runs plex server. It's perfect for streaming films to my HTPC or phone/laptop when I'm away.
 
Rip movies from DVD/Blu Ray onto my HTPC which also acts as a server. Run Windows 8.1 and MediaPortal as the front end. When we move to our new house the plan is to run Amazon TV boxes with XBMC.
 
I just have a DJ case full of DVDs. The cases for them are all stored in my shed and utility room. For others, I have four small boxes that sit on the shelf and hold a number of discs each in padded slipcases.

Since doing that, though, I now have shelves filled with more DVDs, Blu-rays and individual screener discs. Even more tend to just be found lying around in the kitchen, stuffed next to consoles and whatnot in the A/V cabinet. Basically just rammed into any nook and cranny they'll fit, at the moment! It's an old-school mess, as I can't often be bothered to rip 'em.
 
andy_mk3 said:
All my movies are ripped onto my hp microserver which runs plex server. It's perfect for streaming films to my HTPC or phone/laptop when I'm away.
Click to expand...

+1, same setup here. 4x 3TB drives running RAID 5 to give some data safety
 
Fantom said:
Hi,

Im giving XBMC a go with universal media server in the background, what plugins do you use to show imdb ratings etc?
Click to expand...

I use the Back Row skin because I like how it tells me what time a programme/movie is going to finish (current time/finish time).

As far as I know I just use the IMDB Scraper when it asks for one -

xbmcbackrow.jpg


Also if you right click the title you can get loads more info and even watch a trailer.

xbmcbackrow2.jpg


This time last year I was like you and looking for a standalone program that did this but then realised XBMC does it.
 
Also running a microserver with Plex Server. Movie, TV and Music with the capability of streaming to every device in the house.

Plex auto pulls information and cover art etc. for all media
 
Dimple said:
I use the Back Row skin because I like how it tells me what time a programme/movie is going to finish (current time/finish time).

As far as I know I just use the IMDB Scraper when it asks for one -

snip
Also if you right click the title you can get loads more info and even watch a trailer.

[IMG]snip

This time last year I was like you and looking for a standalone program that did this but then realised XBMC does it.
Click to expand...

Thanks, will check it out :)

Hyburnate said:
Also running a microserver with Plex Server. Movie, TV and Music with the capability of streaming to every device in the house.

Plex auto pulls information and cover art etc. for all media
Click to expand...

I had tried plex, but found it quite slow, even though all pcs are i7 (bar microserver) and the network infra is 1gbps...

I also tried universal media server with xbmc and it was too slow on larger movies, tried xbmc without media server and it seems fine :)
 
Dimple said:
I use the Back Row skin because I like how it tells me what time a programme/movie is going to finish (current time/finish time).

As far as I know I just use the IMDB Scraper when it asks for one -



Also if you right click the title you can get loads more info and even watch a trailer.


This time last year I was like you and looking for a standalone program that did this but then realised XBMC does it.
Click to expand...

I currently stream video from my synology nas via my ps3..... what hardware are you using with xbmc and as storage as I think I want that level of info now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom